Thank you to the publisher and for NetGalley, which provided Mr. Book with a free copy of this book in exchange for an unbiased review.
Mr. Book just finished No Democracy Lasts Forever: How The Constitution Threatens The United States, by Erwin Chemerinsky.
Professor Chemerinsky is the Dean of the UC Berkeley School of Law and one of the nation’s top constitutional scholars. Prior to this book, I have read seven of his books. I gave five of them an A+ grade, while the other two “only” got an A (which makes me think that maybe I might want to reread them, to see if they can get promoted, but I’m digressing here). So, when I saw that he has a new book on the Constitution coming out, I knew I had to get myself an advance copy to review. I was very eager to see if it lived up to my high expectations.
It definitely did.
I used to revere the Constitution. But, as I have seen many of the problems caused by the document wreck havoc in the past couple of decades, I can longer say that was the cause. While he didn’t explicitly say that in the book, I believe that Professor Chemerinsky may feel the same way. His writing strongly implies to me that this is the case.
The book does an excellent job of looking at things the Constitution created that are big problems today (examples: electoral college, equal representation in the Senate) as well as things that are in the text, but are enabled by the system the Constitution created, with the help of the Supreme Court and/or historical practice (examples: gerrymandering, filibuster).
Let’s look at just one issue: gerrymandering. As Professor Chemerinsky points out, in the 2010 midterm elections, Democrats received 1.5 million votes nationwide, but the Republicans ended up with a 33 seat advantage. And, in Pennsylvania, in 2012, Democrats received 100,000 more votes than Republicans just in the state of Pennsylvania, but the R’s ended up holding 13 of the 18 seats.
To make things even more frustrating, that was done even though the Supreme Court had declared partisan gerrymandering unconstitutional in 1986. Then, to make things even more frustrating, in 2019, the Roberts Court said that, even if partisan gerrymandering was unconstitutional, the issue was non-justiciable. To non lawyers, what that means is the Constitution forbids any federal court (Supreme Court or otherwise) from even hearing the case, even if a matter is unconstitutional. Yes, it is a doctrine that should not even exist in a country that wants to call itself a democracy.
Even the First Amendment has become a threat to American democracy. It’s a problem that solutions cause problems of their own, but as the book points out, we need to start having that conversation. And while this book only addressed the free speech aspect, Chemerinsky’s writings show that he is also a critic of their rulings in the religion cases. I would have really liked him to also address that in this book, but its absence does not detract from what a great book this is.
The book has ideas on how to fix many problems, but those that can be fixed without changing the text of the Constitution, as well as those would need amendments. So this is not a book that only tells you the problems, but offers no solutions. There are plenty of solutions contained in it.
It is time for me to conclude my review with my grade. I was hoping that I was going to get to read another A+ from the esteemed professor and I was not disappointed. So, now he has earned six A+’s in eight tries, along with two A’s. Goodreads and NetGalley require grades on a 1-5 star system. In my personal conversion system, a A+ of course equates to 5 stars. (A or A+: 5 stars, B+: 4 stars, B: 3 stars, C: 2 stars, D or F: 1 star).
Actually, I will conclude with a hope. I hope that the publisher also comes out with an audiobook version, so I can listen to this and enjoy it again.
Mr. Book originally read this on May 16, 2024.
