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Restoring the Lost Constitution:
The Presumption of Liberty

Book Cover

The text of the Constitution establishes a government of delegated, enumerated, and therefore limited powers and guarantees to the people both enumerated and unenumerated rights. The fundamental presumption is that of liberty, which means that a good reason must be shown for the exercise of a governmental power that would override an exercise of liberty.

How did that Constitution come to be interpreted -- without amendment -- instead as a grant to government of unenumerated powers occasionally limited only by a handful of enumerated rights? In this book, Professor Barnett brings readers from McCulloch v. Maryland in 1819, which gutted the "necessary and proper clause," to the "commerce clause cases," which further broadened the role of the federal government, up through the New Deal, and beyond.

Barnett also offers a practical way to restore to the Constitution those parts that have effectively been excised from the text by the Supreme Court.

Catch up with Randy Barnett on his nationwide book speaking tour!

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Barnett

Randy E. Barnett is the Austin B. Fletcher Professor at Boston University School of Law. He's a graduate of Northwestern University and Harvard Law and a senior fellow at the Cato Institute.