Human Rights Of, By, and For the People: How to Critique and Change the US Constitution PDF
Preview Human Rights Of, By, and For the People: How to Critique and Change the US Constitution
HUMAN RIGHTS OF, BY, AND FOR THE PEOPLE Together, the US Constitution and the Bill of Rights comprise the constitutional foundation of the United States. These— the oldest governing documents still in use in the world— urgently need an update, just as the constitutions of other countries have been updated and revised. Human Rights Of, By, and For the People brings together lawyers and sociologists to show how globalization and, climate change offer an opportunity to revisit the founding documents. Each proposes specific changes that would more closely align US law with international law. The chapters also illustrate how constitutions are embedded in society and shaped by culture. The constitution itself sets up contentious relationships among the three branches of government and between the federal government and each state government, while the Bill of Rights and subsequent amendments begrudgingly recognize the civil and political rights of citizens. These rights are described by legal scholars as “negative rights,” specifically as freedoms from infringements rather than as positive rights that affirm personhood and human dignity. The contributors to this volume offer “positive rights” instead. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), written in the middle of the last century, inspires these updates. Nearly every other constitution in the world has adopted language from the UDHR. The contributors use intersectionality, critical race theory, and contemporary critiques of runaway economic inequality to ground their interventions in sociological argument. Keri E. Iyall Smith is Associate Professor of Sociology at Suffolk University in Boston, Massachusetts and is author of The State and Indigenous Movements (Routledge). Louis Edgar Esparza is Assistant Professor of Sociology and Latin American Studies at California State University at Los Angeles. Judith R. Blau is Professor Emerita at the University of North Carolina– Chapel Hill, retiring in 2014 after a teaching career that spanned forty- five years. HUMAN RIGHTS OF, BY, AND FOR THE PEOPLE How to Critique and Change the US Constitution Edited by Keri E. Iyall Smith, Louis Edgar Esparza, and Judith R. Blau First published 2017 by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 and by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2017 Taylor & Francis The right of the editors to be identified as the authors of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. Every effort has been made to contact copyright-holders. Please advise the publisher of any errors or omissions, and these will be corrected in subsequent editions. Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Names: Iyall Smith, Keri E., 1973– editor. | Esparza, Louis Edgar, editor. | Blau, Judith R., 1942– editor. Title: Human rights of, by, and for the people: how to critique and change the US Constitution / edited by Keri E. Iyall Smith, Louis Edgar Esparza, and Judith R. Blau. Description: New York, NY: Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an Informa Business, [2017] Identifiers: LCCN 2016036313| ISBN 9781138204164 (hbk) | ISBN 9781138204188 (pbk) | ISBN 9781315470016 (ebk) Subjects: LCSH: Human rights—United States. | Constitutional amendments—United States. | Constitutional law—United States. | United States. Constitution. Classification: LCC KF4749 .H75 2017 | DDC 342.7308/5—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016036313 ISBN: 978-1 -1 38-2 0416- 4 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1 -1 38-2 0418- 8 (pbk) ISBN: 978-1 -3 15-4 7001- 6 (ebk) Typeset in Bembo by Out of House Publishing To Change! CONTENTS List of Illustrations x Notes on Contributors xi Acknowledgments xv 1 Constituting Human Rights in the US 1 Keri E. Iyall Smith PART I What’s Going On? 7 2 Why Revise? 9 Judith R. Blau 3 Beginning the World Again: Social Movements and the Challenge of Constitutional Change 30 Ben Manski 4 A Place Called Liberty 42 Rodney D. Coates viii Contents PART II Claiming Our Rights 55 5 Wherefore “The Despotism of the Petticoat”? American Women, Gender, and Constitutional Omissions 57 Susan C. Pearce and Kathleen B. Basile 6 Human Dignity and Equality: Freedoms and Rights, Protection, Fairness, and Security 79 Judith R. Blau 7 Beyond Welfare, Workfare, and Employment: For a Basic Income as a Constitutional Amendment 88 Steven Panageotou 8 Preserving Economic Security: Housing, Food, and Medical Care 102 Steven L. Foy 9 What Latin America and the Caribbean Teach the United States about Constitutionalizing Environmental Human Rights 115 K. Russell Shekha and Leah Edwards 10 Revise Now! 129 Judith R. Blau PART III Towards Action 139 11 Why a Sociology of Human Rights? 141 Mark Frezzo 12 The Constitution Project: Implementing a Group Projects Structure 152 Davita Silfen Glasberg 13 For a Decolonized US Constitution 162 Keri E. Iyall Smith Contents ix 14 The Universal Declaration of Human Rights as a Constitutional Model 174 Zachary Elkins, Tom Ginsburg, and James Melton 15 Rewrite For Rights: Creating a Modern Constitution 186 Judith R. Blau Appendix 1: Bill of Rights and Subsequent Amendments 188 Appendix 2: Universal Declaration of Human Rights 192 Index 195
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