Politically Incorrect Guide To The Constitution (Politically Incorrect Guides)
by Kevin R. C. Gutzman
List Price:
Our Price: $6.74
You Save: $13.21 (66%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $4.48 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Kevin R. C. GutzmanEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2007-06-11
ISBN: 1596985054
Number of pages: 272
Publisher: Regnery Publishing
Book Reviews of Politically Incorrect Guide To The Constitution (Politically Incorrect Guides)
Book Review: An Authoritative Exposition on the U.S. Constitution and an Indictment of Judicial Subversion of the Republic
Summary: 5 Stars
~The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Constitution~ is an excellent read, which invigorates American constitutional scholarship. I literally stayed up all night to read the infamous Guide by Kevin Gutzman which just came out this past June 2007. His credentials are impressive. Kevin received his Masters of Public Affairs from the University of Texas, along with a Juris Doctorate from the University of Texas School of Law, and a Ph.D. in history from the University of Virginia. Kevin has quite an extensive knowledge of constitutional history and law, and an expertise on the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions. I found it to be a confirmation of my long cherished beliefs about the American founding.
His perspective is very much like mine, and he informed me beforehand, he embraces the sentiments of John Taylor of Caroline, presumably expressed in his 1822 New Views on the Constitution. One thing that Kevin does that is hard-hitting and accurate is stress the importance of utilizing the proceedings of the State Ratifying Conventions to ascertain original intent.
The problem with most contemporary constitutional historiography is that it does not accurately portray the purpose of the Philadelphia Convention or its power and authority. The ambiguous special pleadings for ratification known as the Federalist Papers while important, are frankly an overvalued window into original intent. Another historian Gottfried Dietze verifies Kevin's assertion on this point: "The split personality of the Federalist can be considered the root of the dualism that became so characteristic of American constitutional development. The disagreement over the nature of the Union may have contributed to nullification and secession or, for that matter, to the fight against these institutions. Likewise, Hamilton's and Madison's differing opinions on federalism were used when the Supreme Court interpreted the Constitution and largely account for that Court's oscillation between dual federalism and nationalism. Also, the author's different conceptions of separation of powers seem to mark the beginning of a struggle between the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of government, evident throughout American history." The fact that the people of the several states never ratified Hamilton's opinions, and the fact that Hamilton had offered a plan for complete consolidation at Philadelphia only to leave early also discounts the value of his special pleading as the be-all and end-all summation of original intent. In Federalist #40, Madison accurately stated that the Philadelphia Convention had no authority but to draft a Constitution and its powers were "merely advisory and recommendatory." Madison also disclaimed the value of his notes from the Philadelphia Convention and contended that we should look for original intent in the text of the Constitution itself and in the proceedings of the state ratifying conventions. Madison observed, "...the legitimate meaning of the Instrument must be derived from the text itself; or if a key is to be sought elsewhere, it must be not in the opinions or intentions of the Body which planned & proposed the Constitution, but in the sense attached to it by the people in their respective State Conventions where it received all the authority which it possesses." In point of emphasis, "all the authority which it possesses." Gutzman contends in earnest for state sovereignty, and documents that there are "lights towards true construction," of the Constitution as John Taylor has suggested. "Sovereignty is the highest degree of political power," observed Taylor, "and the establishment of a form of government, the highest proof which can be given of its existence. The states could have not reserved any rights by articles of their union, if they had not been sovereign, because they could have no rights, unless they flowed from that source. In the creation of the federal government, the states exercised the highest act of sovereignty, and they may, if they please, repeat the proof of their sovereignty, by its annihilation. But the union possesses no innate sovereignty, like the states; it was not self-constituted; it is conventional, and of course subordinate to the sovereignties by which it was formed."
The official publisher's blurb from Regnery notes that the book:
* 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
Kevin captures another bittersweet reality in American constitutional history. The battle against Big Government, and the battle for constitutionally-limited government has been waged since the formative years of the American Republic. The contests provoked by the Alien and Sedition Acts and the assertion of state protest and interposition in the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions manifests that reality. Though, post-Civil War Reconstruction and Comrade Roosevelt's New Deal certainly marked solid gains for the advocates of unfettered national power.
The book is basically a most profound and erudite exposition of U.S. Supreme Court jurisprudence since its impetus. In fact, Madison pledged during the ratification debates that the federal government try and simply get along without federal trial courts, allowing decisions to be adjudicated in state courts. The Federal Judiciary Act of 1789 changed that reality, but parts of it were later rescinded shortly thereafter for usurping the jurisdiction of the states. Though, the U.S. Supreme Court actually took initiative to declare portions of the Act unconstitutional. Kevin documents how the framers never intended the federal judiciary to be what it is today. Judicial activism to aggrandize federal power started quite early actually. As an elder Jefferson wrote in 1821, the federal judiciary "...are in the habit of going out of the question before them, to throw an anchor ahead and grapple further hold for future advances of power. They are then in fact the corps of sappers and miners, steadily working to undermine the independent rights of the States and to consolidate all power in the hands of that government in which they have so important a freehold estate." In fact, the federal judicial efforts to usurp constitutional authority from the states was a gradual dialectical process that happened over time. As Thomas Jefferson once lamented, "The natural progress of things is for government to gain ground, and liberty to yield.
