Restoring the Lost Constitution: The Presumption of Liberty
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.50 (557 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 0691115850 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 384 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2015-03-21 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
Winner of the 2005 Lysander Spooner Award for Advancing the Literature of Liberty, Laissez Faire Books"A hopeful work--provocative, documented, resolute, reasoned, readable--delightfully devoid of legalistic obtuseness. It lights up a road back to limited government, albeit a steep road."--Willian H. An excellent work."--Ronald Kahn, Law and Politics Book Review. Peterson, Washington Times"This book is terrific in demonstrating the natural rights background to our Constitution and demonstrating that all rights cannot be listed in the Constitution
In Restoring the Lost Constitution, Randy Barnett argues that since the nation's founding, but especially since the 1930s, the courts have been cutting holes in the original Constitution and its amendments to eliminate the parts that protect liberty from the power of government. He also provides a new, realistic and philosophically rigorous theory of constitutional legitimacy that justifies both interpreting the Constitution according to its original meaning and, where that meaning is vague or open-ended, construing it so as to better protect the rights retained by the people.As clearly argued as it is insightful and provocative, Restoring the Lost Constitution forcefully disputes the conventional wisdom, posing a powerful challenge to which others must now respond.. The U.S. From the Commerce Clause, to the Necessary and Proper Clause, to the Ninth and Tenth Amendments, to the Privileges or Imm
important book that should be read by judges Randy Barnett has written a fascinating and well-argued book. The book is composed of four parts: "Constitutional Legitimacy," "Constitutional Method," "Constitutional Limits," and "Constitutional Powers." The first part takes seriously Lysander Spooner's arguments in "No Treason: The Constitution of No Authority" that the Constitution is not and cannot be binding on people who did not explicitly consent to it- the "we the people" in the pre. Toward a jurisprudence of original meaning John S. Ryan What should we do with the Constitution? In this excellent work, Randy E. Barnett proposes a predominantly libertarian answer to that question. (I say 'predominantly' because Barnett is quite clear-eyed and honest in his recognition of the handful of nonlibertarian elements in the document.)Barnett initially addresses the question why we should consider ourselves bound by the Constitution at all, since the idea that it really speaks for ever. Head & Shoulders above all other Constitutional Scholars Having read most of the current batch of constitutional scholars, and while respectful of their opinions, I believe that none reach the level of Barnett's understanding of the Constitution and the importance his thesis is to all Americans if we want to protect our freedoms from those internally who would deny we even possess rights as individuals.Barnett starts off by providing a strong, though subjective, philospohical basis for the legitim