Our Misplaced Structure: The Willful Subversion of America’s Founding Doc

The still-unfolding story of America’s Structure is a historical past of heroes and villains—the flawed visionaries who impressed and crafted liberty’s safeguards, and the shortsighted opportunists who defied them. These tales are identified by few in the present day.

In
Our Misplaced Structure, Senator Mike Lee tells the dramatic, little-known tales behind six of the Structure’s most indispensible provisions. He reveals their rise. He reveals their fall. And he makes vividly clear how practically each abuse of federal energy in the present day is rooted in neglect of this Misplaced Structure. For instance:

   • The Origination Clause says that each one payments to boost taxes should originate within the Home of Representatives, however contempt for the clause ensured the passage of Obamacare.

   • The Fourth Modification protects us in opposition to unreasonable searches and seizures, however the NSA now collects our personal information and not using a warrant.

   • The Legislative Powers Clause implies that solely Congress can move legal guidelines, however unelected businesses now produce ninety-nine out of each 100 pages of authorized guidelines imposed on the American folks.

Lee’s forged of characters features a former Ku Klux Klansman, who hijacked the Institution Clause to strangle Catholic colleges; the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court docket, who referred to as the Second Modification a fraud; and the revered president who started his first of 4 phrases by threating to shatter the steadiness of energy between Congress and the president, and who started his second time period by vowing to do the identical to the Supreme Court docket.

Luckily, the Structure has all the time had its defenders. Senator Lee tells the story of how Andrew Jackson, famous for his braveness in duels and politics, stood agency in opposition to the unconstitutional enlargement of federal powers. He brings to life Ben Franklin’s genius for compromise at a deeply divided constitutional conference. And he tells how in 2008, a few unlikely challengers persuaded the Supreme Court docket to rediscover the Second Modification’s proper to maintain and bear arms.

Sections of the Structure could have been forgotten, nevertheless it’s not too late to convey them again—if solely we keep in mind why we as soon as demanded them and the way we later misplaced them. Drawing on his expertise working in all three branches of presidency, Senator Lee makes a daring case for resurrecting the Misplaced Structure to revive and defend our basic liberties.