Second, they conflate constitutional argument (an activity confined to those persons whose decisions must be explained in terms of legal argument) with constitutional discourse (an activity that takes up the same subjects, and which may include legal argument, but which, though constrained by its own modalities of argument, is not confined to legal argument).

DEFINE: Distinguishes two terms that are often conflated: legal-constitutional argument (restricted to legal decision-makers) versus the broader constitutional discourse (open to all, governed by its own modalities).

Philip Chase Bobbitt, Philip Chase Bobbitt - Refl…, loc. 409