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Title details for The Originalism Trap by Madiba K. Dennie - Wait list

The Originalism Trap

How Extremists Stole the Constitution and How We the People Can Take It Back

by Madiba K. Dennie
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A rallying cry for a more just approach to the law that bolsters social justice movements by throwing out originalism—the theory that judges should interpret the Constitution exactly as conservatives say the Founders meant it

“The greatest trick conservatives ever pulled was convincing the world that originalism exists. This book is vital for understanding why the world sucks right now.”—Elie Mystal, author of Allow Me to Retort
There is no one true way to interpret the Constitution, but that’s not what originalists want you to think. They’d rather we be held hostage to their “objective” theory that our rights and liberties are bound by history—an idea that was once confined to the fringes of academia. Americans saw just how subjective originalism can be when the Supreme Court cherry-picked the past to deny bodily autonomy to millions of Americans in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health. Though originalism is supposed to be a serious intellectual theory, a closer look reveals its many inherent faults, as it deliberately over-emphasizes a version of history that treats civil rights gains as categorically suspect. According to Madiba K. Dennie, it’s time to let it go.
Dennie discards originalism in favor of a new approach that serves everyone: inclusive constitutionalism. She disentangles the Constitution’s ideals from originalist ideology and underscores the ambition of the Reconstruction Amendments, which were adopted in the wake of the Civil War and sought to build a democracy with equal membership for marginalized persons. The Originalism Trap argues that the law must serve to make that promise of democracy real.
Seamlessly blending scholarship with sass and written for law people and laypeople alike, The Originalism Trap shows readers that the Constitution belongs to them and how, by understanding its possibilities, they can use it to fight for their rights. As courts—and the Constitution—increasingly become political battlegrounds, The Originalism Trap is a necessary guide to what’s at stake and a vision for a more just future.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    June 4, 2024

  • Formats

    • Kindle Book

    • OverDrive Read

      • ISBN: 9780593729267

    • EPUB ebook

      • ISBN: 9780593729267
      • File size: 2140 KB

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Kirkus

      May 15, 2024
      An urgent argument against the seemingly prevailing interpretation of the Constitution today, with no room for anyone but well-to-do white Americans. "The Declaration of Independence...tells us that government legitimacy requires consent of the governed." So writes legal scholar Dennie, who maintains that this foundational tenet has been abandoned by a government active in disenfranchising the governed, especially minority voters and especially at the level of the judiciary. Many leading jurists subscribe to the theory of "originalism," which holds that if it's not in the Constitution as the Founders wrote it, then it's irrelevant. This leads to legal gymnastics, of course. There's no specific statement in the Constitution permitting gun control, allowing the Supreme Court to declare that regulation is beyond the law. However, "when it comes to regulating abortion, a lack of past regulation is no barrier to a legislative free-for-all in my uterus." Advocating for "inclusive constitutionalism," Dennie argues that the law is an evolving instrument--one that might recognize, for instance, that an AR-15 is not a flintlock--and that there's no compelling reason for the Supreme Court to engage in historicism in the first place. And yet, there we are, the Supreme Court maintaining that the Constitution is frozen in time and inalterable. More feats of gymnastics ensue: The Court argues that racial gerrymandering is "justiciable" while political gerrymandering is not, when in fact so much political gerrymandering is designed to disempower non-white voters. Originalism, Dennie concludes in this cogent text, keeps the nation "from achieving a functioning democracy," which would appear to be the point--and, she concludes, it will require a popular upswell of democratic activism, to say nothing of new laws and a new Court, to shake loose from originalism once and for all. A compelling case for considering the Constitution as palimpsest and not Mosaic tablet.

      COPYRIGHT(2024) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Formats

  • Kindle Book
  • OverDrive Read
  • EPUB ebook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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