Robert Tsai, American University Washington College of Law, has
a nice op-ed in the
Boston Globe inspired by his recently published book,
America’s Forgotten Constitutions. It begins:
On the Fourth of July,
Americans celebrate the moment when our forefathers “dissolved the
political bonds” between the 13 Colonies and Great Britain—cutting
themselves free of a ruler thousands of miles away, and asserting their
right to pursue life, liberty, and happiness under a new form of
government.
Today, we see this as a watershed in our grand civic narrative: a
break in historical time that ended one chapter of the story and began
another. But to see their claim to liberty as a unique moment in our
history would be an error. In fact, once Americans declared
independence, they never really stopped. Since the founding era, dozens
of groups have taken the message to heart and asserted the right to
self-rule, again and again.
More.
