Product Description: In The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Constitution, readers will follow the Supreme Court as it uses the Constitution as a fig leaf to cover its blatant seizing of the people's right to govern themselves through elections. Gutzman unveils the radical inconsistency between constitutional law and the rule of law, and shows why and how the Supreme Court should be reined in to the proper role assigned to it by the Founders.
Good in the areas it addresses but too narrow in scope The areas that this book covers are generally covered well; however, I was hoping for a book that was broader in scope. It really ought to be called "The Politically Incorrect Guide to Judicial Tyranny" or something to that effect as this is the area that the author focuses the most on.
He did do a good job covering judicial tyranny and explaining how the judicial branch has far exceeded the power the Founding Fathers intended it to have. He also provides an excellent overview of the history of the Constitution and the various conventions, which I learned a great deal from.
However, legislative and executive tyranny and abuse of the Constitution only receive brief mentions; for example, he addresses some of Abraham Lincoln's more blatant violations of the Constitution and does a good job covering the problem of secession but doesn't address more contemporary Constitutional issues like the PATRIOT Act, military commissions, secret prisons, and undeclared wars. These are some of the most hotly contested issues in Constitutional law right now and there have been several court rulings on them, so the book would've been more relevant if these issues had been addressed.
Another issue I was surprised the author omitted was the whole issue of Constitutional interpretation, which I consider a serious problem with the book. He simply assumes originalism without explaining or defending it, and he doesn't really distinguish between the different kinds of textualism (textualism vs. authorial intent). Given his intended audience, there's a pretty good chance that many people will either not understand originalism or disagree with it outright (e.g. proponents of the "living Constitution" theory of interpretation), so he really should have addressed this.
With that said, this book is still very informative and provides an important perspective on a number of issues, so it receives my recommendation.
Essential Reading For All Americans When I studied constitutional law in law school, we studied what the Supreme Court said about the Constitution. I recall that our constitutional law text began its discussion of the First Amendment using an excerpt from Justice Hugo Black's opinion in the 1947 case of Everson v. Board of Education. What is vitally important in the study of any "text" - the historical background - was missing from my law school education.
Kevin Gutzman (an historian and attorney) provides the needed background in this outstanding book. As Gutzman shows in detail, while the Constitution did increase the power of the federal government as the expense of the states, the states still remained sovereign. In fact three states (Maryland, Virginia and Rhode Island) ratified the Constitution with the proviso that they were reserving the right to withdraw from the union if they saw fit. The Southern states did have the right to secede.
The Constitution is (or at least was) a states' rights document.
Two things changed this. First, Justice John Marshall interpreted the Constitution in a way beneficial to Supreme Court and federal power. Second, the Supreme Court gradually held that the Fourteenth Amendment "incorporated" the provisions of the Bill of Rights, making them binding on the states. Prof. Gutzman's attack on these two pillars of Court supremacy is quite persuasive.
In the Constitutional scheme as understood by Prof. Gutzman, the states retain almost complete power to regulate the economy, personal morality, and religion. This leads to some (by today's standards) unusual conclusions. While Prof. Gutzman rejects the "right to privacy" underlying such decisions Roe v. Wade, he also believes that the Supreme Court's decision in Pierce v. Society of Sisters (which struck down an Oregon law requiring nearly all children to attend public schools) an impermissible extension of judicial power over a purely state matter. This is a consistent state's rights view not held by any "conservatives" on the Supreme Court.
This is a vital work, which should be required reading for all law students and all Americans. I also recommend WHO KILLED THE CONSTITUTION? by Prof. Gutzman and Prof. Thomas Woods.
Absolutely Fascinating I had just read The Revolution by Ron Paul when I saw this book. Interested in learning more about the Constitution I thought it looked promising. I had no idea what a treat I was in for. I couldn't put it down. Kevin Gutzman masterfully lays out how the constitution has been used and abused to achieve political ends that were not intended to be achieved. And the abuses started happening from the beginning, before the ink was even dry on the document. This book will help any reader gain a better understanding of the purpose of the constitution, what it says, what the framers meant, and how that has been ignored by far too many Supreme Court justices, Presidents, Senators, and Congressmen in the quest for power over the people. Gutzman is an excellent guide and by bringing out the human element in this fascinating journey he makes it very interesting to read. I highly recommend you read this book. Enjoy!
Politically Incorrrect Guide to the Constitution Very interesting and informative book on how the US Constitution has been raped by the US Supreme Court over the years. A must read for everyone!
Required reading for all citizens This book should be required reading for anyone who plans to vote. If you'd like a laundry list of most everything that's been done to eviscerate the Constitution and lead America down the wrong path, this is the book for you. Also, if you'd like to support authors who are brave enough to speak the truth (a rare thing today), buy this book. I was beginning to think no one but Ron Paul had read the Constitution. After you've read this book, ask yourself if Obama, McCain or any of our elected officials have ever read the Constitution. If they have, they simply don't care what it says.
Anything Goes Trivia
Megaton Man
Trevor
