Abstract
On the door to my office I have taped a cartoon that shows two people talking at a cocktail party. One of them says to the other: "No, I don't know the preamble to the Constitution of the United States of America. But I know of it." That nicely captures the situation of most of us. We know of the Constitution, and no one fails to have plenty of opinions about it, but what "it" is somehow tends to elude us. The text is very brief. It can fit into a small pocket. So what is all the fuss about? Why does Justice John Paul Stevens of the United States Supreme Court say, in a speech delivered in 1984 at the University of San Diego, that "[t]he Constitution of the United States is a mysterious document"? What's the mystery about?
Recommended Citation
Tribe, Lawrence H.
(1988)
"Essay in Law: On Reading the Constitution,"
Utah Law Review: Vol. 1988:
No.
4, Article 1.
Available at:
https://dc.law.utah.edu/ulr/vol1988/iss4/1