Washington University Law Review

Article Title

A Comment on Text, Time and Audience Understanding in Constitutional Law

Authors

Michael C. Dorf, Columbia Law School

Publication Title

Washington University Law Quarterly

Abstract

Professor Cunningham, in a provocative memorandum, asks how the legal landscape might change if courts interpreted statutes to reflect average citizens' understanding of statutory language.' This is an intriguing thought experiment and perhaps even a wise proposal. Rather than address Professor Cunningham's experiment directly, however, I would like to consider a variant of it that nicely highlights important issues in my own field, constitutional law. Substituting "the Constitution" for "statutes," we have the following question: What if the audience understanding of rules of, say, contract law, applied to the interpretation of the Constitution?

Recommended Citation

Michael C. Dorf, A Comment on Text, Time and Audience Understanding in Constitutional Law, 73 Wash. U. L. Q. 983 (1995).
Available at: https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/law_lawreview/vol73/iss3/6