Sixth.com

Leading Claremont Professor Leonard Levy published Origins of the Bill of Rights as part of the Yale University legal book series. A traditional history, which focuses on the Anglo-Saxon tradition in Western law, Levy traces the philosophical roots of our modern constitution to concepts of Enlightenment philosophy. While the book does a solid job of tracing early Constitutional history, it pays less attention to the modern evolution of legal concepts.

As Levy’s 36th book on the Constitution, however, Origins is a comprehensive take on the topic, spanning just 320 pages and covering a wide range of 18th century legal history. For those looking to understand the basic concepts that went into the creation of the Bill of Rights, Levy’s book is a solid source to start with. One criticism of the book, however, is that Levy tends to focus on the originalist conception of the American Constitution, while not heeding other schools of thought which have contributed to the modern Court. Today’s Supreme Court has a wide range of legal philosophies represented, ranging from Originalists such as Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas to pragmatists such as Justices Kennedy and Breyer; Chief Justice Roberts strikes a balance between the two sides, and will be the key figure on the Court for decades to come.

Accessible to casual observers and scholars alike, the book is somewhat controversial in its approach to the Second Amendment; Levy argues that the founders sought to provide an individual right to bear arms, which is a point of contention today for legal schools (many argue, by contrast, that the Amendment refers to the right of an independent militia to protect against a tyrannical government.) An additional point of contention is his take on the 9th Amendment where Levy argues that “the natural rights philosophy seized the minds of the Framers, as it had the minds of the rebellious patriots of 1776″, which opens an expansive interpretation of natural rights, playing him back on the left, where his 2nd Amendment arguments fell to the right of center. The 6th Amendment, in guaranteeing the accused of a trial by their peers as well as the right to a legal defense, is a core part of establishing the equality before the law that makes the Constitution a fundamentally Enlightenment-based document. Levy does an excellent job of tracing the roots of this tradition.