[...]... beloved at the same time that she fears losing her self to him The more intense the attraction, the stronger the fear In Whittington’s narrative, contemporary constitutional expression is the protagonist and the founders are the beloved While Whittington’s idealization of the founding fathers makes it impossible for him to directly acknowledge that the 18 The Founding Fathers, Pop Culture, and Constitutional. .. establishing a clear lineage back to the founding 12 The Founding Fathers, Pop Culture, and Constitutional Law fathers Judges should regularly restrain themselves, overturning only those laws that clearly abridge the original intent of the founding fathers In lieu of such clarity, laws passed through democratic processes should stand Thus, most originalists reject the legitimacy of iconic cases of judicial... interpretation supporting legal stability and the maintenance of law established at the founding, and constitutional construction in the popular branches promoting constitutional development and the ability to adapt to changing political circumstances (1999a, ix) While contemporary constitutional construction in the popular branches may reference the text and the founding fathers, it is not only permissible... because the die has been cast against African-Americans from the very start of the story Each narrative has its own set of requirements that drive the plot forward, as well as significant limitations that obstruct transformation of the constitutional debate The Founding Fathers, Pop Culture, and Constitutional Law 6 Popular Culture Popular culture is a potentially rich source of populist understandings... obstructs the union of the founding fathers with popular constitutional expression in contemporary politics Along the way, tensions arise between the objective status of the founding fathers and the subjective status of contemporary constitutional interpretation Despite these barriers, Whittington dramatically declares that constitutional expression cannot exist without a connection to the founding fathers... Brontë’s Jane Eyre Throughout the book, Jane wonders about the intentions of the master of the house, the secretive and apparently philandering Mr Rochester Like Darcy, Rochester is frequently mysterious, brooding, harsh, and even rude But he 22 The Founding Fathers, Pop Culture, and Constitutional Law is also clever and humorous Like Elizabeth, Jane is simultaneously attracted to and repulsed by Rochester’s... contemporary constitutional interpretation with the founding fathers Paralleling the standard romance novel, Whittington seeks to unite the present and the past, offering a story that features a protagonist that is represented by contemporary constitutional expression, and a beloved that is represented by the founding fathers The founders are the one true love of Whittington’s constitutional narrative, and, ... the dynamics of judicial decision-making Instead of considering how law operates on the street, Burgess uses a particular account of the street to explain how law operates in court” (2006, 416) 1 Who’s Your Daddy is the shortened version of title; The Founding Fathers, Pop Culture, and Constitutional Law: Who’s Your Daddy? which will be used throughout this book as a reference to the title 2 The Founding. .. extends to well-respected works such as Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice and Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, both of which were enormously popular 14 The Founding Fathers, Pop Culture, and Constitutional Law when they were first published and remain so today Pride and Prejudice continues to be thought of as both the best as well as the most popular romance novel ever written (Regis 2003, 75) As many... narrative analysis, popular culture, parody, and queer theory to better understand and to reconstitute the traditional relationship between fatherhood and judicial review Beginning with the title’s use of a phrase that is drawn from popular culture and interrogates legitimacy, Who’s Your Daddy explores the way that cultural studies can help us to understand the conjunction of fatherhood and law, [as it] . obstruct transformation of the constitutional debate. The Founding Fathers, Pop Culture, and Constitutional Law 6 Popular Culture Popular culture is a potentially. of scholarship. The Founding Fathers, Pop Culture, and Constitutional Law is one such book. It is a bold intervention into the field of constitutional