Waubonsee Community College

The Constitution in jeopardy, an unprecedented effort to rewrite our fundamental law and what we can do about it, Russ Feingold and Peter Prindiville

eng

Includes bibliographical references (pages 229-276) and index

illustrations

index present

non fiction

The Constitution in jeopardy

bibliography

1341866796

Russ Feingold and Peter Prindiville

an unprecedented effort to rewrite our fundamental law and what we can do about it

"A former U.S. senator joins a legal scholar to examine a hushed effort to radically change our Constitution, offering a warning and a way forward. Over the last two decades, a fringe plan to call a convention under the Constitution's amendment mechanism--the nation's first ever--has inched through statehouses. Delegates, like those in Philadelphia two centuries ago, would exercise nearly unlimited authority to draft changes to our fundamental law, potentially altering anything from voting and free speech rights to regulatory and foreign policy powers. Such a watershed moment would present great danger, and for some, great power. In this important book, Feingold and Prindiville distill extensive legal and historical research and examine the grave risks inherent in this effort. But they also consider the role of constitutional amendment in modern life. Though many focus solely on judicial and electoral avenues for change, such an approach is at odds with a cornerstone ideal of the Founding: that the People make constitutional law, directly. In an era defined by faction and rejection of long-held norms, The Constitution in Jeopardy examines the nature of constitutional change and asks urgent questions about what American democracy is, and should be"--, Provided by publisher

Introduction -- Part one. Foundations -- Bloodless revolution : the radical idea of peaceful constitutional change -- Compromise and tension : the creation of Article V -- Part two. Constitutional amendment : dismissed and misunderstood -- The archaics : some trouble with conventional wisdom -- A sleeping giant : the enduring importance of Article V and the convention route -- Part three. A warning -- What Trump and the Tea Party couldn't do : the modern conservative push and the mirage of a limited constitutional convention -- Counting to thirty-four : constitutional mathematics and its dangerous flaws -- "We the people" in perilous times : a constitutional convention in an era of faction -- Part four. A way forward -- The Constitution in jeopardy : Article V in the twenty-first century -- Revolution, revisited : toward a new constitutional politics -- Epilogue