The Volokh Conspiracy
Mostly law professors | Sometimes contrarian | Often libertarian | Always independent
Review of The Heritage Guide to the Constitution in the Washington Free Beacon
"It is, quite simply, the most thorough, useful, and readable guide to our fundamental law available today.
Ilya Shapiro, my friend and frequent co-author, reviewed The Heritage Guide to the Constitution in the Washington Free Beacon.
Here is the introduction:
There's a familiar lament among constitutionalists—one heard at law schools, in courtrooms, and across think tank hallways—that most Americans know next to nothing about the nation's founding document. Ask a random college graduate about the Emoluments Clause or the Compact Clause and you'll get a blank stare. Yet even among lawyers and judges, constitutional knowledge is often shallow, piecemeal, or warped by ideology.
What's been missing is a single, reliable, readable, and comprehensive reference work that explains what the Constitution actually says, what its words meant to those who wrote and ratified them, and how those meanings have been interpreted over time
Enter The Heritage Guide to the Constitution, now in its third edition and more indispensable than ever. Originally published in 2005, with an updated edition in 2014, this volume has long been a mainstay for those of us who care about constitutional text, structure, and history. But the new edition isn't just an update. It's a major expansion and refinement, reflecting nearly a decade of scholarship, jurisprudence, and debate.
If the Constitution is our civic scripture, this is the annotated commentary you want by your side—with a foreword by former attorney general Edwin Meese and an introduction by Justice Samuel Alito! Kudos to lead editors Josh Blackman and John Malcolm (both friends and professional collaborators of mine).
And from the conclusion:
The Heritage Foundation has always seen itself as a steward of America's Founding principles, and this book is one of its finest contributions to that mission. In an era when too many view the Constitution as a "living" document to be bent toward whatever policy end is fashionable, the Heritage Guide offers a refreshing alternative: rigorous, sober, historically grounded analysis of the document as it is.
No single volume can settle every constitutional debate, but if you want a reference that will make you smarter every time you open it, this is it. It is, quite simply, the most thorough, useful, and readable guide to our fundamental law available today. And at a time when constitutional literacy has never been more needed, that makes it a civic treasure.
The Heritage Guide to the Constitution is what every serious student of American government—and every citizen who wants to remain free—should own. It doesn't tell you what to think; it gives you the tools to think constitutionally.
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