Constitutional Clarity www.TheCitizensWhoCare.org   Constitutional Clarity Constitutional Interpretation Things Not In the Constitution Constitution and God The Commandments: The Constitution And Its Worshippers - New Yorker The Living Consitution Related Issues Constitutional Clarity Modern conservatives have controlled the political agenda this year on issues ranging from the debt ceiling to health care reform to gun control in large part by rooting their arguments in a firm -- but demonstrably false -- conviction about the meaning of the Constitution. For too long, TEA partiers and other so-called “constitutional conservatives” have claimed our Constitution for themselves, all while distorting it and even advocating repeal of many of the progressive Amendments that have made it better. Sen. Mike Lee recently promoted a Constitutional Conservatives pledge, which tries to root in the Constitution a bullet point list featuring every plank of the conservative political agenda. There is no greater threat to progressive values than this effort to make America’s progress unconstitutional, but progressives have had no coordinated response to this theft of our Nation’s Charter, until now. Don’t let self-proclaimed “constitutional conservatives” march us backward to 1789. Join and support the true meaning of the Constitution and help restore the Constitution as a document that unifies and inspires Americans across ideological lines. The Constitutional Accountability Center is a think tank, law firm, and action center dedicated to fulfilling the progressive promise of our Constitution’s text and history. CAC’s work is grounded in a careful analysis of what the Constitution actually says and how those words came to be in our founding document. We take on issues either because we believe the Supreme Court has misread an important part of the Constitution or because special interests – e.g. corporations seeking to limit environmental safeguards – are trying to move the law in a direction that does not square with text and history. Here are the major issues we are working on right now: Constitutional Accountability? All of our public officials, particularly every federal and state judge in America, take an oath of office pledging to uphold the U.S. Constitution. CAC’s mission is to hold public servants accountable to their oath. CAC believes that text and history are the foundational considerations in judging accountability to the Constitution. Taking Back the Constitution pdf file - a short report explains why CAC is needed and what we do at CAC. An important part of CAC’s mission is to fill gaps in the existing scholarship about the Constitution’s text and history. We help fill these gaps by posting and linking to original sources, by keeping a calendar of important dates in constitutional history and by producing reports, books, and commentary. The Constitution: Text and History: CAC wants the Constitution’s text and history to be readily accessible. Here we have posted the Constitution’s complete text , as well as links to other resources. We challenge legal and political leaders who employ empty rhetoric about the Constitution to advance a conservative political agenda that does not square with the document’s text and history. Our Constitution is, in its most vital respects, a progressive document, written by revolutionaries and amended by those who prevailed in the most tumultuous social upheavals in our nation’s history – the Reconstruction Republicans after the Civil War, the Progressives and the Suffragists in the early 20th Century, the Civil Rights and student movements in the 1950s and 1960s. Modern conservatives are correct to insist -- over the claims of many in academia and some on the bench -- that constitutional text and history are vitally important. But conservatives misread text in important areas and too frequently rely on bad or incomplete history. CAC believes constitutional text and history are vitally important and that on most critical issues they point in a progressive direction. We have also produced a calendar of key but sometimes overlooked dates in constitutional history. Articles and Commentary: Essays and op-eds by CAC staff members and supporters, showing how the text and history of the Constitution illuminate current political and legal controversies. Narrative Series: CAC publishes a Text and History Narrative Series, which distills the best legal and historical scholarship about particular constitutional provisions to inform how modern debates about the Constitution should be resolved. Other Resources: Including the Federalist Papers, the Anti-Federalist Papers, and documents pertaining to the Bill of Rights and the Reconstruction Amendments Human and Civil Rights and the Constitution: The Reconstruction Amendments were intended to give our nation what Abraham Lincoln promised at Gettysburg: a New Birth of Freedom. Unfortunately, much of their power and meaning was eviscerated in a series of egregious Supreme Court rulings in the 1870s and 1880s. These rulings are just as wrong as long-overruled opinions such as Plessy v. Ferguson, but remain on the books. Read properly, the Reconstruction Amendments provide a solid foundation for courts and the federal government to protect human and civil rights. CAC works to raise public consciousness about the importance of the Reconstruction Amendments and convince politicians and judges about the mandate these Amendments create for the advancement of civil and human rights. The Gem of the Constitution is the first in a series of Constitutional Accountability Center reports about the text and history of our Constitution. 55 page pdf file. Citizenship, Immigration and the Constitution: The 14th Amendment’s Citizenship Clause is one of the Constitution’s most important and underappreciated provisions. The clause grants full United States citizenship to anyone born on American soil (with a narrow exception for children of foreign diplomats) or naturalized by the federal government. With text and history on our side, CAC defends the rights of new Americans and immigrants to this country in Congress, courts, and the media. Redefining Federalism: "We the People" ratified the Constitution to form a national government strong enough to establish justice, provide for the common defense and general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty. Subsequent amendments expanded the power of the federal government, shifting power away from the states. Yet recently, the Supreme Court has aggressively limited federal protections for women, workers, disabled people, and the environment, in a misguided attempt to protect the states. CAC’s Redefining Federalism project advances a vision of federalism that ensures states can act as the laboratories of democracy, while also allowing the federal government to address problems states cannot fully address alone. Corporations and the Constitution: Our Constitution never uses the term “corporations,” referring instead to protections for “persons,” “the people,” and “citizens.” Yet in recent years, the Supreme Court has in several areas given corporations more protection than individuals. If anything, it should be the opposite, and CAC shows through text and history how the Constitution demands more protection for people than corporations. Written testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee on corporations and the Supreme Court in 2011 - 6 page pdf file Big Wins for Big Business: Themes and Statistics in the Supreme - 12 page pdf file Open for Business: Tracking the Chamber of Commerce's Supreme Court Success Rate from the Burger Court through the Rehnquist Court and into the Roberts Court - 4 page pdf file A Capitalist Joker: The Strange Origins, Disturbing Past and Uncertain Future of Corporate Personhood in American Law - 78 page pdf file Access to Courts, Juries and the Ballot Box: Our Constitution’s vision of a government of “we the people” was quite radical for its time. The twin ideas of voting rights and jury trials are at the core of that vision. Six Amendments passed since the Constitution was ratified expand the right to vote and three protect jury trials. The Constitution similarly allows for a system of federal courts where people can vindicate their rights under federal laws. But these constitutional ideals are all too often unrealized in practice: many Americans have difficulty casting their vote, the modern Supreme Court appears to disdain jury trials, and the Court has of late denied a hearing in federal court to people with valid claims. CAC uses text and history to protect voting rights, trial by jury, and access to federal courts. The Constitution and Environmental Law: Corporations and special interests have poured millions of dollars into a coordinated effort to attack environmental safeguards based on interpretations of the Constitution that cannot be squared with the document’s text and history, especially its Takings and Commerce Clauses. CAC continues the path-breaking work of its predecessor organization, Community Rights Counsel, which defended the constitutionality of environmental safeguards and helped win important and surprising Supreme Court victories. Judicial Nominations and Accountability: Their oath of office makes judges accountable to the Constitution, not a party platform or ideological agenda. CAC carries on the path-breaking work of its predecessor, Community Rights Counsel, promoting judicial accountability by reviewing the records of federal judicial nominees and by working to prevent corporations from lobbying judges at judicial junkets.   ©2007-2013, www.TheCitizensWhoCare.org/constitution-true.html or http://bit.ly/ov2sKp