Irreverent, provocative, and engaging, Desperately Seeking Certainty attacks the current legal vogue for grand unified theories of constitutional interpretation. On both the Right and the Left, prominent legal scholars are attempting to build all of constitutional law from a single foundational idea. Dan Farber and Suzanna Sherry find that in the end no single, all-encompassing theory can successfully guide judges or provide definitive or even sensible answers to every constitutional question. Their book brilliantly reveals how problematic foundationalism is and shows how the pragmatic, multifaceted common law methods already used by the Court provide a far better means of reaching sound decisions and controlling judicial discretion than do any of the grand theories.

Daniel A. Farber is the McKnight Presidential Professor of Public Law, Henry J, Fletcher Professor of Law, and associate dean for research and development at the University of Minnesota. Suzanna Sherry is the Cal Turner Professor of Law and Leadership at Vanderbilt University. Each is the author of numerous books.