Randy E. Barnett is the Patrick Hotung Professor of Constitutional Law at the Georgetown University Law Center. A Guggenheim Fellow and Supreme Court advocate, he is the author of The Structure of Liberty, Restoring the Lost Constitution, and Our Republican Constitution. Evan D. Bernick is Assistant Professor of Law at Northern Illinois University College of Law. He was previously Visiting Professor of Law at Georgetown University Law Center. His scholarship appears in the Georgetown Law Journal, Notre Dame Law Review, and William & Mary Law Review.
This book provides as complete an account of the intellectual and political origins of the Fourteenth Amendment as one could hope for. As a work of history, it bristles with surprises. As a contribution to constitutional theory, it poses challenging new questions for both originalists and nonoriginalists. -- Richard H. Fallon, Jr., author of <i>Law and Legitimacy in the Supreme Court</i> Evincing the highest academic values of openness, integrity, and truth-seeking, this book reflects a systematic and even-handed consideration of the origins and original meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment, one of the most vital subjects in constitutional law. The definitive treatment of the subject for years and decades to come. -- Saikrishna Bangalore Prakash, author of <i>The Living Presidency</i> Provides fresh and interesting-and sometimes surprising-arguments about how best to interpret the Fourteenth Amendment. A major theme of the book is that both liberal and conservative judges have been significantly mistaken in their interpretations of the Amendment. This book is designed to set them straight and to provide guidance for new and better interpretations. A truly excellent and challenging analysis of the historical record. -- Sanford V. Levinson, author of <i>Framed: America's 51 Constitutions and the Crisis of Governance</i> Randy Barnett and Evan Bernick have produced an outstanding account of the original public meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment's most important provisions. Comprehensive and clear, methodical and elegantly written, their work shines new light on the meaning and spirit of the Reconstruction Framers' work. Anyone who wants to understand the Fourteenth Amendment-one of the great achievements of American constitutionalism-should consult this book. -- Jack M. Balkin, Yale Law School