We the People

 

Jill Lepore, We the People: A History of the United States Constitution, (NY: Liveright Publishing Co., 2025) 581 pages

We the People begins with an introduction establishing America’s 18^th century colonists expected constitutions will be amendable. Toward the end of this 22 page introduction author Lepore explains the “book is a history of American constitutionalism as told through a collection of stories about constitutional change.” It relies on an archive of every significant proposal to amend the U.S. Constitution, assembled as part of a personal project of the author.

The book has four parts with each part subdivided into three, or once four, chapters. Parts follow in chronological order with Part I from 1774 to 1791; Part II 1803-1896; Part III 1905-1959; Part IV 1961-2016. A brief epilogue ends the book.

Part I opens with the First Continental Congress in September 1774 when the colonies sent delegates to draft a constitutional document to replace British colonial government with a system of self-government. Lepore takes readers through state conventions drafting and attempting to ratify their constitutions and then to the drafting of the 1781 Articles of Confederation.  Narrative continues with the arguments writing our U.S. Constitution at the 1787 Constitutional Convention, the difficulties getting it ratified, and the ultimate drafting and adoption of the bill of rights.

Small groups drafted these many constitutions and then made them public hoping to get them ratified, but mostly they got a torrent of criticism and demands to change them. Opposition to slavery was strong and attempts to end it and define the rights of blacks brought lots of arguments, as did the constitutional status of women and Indians. When the delegates that worked through the summer of 1787 finished their work, there were renewed demands for amendments. Since their new constitution included Article V detailing an amendment process, James Madison convinced opponents they could amend after ratification. He succeeded in getting the constitution ratified as originally written by condensing the many proposals into ten amendments put at the end of the constitution as the Bill of Rights.

In 1787 it was not obvious amending the constitution would be as hard as it has turned out to be. In each of the remaining three parts Lepore has pages with lists of proposed amendments made as part of political party platforms. The lists provide topics for narrating the repeating demands for change by formal amendment, for narrating alternative constitutional interpretations and for reviewing Supreme Court rulings on constitutional disputes brought to it.

Part II has a thorough discussion of controversies over citizenship, the 1843 Seneca Falls women’s rights conference, voting rights, the nullification claims of John C. Calhoun and the claims of Chief Justice John Marshall to make the Supreme Court the final arbiter of constitutional disputes. Discussion of many Supreme Court cases and their influence on law and politics begin here with Marbury v. Madison and continues through the narrative where readers meet more justices with new views and new cases, often contesting and reinterpreting disputes.

The narrative considers the legal and constitutional chaos of the Civil War and reconstruction. Members of Congress proposed many amendments as a hope to avert war. One, the Corwin Amendment, would have prohibited amendments to abolish slavery. It would come again in March 1956 as the “Lost Amendment.” There is a thorough discussion of the 13^th, 14^th and 15^th amendments and the effort to define citizenship and guarantee civil rights to all. Lepore considers the controversies over rights to self government for those living in U. S. territories, especially Hawaii and Hawaiians, but also Chinese, Japanese and American Indians.

The Part III period 1905-1959 included the amendments 16 through 19 ratified from 1913 to 1920, where three of the four amendments – income tax, prohibition, and women’s suffrage – came after decades of protest. An amendment to abolish child labor began appearing on party platforms in this era, mostly as a response to the Supreme Court refusal to allow it; it failed. Lepore gives a thorough review of the Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka Supreme Court decision, the protest that followed and demands to repeal it by defiance or amendment.

In the Part IV years 1961-2016 readers meet Indiana Senator Birch Bayh who took over the Subcommittee on Constitutional Amendments in 1963. He convinced the country and the Congress to ratify amendment 24, 25 and 26 and almost succeeded abolishing the electoral college via another amendment. It was an era of well funded interest groups which brought an unprecedented number of Article V applications for constitutional conventions. Lepore explores a variety of amendment proposals for the right to life, school prayer, a balanced budget, busing, campaign finance, Indian rights and the controversies over judicial appointments. There follows another lengthy discussion of women’s rights and the ERA that includes the efforts of Patsy Takemoto Mink, Phyllis Schlafly and Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork, along with a review of gay rights, black rights and calls for significant changes to the constitution.

The last chapter before the epilogue features the life and career of Justice Antonin Scalia during the years he served on the Supreme Court: 1986-2016. Featuring Scalia appears to be a device to narrate the polarizing jurisprudence of a period when constitutional amendments became impossible. Since Scalia left a trail of academic writing and did not hesitate to give speeches, conduct seminars and offer his judicial views in television interviews, his claim our constitution had an original intent to guide jurisprudence free from politics and personal preference generated significant public argument in these years. Lepore narrates these arguments, emphasizing Scalia’s gun rights opinion in D.C. v. Heller, which captures the hypocrisy of it all.

