Reviews for The Invisible Constitution

The average rating for The Invisible Constitution based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2009-01-30 00:00:00 Daniel Macedo If you have ever been mildly annoyed to infuriated when confronted by Right wing talking points asserting that the Constitution is being dismantled by "liberal activist" justices, this book is for you. Professor Tribe does an excellent job of explaining, in a logical and rational fashion, that the social liberties that we take for granted today - racial and gender equality under the law, reproductive rights (both contraceptives and abortion), and privacy rights, are all firmly grounded in the *structure* of the Constitution, even if certain "magic words" never appear in the actual text. The real value in this book is that Professor Tribe establishes that these rights - which to many of us, including myself, are simply common sense "natural law" rights to ensure equality - exist in the structure of the Constitution and its amendments, from the Ninth Amendement, as underused as it may be, to the Contract Clause. This book cannot be dismissed as flowery 60's rhetoric which has no boundaries, a la the unfortunate "penumbras and emanations" language from Griswold v Connecticut. The downfall of this book is the writing style and intended audience. While at times crisp, too often Professor Tribe commits the cardinal sins of rhetoric - writing like not only an academic, but like a lawyer. Crisp legal and intellectual concepts get buried in subordinate clauses and qualifying digressions. Regarding the second point, Professor Tribe apparently assumes that the reader has a Juris Doctor, attended enough law school to get through Constitutional law, or otherwise studied Supreme Court jurisprudence as an undergrad or graduate student. If the terms and phrases "the Lochner Era", "substantive and procedural due process", and "privileges and immunities" (to name a few) ring no bells for you, you will find some parts of this book a slog, because the book assumes that you have that knowledge. Frankly, even if you recall those terms (and I say that as someone who has studied Constitutional law), parts of the book will be a slog because of the elliptical and unnecessarily unclear writing style. Which is a shame, because the thesis here deserves a larger audience, and everyday Americans should understand that the Constitution is a road map toward a more perfect union, not a blueprint circumscribing the limits of our freedom.

Review # 2 was written on 2010-08-25 00:00:00 Mcool Doc Thankfully, Tribe is an unapologetic liberal; that is refreshing and important to understand when reviewing his work contained in "The Invisible Constitution." That said, while Tribe frequently points out both the constitutional hypocrisies on the right and the left, his thesis is riddled with hypocrisy. Nonetheless, the book, and more importantly, his thesis, is tolerable to the point that he makes a salient point, one that, if Scalia was honest with himself, could not dispute. Tribe's salient point being: of course the principles embodied in the Constitution are both written and unwritten. Clearly, the Founders understood this when debating the addition of a Bill of Rights. Madison insisted they were not needed; whereas Jefferson argued that without the declaration of certain rights not directly expressed in the text of the Constitution, the liberty of the citizens will be in jeopardy. While I mostly disagree with Tribe's political understanding of what the invisible Constitution says or may say, I do agree that it must be acknowledged that analysis of the text inherently, and with some necessity, takes us beyond those borders.