The Best Constitutions Books of All Time

Finalist, ABA Silver Gavel Award for Books. The New York Times bestseller that has cemented Elie Mystal’s reputation as one of our sharpest and most acerbic legal minds. “After reading Allow Me to Retort, I want Elie Mystal to explain everything I don’t understand—quantum astrophysics, the infield fly rule, why people think Bob Dylan is a good singer . . .” —Michael Harriot, The Root. Allow Me to Retort is an easily digestible argument about what rights we have, what rights Republicans are trying to take away, and how to stop them.

Mystal explains how to protect the rights of women and people of color instead of cowering to the absolutism of gun owners and bigots. He explains the legal way to stop everything from police brutality to political gerrymandering, just by changing a few judges and justices. He strips out all of the fancy jargon conservatives like to hide behind and lays bare the truth of their project to keep America forever tethered to its slaveholding past. Mystal brings his trademark humor, expertise, and rhetorical flair to explain concepts like substantive due process and the right for the LGBTQ community to buy a cake, and to arm readers with the knowledge to defend themselves against conservatives who want everybody to live under the yoke of eighteenth-century white men. The same tactics Mystal uses to defend the idea of a fair and equal society on MSNBC and CNN are in this book, for anybody who wants to deploy them on social media. You don’t need to be a legal scholar to understand your own rights. You don’t need to accept the “whites only” theory of equality pushed by conservative judges. You can read this book to understand that the Constitution is trash, but doesn’t have to be.

A history of the American Constitution's formative decades from a preeminent legal scholar. When the US Constitution won popular approval in 1788, it was the culmination of thirty years of passionate argument over the nature of government. But ratification hardly ended the conversation. For the next half century, ordinary Americans and statesmen alike continued to wrestle with weighty questions in the halls of government and in the pages of newspapers. Should the nation's borders be expanded? Should America allow slavery to spread westward? What rights should Indian nations hold? What was the proper role of the judicial branch?

In The Words that Made Us, Akhil Reed Amar unites history and law in a vivid narrative of the biggest constitutional questions early Americans confronted, and he expertly assesses the answers they offered. His account of the document's origins and consolidation is a guide for anyone seeking to properly understand America's Constitution today.

It’s more important than ever for every American to know exactly what the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the Declaration of Independence actually says. Here is the essential, 45-page, pocket-size edition. Now a USA Today Bestseller! The greatest gifts from our Founding Fathers are the two most fundamental documents in American politics. This quick, easy reference for our federal government’s structure, powers, and limitations includes:. The Constitution of the United StatesThe Bill of RightsAll Amendments to the ConstitutionThe Declaration of Independence.

Whether you are a Democrat, Republican, or independent, whether you are a support of Donald Trump or not, if you live and vote in the United States of America, you understand that The Constitution of the United States and The Declaration of Independence are two of the most important documents in American history. They convey the principles on which the country was founded and provide the ideals that still guide American politics today. Signed by the members of the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia on September 17, 1787, The Constitution outlines the powers and responsibilities of the three chief branches of the federal government (executive branch, judicial branch, legislative branch), as well as the basic rights of the citizens of the United States (freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of religion, etc.). The Declaration of Independence was crafted by Thomas Jefferson in June of 1776 and it provides the foundation of American political philosophy. “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”. Collected here in one affordable, pocket-sized volume are some of the most valued pieces of writing in the history of our country. This edition contains The Constitution of the United States of America, including The Bill of Rights and all of the subsequent amendments, as well as The Declaration of Independence. These are word-for-word facsimiles of significant documents… Every American should own a copy.