Progressive Challenges To The American Constitution

This book details the origins of American progressivism and its enduring effects on American politics and constitutionalism in the twenty-first century.

This book details the origins of American progressivism and its enduring effects on American politics and constitutionalism in the twenty-first century

How Progressives Rewrote the Constitution explores the fundamental shift in political and economic thought of the Progressive Era and how the Supreme Court was used to transform the Constitution into one that reflected the ideas of their own time, while undermining America’s founding principles. Epstein examines key decisions to demonstrate how Progressives attacked much of the legal precedent and eventually weakened the Court’s thinking concerning limited federal powers and the protection of individual rights. Progressives on the Court undermined basic economic principles of freedom and competition, paving the way for the modern redistributive and regulatory state. This book shows that our modern “constitutional law,” fashioned largely by the New Deal Court in the late 1930s, has its roots in Progressivism, not in our country's founding principles, and how so many of those ideas, however discredited by more recent economic thought, still shape the Court's decisions.

Le Viandier (often called Le Viandier de Taillevent) is a recipe book generally attributed to Guillaume Tirel, alias Taillevent. It is known, the earliest version of the work was written around 1300, before the alleged author, Tyrel's was born. Le Viandier is one of the earliest recipe collections of the Middle Ages, along with the Latin Liber de Coquina (early 14th century) and the English Forme of Cury (c. 1390). It is also famous as a book that contains the first detailed description of an entremet.

"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 Worried about what a super conservative majority on the Supreme Court means for the future of civil liberties? From gun control to reproductive health, a conservative court will reshape the lives of all Americans for decades to come. The time to develop and defend a progressive vision of the U.S. Constitution that protects the rights of all people is now. University of California Berkeley Dean and respected legal scholar Erwin Chemerinsky expertly exposes how conservatives are using the Constitution to advance their own agenda that favors business over consumers and employees, and government power over individual rights. But exposure is not enough. Progressives have spent too much of the last forty-five years trying to preserve the legacy of the Warren Court’s most important rulings and reacting to the Republican-dominated Supreme Courts by criticizing their erosion of rights—but have not yet developed a progressive vision for the Constitution itself. Yet, if we just look to the promise of the Preamble—liberty and justice for all—and take seriously its vision, a progressive reading of the Constitution can lead us forward as we continue our fight ensuring democratic rule, effective government, justice, liberty, and equality. Includes the Complete Constitution and Amendments of the United States of America

A Patriot’s Call to Action will enable busy Americans to more easily square today’s unending political palaver and double-talk with our Constitution’s original intent. In bite-sized form, this eminently readable book clearly summarizes some key constitutional concepts, like the Supremacy Clause, the Welfare Clause, Nullification, Executive Orders, Impeachment, Secession, etc., which will enable the reader to distinguish between politically correct, agenda-driven interpretations of the Constitution and what our Founders actually intended. Given the complacency gripping the country and the political ruling class’s brazen circumvention of foundational Constitutional restraints, the author fearlessly and unambiguously reminds us of our God-given rights, authority and responsibilities as citizens of a republic, and outlines a commonsense action plan for restoring constitutional order. The author posits that too many Americans are conditioned to the “benefits” of collectivism and the seductive, yet empty, promises of a suffocatingly expansive central government. Uninformed and seduced by the razzle-dazzle of self-serving political elites, many Americans have carelessly permitted our government to lead us on the path toward economic ruin and political oppression—developments which would have dumbfounded and enraged our Founding Fathers. The author unflinchingly asserts that to believe we are a republic today is foolhardy at best, delusional at worst. Absent bold grassroots remedies, the author asserts that our wealth, our way of life, our liberties will surely go the way of the dinosaurs. If you’re looking for simple-minded validation of your political party affiliation, this book isn’t for you. Some of what the author says will rankle, but it will make you think and, hopefully, will encourage you to take action to restore and safeguard those principles and practices which made America history’s most productive experiment in self-government.

