We the People

Paste Magazine's 10 Best Books of November A blueprint for resistance and change . . . it's crucial as a potential umbrella under which all forms of progressive defiance can actualize a vision of the preamble's promise. --Paste Magazine Dean Erwin Chemerinsky, one of our nation's leading constitutional scholars, has written a masterful guide on how progressives should think about constitutional law as we move forward in the twenty-first century. After thoroughly discrediting the conservatives' bogus claims of being committed to originalism, judicial restraint, and value-neutral judging, Chemerinsky identifies five fundamental values that should guide our interpretation of the Constitution: ensuring democratic government, providing effective governance, establishing justice, securing liberty, and achieving equality. He then brilliantly demonstrates both why those values should be at the center of constitutional interpretation and how they should play out in the resolution of a broad range of specific constitutional controversies. This is a thoughtful, accessible, and engaging enterprise that should be read by anyone contemplating law school, by all law students, and by lawyers (and other citizens) throughout the land. --Geoffrey R. Stone, Edward H. Levi Distinguished Professor of Law, The University of Chicago, and author of The Los Angeles Times Book Prize winner Perilous Times: Free Speech in Wartime With characteristic clarity, Dean Chemerinsky synthesizes his encyclopedic knowledge of the Constitutional canon to offer a detailed guide to a Progressive interpretation of the Constitution. From the text of the Preamble, he identifies four key principles undergirding the Constitution: a democratic form of government, an effective government, fair treatment for the people of the nation and the protection of individual liberty. To these he adds a final, implicit principle that is made explicit with the adoption of the Fourteenth Amendment: equality. Using these five principles as his guide, Chemerinsky walks his readers through some of the major legal controversies of our time, explaining how these principles point toward a Progressive understanding of the proper role of government on issues ranging from federalism to presidential power and from the rights of the criminally accused to campaign finance laws. Accessible to the lay reader, but of interest to scholars, this book serves as a useful primer on Constitutional case law, a practical guide to the constitutional arguments that Progressives can make both in and out of the courtroom, and a message of hope in the long-term possibility of justice. --Jennifer Chacon, Professor of Law, UCLA School of Law Demolishing the rationalization (the imagined original intent of 18th century men) used by a Republican court to justify reactionary public policy, Chemerinsky explains why the constitutional principles of democratic and effective government committed to establish security, justice, liberty and equality can, going forward, be the bases for authoritative challenges to the Trump court's partisan agenda. --Richard Rothstein, author of Color of Law, long-listed for the National Book Award This work will become the DEFINING text on progressive constitutionalism -- a parallel to Thomas Picketty's contribution but for all who care deeply about constitutional law. Beautifully written and powerfully argued, this is a masterpiece. --Lawrence Lessig, Harvard Law School, and author of Free Culture Chemerinsky pulls no punches...rock-solid arguments...rooted in history, in a profound progressive philosophy. --Kirkus (starred review) Praise for Erwin Chemerinsky A catalyst for fundamentally changing the nation's most important and . . . least democratic institution . . . A scholar with intellectual power, passion and pluck. --Los Angeles Review of Books One of the shining lights of legal academia. --The New York Times Praise for The Conservative Assault on the Constitution Our Constitution depends on the courts to keep it alive; we all depend on Erwin Chemerinsky to remind us why that is so important. This book is essential reading for anyone who cares about preserving our constitutional birthright. --Susan N. Herman, President, American Civil Liberties Union Erwin Chemerinsky knows the Constitution as a legal scholar and the Supreme Court as a lawyer who represents clients there. It's a rare and powerful combination that makes him uniquely qualified to write this disturbing and persuasive book about the impact of the current Supreme Court's approach to constitutional interpretation. --Linda Greenhouse, lecturer, Yale Law School; former New York Times Supreme Court correspondent