Balkinization  

Tuesday, December 15, 2020

Happy Bill of Rights Day

Gerard N. Magliocca

What you see is my favorite image of the Bill of Rights. It's a 1966 postage stamp issued on the 175th anniversary of the ratification of the first ten amendments. The stamp was designed by Herb Block, the legendary cartoonist for The Washington Post. I was so determined to have this image in my book that I bought the stamp from a dealer and took this picture myself.


Textualists will note that the line on the stamp does not actually appear in the Constitution. (Stamps followed a purposive method back then, I suppose). The image of the fist and the palm was meant to evoke the Cold War, though the Civil Rights Movement was also a theme. The struggle that the stamp depicts, though, remains as vital as ever.


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