Showing titles in Constitutions

Timothy Sandefur's insightful book provides a dramatic new challenge to the status quo of constitutional law and argues a vital truth: our Constitution was written not to empower democracy, but to secure liberty. Yet the overemphasis on democracy by today's legal community - rather than the primacy of liberty, as expressed in the Declaration of Independence - has helped expand the scope of government power at the expense of individual rights.

The United States Constitution promised a More Perfect Union. It’s a shame no one bothered to write a more perfect Constitution—one that didn’t trigger more than two centuries of arguments about what the darn thing actually says. Until now.

In this fascinating book, the author begins by looking at the ways in which the framers of our Constitution were hampered in their work. They could not know about developments in democratic procedures which hadn't yet been devised, and they had no model of the democracy they were attempting to structure which could have guided them in their deliberations.

The Constitution of the Athenians, also called the Athenian Constitution (Greek: Ἀθηναίων πολιτεία, Athenaion Politeia; Latin: Atheniensium Respublica), is a work by Aristotle or one of his students. The work describes the constitution of Athens. It is preserved on a papyrus roll from Hermopolis, published in 1891 and now in the British Library. A small part of the work also survives on two leaves of a papyrus codex, discovered in the Fayum in 1879 and now in the papyrus collection of the Ägyptisches Museum in Berlin.

"Now, do not misunderstand me, America is great. But we are fed up with being over-taxed and over-regulated. We are tired of being told how much salt to put on our food, what kind of cars we can drive, what kinds of guns we can own, what kind of prayers we are allowed to say and where we can say them, what we are allowed to do to elect political candidates, what kind of energy we can use, what doctor we can see. What kind of nation are we becoming? I fear it's the very kind the Colonists fought against."

In 1987, E. L. Doctorow celebrated the Constitution's bicentennial by reading it. "It is five thousand words long but reads like fifty thousand," he said. Distinguished legal scholar Garrett Epps disagrees. It's about 7,500 words. In American Epic, Epps takes us through a complete reading of the Constitution to achieve an appreciation of its power and a holistic understanding of what it says. In this book he seeks not to provide a definitive interpretation, but to listen to the language and ponder its meaning.

In American Coup, William Arkin reveals the desk-bound takeover of the highest reaches of government by a coterie of "grey men" of the national security establishment. Operating between the lines of the Constitution this powerful and unelected group fights to save the nation from "terror" and weapons of mass destruction while at the same time modifying and undermining the very essence of the country.

Landmark cases address the origins of judicial review, racial discrimination, civil rights and liberties, The 14th amendment’s Equal Protection Clause, reproductive rights, LGBTQ+ rights, and federal government regulatory powers. A recommended classroom resource.

You are there, in 1787 at America's constitutional convention, with the inside story as veteran print and broadcast journalist Jeffrey St. John "reports" each day's proceedings, flavoring his dispatches with quotes from private correspondence and notes of the delegates.

Pork-barrel projects like the $452 million “bridge to nowhere” and Keynesian economic debacles like the $840 billion stimulus package that saved as few as 600,000 jobs ($1.4 million per job) have led to a staggering $20 trillion in national debt - about $150,000 per citizen. With most members of Congress focusing only on their own interests, it’s time to smash the DC elitists’ monopoly and rein in spending and extra-constitutional overreach.

We've all watched with alarm the ever-expanding power in Washington D.C: the mandates, the spending, the endless war, the threats to basic civil liberties. And the general question that comes up with each new attack on our liberty - what do we do about it? As Nullification is becoming a popular option for people to resist federal power on issues across the political spectrum, this book provides answers to some of the most common questions about this powerful tool for restraining government power.

While the United States Constitution is the supreme law of the land, it is also a source of great controversy. It establishes the fundamental framework of our system of government, while differences in how to understand and interpret it often divide people. The United States Constitution: A History takes a fresh look at the Constitution, its origins, and controversies, from the founding of the country and its creation at the Constitutional Convention to the present. It examines the various controversies that divided the convention.

Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence, and James Madison, "Father of the Constitution," were two of the most important Founders of the United States as well as the closest of political allies. Yet historians have often seen a tension between the idealistic rhetoric of the Declaration and the more pedestrian language of the Constitution. Moreover, to some, the adoption of the Constitution represented a repudiation of the democratic values of the Revolution.

Has American democracy's long, ambitious run come to an end? Possibly yes. As William G. Howell and Terry M. Moe argue in this trenchant new analysis of modern politics, the United States faces a historic crisis that threatens our system of self-government - and if democracy is to be saved, the causes of the crisis must be understood and defused.

For over a 100 years, it hasn't matter which political party has been in charge. The consolidation of power in the hands of an unlimited central government continues. In Our Last Hope: Rediscovering the Lost Path to Liberty, Michael Maharrey makes the case for a different path - one that's both old and new. It's called nullification.

Exploring the full sweep of federalism from the founding to today, Kettl focuses on pivotal moments when power has shifted between state and national governments - from the violent rebalancing of the Civil War, when the nation almost split in two, to the era of civil rights a century later, when there was apparent agreement that inequality was a threat to liberty and the federal government should set policies for states to enact. Despite this consensus, inequality between states has only deepened since that moment.

Charles offers new insight into the evolution of the gun rights movement and how politicians responded to anti-gun control hardliners. He examines in detail how the National Rifle Association reinvented itself as well as how other advocacy groups challenged the NRA's political monopoly. Offering a deep dive into the politicization of gun rights, Vote Gun reveals the origins of the acrimonious divisions that persist to this day.

To understand the most contentious issues around religious liberty, this volume provides influential philosophical ideas from the US’ founding to the present day and key US Supreme Court judgements to ask how the two twin pillars of religious freedom - free exercise and the limit on religious establishment - unfold in daily life.

Saving Free Speech…from Itself sets the tone for the fractious discussion of how the First Amendment should be interpreted in today’s society and how the free speech aspect of it should not be weaponized by individuals and groups whose agenda includes causing harm to innocent people. In an era of political correctness, race-baiting, terrorist incitement, the "Danish" cartoons, the shouting down of speakers, and, of course, "fake news", liberals and conservatives are up in arms both about speech and its excesses, and what the First Amendment means. Speech has been weaponized.

James Madison was a man of quiet faith who was also intellectually inspired in miraculous ways. Often called the Father of the Constitution, Madison believed rights of conscience were gifts of God, and he was thoroughly committed to establishing a nation conceived in liberty. Throughout his life, thousands of seemingly insignificant events and decisions eventually culminated in the formation of one of the most defining traits of this country: the right to religious freedom.