Taking the Framers Seriously

Abstract

Walter Berns's Taking the Constitution Seriously' champions a familiar thesis: the original meaning of the Constitution, Berns contends, is readily understandable and remains binding today. In addition, as with most other leading proponents of original intent, Berns's conception of the framers' intent accords with a modern conservative political agenda. Among the elements of his constitutional jurisprudence are opposition to judicial activism, a belief that the proper role of the national government is a very limited one, a strong commitment to the rights of property, and a conviction that the individual states can support the moral education (p. 222) of their citizens without running afoul of the first amendment. Unlike most of the legal literature on original intent, however, the principal concern of Taking the Constitution Seriously is not with what the framers intended specific constitutional clauses to mean. Rather, Berns's principal concern is to reveal the political philosophy behind the Constitution, a philosophy which, he maintains, should inform our reading of the document. In delineating that philosophy, Berns relies on the constitutional text and on a handful of documents that either elucidate it, such as The Federalist Papers, or partake of the same world view as the Constitution, such as the Declaration of Independence. Behind Berns's conception of the Constitution is a recognition of the fact that the world of the framers was a world in transition. In late eighteenth century America, pre-modern, pre-commercial society was ending. In its place, modern liberal (using the word in