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Article: Constitutional Faith.
- Article from:
- The Nation
- Article date:
- March 20, 1989
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1989 The Nation Company L.P. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Almost before the ink dried in 1787, lawyers and politicians adopted a rhetoric of sacramental Constitutionalism. And they haven't stopped yet. With his wonderful knack for finding the right quotation, Sanford Levinson gives us former Representative Barbara Jordan on the occasion of her vote to impeach Richard Nixon: "My faith in the Constitution is whole. It is complete. It is total. I am not going to sit here and be an idle spectator to the diminution, the subversion, the destruction of the Constitution." Luther couldn't have put it any better, and Jordan's thrilling voice rang out as if from the pulpit.
In this intriguing book, Levinson examines the ...