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.
