The State of Nature in American Constitutions

American constitutional writers, since the founding and through today rely upon our constitutions are written with kind of a state of nature bargain in mind. So that word retained, it's almost as if, as you mentioned, all of us sort of coming together and deciding via sort of grand bargain. And so when you interpret a US constitution, whether it is the US constitution or a state constitution, you have to keep that limited government philosophy in mind.