The People's Constitution: 200 Years, 27 Amendments, and the Promise of a More Perfect Union

by John F. Kowal, Wilfred U. Codrington III

Overview

The 233-year story of how the American people have taken an imperfect constitution—the product of compromises and an artifact of its time—and made it more democratic

Who wrote the Constitution? That’s obvious, we think: fifty-five men in Philadelphia in 1787. But much of the Constitution was actually written later, in a series of twenty-seven amendments enacted over the course of two centuries. The real history of the Constitution is the astonishing story of how subsequent generations have reshaped our founding document amid some of the most colorful, contested, and controversial battles in American political life. It’s a story of how We the People have improved our government’s structure and expanded the scope of our democracy during eras of transformational social change.

The People’s Constitution is an elegant, sobering, and masterly account of the evolution of American democracy.

From the addition of the Bill of Rights, a promise made to save the Constitution from near certain defeat, to the post–Civil War battle over the Fourteenth Amendment, from the rise and fall of the “noble experiment” of Prohibition to the defeat and resurgence of an Equal Rights Amendment a century in the making, The People’s Constitution is the first book of its kind: a vital guide to America’s national charter, and an alternative history of the continuing struggle to realize the Framers’ promise of a more perfect union.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781620975619
Publisher:	New Press, The
Publication date:	09/21/2021
Pages:	496
Sales rank:	667,923
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.60(d)

About the Author

Wilfred U. Codrington III is an assistant professor of law at Brooklyn Law School and a fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice at the NYU School of Law. His teaching and scholarship focus on constitutional law, election law, race, and antidiscrimination. Prior to joining the Brooklyn Law School, Codrington was an adjunct assistant professor of public service at New York University’s Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, an associate at DLA Piper, LLP, and a law clerk for Hon. Deborah A. Batts, U.S.D.J. A graduate of Brown University, the University of Pennsylvania’s Fels Institute of Government, and Stanford Law School, he lives in New York City.

John F. Kowal, a former director of grantmaking initiatives at the Ford Foundation and Open Society Foundations, is vice president for programs at the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law, where he is responsible for coordinating and guiding the organization’s programs on democracy, justice, and liberty and national security. Kowal writes on issues of constitutional law and democracy reform. He lives in New York City.

Table of Contents

Notes to the Reader vii

Introduction 1

1 An Imperfect Constitution 9

2 The Founding Era Amendments (1789-1804) 41

3 The Reconstruction Era Amendments (1865-1870) 78

4 The Progressive Era Amendments (1909-1920) 127

5 The New Deal-and the Amending Wave That Wasn't 158

6 The Civil Rights Era Amendments (1960-197-1) 181

7 The 1970s-and the Rights Revolution That Wasn't 216

8 The Era of Conservative Amendment Politics 238

9 The People's Constitution 264

Acknowledgments 285

Appendix A The Text of the Constitution of the United States as Amended, and the Text of the Unratified Amendments 289

Appendix B Passage and Ratifications of the Amendments to the Constitution 314

Appendix C Passage and Ratifications of the Unratified Amendments to the Constitution 328

Notes 333

Image Credits 433

Index 439

Editorial Reviews

06/28/2021

Legal scholars Kowal and Codrington debut with a rigorous yet accessible history of how the U.S. constitution has been made “more democratic, more inclusive, and more responsive to the needs of a changing country” through its amendments. They explain that the Framers devised one of the world’s most difficult constitutional amendment processes in order to “lock in” important compromises over slavery, state versus federal sovereignty, and the balance of power between large and small states. Nevertheless, 27 amendments have cleared the high hurdle of two-thirds support in both houses of Congress and ratification by three-fourths of the states. Kowal and Codrington delve into the forces (controversial court rulings, student protest movements, JFK’s assassination) behind each amendment; profile policy makers including Indiana senator Birch Bayh, the only person besides James Madison to author more than one amendment; and explain why some proposals, including the Equal Rights Amendment and the abolition of the electoral college, have fallen short. Incisive character profiles, brisk historical sketches, and lucid analyses of legal and political matters make this a fresh and invigorating take on the history of American democracy. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

