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Type: Hardcover
Item#: c7505
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Want to know what the Constitution actually says -- and really means? Look no further than this annotated quick-reference guide
The Citizen's Constitution: An Annotated Guide
by Seth Lipsky
How do liberals get away with making the Constitution
mean whatever they say it does? Simple: Few Americans have
actually read the document (despite its extreme brevity --
just over 8,000 words, including amendments); and fewer
still know its historical context. So when liberals claim
that the Constitution allows -- or even requires --
abortion "rights," gay marriage, or government-run health
care, most citizens are left defenseless in their
ignorance. Solution? This annotated quick-reference guide,
which places the document and its clauses into concise
context -- citing history and the Founders, case law and
current events in more than 300 illuminating annotations.
The handiwork of Seth Lipsky -- publisher and editor-in-
chief of the late, lamented New York Sun and inveterate
conservative -- and free of the tendentious liberal
"interpretations" so typical of other guides, The Citizen's
Constitution: An Annotated Guide, is the easiest, fastest
way to discover not only what the Constitution actually
says, but also what it plainly means.
(continued from above)
As Lipsky explains, The Citizen's Constitution is
different from other annotations in that it hews to what
might be called the plain language school of the law. It
distills into notes a reading of the standard texts
surrounding the Constitution. These include the several
records of the Constitutional Convention of 1787, among
them James Madison's notes, Justice Yates's "Secret
Proceedings," and Luther Martin's memo to the Legislature
of Maryland, "The Genuine Information." These also include
the letters and journalism hammered out during the
referenda held in the 13 states of the young Confederation
on whether to ratify the document. Of this material, the
Federalist Papers, written under the pen name "Publius,"
are the most famous, but there are myriad others --
including the skeptical views of the anti-Federalists,
which seem prescient today -- all illuminating intent. The
extensive notes also reference key Supreme Court decisions
and opinions, current controversies, and more.
Concise, conservative, and entertaining, The Citizen's
Constitution serves as a no-nonsense and learned guide to
the fundamental questions surrounding the document that
governs how we govern our country.
EXCERPT: Sample Clause and Annotations
"WE THE PEOPLE. . ."*
* As opposed to the states. Said Samuel Adams: "I
confess, as I enter the Building I stumble at the
Threshold. I meet with a National Government, instead of a
Federal Union of Sovereign States." Arguing against
ratification in Virginia, Patrick Henry demanded: "Who
authorized them to speak the language of, We, the people,
instead of, We, the states? States are the characteristics
and the soul of a confederation."
One delegate to the Constitutional Convention who
emerged among the anti-Federalists, Luther Martin,
recommended to Maryland that it reject the Constitution:
"... We appeared totally to have forgot the business for
which we were sent ... we adopted principles which would be
right and proper, only on the supposition that there were
no State governments at all, but that all the inhabitants
of this extensive continent were in their individual
capacity, without government, and in a state of nature ..."
The Federalists would have none of it. At the
Pennsylvania ratifying convention, James Wilson declared:
"I know very well all the common-place rant of State
sovereignties, and that government is founded in original
compact ..." But he insisted that the Preamble "is not an
unmeaning flourish. The expressions declare, in a practical
manner, the principle of this constitution. It is ordained
and established by the people themselves; and we, who give
our votes for it, are merely the proxies of our
constituents. We sign it as their attorneys, and as to
ourselves, we agree to it as individuals."
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