The constitution in jeopardy : an unprecedented effort to rewrite our fundamental law and what we can do about it / Russ Feingold and Peter Prindiville.
Includes bibliographic references (pages 229-276) and index.
Contents:
Bloodless revolution : the radical idea of peaceful constitutional change -- Compromise and tension : the creation of Article V -- The archaics : some trouble with conventional wisdom -- A sleeping giant : the enduring importance of Article V and the convention route -- What Trump and the Tea Party couldn't do : the modern conservative push and the mirage of a limited constitutional convention -- Counting to thirty-four : constitutional mathematics and its dangerous flaws -- "We the people" in perilous times : a constitutional convention in an era of faction -- The constitution in jeopardy : Article V in the twenty-first century -- Revolution, revisited : toward a new constitutional politics.
Summary:
"A former U.S. senator joins a legal scholar to examine a hushed effort to radically change our Constitution, offering a warning and a way forward.Over the last two decades, a fringe plan to call a convention under the Constitution's amendment mechanism--the nation's first ever--has inched through statehouses. Delegates, like those in Philadelphia two centuries ago, would exercise nearly unlimited authority to draft changes to our fundamental law, potentially altering anything from voting and free speech rights to regulatory and foreign policy powers. Such a watershed moment would present great danger, and for some, great power.In this important book, Feingold and Prindiville distill extensive legal and historical research and examine the grave risks inherent in this effort. But they also consider the role of constitutional amendment in modern life. Though many focus solely on judicial and electoral avenues for change, such an approach is at odds with a cornerstone ideal of the Founding: that the People make constitutional law, directly. In an era defined by faction and rejection of long-held norms, The Constitution in Jeopardy examines the nature of constitutional change and asks urgent questions about what American democracy is, and should be." -- Publisher marketing.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.