Human Rights Of, By, and For the People: How to Critique and Change the US Constitution

217 Pages·2017·15.006 MB·English

by  Keri E. Iyall Smith, Louis Edgar Esparza and Judith R. Blau (eds.)

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
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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2017 Taylor & Francis
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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