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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7337 in Books
• Published on: 2007-06-11
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 272 pages

From the Inside Flap
The Constitution of the United States created a representative republic marked by federalism and the separation of powers. Yet numerous federal judges--led by the Supreme Court--have used the Constitution as a blank check to substitute their own views on hot-button issues such as abortion, capital punishment, and samesex marriage for perfectly constitutional laws enacted by We the People through our elected representatives.

Now, The Politically Incorrect Guide(tm) to the Constitution shows that there is very little relationship between the Constitution as ratified by the thirteen original states more than two centuries ago and the "constitutional law" imposed upon us since then. Instead of the system of state-level decision makers and elected officials the Constitution was intended to create, judges have given us a highly centralized system in which bureaucrats and appointed--not elected--officials make most of the important policies.

In The Politically Incorrect Guide(tm) to the Constitution, Professor Kevin Gutzman, who holds advanced degrees in both law and American history:

* explains how the Constitution was understood by the founders who wrote it and the people who ratified it * follows the Supreme Court as it uses the fig leaf of the Constitution to cover its naked usurpation of the rights and powers the Constitution explicitly reserves to the states and to the people * shows how we slid from the Constitution's republican federal government, with its very limited powers, to an unrepublican "judgeocracy" with limitless powers * reveals how huge swaths of American law and society were remade in the wake of Supreme Court rulings * reveals how the Fourteenth Amendment has been twisted to use the Bill of Rights as a check on state power instead of on federal power, as originally intended * exposes the radical inconsistency between "constitutional law" and the rule of law * contends that the judges who receive the most attention in history books are celebrated for acting against the Constitution rather than for it

As Professor Gutzman shows, constitutional law is supposed to apply the Constitution's plain meaning to prevent judges, presidents, and congresses from overstepping their authority. If we want to return to the founding fathers' vision of the Republic, if we want the Constitution enforced in the way it was explained to the people at the time of its ratification, then we have to overcome the "received wisdom" about what constitutional law is. The Politically Incorrect Guide(tm) to the Constitution is an important step in that direction.

About the Author
Kevin R. C. Gutzman, J.D., Ph.D. is associate professor of American history at Western Connecticut State University. He received his Master of Public Affairs from the University of Texas, his J.D. from the University of Texas School of Law, and his M.A. and Ph.D. in American history from the University of Virginia. Dr. Gutzman is the author of Virginia's American Revolution: From Dominion to Republic, 1776-1840 and was a featured expert in the documentary film John Marshall: Citizen, Statesman, and Jurist. He has written scores of articles and encyclopedia entries, as well as reviews of books, films, and exhibitions for magazines academic and popular. He lives in Bethel, Connecticut, with his three children.

Customer Reviews

From Guaranteed Freedoms to Supreme Court Rule
I recommend that everyone read The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Constitution. It clearly shows how the Supreme Court has, since the founding of our country, taken more and more power for itself that never was granted by the Constitution. It explains why law is now based on past Court rulings, instead of on the words of the Constitution itself (unless, of course, the Supreme Court conveniently chooses to ignore any past precedents in order to make a new ruling they want to impose on the country).

Some of the reactions to Court rulings mentioned in the book include: "Louisiana briefly considered responding to the Court's decision in the Flag-burning Case by making it legal to beat up flag-burners. Perhaps such violence is covered by `freedom of expression.' In the end, Louisiana didn't go ahead with the idea: state legislatures often are more restrained in their behavior than the Court is."

Interesting sidebars in the book include "Books You're Not Supposed to Read," which includes The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History by Thomas Woods. After reading this Guide to the Constitution you will know which Supreme Court justice was a former Ku Klux Klansman, who "took the lead in writing the twentieth-century Klan's views on church-state relations into `constitutional law.'" Sidebars also contain interesting facts such as: "Supreme Logic: Fraud Is a Contract--According to [Chief Justice] Marshall in Fletcher v. Peck (1810), a fraudulent land purchase was a `contract'-and was thus subject to the protection of the Contracts Clause. `Coincidentally,' Marshall was a substantial land investor." You will also learn which Court ruling was based on "penumbras, formed by emanations from those guarantees [in the Bill of Rights] that help give them life and substance." This book is a great starting place for understanding how we got from the guaranteed freedoms of the Constitution to where we are today.

Enthralling
What do you say about a book that puts on paper the thoughts and beliefs you hold as correct. Obviously the writer is an absolute genius. Now if we could fix the wrongs. An excellent look at the constitution that should be presented to all civics students.

Starts great, slips in the last few chapters
I recommend this for, if nothing else, the depth of the history surrounding the ratification of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. It could have gone deeper, but then it would have been a different book - and it goes deeper than most I've seen.

As the book progresses through various attacks on the Constitution through history, the focus is almost entirely upon the Supreme Court. Not a bad target, all in all, but perhaps the title could have changed to reflect the actual focus in the writing. I'd expected a more broad-based examination of violations of the Constitution from all of the culprits.

After the first half of the book, the writer loses his distance from the material, becoming more passionate about the violations of the Constitution by the Supreme Court, which actually weakens his writing - he'd have been better if he'd been able to maintain the factual, dispassionate presentation of the earlier material. At the end, his personal bias is remarkably plain, and it lost this reader a bit.

The P.I.G. features - factoids appearing frequently in the margins, under headings such as "A Book You're Not Supposed to Read", which recommends further reading relevant to the subject at hand, and "Legal Latinisms", which explains Latin phrases commonly used in law, are generally good - the damning quotes are too often given without context, and the half-page biographies could stand some bibliography notes, - but all in all, they're nicely used.

Don't mistake my criticism here - I strongly recommend this book, and will doubtless loan it to as many of my friends as I can. There are flaws, so this could have been better - but so far, nobody's done better with this material yet - not that I've seen, anyway.