Rule of Constitutional Construction

At the time of the adoption of the Federal Constitution, Sir William Blackstone’s Commentaries on the Laws of England had been published about twenty years, and more copies of the work had been sold in this country than in England; “so that undoubtedly, the framers of the Constitution were familiar with it”, and considered it “the preëminent authority on English law” . Every legally literate American was also aware of the general rule for statutory construction which Blackstone taught.