America's Unwritten Constitution Quotes

“Howsoever we classify enactment arguments—whether we view them as historical, or textual, or structural—we need to see that the written Constitution and the unwritten Constitution cohere to form a single system. While”
― Akhil Reed Amar, America's Unwritten Constitution: The Precedents and Principles We Live By

“The key that unlocks the door is the simple idea that no clause of the Constitution exists in textual isolation. We must read the document as a whole. Doing so will enable us to detect larger structures of meaning—rules”
― Akhil Reed Amar, America's Unwritten Constitution: The Precedents and Principles We Live By

“Indeed, these lenses and compasses are perhaps the most important components of America’s unwritten Constitution, and they form the organizational spine of this book. Fair”
― Akhil Reed Amar, America's Unwritten Constitution: The Precedents and Principles We Live By

“The written Constitution cannot work as intended without something outside of it—America’s unwritten Constitution—to fill in its gaps and to stabilize it. In”
― Akhil Reed Amar, America's Unwritten Constitution: The Precedents and Principles We Live By

“Of course, much (though not all) of America’s “unwritten Constitution” does involve written materials, such as venerable Supreme Court opinions, landmark congressional statutes, and iconic presidential proclamations. These materials, while surely written texts, are nonetheless distinct from the written Constitution and are thus properly described by lawyers and judges as parts of America’s unwritten Constitution. America’s unwritten Constitution encompasses not only rules specifying the substantive content of the nation’s supreme law but also rules clarifying the methods for determining the meaning of this supreme law. Since the written Constitution does not come with a complete set of instructions about how it should be construed, we must go beyond the text to make sense of the text.”
― Akhil Reed Amar, America's Unwritten Constitution: The Precedents and Principles We Live By