Interpreting Liberty: Constitutional Interpretation versus Social Contract Reasoning
ABSTRACT
The colloquium consulted excerpted readings from a range of historically significant Supreme Court opinions and from passages in Hobbes's Leviathan and explored the role of the social contract tradition in our political culture and heritage.
READING LIST
Conference Readings
Calder v. Bull, 3 U.S. 386 (Supreme Court of the United States 1978).
Crowley v. Christensen, 137 U.S. 86 (Supreme Court of the United States 1890).
Allgeyer v. Louisiana, 165 U.S. 578 (Supreme Court of the United States 1897).
Holden v. Hardy, 169 U.S. 336 (Supreme Court of the United States 1898).
Jacobson v. Massachusetts, 197 U.S. 11 (Supreme Court of the United States 1905).
Lochner v. New York, 198 U.S. 45 (Supreme Court of the United States 1905).
Adkins v. Children’s Hospital, 261 U.S. 525 (Supreme Court of the United States 1923).
West Coast Hotel v. Parrish, 300 U.S. 379 (Supreme Court of the United States 1923).
United States v. Darby, 312 U.S. 100 (Supreme Court of the United States 1941).
Williamson v. Lee Optical, 348 U.S. 483 (Supreme Court of the United States 1955).
Palko v. Connecticut, 302 U.S. 319 (Supreme Court of the United States 1937).
Lemon v. Kurtzman, 403 U.S. 602 (Supreme Court of the United States 1971).
Griswold v. Connecticut, 381 U.S. 479 (Supreme Court of the United States 1965).
Planned Parenthood v. Casey, 505 U.S. 833 (Supreme Court of the United States 1992).
Hobbes, Thomas. Leviathan. Edited by Edwin Curley. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, Inc., 1994.