Seidman on Constitutional Disobedience

ConLawProf Louis Michael Seidman (Georgetown) shared a thumb-nail version of his "constitutional disobedience" at CBS Sunday Morning.  Drawing on dead-hand, anti-democratic, and pragmatic arguments, he contends that constitutional disobedience has both a history (as when past presidents have acted against the Constitution) and a virtue (as when we might ignore election results that would allow a presidential candidate rejected by the majority of Americans to assume office).  He also says that the better way to approach the document is as an inspiration, not a set of commands.

Here's his example from the gun control debates:

But what happens when the issue gets Constitutional-ized?  Then we turn the question over to lawyers, and lawyers do with it what lawyers do.  So instead of talking about whether gun control makes sense in our country, we talk about what people thought of it two centuries ago.

Worse yet, talking about gun control in terms of constitutional obligation needlessly raises the temperature of political discussion.  Instead of a question on policy, about which reasonable people can disagree, it becomes a test of one's commitment to our foundational document and, so, to America itself.

For the full version, check out Seidman's new book, On Constitutional Disobedience (OUP).

SDS