Constitutional Redemption

Balkin's book is both acute and inspiring--Balkin at his best. Wonderfully articulate, provocative, and illuminating, Balkin offers a remarkably original and unified argument that the long history of struggle over the Constitution's commitments can best be understood as a nation's story of faith, doubt, and redemption. -- James E. Fleming, The Honorable Frank R. Kenison Distinguished Scholar in Law and Professor of Law, Boston University A wonderful meditation on the American constitutional story. Balkin's living originalism challenges both those who would unmoor constitutionalism completely from the past, and those who would have us ruled by long-dead white men in hideous wigs. -- Mark Graber, Professor of Law and Government, University of Maryland Part of the reason that all Americans can venerate the Constitution is that we each see it a little differently. What binds us together, Jack Balkin argues, is a shared faith that the promise of America can be redeemed through the Constitution. We do not decide what will happen in America simply by consulting the Constitution. We decide what the Constitution means partly by asking what America ought to be. -- Richard Primus, Professor of Law, University of Michigan Conservatives claim to be the Constitution's only true believers. Jack Balkin has written a liberal's constitutional credo. A statement of faith, this book is also a brilliant meditation on what it means to be faithful to the American constitutional enterprise, lighting up the perplexing and profound intersections of constitutional history and morality. Let's hope Balkin helps revive the vital progressive tradition of constitutional hope. -- William Forbath, Lloyd M. Bentsen Chair in Law, University of Texas at Austin

Political constitutions are compromises with injustice. What makes the U.S. Constitution legitimate is Americans’ faith that the constitutional system can be made “a more perfect union.” Balkin argues that the American constitutional project is based in hope and a narrative of shared redemption, and its destiny is still over the horizon.

Political constitutions, hammered out by imperfect human beings in periods of intense political controversy, are always compromises with injustice. What makes the U.S. Constitution legitimate, argues this daring book, is Americans’ enduring faith that the Constitution’s promises can someday be redeemed, and the constitutional system be made “a more perfect union.”

A leading constitutional theorist, Balkin argues eloquently that the American constitutional project is based in faith, hope, and a narrative of shared redemption. Our belief that the Constitution will deliver us from evil shows in the stories we tell one another about where our country came from and where it is headed, and in the way we use these historical touchstones to justify our fervent (and opposed) political creeds. Because Americans have believed in a story of constitutional redemption, we have assumed the right to decide for ourselves what the Constitution means, and have worked to persuade others to set it on the right path. As a result, constitutional principles have often shifted dramatically over time. They are, in fact, often political compromises in disguise.

What will such a Constitution become? We cannot know. But our belief in the legitimacy of the Constitution requires a leap of faith—a gamble on the ultimate vindication of a political project that has already survived many follies and near-catastrophes, and whose destiny is still over the horizon.