E-mail:
Jack Balkin: jackbalkin at yahoo.com
Bruce Ackerman bruce.ackerman at yale.edu
Ian Ayres ian.ayres at yale.edu
Corey Brettschneider corey_brettschneider at brown.edu
Mary Dudziak mary.l.dudziak at emory.edu
Joey Fishkin joey.fishkin at gmail.com
Heather Gerken heather.gerken at yale.edu
Abbe Gluck abbe.gluck at yale.edu
Mark Graber mgraber at law.umaryland.edu
Stephen Griffin sgriffin at tulane.edu
Jonathan Hafetz jonathan.hafetz at shu.edu
Jeremy Kessler jkessler at law.columbia.edu
Andrew Koppelman akoppelman at law.northwestern.edu
Marty Lederman msl46 at law.georgetown.edu
Sanford Levinson slevinson at law.utexas.edu
David Luban david.luban at gmail.com
Gerard Magliocca gmaglioc at iupui.edu
Jason Mazzone mazzonej at illinois.edu
Linda McClain lmcclain at bu.edu
John Mikhail mikhail at law.georgetown.edu
Frank Pasquale pasquale.frank at gmail.com
Nate Persily npersily at gmail.com
Michael Stokes Paulsen michaelstokespaulsen at gmail.com
Deborah Pearlstein dpearlst at yu.edu
Rick Pildes rick.pildes at nyu.edu
David Pozen dpozen at law.columbia.edu
Richard Primus raprimus at umich.edu
K. Sabeel Rahmansabeel.rahman at brooklaw.edu
Alice Ristroph alice.ristroph at shu.edu
Neil Siegel siegel at law.duke.edu
David Super david.super at law.georgetown.edu
Brian Tamanaha btamanaha at wulaw.wustl.edu
Nelson Tebbe nelson.tebbe at brooklaw.edu
Mark Tushnet mtushnet at law.harvard.edu
Adam Winkler winkler at ucla.edu
Efforts to reduce the Constitution to one principle usually
end up oversimplifying our nation’s fundamental charter, mangling it in the
process.So is the case with George
Will’s recent
column for the Washington Post,
which argues that “progressives are wrong about the essence of the
Constitution.”Will claims that
progressives go astray by reducing the Constitution to “democracy,” a word that
Will emphasizes appears neither in the Constitution nor in the Declaration of
Independence.In Will’s view, the
Constitution is fundamentally about the protection of “natural liberty,” and
the need to place limits on the right of democratic majorities to infringe the
personal liberty of all Americans.No one doubts that this is a core aspect of
the Constitution and, contrary to Will’s simplistic attack, I don’t know of a
single progressive who would disagree.But
Will fails to grapple with the whole
Constitution.
There is much to like in Will’s discussion of personal
liberty.Will properly recognizes that the story begins
in the Founding era, with the Declaration of the Independence and the
Constitution, but does not end there.After all, it was the Framers of the Fourteenth Amendment who made
birthright citizenship a constitutional guarantee, provided constitutional
protection for all the fundamental rights of Americans (called in the text
“privileges and immunities”), and wrote equality into the Constitution for the
first time.It was not until ratification
of the Fourteenth Amendment that the Declaration’s twin ideals – protection of
inalienable rights and equality – were reflected in the Constitution’s
text.For good reason, its Framers
called the Fourteenth Amendment the “gem of the Constitution” because “it is
the Declaration of Independence placed immutably and forever in our
Constitution.”
No matter what Will says, the real disagreement between
progressive and conservative constitutionalists isn’t over whether personal
liberty is central – it is – but over the specific rights that are actually protected
against the will of the majority.Right
now, for example, laws in many states discriminate against gay men and lesbians
in loving relationships who seek to exercise their constitutional right to
marry.Does Will recognize that the
blessings of liberty and the promise of equality secured by the Constitution
apply to all persons, or would he permit state-sanctioned discrimination
against some groups of persons in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment’s
command of equal protection for all?Will’s
column evades specifics entirely, unfairly tarnishing progressives as enemies
of liberty.
Will rejects democracy as a basic constitutional value,
viewing it simply as the right of majorities to have their way.This is a dizzying reversal of his own prior
writings, which called democracy “the point of the Constitution.”In any event, Will is wrong.The Framers understood – as Lincoln did –
that only a democratic system of government of, by, and for the people could
hope to honor the principles of the Declaration.As the Declaration puts it, “to secure these
rights, Governments are instituted . . . , deriving their just powers from the
consent of the governed.”
The Constitution, born in one of the most democratic moments
in human history, put these ideals into practice.In an exercise of democracy unparalleled
elsewhere, the Framers insisted on ratification of the Constitution by “We the
People.”As James Madison explained, our
Constitution’s system of representative democracy was designed to be “not [for]
the rich, more than the poor.”In the
225 years since, we have repeatedly amended the Constitution to protect the
right to vote and to make our system of government more democratic.More Amendments are devoted to protecting the
right to vote than any other right.Will’s claim that democracy is not a basic constitutional value does not
survive a reading of the whole Constitution.
Getting this right matters.The Roberts Court has been steadily rewriting the rules of our democracy,
making it easier to spend money to buy elections, but harder to vote in
them.Ten months ago, in Shelby County v. Holder, Chief Justice
Roberts wrote the majority opinion striking down a critical section of the
Voting Rights Act, one that had been instrumental in protecting the right to
vote for countless Americans.Ignoring
that the Fifteenth Amendment explicitly gives to Congress the power to prevent racial
discrimination in voting, the Court gutted the most important and successful
voting rights law ever enacted in American history.As a result, in places such as Texas and
North Carolina, states are passing laws to make it more difficult for African Americans
and other citizens to exercise their constitutional right to vote.Earlier this month, in McCutcheon v. FEC, the Roberts Court dealt another blow to our
campaign finance system, giving the richest Americans – the 1% of the 1% – the
right to contribute unlimited sums of money to candidates, parties, and
PACs.Will’s disrespect of democracy as
a core constitutional value runs through these opinions.
George Will tries to offer a civics lesson about how
progressives miss the essence of the Constitution.But Will’s basic problem is his own partial
reading of the document, cherry-picking the parts he likes and ignoring the
rest.George Will should go back and
read the whole thing.He’ll find that
the Constitution does not force us to choose between liberty and
democracy.It guarantees both.
David Gans is the Director of the Human Rights, Civil Rights & Citizenship Program at the Constitutional Accountability Center. This post is cross-posted at Text and History.