The Founding Fathers, Pop Culture, and Constitutional Law: Who's Your Daddy? (Law, Justice, and Power)

Applying innovative interpretive strategies drawn from cultural studies, this book considers the perennial question of law and politics: what role do the founding fathers play in legitimizing contemporary judicial review? Rather than promulgating further theories that attempt to legitimize either judicial activism or restraint, this work uses narrative analysis, popular culture, parody, and queer theory to better understand and to reconstitute the traditional relationship between fatherhood and judicial review. Unlike traditional, top-down public law analyses that focus on elite decision making by courts, legislatures, or executives, this volume explores the representation of law and legitimacy in various sites of popular culture. To this end, soap operas, romance novels, tabloid newspapers, reality television, and coming out narratives provide alternative ways to understand the relationship between paternal power and law from the bottom upIn this manner, constitutional discourse can begin to be transformed from a dreary parsing of scholarly and juristic argot into a vibrant discussion with points of access and understanding for all. Applying innovative interpretive strategies drawn from cultural studies, this book considers the perennial question of law and politics: what role do the founding fathers play in legitimizing contemporary judicial review? Susan Burgess uses narrative analysis, popular culture, parody, and queer theory to better understand and to reconstitute the traditional relationship between fatherhood and judicial review. Unlike traditional, top-down public law analyses that focus on elite decision making by courts, legislatures, or executives, this volume explores the representation of law and legitimacy in various sites of popular culture. To this end, soap operas, romance novels, tabloid newspapers, reality television, and coming out narratives provide alternative ways to understand the relationship between paternal power and law from the bottom up. In this manner, constitutional discourse can begin to be transformed from a dreary parsing of scholarly and juristic argot into a vibrant discussion with points of access and understanding for all. Contents......Page 6 Epigraphs......Page 8 Series Editor’s Preface......Page 10 Acknowledgements......Page 12 1 Introduction......Page 14 2 A Fine Romance? Judicial Restraint as a Romance Novel......Page 24 3 Who’s Your Daddy? Judicial Activism as a Soap Opera......Page 44 4 Space Aliens Save Country from Ruin? Critical Race Theory as Tabloid Science Fiction......Page 70 5 Did the Supreme Court Come Out in Bush v. Gore? The Instability of Judicial Identity......Page 92 6 The Drama of Contemporary Constitutional Discourse: Lawrence v. Texas as a Makeover of Bowers v. Hardwick......Page 112 7 Conclusion......Page 134 Bibliography......Page 142 C......Page 150 H......Page 151 N......Page 152 S......Page 153 W......Page 154