""The most important voice in the political culture" (Ben Shapiro) reveals the Constitution's remarkable power to repair our broken civic culture, rescue our malfunctioning politics, and unify a fractious America Common ground is hard to find in today's politics. In a society teeming with irreconcilable political perspectives, many people have grown frustrated under a system of government that constantly demands compromise. More and more on both the right and the left have come to blame the Constitution for the resulting discord. But the Constitution is not the problem we face; it is the solution. Blending engaging history with lucid analysis, conservative scholar Yuval Levin's American Covenant recovers the Constitution's true genius and reveals how it charts a path to repairing America's fault lines. Uncovering the framers' sophisticated grasp of political division, Levin showcases the Constitution's exceptional power to facilitate constructive disagreement, negotiate resolutions to disputes, and forge unity in a fractured society. Clear-eyed about the ways that contemporary politics have malfunctioned, Levin also offers practical solutions for reforming those aspects of the constitutional order that have gone awry. Hopeful, insightful, and rooted in the best of our political tradition, American Covenant celebrates the Constitution's remarkable power to bind together a diverse society, reassuring us that a less divided future is within our grasp." -- ONIX annotation.

"In a richly reported, behind-the-scenes portrait of the Supreme Court and the secret world of its nine justices, veteran national journalist David A. Kaplan shows how the Court, far from being the "least dangerous branch" of government, in the words of Alexander Hamilton, has become in many respects the most dangerous branch, subverting democracy and betraying the Constitution. Never before has the Supreme Court been more central to American politics. A sizable percentage of voters in the most recent presidental election chose a candidate based largely on who they thought Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump would nominate to replace the fiery Antonin Scalia. In the face of a dysfunctional and paralyzed Congress, it is the Court, rather than our elected officials, that decides such divisive issues as gerrymandering, abortion, gun rights, voting rights, same sex marriage, immigration, and campaign finance. In a sweeping narrative that examines the personalities and quirks of the Justices, The Most Dangerous Branch shows how, going as far back as Roe v Wade, the Court has re-shaped America's political and social landscape in key cases on the left and the right. As much as the Chief Justice claims to be only calling balls and strikes, in fact the Court has not hesitated to put its collective thumb on the scale of justice to swing the law in the majority's direction. As a result, nine nonelected life-tenured lawyers, trained at but two elite universities (Harvard and Yale) have taken it upon themselves to decide the fate and direction of the nation. Kaplan's book gets at the heart of who these Justices are, and uncovers their personal agendas -- including that of Neil Gorsuch, President Trump's impatient and quietly radical new appointee. And with the retirement of even a single justice, the Court could, under Trump and a filibuster-proof Senate, be transformed into a insurrmountable conservative voting block that will reign even more supreme over America for a generation"--

"Are you sitting down? It turns out that everything you learned about the First Amendment is wrong. For too long, we've been treating small, isolated snippets of the text as infallible gospel without looking at the masterpiece of the whole. Legal luminary Burt Neuborne argues that the structure of the First Amendment as well as of the entire Bill of Rights was more intentional than most people realize, beginning with the internal freedom of conscience and working outward to freedom of expression and finally freedom of public association. This design, Neuborne argues, was not to protect discrete individual rights--such as the rights of corporations to spend unlimited amounts of money to influence elections--but to guarantee that the process of democracy continues without disenfranchisement, oppression, or injustice. Neuborne, who was the legal director of the ACLU and has argued numerous cases before the Supreme Court, invites us to hear the "music" within the form and content of Madison's carefully formulated text. When we hear Madison's music, a democratic ideal flowers in front of us, and we can see that the First Amendment gives us the tools to fight for campaign finance reform, the right to vote, equal rights in the military, the right to be full citizens, and the right to prevent corporations from riding roughshod over the weakest among us. Neuborne gives us an eloquent lesson in democracy that informs and inspires."--