The Power of Citizen Activists to Make Constitutional Law
How did gay and lesbian couples’ right to marry go from unthinkable to inevitable? How did the individual right to bear arms, dismissed as fraudulent by Chief Justice Warren Burger in 1990, become a constitutional right in 2008? Some might say that the answer lies in the power of the Supreme Court.
Not according to David Cole. In his new book Engines of Liberty: The Power of Citizen Activists to Make Constitutional Law, the award-winning legal scholar argues that citizen activists are the true drivers of constitutional change. The book illustrates how time and again, ordinary Americans confronting long odds have managed to transform the nation’s highest law, and have done so largely outside the federal courts.
At a recent event co-presented by the Brennan Center for Justice, Cole was joined by a panel to explore how this history of activism can best inform strategies for advancing social change, both through and around formal legal channels.
Listen above.
