Re: The Initiation of Judicial Review

[Robert Justin Lipkin]

       I agree with Howard that lionizing giants reveals a great deal about our own politics. And awareness of this tendency should constrain our theorizing as well as our conclusions.  But identifying giants is not only for the purpose of praising them. Indeed, I believe that Marshall plays a conspicuously important role in American constitutionalism, and that role, for the most part, is bad. Recognizing Marshall's pivotal role in the development of American constitutionalism is just as important for condemning constitutional practice as it is for praising it.

       I also agree with Howard that it is important to "focus more on general patterns rather than unique or idiosyncratic effects." Yet, sometimes the unique, idiosyncratic, abrupt, precipitous, and even revolutionary does occur, and we would do well to develop the conceptual apparatus which enables us to accurately recognize these occurrences. 

Bobby Lipkin
Widener University School of Law
Delaware