NewYorkUniversity
LawReview
Online Feature

Constitutional Good Faith

Andrew McCanse Wright

In this essay, I argue that a constitutional scheme grounded in the Rule of Law cannot rely primarily on a self-executing, mechanistic vision of Madison’s ambitious branches checking one another. Rather, “We the People” depend on self-regulation—in the form of constitutional good faith—by the vast majority of our constitutional actors. I then offer a meditation on the nature of good faith required for healthy American constitutionalism.