How to Interpret the Constitution
Written by Cass R. Sunstein
Narrated by Graham Winton
5/5
()
About this audiobook
The U.S. Supreme Court has eliminated the right to abortion and is revisiting other fundamental questions today—about voting rights, affirmative action, gun laws, and much more. Once-arcane theories of constitutional interpretation are profoundly affecting the lives of all Americans.
In this brief and urgent book, Harvard Law School professor Cass Sunstein provides a lively introduction to competing approaches to interpreting the Constitution—and argues that the only way to choose one is to ask whether it would change American life for the better or worse. If a
method of interpretation would eliminate the right of privacy, allow racial segregation, or obliterate free speech, it would be unacceptable for that reason.
But some Supreme Court justices are committed to “originalism,” arguing that the meaning of the Constitution is settled by how it was publicly understood when it was ratified.
Originalists insist that their approach is dictated by the Constitution. That, Sunstein argues, is a big mistake. The Constitution doesn’t contain instructions for its own interpretation.
Any approach to constitutional interpretation needs to be defended in terms of its broad effects—what it does to our rights and our institutions. It must respect those rights and institutions—and safeguard the conditions for democracy itself.
Passionate and compelling, How to Interpret the Constitution is essential reading for anyone who is concerned about how the Supreme Court is changing the rights and lives of Americans today.
Cass R. Sunstein
Cass R. Sunstein is the Robert Walmsley University Professor at Harvard, where he is founder and director of the Program on Behavioral Economics and Public Policy. He is the most cited law professor in the United States and probably the world. He has served as Administrator of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs and as a member of the President’s Review Group on Intelligence and Communications Technologies. He is the winner of the 2018 Holberg Prize. His many books include the bestseller Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth, and Happiness (with Richard H. Thaler), Simpler: The Future of Government, and Republic.com. A frequent adviser to governments all over the world and a columnist for Bloomberg View, he is married to the United States Ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power.
More audiobooks from Cass R. Sunstein
Can It Happen Here?: Authoritarianism in America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Nudge: The Final Edition: Improving Decisions About Money, Health, And The Environment Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Nudge (Revised Edition): Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The World According to Star Wars Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How Change Happens Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Sludge: What Stops Us from Getting Things Done and What to Do about It Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Conformity: The Power of Social Influences Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Look Again: The Power of Noticing What Was Always There Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Cost-Benefit Revolution Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This is Not Normal: The Politics of Everyday Expectations Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Simpler: The Future of Government Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Too Much Information: Understanding What You Don't Want to Know Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Liars: Falsehoods and Free Speech in an Age of Deception Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Choosing Not to Choose: Understanding the Value of Choice Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLaw and Leviathan: Redeeming the Administrative State Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Related to How to Interpret the Constitution
Related audiobooks
The Fight to Vote Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Worse Than Nothing: The Dangerous Fallacy of Originalism Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Who Decides?: States as Laboratories of Constitutional Experimentation Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings51 Imperfect Solutions: States and the Making of American Constitutional Law Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5We the People: A Progressive Reading of the Constitution for the Twenty-First Century Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Fierce Urgency of Now: Lyndon Johnson, Congress, and the Battle for the Great Society Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Supermajority: How the Supreme Court Divided America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Second Amendment: A Biography Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Second Founding: How the Civil War and Reconstruction Remade the Constitution Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Broken Constitution: Lincoln, Slavery, and the Refounding of America Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Crooked Path to Abolition: Abraham Lincoln and the Antislavery Constitution Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5To Make Men Free: A History of the Republican Party Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Injustices: The Supreme Court's History of Comforting the Comfortable and Afflicting the Afflicted Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Unruly Americans and the Origins of the Constitution Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsJames Madison and the Struggle for the Bill of Rights Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Our Declaration: A Reading of Declaration of Independence in Defense of Equality Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Our Republican Constitution: Securing the Liberty and Sovereignty of We the People Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5How Rights Went Wrong: Why Our Obsession with Rights Is Tearing America Apart Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Land of Flickering Lights: Restoring America in an Age of Broken Politics Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Taking Back the Constitution: Activist Judges and the Next Age of American Law Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Constitution Today: Timeless Lessons for the Issues of Our Era Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5History of the Supreme Court Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fears of a Setting Sun: The Disillusionment of America's Founders Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Why The New Deal Matters Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dark Bargain: Slavery, Profits, and the Struggle for the Constitution Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Illiberal America: A History Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTakeover: How a Conservative Student Club Captured the Supreme Court Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Politics For You
The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The 48 Laws of Power Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Leave the World Behind: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Elon Musk Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory: American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Enough Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Black AF History: The Un-Whitewashed Story of America Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Overstory Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5All the Sinners Bleed: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5While Time Remains: A North Korean Girl's Search for Freedom in America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cobalt Red: How the Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Razorblade Tears: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Small Mercies: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of September 11, 2001 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Son of Hamas: A Gripping Account of Terror, Betrayal, Political Intrigue, and Unthinkable Choices Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Behold a Pale Horse Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Out of the Wreckage Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Blackout: How Black America Can Make Its Second Escape from the Democrat Plantation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Cult of Trump: A Leading Cult Expert Explains How the President Uses Mind Control Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5An American Marriage: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5You Can't Joke About That: Why Everything Is Funny, Nothing Is Sacred, and We’re All in This Together Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for How to Interpret the Constitution
1 rating0 reviews