Frederick Douglass, Citizen Interpreter
40 Pages Posted: 5 Apr 2010 Last revised: 22 Aug 2012
Date Written: April 2, 2010
Abstract
Consent-based theories of constitutional fidelity emphasize that interpreters should sharply distinguish between their own judgments of political morality and their judgments about what the Constitution requires. An instrumental approach to constitutional reasoning is held to violate this basic obligation. This piece argues that one of the most exalted citizens of constitutional theory, Frederick Douglass, advocated the instrumental approach to interpretation that the classical concept of fidelity warns against. Many constitutional theorists would be unwilling to accept the conclusion that he was a faithless interpreter. Sharing the intuition that Douglass was an outstanding constitutional citizen, I begin to develop an account of a faithful interpretive practice for citizens that can defend these apparent subversions.
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