"We are under a Constitution, but the Constitution is what the judges say it is."
--Charles Evan Hughes, 1907, former chief justice
Hughes' quote above captures the arrogance of the imperialists on the federal judiciary, which really came to bloom in the twentieth-century under the auspices of the New Deal Court following FDR's court-stacking scheme coupled with the subsequent retirement of conservative justices. The fifth chapter, "The Imperial Judiciary: It Started with John Marshall," is a particularly interesting look at the work of John Marshall who shaped American constitutional law and made the U.S. Supreme Court a center of power. Marshall was the fourth Chief Justice of the United States, serving from February 4, 1801 until his death in 1835. Marshall invoked judicial review in a power grab in the famous Marbury v. Madison decision, but one could argue that it was implicit in the nature of a federal system granted. The problem was that there was no federal common law, and that federal courts were courts of limited jurisdiction. Under the American federal system, commensurate with original intent, we have two essential court systems: courts of general jurisdiction (e.g. the states) and courts of limited jurisdiction (e.g. federal courts.) In the course of time, however, this would soon changed, not by constitutional right, however, but by federal usurpation of the compact. During the ratification debates at the Virginia Convention of 1788, George Mason presciently claimed that one day the U.S. Supreme Court would swallow up the jurisdiction of the states. Mason was prophetic in that regard. By the twentieth-century, much of what law students and jurists learn in constitutional law classes might as well be called unconstitutional law.
Well, this book was preaching to the choir with me. I was familiar with much of the findings already, but it is reassuring to see others see things the way I do. We are not the crazy and radical ones, as we advocate constitutionally-limited government and restoring the Anglo-American constitutional tradition to its former prominence. Those who stand for Big Government are the radicals, however, well entrenched their political class might be in Washington, D.C.
More Politically Incorrect Guide To The Constitution (Politically Incorrect Guides) reviews:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Summary of Politically Incorrect Guide To The Constitution (Politically Incorrect Guides)
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.United States Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in United States Books
The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depressionby Amity Shlaes
HarperAudio; Published: 2007-06-12; Audio CD; Book
Best price: $15.88
Price in other shops:
Profiles in Courage (slipcased edition): Decisive Moments in the Lives of Celebrated Americansby John F. Kennedy
Harper; Published: 2006-10-17; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $8.99
Price in other shops:
Going Rogue: An American Lifeby Sarah Palin
Broadside Books; Published: 2010-08-24; Paperback; Book
Best price: $0.01
Price in other shops:
Dreamland: A Novelby Kevin Baker
Harper Perennial; Published: 2002-10-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.99
Price in other shops:
April 1865: The Month That Saved America (P.S.)by Jay Winik
Harper Perennial; Published: 2006-08-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.79
Price in other shops:
And You Know You Should Be Glad: A True Story of Lifelong Friendshipby Bob Greene
William Morrow; Published: 2006-05-02; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $0.30
Price in other shops:
Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Mealby Eric Schlosser
PBS; Harper Perennial; Published: 2005-07-05; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.95
Price in other shops:
Thomas Jefferson: A Lifeby Willard Sterne Randall
Harper Perennial; Published: 1994-06-18; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.19
Price in other shops:
Winning Local and State Electionsby Ann Beaudry
Free Press; Published: 1986-05-26; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $8.44
Price in other shops:
Stonewall Jacksonby James Robertson
Macmillan Pub.; Published: 1997-02-18; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $47.66
Price in other shops:
Similar Books and other products
Who Killed the Constitution?: The Federal Government vs. American Liberty from World War I to Barack Obamaby Thomas E. Woods Jr., Kevin R. C. Gutzman
Three Rivers Press; Published: 2009-07-07; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.51
Price in other shops:
The Politically Incorrect Guide to Capitalism (Politically Incorrect Guides)by Robert P. Murphy
Regnery Publishing; Published: 2007-04-09; Paperback; Book
Best price: $10.50
Price in other shops:
The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Civil War (The Politically Incorrect Guides)by H. W. Crocker III
Regnery Publishing; Published: 2008-10-21; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.20
Price in other shops:
The Politically Incorrect Guide to the British Empire (The Politically Incorrect Guides)by H. W. Crocker III
Regnery Publishing; Published: 2011-10-24; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.81
Price in other shops:
The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Bible (The Politically Incorrect Guides)by Robert J. Hutchinson
Spring Arbor/Ingram; Regnery Publishing; Published: 2007-10-16; Paperback; Book
Best price: $11.32
Price in other shops:
The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades)by Robert Spencer
Regnery Publishing; Published: 2005-08-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.98
Price in other shops:
The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Great Depression and the New Deal (The Politically Incorrect Guides)by Robert Murphy
Regnery Publishing; Published: 2009-03-31; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.76
Price in other shops:
The Politically Incorrect Guide to Socialism (Politically Incorrect Guides)by Kevin D Williamson
Regnery Publishing; Published: 2011-01-10; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.94
Price in other shops:
The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Founding Fathers (The Politically Incorrect Guides)by Brion McClanahan
Regnery Publishing; Published: 2009-06-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $11.97
Price in other shops:
The Politically Incorrect Guide to American Historyby Thomas E. Woods Jr.
Spring Arbor/Ingram; Regnery Publishing; Published: 2004-01-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.91
Price in other shops: