From Parchment to Dust

The Case for Constitutional Skepticism

Louis Michael Seidman

• Publisher: The New Press
• Year: 2021
• eBook ISBN: 9781620976937
• Edition: 0
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: North American History
• Index: Politics & International Relations

The prominent constitutional law scholar’s fascinating (and yes, mind-boggling) argument that we don’t need the Constitution after all

For some, to oppose the Constitution is to oppose the American experiment itself. But leading constitutional scholar Louis Michael Seidman argues that our founding document has long passed its “sell-by” date. It might sound crazy, but Seidman’s arguments are both powerful and, well, convincing.

As Seidman shows, constitutional skepticism and disobedience have been present from the beginning of American history, even worming their way into the Federalist Papers. And, as Seidman also points out, no one alive today has agreed to be bound by these rules.

In From Parchment to Dust, Seidman offers a brief history of the phenomenon of constitutional skepticism and then proceeds to a masterful takedown of our most cherished, constitutionally enshrined institutions and beliefs, from the Supreme Court (“an arrogant elite in robes”), to the very concepts of civil rights, due process, and equal protection—all of which he argues are just pretenses for preserving a fundamentally rigged and inequitable status quo.

Rather than rely on the specific wording of a flawed and outdated document, rife with “Madison’s mistakes,” Seidman proposes instead a version that better reflects our shared values, and leaves it to people currently alive to determine how these values will play out in contemporary society.

From Parchment to Dust is a short, sharp, and iconoclastic book questioning the value (and ultimately the hypocrisy) of embracing the Constitution—which, after all, was written more than 230 years ago—as our moral and political lodestar.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Introduction
• One: We the People, Part 1: The Problem of Democracy and Representation
• Two: We the People, Part 2: Some Modest Proposals
• Three: Establishing Justice: The Problem of the Supreme Court
• Four: Promoting the General Welfare: The Problem of Economic Distribution
• Five: Securing the Blessings of Liberty, Part 1: The Problem of Civil Liberties and Cultural Power
• Six: Securing the Blessings of Liberty, Part 2: Civil Liberties and Cultural Power Today
• Seven: Establishing a More Perfect Union: The Problem of Rights and Rhetoric
• Eight: Insuring Domestic Tranquility: The Problem of Violence
• Nine: Ordaining and Establishing This Constitution, Part 1: Early American Skepticism
• Ten: Ordaining and Establishing This Constitution, Part 2: Skepticism in the Progressive Era
• Eleven: Ordaining and Establishing This Constitution, Part 3: Modern Skepticism
• Twelve: Bending Toward Justice?
• Acknowledgments
• Notes
• Index
• About the Author
• Copyright