Broadening The Terrain of Political and Constitutional Thought, Unmasking Delusional Constitutional Arguments

by Carol Nackenoff

Abstract

Ken Kersch offered his readers, students, colleagues, and interlocutors a dense, rich, and complex world of ideas, political movements, and law. He read, engaged with, and took seriously political and legal work from across the political spectrum, and had little use for those who were satisfied with cursory or perfunctory arguments. Kersch was an equal opportunity critic but also equally generous in acknowledging contributions of those strains of scholarship sometimes dismissed by the mainstream. Open to all kinds of good ideas, Kersch was one of the best and most generous readers and commentators I have ever known. He was a good friend for a quarter century and a treasured colleague, and his careful analysis and good sense are needed in the public sphere today more than ever.