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January 21, 2020 @ 6:30 pm

Mary Anne Franks in conversation with Danielle Citron

Details

Date:
January 21, 2020
Time:
6:30 pm

Venue

Books & Books in Coral Gables
265 Aragon Ave
Coral Gables, FL 33134 United States
+ Google Map

Phone:
3054424408


In this controversial and provocative book, Mary Anne Franks examines the thin line between constitutional fidelity and constitutional fundamentalism. The Cult of the Constitution reveals how deep fundamentalist strains in both conservative and liberal American thought keep the Constitution in the service of white male supremacy.

Constitutional fundamentalists read the Constitution selectively and self-servingly. Fundamentalist interpretations of the Constitution elevate certain constitutional rights above all others, benefit the most powerful members of society, and undermine the integrity of the document as a whole. The conservative fetish for the Second Amendment (enforced by groups such as the NRA) provides an obvious example of constitutional fundamentalism; the liberal fetish for the First Amendment (enforced by groups such as the ACLU) is less obvious but no less influential. Economic and civil libertarianism have increasingly merged to produce a deregulatory, “free-market” approach to constitutional rights that achieves fullest expression in the idealization of the Internet. The worship of guns, speech, and the Internet in the name of the Constitution has blurred the boundaries between conduct and speech and between veneration and violence.

But the Constitution itself contains the antidote to fundamentalism. The Cult of the Constitution lays bare the dark, antidemocratic consequences of constitutional fundamentalism and urges readers to take the Constitution seriously, not selectively.

 

In conversation with Danielle Citron

 

BUY THE BOOK HERE


About the Author:

About the Conversant:

Danielle Citron teaches and writes about information privacy, free expression, and civil rights at Boston University School of Law. Professor Citron is an internationally recognized privacy expert who was named a MacArthur Fellow in 2019. She is the author of the 2014 book Hate Crimes in Cyberspace (Harvard University Press), which  explored the phenomenon of cyber stalking and the role of law and private companies in combating it