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date: 07 July 2022

Abstract and Keywords

There are systematic reasons why the U.S. constitution has failed to limit the power of the federal government in the way that it was intended to do. After examining which kinds of constitutional provisions have been respected and which have not, we can devise alternative constitutional provisions that would have a greater chance of successfully limiting the power of government. In particular, (i) there should be supermajority rule for passage of all legislation, (ii) there should be a separate, “negative legislature” with the sole power of repealing laws, and (iii) there should be a separate “constitutional court” with stronger powers for enforcing the constitution than the current Supreme Court.

Keywords: constitution, limited government, Supreme Court, negative legislature, supermajority, constitutional court

Michael Huemer

Michael Huemer is a Professor of Philosophy at the University of Colorado, Boulder.

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