The Fourteenth Amendment

From Political Principle to Judicial Doctrine

ISBN 9780674316263

Publication date: 08/11/1998

In a remarkably fresh and historically grounded reinterpretation of the American Constitution, William Nelson argues that the fourteenth amendment was written to affirm the general public’s long-standing rhetorical commitment to the principles of equality and individual rights on the one hand, and to the principle of local self-rule on the other.

Praise

An important and timely study...Nelson successfully demonstrates the substance and consistency of pre-Lochner Fourteenth Amendment jurisprudence. This is a significant achievement.

—Louis S. Gerteis, American Journal of Legal History
Improves our understanding of how the Fourteenth Amendment was able to be read so expansively...Adds enormously to our constitutional history.

—Frank J. Macchiarola, Political Science Quarterly