Constitutional Change

Abstract

Constitutional change is inevitable. Framers fail to settle all possible constitutional questions. Constitutional decisions that clarify some constitutional ambiguities often simultaneously unsettle what had been more stable constitutional understandings. A constitutional regime in which most citizens receive political information online is different from one in which the town green is the main source of information, no matter what the constitutional rules for regulating the Internet. Constitutional developments are structured by evolving conceptions of justice as well as by the successes and failures of political movements committed to particular constitutional visions. Americans have experienced three forms of constitutional change. Formal constitutional changes consciously alter constitutional powers, constitutional rights, or the structure of constitutional institutions. Semiformal constitutional change takes place when constitutional authorities reinterpret the Constitution. Informal constitutional change takes place when constitutionally significant assumptions, behaviors, or practices are undermined, modified, or abandoned.