The Constitution of Conflict: How the Supreme Court Undermines the Separation of Powers

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Thomas Bell

The Constitution of Conflict

Name: The Constitution of Conflict
Price: 138.95 AUD
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ISBN: 9780700640386

How the Supreme Court Undermines the Separation of Powers

Thomas Bell

$138.95

Hardback

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English

University Press of Kansas
18 November 2025

Constitution: government & the state; Central government; Law; Constitutional & administrative law

Series: Constitutional Thinking

A bold and timely proposal for rethinking the role of the Supreme Court in the separation of powers.

There is a widespread sense today that the separation-of-powers system is broken or dysfunctional and has become an obstacle to effective government. The Constitution of Conflict demonstrates that much of the problem comes from attempts to find legal answers to political problems. Challenging long-held assumptions about the Constitution, Thomas Rives Bell boldly argues that a separation-of-powers doctrine enforceable by the Court is inconsistent with the constitutional design. Rather than establishing a legal doctrine, the Constitution set into motion a dynamic political system that governs through conflict within and among differentiated institutional structures.

Bell shows that Congress and the president have previously found constitutional solutions to issues like the administrative state, only to be thwarted by the Supreme Court. He critiques the Court’s different methodologies for resolving these disputes, demonstrating that, rhetoric aside, both originalist accounts and functionalist understandings seek primarily to enforce the separation of powers for its own sake rather than understanding the political system as the proper means by which to achieve the Constitution’s aspirations. Judicial superintendence of the separation of powers, moreover, places the Court above rather than within the constitutional framework. Bell proposes that the Court’s role in such disputes should be confined to government actions that directly implicate rights rather than to the policing of interbranch boundaries between Congress and the president.

Bell applies his proposed political framework to four case studies: the legislative veto, executive agreements, recess appointments, and congressional oversight and impeachment. These cases illuminate the logic and dynamic of the separation of powers, demonstrating that political conflict, rather than legal settlement, is an essential element of the constitutional design.

By: Thomas Bell
Imprint: University Press of Kansas
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 152mm,
ISBN: 9780700640386
ISBN 10: 070064038X
Series: Constitutional Thinking
Pages: 304
Publication Date: 18 November 2025
Audience: College/higher education , Further / Higher Education
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Thomas Rives Bell is assistant professor of political science at Knox College.

Reviews for The Constitution of Conflict: How the Supreme Court Undermines the Separation of Powers

""As the US separation of powers system faces waves severe stress tests, Thomas Bell's comprehensive and convincing book arrives at the perfect time. Bell demonstrates that a revival in animating institutional values and power tools can help the polity recover constitutional health. Favoring direct interbranch conflict, Bell challenges the assumption that we should repeatedly ask the Supreme Court to devise and maintain boundaries between Congress and the President across key domestic and foreign policies.""--Jasmine Farrier, author of Constitutional Dysfunction on Trial: Congressional Lawsuits and the Separation of Powers