Book Review by David L. Gregory
Professor Laurence Tribe is the premier constitutional scholar in the United States. His treatise, American Constitutional Law, written in 1978, is the classic source for lucid, integrated exposition of constitutional law. Teaching at Harvard Law School since 1968, he has pursued several successful legal careers in less than two decades. He is a one-person growth industry in contemporary constitutional law. In addition to his formidable and prolific academic work, Professor Tribe is one of the most distinguished and successful advocates before the bar of the Supreme Court.
In Constitutional Choices, Professor Tribe carries forward many of the themes of his earlier constitutional law scholarship. This book will solidify his preeminent position in the constellation of liberal constitutional supernovae.
Constitutional Choices does not chart an entirely new course in constitutional law and theory. Indeed, one third of the book's sixteen chapters have previously appeared in law review articles and lectures. Yet, the cumulative impact of these essays elevates constitutional discourse to a higher plane. It is a candid inquiry into the fundamental constitutional issue of how to do constitutional law. American Constitutional Law, to the delight of law students and practitioners, provided many synoptic answers to the perplexities of constitutional law. Constitutional Choices should thoughtfully inspire his legal audience in a different way. Posing more questions than answers, these thoughtful essays primarily will provoke and stimulate constitutional law theorists and academics, while still having utility for practitioners. By asking ‘why’ across the spectrum of constitutional law, Professor Tribe's inquiries inspire new modes of addressing constitutional law questions. Ultimately, this endeavor will yield further questions and provide more than a few answers and new ways of thinking about and resolving constitutional issues.
About the Author
David L. Gregory. Associate Professor of Law, St. John's University School of Law; B.A., 1973, Catholic University; M.B.A., 1977, Wayne State University; J.D., 1980, University of Detroit; LL.M., 1982, Yale Law School.
Citation
60 Tul. L. Rev. 437 (1985)