States of Union: Family and Change in the American Constitutional Order

Acknowledgments

acknowledgments This book is about the constitutional status of family in the American order and how and why that status has changed through the years. My interest in the subject began when I was a law student, many years ago. Griswold v. Connecticut had been decided in the previous decade, and Roe v. Wade was announced just a few years before I encountered it in a course in constitutional law. The Supreme Court’s attempt to link both of these decisions to older cases resting on a doctrine of substantive due process concerning the autonomy and status of the nuclear family—Meyer v. Nebraska and Pierce v. Society of Sisters—was intriguing. For one thing, the economic strand of substantive due process had recently been declared deceased. (Recent developments in our own time, however, suggest that rumors of the death of economic liberty were premature.) For another, it wasn’t clear to me how family made its way into the Constitution in the first place. This book is the product of my efforts to make sense of this development. It’s a truism (but still true) that scholarship owes much to others. In my case, the list of others is long. Among them are the many scholars who, in myriad ways, have come to the subject before me. The range and quality of that scholarship are humbling, whether it be in American history, family law, religion, feminism, or of course the Constitution. I acknowledge a large debt to them—including (especially ) those with whom I’ve disagreed. There’s also a long list of friends and colleagues with whom I’ve engaged in fruitful conversation or on whom I’ve inflicted drafts of chapters or parts of chapters. Linda McClain and Sanford Levinson read a complete draft of the manuscript and shared valuable suggestions and perceptive criticisms. I’m grateful to the both of them. Others have read, commented on, or simply talked with me about portions of the book. Though I’m keenly aware of the fact that I can’t begin to name everyone, nor to extend adequate thanks, I do want to mention a few who’ve been especially generous as I’ve stumbled through writing: James Booth, x aCknoWledgMentS Al Brophy, Kirsten Carlson, Bob Covington, Jim Ely, John Goldberg, Mark Graber , Julie Hardwick, Hendrik Hartog, Don Herzog, Stan Katz, Ann Lin, Stephen Macedo, Wayne Moore, Noga Morag-Levine, Melissa Murray, Julie Novkov, Gretchen Ritter, Arlene Saxonhouse, Kim Scheppele, Tony Sebok, Dan Sharfstein , Suzanna Sherry, Kevin Stack, Lea Vandervelde, Elizabeth Wingrove, and Christopher Yoo. I’ve learned more from each of them than I’ve demonstrated in the pages that follow. I’ve also learned much from my students through the years. At the University of Oklahoma, where I took my first full-time teaching job, I supervised a directed reading on “the Constitution and the Family” with three students—Bob Carter, Rob Neal, and Mark Highland—who I’m sure would not now recognize the fruit of the seeds that were planted in that seminar. Bradley Welch was another engaging interlocutor, not only at Oklahoma, but later, too, when he was a law student at the University of Texas. I’ve had several chances to pursue the subject with students in various courses at the University of Michigan and at Vanderbilt. I thank them all. Thanks also to the students who’ve helped me with research. At Michigan, Ryan Hudson, John Min Kang, Rick Mathews, and Steve Mazie provided assistance. At Vanderbilt, I’ve been aided by a number of students: Ashley Alfonso, Thomas Boyd, Brent Culpepper, Miranda Davis, David Dunn, Melanie Erb, Diana Janae Goff, Stacy Howlett, Mona Jean-Baptiste, Matthew Koch, Karen Usselman Lindell, Andrea Verney, and Jonathan Wardle. Their labor has made the book better than it otherwise would have been. Of course, none of them bears responsibility for what I’ve made of their efforts. Vanderbilt Law School has provided generous financial and scholarly support for this project. The Law School and the Departments of Political Science and History at Vanderbilt have provided forums for talks and roundtables. I’m especially indebted to Princeton University’s Program in Law and Public Affairs for a stimulating year of research and writing, without which the book might never have come to completion. I’ve benefitted enormously from the opportunity to present work outside the confines of my current institutional home. Thanks to the University of Michigan’s Department of Political Science, Princeton University, the...