I AM not a lawyer. That has always been the charge hurled against me to diminish my credentials. But I speak for the many political scientists whose area is political analysis, where one of the tools in our arsenal is discourse analysis, and the analysis of texts. The law and the Constitution are texts that we subject not only to interpretation using hermeneutics, but we deconstruct using political theory and philosophy. What lawyers and justices call the intent of the framers, we simply consider as part of genealogical analysis where we inquire into the origins of a law, to whom it speaks and against which it is articulated.
But this is not about which profession deserves the honor of inquiring into the law. After all, the legislature is composed not just of lawyers but even of actors and boxers. If the august body tasked to frame laws is open to everyone, certainly analysis of law is open to anyone, more so those who have advanced degrees in political science.
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