Synopses & Reviews
The announced purpose of U.S. antiterrorist policies after 9/11 was to bring democracy and the rule of law to the Middle East. At home, those values were regularly threatened by illegal, unconstitutional, secret, and unaccountable programs. The Bush administration claimed that terrorists hate America for its freedoms, yet its actions jeopardized those freedoms and brought the reputation of the United States lower in the eyes of the world.
Government surveillance. Suspension of habeas corpus. Secret tribunals. Most Americans would recognize these controversial topics from today's headlines. Unfortunately, as Louis Fisher reminds us, such violations of freedom have been with us throughout our history-and continue to threaten the Constitution and the rights that it protects.
Distilling more than two centuries of history into a panoramic and compelling narrative, Fisher chronicles the long-standing tension between protecting our constitutional rights and safeguarding national security, from the Whiskey Rebellion to the McCarthy hearings to George W. Bush's "War on Terror." Along the way, he raises crucial questions regarding our democracy's ongoing tug-of-war between secrecy and transparency, between expediency and morality, and between legal double-talk and the true rule of law.
Fisher focuses especially on how the Bush administration's responses to 9/11 have damaged our constitutional culture and values, threatened individual liberties, and challenged the essential nature of our government's system of checks and balances. His close analysis of five topics—the resurrection of military tribunals, the Guantnamo detainees, the state secrets privilege, NSA surveillance, and extraordinary rendition-places into sharp relief the gradual but relentless erosion of fundamental rights along with an enormous expansion and concentration of presidential power in the post-9/11 era.
For Fisher, the Constitution's strength as a guarantor of freedom and rights is only as sound and reliable as our own commitment to the values it describes. Each generation of Americans is asked in essence: do you want a republic or a monarchy? Benjamin Franklin, of course, famously responded: "A republic, if you can keep it." Fisher's book reminds us of the political principles we need to rediscover to keep our nation free.
Review
"A well-supported history and analysis, this wide-ranging and informative book is highly recommended."—Library Journal
Review
"The book's strength lies in its brisk but thorough recounting of important incidents in U.S. constitutional history, making accessible to today's readers the facts of events some of which have almost been lost to lawyers' memories."—Law and Politics Book Review
Review
"What this book adds to the literature is extensive historical, political, and legal context, demonstrating 'the damage done to constitutional values in times of stress' throughout US history. . . . Criticism of the Bush administration's post-9/11 policies is carefully contextualized and, therefore, far more powerful without being polemical. . . . This book articulates core American values and demonstrates how these values are threatened."—
Choice
Review
"With two centuries of history as his topical backdrop, Fisher leaves no stone unturned as he analyzes everything from the treatment of detainees at Abu Ghraib, to military tribunals and detention, to Bush-era invocations of the state secrets privilege, to contemporary uses of warrantless surveillance, among other things. Ideologies notwithstanding, it is difficult not to be alarmed by Fisher's comprehensive and documented account of constitutional government gone awry."—Political Science Quarterly
Review
"[The White Earth Nation provides] a compelling behind-the-scenes perspective on the creation of the White Earth constitution that will be instructive to anyone who is interested in the perplexing but always stimulating topic of indigenous self-government. Few issues are more significant to residents of the Great Plains and the American West."—Mark R. Scherer, Annals of Iowa
Synopsis
The White Earth Nation of Anishinaabeg Natives ratified in 2009 a new constitution, the first indigenous democratic constitution, on a reservation in Minnesota. Many Native constitutions were written by the federal government, and with little knowledge of the people and cultures. The White Earth Nation set out to create a constitution that reflected its own culture. The resulting document provides a clear Native perspective on sovereignty, independent governance, traditional leadership values, and the importance of individual and human rights.
This volume includes the text of the Constitution of the White Earth Nation; an introduction by David E. Wilkins, a legal and political scholar who was a special consultant to the White Earth Constitutional Convention; an essay by Gerald Vizenor, the delegate and principal writer of the Constitution of the White Earth Nation; and articles first published in Anishinaabeg Today by Jill Doerfler, who coordinated and participated in the deliberations and ratification of the Constitution. Together these essays and the text of the Constitution provide direct insight into the process of the delegate deliberations, the writing and ratification of this groundbreaking document, and the current constitutional, legal, and political debates about new constitutions.
About the Author
Gerald Vizenor is Distinguished Professor of American Studies at the University of New Mexico and professor emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the author and editor of more than thirty books, including the essay collection Native Liberty: Natural Reason and Cultural Survivance (Nebraska, 2009). Jill Doerfler is an assistant professor of American Indian Studies at the University of Minnesota, Duluth. David E. Wilkins is a professor of American Indian studies at the University of Minnesota and the author of Documents of Native American Political Development: 1500s to 1933.
Table of Contents
Preface
1. America's Values
2. Secrets: Real and Contrived
3. Democratic Growing Pains, 1789-1865
4. Targeting Undesirables, 1865-1940
5. World War II and the Cold War
6. Military Tribunals and Detention
7. Guantanamo
8. State Secrets Privilege
9. NSA Surveillance
10. Extraordinary Rendition
Conclusions
Notes
Bibliography
Index of Cases
Index of Subjects