Michael J. Zimmer Seton Hall Law School One Newark Center Newark, NJ 07102 973.642.8833 973.642.8194 fax
Michael Zimmer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent by: Discussion cc: list for con law Subject: Re: John Bingham & the Story of American Liberty professors <[EMAIL PROTECTED] v.ucla.edu> 09/23/03 10:06 PM Please respond to Discussion list for con law professors To follow this thread, the focus of so much inquiry on the intent of the original Framers obscures the fact that whatever their understanding was of the original document, the document today is textually much different. So originalist thinking helps block thinking about what the text today means. I think the discussion of so-called 11th amendment state sovereignty today, for example, fails to take into the tectonic shift in viewpoint about the states' roles and value as protectors of individual rights started with the Civil War amendments and continued with womens' suffrage, etc.