The major problem in writing on this topic in a volume in honor of George W. Carey is that Professor Carey has already said about all there is to say. I agree with him in holding that the U.S. ...Supreme Court has brought about a change of the American constitutional regime: it has asserted its power not only to override the laws and acts of the state governments and national Congress when these conflict with the Constitution, but also to find grounds for doing so that are not in the text of the Constitution. The justices perceive these grounds in
Speech that matters Canavan, Francis
Society (New Brunswick),
9/1999, Letnik:
36, Številka:
6
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Argues that the freedom of expression guaranteed by the First Amendment of the Constitution is a means to an end, rather than an end in itself. To maintain its credibility as a means of promoting ...truth & the good, limits must be imposed on freedom of expression: it should be extended only to "speech that matters" (eg, political & religious debate & art), not to advertising, pornography, etc. Misconceptions & limitations of the First Amendment's guarantees of freedom of speech & press are discussed. The First Amendment prohibits only government, not private, restrictions of free speech. Freedom of speech also is limited to allow laws against slander, libel, false advertisement, etc. 6 References. J. Ferrari
Thomas Paine's social-contract theory, which asserts the protection of individual rights as the sole end of civil society and the consent of the majority of individuals as the sole source of ...government's authority, may seem to be better suited to the democratic Constitution of the United States than Edmund Burke's theory of prescription of government. Burke's theory is based on the rational moral goals of civil society, not on the supremacy of the people's or any other will. It asserts that the natural ends of society are prior to rights as Paine and other radical democrats conceived of them and that natural obligation is prior to and controls consent. Burke can therefore afford us a more realistic interpretation of popular consent and of the Constitution as the political form that makes us a people. He also offers a useful corrective to the currently popular view of the Supreme Court's function as being primarily to protect an ever-expanding array of constitutional rights. Burke was no democrat but he may help democrats to overcome the limitations of the liberal contractarian model of society.
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