AGAINST CONSTITUTIONAL THEORY

In this Madison Lecture, Chief Judge Posner advocates a pragmatic appr oach to constitutional decisionmaking, criticizing constitutional theo rists who conceal their normative goals in vague and unworkable princi ples of interpretation. After discussing specific constitutional theor ies as well as the legal academy's increasing reliance on theory in ge neral, Posner demonstrates the ineffectuality of constitutional theory , using the Supreme Court's decisions in United States v. Virginia and Romer v. Evans as examples. He argues not that these cases were neces sarily wrongly decided, but that the opinions lack the empirical suppo rt that is crucial to sound constitutional adjudication. Posner urges law professors to focus their scholarship on forms of inquiry that wil l actually prove useful to judges and concludes by asking that judges themselves recognize and acknowledge the limitations of their empirica l knowledge.