We the People
A Progressive Reading of the Constitution for the Twenty-First Century
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Narrated by:
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Peter Berkrot
About this listen
Worried about what a super-conservative majority on the Supreme Court means for the future of civil liberties? From gun control to reproductive health, a conservative court will reshape the lives of all Americans for decades to come. The time to develop and defend a progressive vision of the US Constitution that protects the rights of all people is now.
University of California Berkeley Dean and respected legal scholar Erwin Chemerinsky expertly exposes how conservatives are using the Constitution to advance their own agenda that favors business over consumers and employees and government power over individual rights.
But exposure is not enough. Progressives have spent too much of the last 45 years trying to preserve the legacy of the Warren Court's most important rulings and reacting to the Republican-dominated Supreme Courts by criticizing their erosion of rights - but have not yet developed a progressive vision for the Constitution itself. Yet, if we just look to the promise of the Preamble - liberty and justice for all - and take seriously its vision, a progressive reading of the Constitution can lead us forward as we continue our fight ensuring democratic rule, effective government, justice, liberty, and equality.
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Instead of the system that the Constitution intended, judges have created a system in which bureaucrats and appointed officials make most of the important policies. While the government claims to be a representative republic, somehow hot-button topics from gay marriage to the allocation of Florida's presidential electors always seem to be decided by unelected judges. What gives them the right to decide such issues? The judges say it's the Constitution.
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The best PIG to date
- By Matthew Groom on 05-16-08
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The Constitution Today
- Timeless Lessons for the Issues of Our Era
- By: Akhil Reed Amar
- Narrated by: Mike Chamberlain
- Length: 19 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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When the stories that lead our daily news involve momentous constitutional questions, present-minded journalists and busy citizens cannot always see the stakes clearly. In The Constitution Today, Akhil Reed Amar, America's preeminent constitutional scholar, considers the biggest and most bitterly contested debates of the last two decades. He shows how the Constitution's text, history, and structure are a crucial repository of collective wisdom, providing specific rules and grand themes relevant to every organ of the American body politic.
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Amar is a Brilliant Arguer
- By MJ Schirmer on 11-16-16
By: Akhil Reed Amar
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The Conscience of the Constitution
- The Declaration of Independence and the Right to Liberty
- By: Timothy Sandefur
- Narrated by: James Foster
- Length: 7 hrs and 15 mins
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Timothy Sandefur's insightful book provides a dramatic new challenge to the status quo of constitutional law and argues a vital truth: our Constitution was written not to empower democracy, but to secure liberty. Yet the overemphasis on democracy by today's legal community - rather than the primacy of liberty, as expressed in the Declaration of Independence - has helped expand the scope of government power at the expense of individual rights.
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Liberty!
- By David W. Norman on 05-03-15
By: Timothy Sandefur
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The Bill of Rights Primer
- A Citizen's Guidebook to the American Bill of Rights
- By: Akhil Reed Amar, Les Adams
- Narrated by: Tim Lundeen
- Length: 8 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Many Americans reference the Bill of Rights, a document that represents many of the freedoms that define the United States. Who doesn’t know about the First Amendment’s freedom of religion or Second Amendment’s right to bear arms? In this succinct volume, Akhil Reed Amar and Les Adams offer a wealth of knowledge about the Bill of Rights that goes beyond a basic understanding.The Bill of Rights Primer is an authoritative guide to all American freedoms. Uncluttered and well-organized, this audiobook is perfect for those who want to study up on the Bill of Rights without needing a law degree to do so.
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At this length, basic; but at that, great
- By Philo on 06-10-15
By: Akhil Reed Amar, and others
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A People's History of the Supreme Court
- The Men and Women Whose Cases and Decisions Have Shaped Our Constitution
- By: Peter Irons, Howard Zinn - foreword
- Narrated by: David Drummond
- Length: 28 hrs and 32 mins
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A comprehensive history of the people and cases that have changed history, this is the definitive account of the nation's highest court.
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Really enjoyed this book
- By Paul on 02-19-20
By: Peter Irons, and others
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Corruption in America
- From Benjamin Franklin's Snuff Box to Citizens United
- By: Zephyr Teachout
- Narrated by: Jo Anna Perrin
- Length: 9 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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For two centuries, the Framers' ideas about political corruption flourished in the courts, even in the absence of clear rules governing voters, civil officers, and elected officials. In the 1970s, the U.S. Supreme Court began to narrow the definition of corruption, and the meaning has since changed dramatically. No case makes that clearer than Citizens United.
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Law Review+
- By Ben P. on 01-02-17
By: Zephyr Teachout
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Lies the Government Told You
- Myth, Power, and Deception in American History
- By: Andrew P. Napolitano
- Narrated by: Andrew Napolitano
- Length: 11 hrs and 53 mins
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In Lies the Government Told You, Judge Andrew P. Napolitano reveals how America's freedom, as guaranteed by the US Constitution, has been forfeited by a government more protective of its own power than its obligations to preserve our individual liberties.
