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“AMERICAN REVOLUTIONARIES WERE LIBERAL DEMOCRATS OF THEIR ERA.” PROFESSOR AKHIL REED AMAR, Jan. 5, 2010
When the Republicans mandate the reading of the U.S. Constitution on Thursday, they will read it like they wrote it and own it. Progressives relish the opportunity to show how wrong they are.
Professor Akhil Reed Amar: “The American revolutionaries were just that. They actually took on the world’s most powerful monarchy. They were the Liberal Democrats of their era. The people you gave you the Constitution were the Nationalists. WE call them Federalists. The ‘States Rights’ folks, the Articles of Confederation folks, those who were against the Constitution, were the anti-Federalists. They were the Conservatives.
Akhil Reed Amar, American legal scholar, is an expert on constitutional law and criminal procedure. He was an editor of the Yale Law Journal. Amar clerked for now-U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer when he was a judge on the First Circuit Court of Appeals. Professor of Law at Yale Law School, a Legal Affairs poll placed Amar among the top 20 contemporary US legal thinkers.
Amar is the author of numerous publications and books, most recently the acclaimed “America’s Constitution: A Biography.” The Supreme Court has cited his work in over 20 cases, including the landmark 1998 decision in Clinton v. City of New York, which ruled the presidential line-item veto unconstitutional.
Professor Akhil Reed Amar: “The American revolutionaries were just that. They actually took on the world’s most powerful monarchy. They were the Liberal Democrats of their era. The people you gave you the Constitution were the Nationalists. WE call them Federalists. The ‘States Rights’ folks, the Articles of Confederation folks, those who were against the Constitution, were the anti-Federalists. They were the Conservatives.
Akhil Reed Amar, American legal scholar, is an expert on constitutional law and criminal procedure. He was an editor of the Yale Law Journal. Amar clerked for now-U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer when he was a judge on the First Circuit Court of Appeals. Professor of Law at Yale Law School, a Legal Affairs poll placed Amar among the top 20 contemporary US legal thinkers.
Amar is the author of numerous publications and books, most recently the acclaimed “America’s Constitution: A Biography.” The Supreme Court has cited his work in over 20 cases, including the landmark 1998 decision in Clinton v. City of New York, which ruled the presidential line-item veto unconstitutional.
Two things I REALLY like about this Rich. First, the man carries the Constitution with him at all times. We all should take that as an example of GREAT citizenship. Second, it is not HOLY writ. It can and SHOULD be amended. So let's do the RIGHT thing and amend it! And let the PROGRESSIVES we have always been take the LEAD! But in whatever form it exists, let's follow it as our current law, and not try to CIRCUMVENT it!