It is obvious that Napolitano is very passionate about Natural Rights, and is a very strict constitutional constructionist. However, as the story unfolds, what had started as a well-reasoned and documented critique of constitutional law turns into more of a rant as more contemporary issues are discussed towards the end. He makes several claims about current events, sometimes with little supporting evidence in footnotes, which is unfortunate because much of what he discusses is very weighty, and pulling in more evidence would have certainly helped.
His conclusion is also very lacking. The entire book is filled with many examples of where Congress and the Supreme Court have wrongly interpreted the Constitution, but Napolitano doesn’t provide many details as to how he would improve the system. He simply provides a few brief bullet points without much explanation as to how it would help, or how it would have helped in the examples he cited throughout the book. In the end you’re left with a long history on where things have gone wrong, but few ideas on where to go from here. His idea of repealing the 17th Amendment, which allows for the direct election of Senators, is very intriguing, but is not supported by any facts earlier in the book. Nowhere does he correlate an increase in government size to Senate actions taken since the 17th Amendment was passed.
Overall, civil libertarians and anyone who is interested in the Constitution will find this a very interesting read. Of course, anyone who is shocked by their tax bill every April should read this book to see how their money is being spent. Understanding what the Constitution was originally intended to do, and how it has been distorted over time is something that every citizen should know.
Article comments
1 - kilgore forelle
I'm not sure that providing solutions is necessary to an expose. Learning of the errant missteps should be lesson enough.