Document Type
Book Chapter
Publication Date
1987
Abstract
The constitutional drama that climaxed in the Garcia case can be usefully understood, by a theatrical metaphor, as a play in three acts. In the first act, the principal characters are introduced and the problematic nature of their relationship established; the way the characters understand their problems creates their problems. In the second act an attempt made to overcome the conflict of the first act serves only to intensify the struggle and even threatens values widely shared by the players. In the third act, a futile effort is made to resolve the tensions that now appear almost inevitable among such characters in this situation. The play closes not with a Greek embrace of fate, but with the muttering asides of discontented players who promise, like Fitzgerald's Charlie Wales, that they'll be back, oh they'll be back, and then ….
For this is a modern play.
Disciplines
Constitutional Law | Law
Recommended Citation
Philip C. Bobbitt,
The Court's Role in Congressional Federalism: A Play with (at Least) Three Acts,
Federalism and the Constitution: A Symposium on Garcia, Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations
(1987).
Available at:
https://scholarship.law.columbia.edu/faculty_scholarship/4415