Our Undemocratic Constitution: Where the Constitution Goes Wrong (And How We the People Can Correct It)
Sanford Levinson
Language: English
Pages: 272
ISBN: 0195365577
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
Levinson argues that too many of our Constitution's provisions promote either unjust or ineffective government. Under the existing blueprint, we can neither rid ourselves of incompetent presidents nor assure continuity of government following catastrophic attacks. Less important, perhaps, but certainly problematic, is the appointment of Supreme Court judges for life. Adding insult to injury, the United States Constitution is the most difficult to amend or update of any constitution currently existing in the world today. Democratic debate leaves few stones unturned, but we tend to take our basic constitutional structures for granted. Levinson boldly challenges the American people to undertake a long overdue public discussion on how they might best reform this most hallowed document and construct a constitution adequate to our democratic values.
"Admirably gutsy and unfashionable."
--Michael Kinsley, The New York Times
"Bold, bracingly unromantic, and filled with illuminating insights. He accomplishes an unlikely feat, which is to make a really serious argument for a new constitutional convention, one that is founded squarely on democratic ideals."
--Cass R. Sunstein, The New Republic
"Everyone who cares about how our government works should read this thoughtful book."
--Washington Lawyer
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Proceed to reconsider it. If after such Reconsideration two thirds of that House shall agree to pass the Bill, it shall be sent, together with the Objections, to the other House, by which it shall likewise be reconsidered, and if approved by two thirds of that House, it shall become a Law. This is no small power. A report prepared by the Congressional Research Service of the Library of Congress describes it as “among [the president’s] most significant tools in legislative dealings with Congress.
Consuls, Judges of the supreme Court, and all other Officers of the United States, whose Appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by Law: but the Congress may by Law vest the Appointment of such inferior Officers, as they think proper, in the President alone, in the Courts of Law, or in the Heads of Departments. Another important power, discussed in the previous chapter, is the power to veto congressional legislation. It is worth noting the requirement.
Of the senators representing a tiny fraction of the American polity. Ironically, the best defense of the two-thirds rule is that it is the only way that one can guarantee, practically speaking, that representatives of the majority of the population do assent to the treaty. The Legacy of Article II An important response to the difficulty of senatorial ratification has been the nurturance of the president’s power to enter into “executive agreements,” which may need no congressional approval at.
Make such decisions for ourselves? There are probably few persons who fit the suggested biography in the paragraph above. Unlike the young, or the immigrants, or other groups I have tried to mobilize as part of my pro-referendum coalition, this does not appear to be a promising group. There is, however, one group for whom the residency clause might actually make a difference, and that is Puerto Ricans. It would take this book too far afield to consider fully the fascinating constitutional.
Institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths disclosed, and manners and opinions change with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also, and keep pace with the times. We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy, as civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors. . . . Let us, as our sister States.