Darwin & the Constitution: The Secularization of American Law Schools and the American Legal Worldview

Darwin’s Theory of Evolution has impacted nearly every aspect of today’s world, and the U.S. Constitution is no exception. Darwin and the Constitution: The Secularization of American Law Schools and the American Legal Worldview explores the impact of Darwin’s theory on American law. The Founding Fathers relied on Natural Law when drafting the United States Constitution. But 1859 saw the publication of The Origin of Species, and the theory of evolution began to permeate everyday life. The result was a progression of the U.S. legal system that saw the acceptance of Herbert Spencer’s Social Darwinism and gave way to reliance on big government and a shift to secularization and Positive Law.