Ever since 1865 discussions of constitutionalism have assumed that the supreme court justices should be viewed as black-robed deities with a monopoly on constitutional interpretation.  That is the nationalist view of constitutionalism championed by Hamilton, Marshall, Story, Webster, Lincoln, and all of their political descendants. In his book on the Constitution, written while he was still a Princeton professor, Woodrow Wilson celebrated the fact that the “Civil War” finally forced (literally at gunpoint) this statist superstition on the entire nation. The opposing Jeffersonian position was that if the day ever came when five government lawyer/political hacks with lifetime tenure were … Continue reading Where Does the Constitution Call for Black-Robed Dictators?