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A Must Read America 🇺🇸
- By Jamie Schaible on 05-30-23
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The Embattled Vote in America
- From the Founding to the Present
- By: Allan J. Lichtman
- Narrated by: Dennis Holland
- Length: 9 hrs and 49 mins
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America's political leaders have considered suffrage not a natural right but a privilege restricted by wealth, sex, race, residence, literacy, criminal conviction, and citizenship. Today, voter identification laws, political gerrymandering, registration requirements, felon disenfranchisement, and voter purges deny many millions of citizens the opportunity to express their views at the ballot box. We cannot blame the founders alone for America's embattled vote. Best-selling author Allan Lichtman notes that subsequent generations have failed to establish suffrage as a universal right.
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Old Hat ...
- By Richard D. Parker on 01-17-19
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Active Liberty
- Interpreting Our Democratic Constitution
- By: Stephen Breyer
- Narrated by: Stephen Breyer
- Length: 3 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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First published in September 2005 and based on a series of lectures delivered at Harvard, Active Liberty is a tight, extremely readable, almost memoir-like guide to interpreting the Constitution. Written by a justice of the Supreme Court, it focuses on a pragmatic approach to this great document that may become crucial as the Supreme Court faces deeply divisive decisions.
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Engaging, If Somewhat Dense
- By Maki on 09-04-07
By: Stephen Breyer
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Erwin not Edwin Mr. Chamberlain
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very informative I learned a lot about what 2025 is all about and also what I need to do to fight against it.
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Much better than I anticipated.
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What listeners say about We the People
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- Amazon Customer
- 01-14-21
Great points with facts to back them up!
The book was very easy to comprehend. You could be any level of expertise when it comes to the Constitution and still learn from this author. The author has credibility as well as knowledge of the topic with facts to back up his claims. Well done.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Arthur
- 12-19-18
Powerful tools for evaluating the Supreme Court
Mr. Chemerinsky has written the textbook about the Constitution most widely used by law students. His book “We the People” should be read by everybody else, including people who do not consider themselves progressives but believe it’s important to understand diverse arguments about how the Supreme Court does and should make decisions. The book provides powerful tools for assessing those arguments. Using these tools makes it much easier to understand and judge the Court.
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4 people found this helpful
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- Baba
- 04-02-19
Very compelling analysis of the US constitution
I think reading this book gave a better understanding of how the US Supreme Court is shaping the way to live in America. Meaning the future of the country is defined open interpretation in f the constitution by few justices.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Christopher
- 01-27-20
every American should read and/or listen.
great approach on history of constitutional jurisprudence and arguments on how to better serve the people. you won't regret this book.
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- Z
- 05-26-21
prescient vision from 2018
Prof. Chemerinsky saw in the Supreme Court what we in 2021 are watching ... aghast.
great work and superior analysis
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- surya
- 03-23-19
Hypocritical evaluation of the constitution
This is probably one of the meaningless books I have ever read in the recent history. Let me first establish my POV so I add some context. I am political moderate and could be classified as Center-Right or Center-Left based on some nuances. I read Randy E Barnett's Republican Constitution and it was quite persuading and I expected to be equally persuaded by the Democratic version of the constitution since I hold bipartisan views on different issues.
I do believe that the constitution is a living document and a plain text reading of the same does more injustice as the constitution ought to be adapted for changing times. But, the foundational values that are to be used to interpret and evolve are something we need to agree on and the author of this book should be given some recognition in attempting to discuss the same but this is where it goes haywire.
As the author argues in the second chapter how an abstract view of something could be stretched so thin that it can be used to explain any possible outcome. Well, the author falls into the same pit as he takes such an abstract view of just the preamble to fit all the policy measures that he wishes were reality that the book reads like propaganda than an erudite reading of the constitution. For example, he discusses liberty but doesn't explain why liberty that is promised to all citizens is not ascertained to businessmen who have rational self-interest to make more money. The author doesn't discuss the biggest challenge of our time, individualism vs collectivism.
The constitution is more than just the preamble. I agree that the preamble is a real important piece of the document and one ought to start there to understand the core but that doesn't make the rest of document a period drama fluff. The author should have had the guts to put the entire text of the constitution under the microscope to see how a progressive would find meaning in the same but this is such a meaningless propaganda endeavor that you walk away just annoyed.
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- Casey b
- 01-22-21
despicable inhumane
worst book i have ever bought completely unethical and without base or evidence comparing a buisnessman to a 47 year politician that hasnt helped our country in all those years is irrefutable his opposition was a segragationist and a puppet for for big tech and corporate america wake up author you are spreading lies and are false in almost every area tell the truth ccp controls corporate america and london owns the United states
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3 people found this helpful