At its core this book is intellectual history, tracing the work of progressive historians as they in turn wrote the history of progressivism. In Progressivism: The Strange History of a Radical Idea, Bradley C. S. Watson presents an intellectual history of American progressivism as a philosophical-political phenomenon, focusing on how and with what consequences the academic discipline of history came to accept and propagate it. This book offers a meticulously detailed historiography and critique of the insularity and biases of academic culture. It shows how the first scholarly interpreters of progressivism were, in large measure, also its intellectual architects, and later interpreters were in deep sympathy with their premises and conclusions. Too many scholarly treatments of the progressive synthesis were products of it, or at least were insufficiently mindful of two central facts: the hostility of progressive theory to the Founders’ Constitution and the tension between progressive theory and the realm of the private, including even conscience itself. The constitutional and religious dimensions of progressive thought—and, in particular, the relationship between the two—remained hidden for much of the twentieth century. This pathbreaking volume reveals how and why this scholarly obfuscation occurred. The book will interest students and scholars of American political thought, the Progressive Era, and historiography, and it will be a useful reference work for anyone in history, law, and political science.

A “living” constitution. Runaway courts. Legislating from the bench. These phrases come up a lot in the national political debate. They raise the ire of many Americans. But where did the ideas come from? Why do courts play a role so alien to the one the American Founders outlined? And how did unelected judges gain so much power in our democratic republic? Political scientist and legal philosopher Bradley C. S. Watson provides the answers in this important book. To understand why courts today rule the way they do, Watson shows, you must go back more than a century. You’ll find the philosophical and historical roots of judicial activism in the late nineteenth century. Watson traces a line from social Darwinism and pragmatism, through the rise of Progressivism, to our situation today. Living Constitution, Dying Faith reveals a radical transformation of American political thought. This ebook features a new introduction examining the latest developments—which only highlight the prescience of Watson’s arguments.

From a philosophical and law enforcement perspective, Tim argues that silent encroachments have systematically undermined the American Constitution by way of Politicians, Special Interests, Bureaucrats, Lawyers, and Corporate Lobbyists, who then create the modern Legal System. Contrary to the security of the fundamental rights and liberty of the individual, authoritarian collectivism, forced economic activity, social engineering and the legal plundering of property are being forced onto the American people. This is happening at all levels of government, while systematically advocating the necessity of such policy for the public's safety and for national security. This book also seeks to answer age-old philosophical questions in a contemporary perspective; What is the just and moral role of government? What did the founders say? What does it mean to be free in America today compared to history? What are rights and where do they come from? What does it mean to own property? What is neo-progressive compared to progressive? What is the sound role of law enforcement? What is equality?

The former special assistant for legislative affairs to President Clinton, president of the American Constitution Society, and author of the "damn fine" (Elle) Under the Bus shows how the left can undo the right's damage and take the country back Despite representing the beliefs of a minority of the American public on many issues, conservatives are in power not just in Washington, DC, but also in state capitals and courtrooms across the country. They got there because, while progressives fought to death over the nuances of policy and to bring attention to specific issues, conservatives focused on simply gaining power by gaming our democracy. They understood that policy follows power, not the other way around. Now, in a sensational new book, Caroline Fredrickson—who has had a front-row seat on the political drama in DC for decades while working to shape progressive policies as special assistant for legislative affairs to President Clinton, chief of staff to Senator Maria Cantwell, deputy chief of staff to Senator Tom Daschle, and president of the American Constitution Society—argues that it's time for progressives to focus on winning. She shows us how we can learn from the Right by having the determination to focus on judicial elections, state power, and voter laws without stooping to their dishonest, rule-breaking tactics. We must be ruthless in thinking through how to change the rules of the game to regain power, expand the franchise, end voter suppression, win judicial elections, and fight for transparency and fairness in our political system, and Fredrickson shows us how.