Invisible Constitution

Tiffany Watts

POS 2041

Mr. Heeney

1/15/15

The Invisible Constitution

Author: Laurence H. Tribe

The Invisible Constitution (video version) includes Professor Laurence H. Tribe outlining his book from cover to cover. Tribe started off by first listing his credentials, a profound Harvard Law School professor of Constitutional Law, who has spent many years researching the Constitution and documents of the United States. While highlighting some of his main points, Tribe says, “Everyone should be concerned not just with the latest judicial rulings about the Constitution's meaning but with the Constitution itself”.

Mr. Tribe talks a lot about viewpoints in interpreting the validity of the Constitution throughout the course of the video. Tribe says there will be many uproars in deciding if the court got a decision right (i.e. Roe vs. Wade) and members of the court will tend to say “where did you find that in the text of the Constitution?”. He continues on to say that, “we should get over the function, structure and architecture of the Constitution and recognize on both sides (Liberal and Conservative) that most of what seems fundamental in the Constitution is simply not written down or “invisible””. By this, Tribe means that what we should stop saying “where do you find that in the Constitution” but start showing that whether or not it says it in the text or not, it is fundamental to the body of law that represents our evolving nation and our “invisible text”.

I found many points in Tribe’s speech that I agree with. When he talked about the Roe vs. Wade (abortion case), I found that I agreed with most of his points. He said that it doesn’t say in the Constitution whether or not abortion is a written right you have, but it should be thought of as a women’s right to control her body in any way she see fitting. According to Lowi, in the section entitled,” Changing the Framework: Constitutional Amendment” on page 47, he states,” But it has not endured without change....