American Constitutionalism and the Republic of Statutes

The Constitution is often conceived as our nation's Grand Blueprint and the embodiment of our Highest Aspirations.

The authors, using prominent cases such as Brown v. Board of Education, maintain that this conception is myth.

Instead, William Eskridge and John Ferejohn propose an original theory of constitutional law whereby, while the Constitution provides a vision, our democracy advances by means of statutes that supplement or even supplant the written Constitution.