Praise for The People's Constitution:
“With a focus on the people and strategies that changed a nation by changing its Constitution, the book offers an insightful and captivating description of the country’s popular movements and the incredible challenges posed by the amendment process.”
—Caroline Fredrickson, Washington Monthly

“Readers at all levels interested in the Constitution’s history and future should find this work thoughtful and instructive.”
—Library Journal

“Legal scholars Kowal and Codrington debut with a rigorous yet accessible history of how the U.S. Constitution has been made ‘more democratic, more inclusive, and more responsive to the needs of a changing country’ through its amendments. . . . Incisive character profiles, brisk historical sketches, and lucid analyses of legal and political matters make this a fresh and invigorating take on the history of American democracy.”
—Publishers Weekly

“I’ve been waiting for someone to write this book for a long time. Professors Kowal and Codrington have done a remarkable public service by showing America what our Constitution really means and how it has come about. It is hard to think of a more patriotic act of scholarship than what is contained in these pages.”
—Congressman Jamie Raskin

“The People’s Constitution is a fascinating story of how we changed our founding document through the difficult amendment process. It’s also a reminder that since 1787, popular movements have led the country to embrace democratic innovation and push through changes that made our nation more just and more equal—and our governing process more broadly participatory.”
—E.J. Dionne Jr., author of Our Divided Political Heart and co-author of 100% Democracy

“A carefully researched deep dive into America’s founding document and its amendments, The People’s Constitution injects color and life into constitutional history. At a time when so much of the American experiment seems precarious, The People’s Constitution is an urgent and necessary reminder of the promise—and challenges—of sustaining a government for and by the people.”
—Melissa Murray, Frederick I. and Grace Stokes Professor of Law, New York UniversitySchool of Law

“Kowal and Codrington forcefully remind us that the Constitution must be understood not as it was written in 1787, but through the lens of how it has been amended.”
—Erwin Chemerinsky, dean and Jesse H. Choper Distinguished Professor of Law, University of California, Berkeley School of Law

“A fine, accessible overview of American constitutional development . . . at once inspiring and chastening, underscoring the importance of establishing a true ‘People’s Constitution’ that responds to the new challenges that emerge over time.”
—Sanford Levinson, co-author (with Cynthia Levinson) of Fault Lines in the Constitution

“The People’s Constitution . . . helps us understand that, whether for good or ill, the expressions of popular will through constitutional amendments may well alter the course of American democracy in the 21st century.”
—Russ Feingold, president, American Constitution Society, and former U.S. senator from Wisconsin

“A crucial antidote to the spurious claim that the Constitution is frozen in time . . . the authors make it possible for us to imagine and embrace a struggle for a Fourth Founding in our time, rooted in social justice.”
—Burt Neuborne, Norman Dorsen Professor of Civil Liberties at NYU and author of When at Times the Mob Is Swayed and Madison’s Music

From the Publisher

08/13/2021

Kowal (vice president for programs, Brennan Ctr. for Justice, New York Univ. Sch. of Law) and Codrington (law, Brooklyn Law Sch.) believe that a wave of change looms for the U.S. Constitution. Noting recurring cycles in the persisting contest over the document's meaning and purpose, they identify alternating periods of apathy and intense action to secure amendments responding to the needs of the developing nation. The 3,000-word additions to further "a more perfect union" have mostly occurred, the authors explain, in four relatively short-lived periods (1789–1804, 1865–70, 1909–20, and 1960–71), with at least two periods of tumult (the New Deal 1930s and the post-Watergate 1970s) generating little change in the document even as a new era of right-wing amendment politics emerged. Kowal and Codrington predict that more Constitutional amendments are coming, based on factors such as extreme political polarization, discontent with Supreme Court decisions, transformational social change, states' exploration of more effective policies, and crisis-related disruptions, including wars. VERDICT Readers at all levels interested in the Constitution's history and future should find this work thoughtful and instructive, especially alongside Beau Breslin's A Constitution for the Living.—Thomas J. Davis, Arizona State Univ., Tempe

Library Journal