Mike's Version of Constitutional Theory (or Anti-Theory)

Mike gets a chance to lay out his approach. We begin with a longish discussion of the Emancipation Proclamation: Was it merely a “bill of lading”/military measure (Mark) or an extraconstitutional action justified because it was right (Mike)—or both? Mike then develops his approach by distinguishing between simple justice and legal justice and argues that legal justice interferes with the accomplishment of simple justice by trying to shut down disagreements about simple justice requires with an authoritarian “Get over it!” His alternative is the development of norms of reciprocity, mutual respect, compromise, and more to guide the temporary resolution of such disagreements through ordinary politics. Mark snipes along the way, wondering whether those norms can be retrieved from today’s swamps of ordinary politics.