When at Times the Mob Is Swayed: A Citizen's Guide to Defending Our Republic

On November 9, 2016--and again on January 6, 2021--many Americans feared that our democracy was on the verge of collapse. But is it? In an erudite and brilliant evaluation of the current state of our government, noted constitutional scholar Burt Neuborne administers a stress test to democracy and concludes that our unprecedented sets of constitutional protections, all endorsed by both major parties, stand between us and an authoritarian federal regime: namely the division of powers between the three branches, the rights reserved to the states, and the Bill of Rights.

Neuborne parses the genius of our constitutional system and the ways its built-in resilience will ultimately survive current attempts to dismantle it. While many important issue areas--women's right to choose, LGBTQ rights, separation of church and state--risk erosion, Neuborne argues that the Constitution's inherent defense mechanisms can buy us time. But only an active citizenry will enable us to defend our cherished rights and protections, fulfilling Ben Franklin's charge to keep our republic.

ISBN-13: 9781620973585

Media Type: Hardcover

Publisher: New Press - The

Publication Date: 08-06-2019

Pages: 192

Product Dimensions: 5.70(w) x 8.60(h) x 0.90(d)

Burt Neuborne is the Norman Dorsen Professor of Civil Liberties and founding legal director of NYU School of Law's Brennan Center for Justice and has participated in more than two hundred cases in the U.S. Supreme Court. Neuborne is the author of Madison's Music and lives in New York.

Table of Contents

1 How Good Are the Brakes on the Democracy Train? 3

2 Why the Sudden Concern About Fixing the Brakes? 19

3 Would You Buy This House? Repairing the Cracks in Democracy's Foundation 35

4 Do the External Judicial Brakes Work Anymore? 79

5 The Fortas Fiasco: How Not to Maintain the Brakes 103

6 What's Law Got to Do with It? Please Don't Kill All the Lawyers - Yet 127

7 In Praise of Seventh-Grade Civics: Separation of Powers in the Time of Trump 143

8 Applying Separation of Powers in the Time of Trump: Five Test Cases 157

9 Which Shell Is the Power Under? Federalism as a Protection of the Weak 197

Epilogue: Night Sweats-What If It All Comes Apart? 227

A Note on Notes 233

Index 239