In her brief epilogue Lepore reminds us our founding fathers believed in reason and progress, but mentions “outdated constitutions undermine democratic governance.” Then she questions if there is a point beyond which a constitution cannot be stretched but breaks. Our Constitution feels obsolete, to be charitable. In We the People Lepore makes it feel much worse than obsolete. By covering events from 1774 to the present Lepore establishes the same disputes occur and then recur as unresolved politics from one century to the next: women and minority rights to wit. Powerful interests have repeatedly exploited the undemocratic features of our constitution to block and stall and impose their will without regard to compromise or democracy or public welfare as the many events Lepore narrates here so clearly prove. Legislation is hard enough to pass in our bicameral Congress, but given the Supreme Court expects to nullify laws passed by an elected Congress, disputes that could and should be resolved with legislation become amendment proposals instead: abortion to wit. Since Article V makes amendment difficult to impossible, change comes to a halt while protest continues or returns in a new generation. The book fully captures the rambling, hurtling cycles of anger, frustration and chaos in a perpetually polarized country. In the 21^st century money alone governs America, where our outdated constitution undermines democratic governance.

Labor Line

June 2026_________________________ 

Labor line has job news and commentary with a one stop short cut for America’s job markets and job related data including the latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. 

This month's job and employment summary data are below and this month's inflation data is below that. 

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The BLS Establishment Job Report with data released June 5, 2026.

Commentary From This Month’s Establishment Jobs Press Report

NOT A BAD TOTAL, BUT NOT SUSTAINABLE

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) published its June report for jobs in May. The Household Survey for May shows the civilian population increased by only 99 thousand, the fourth month in a row under 100 thousand. The labor force was up 83 thousand, which equals 149 thousand increase in the employed and a decrease of 66 thousand of the unemployed. Those not in the labor force increased by 17 thousand, or the population increase not entering the labor force. The increase in the labor force was small enough and the decrease in the unemployed also small enough that the unemployment rate stayed at 4.3 percent. The labor force participation rate remained at 61.8 percent.

The seasonally adjusted total of establishment employment was up 175 thousand for May. The increase was 92 thousand more jobs in the private service sector combined with an increase of 28 thousand jobs from goods production. The total of 120 thousand new jobs in the private sector combined with a(n) increase of 52 thousand government service jobs accounts for the total change.

Goods production had a modest revival with 28 thousand new jobs and all three sub sectors adding jobs. Natural resources increased 4 thousand jobs; construction added 17 thousand new jobs. Residential and non-residential specialty trade contractors had 14 thousand of the jobs; heavy and engineering construction had a small increase of 2.6 thousand jobs. Manufacturing had a net increase of 7 thousand jobs with 17 thousand more durable goods jobs but with a loss of 10 thousand jobs in non-durable goods production. Among durable goods fabricated metal products had 6.7 thousand new jobs; transportation equipment had 4.9 thousand new jobs with automobile manufacturing up 3.6 thousand of the jobs.  Non-durable goods production did poorly. Food processing lost 3.6 thousand jobs and plastics and rubber products dropped 6.1 thousand jobs; no sub sectors in non-durables manufacturing did well.

Government service employment increased 52 thousand jobs, a especially large increase. The federal government added a thousand jobs. State government jobs were off 4 thousand but local government had 55 thousand new jobs. State and local government jobs excluding education increased 49.9 thousand of the new jobs. State public education was off 10.8 thousand jobs; local government education offset state losses with 12.1 thousand new jobs. Private sector education dropped 6.6 thousand jobs, which brings the total for education to a net decrease of 5.3 thousand seasonally adjusted jobs.

Leisure and hospitality took first place among service sectors with 70 thousand new jobs. The arts, entertainment and recreation sub sector had 11.7 thousand new jobs with performing arts and spectator sports adding 6.7 thousand of the jobs and amusement, gambling and recreation adding another 4.3 thousand. Restaurants added 48 thousand jobs, while accommodations added another 10.6 thousand jobs, both higher totals than recent months.

Health care had a net gain of 47.2 thousand jobs, down from last month. All four of the health care subsectors added some jobs with ambulatory care adding 25.7 thousand jobs; hospitals were up 6.0 thousand jobs; nursing and residential care added 3.5 thousand jobs. Social assistance services added 12.6 thousand jobs including 9.6 thousand new jobs coming in individual and family services offset by other social service job losses. The growth rate for health care was down from last month to 2.38 percent, but still above the average of 2.28 percent per month of the last 15 years.

Professional and business services were up a net of only 6 thousand jobs, a little less than last months. The professional and technical service sub sector was up a net 1.6 thousand jobs; management of companies was up 2.6 thousand jobs. The third sub sector, administrative and support services including waste management, added 1.4 thousand jobs, restoring last month’s losses but still a poor month.

Among professional and technical services, architecture and engineering services had 1.7 thousand new jobs but accounting, tax preparation, bookkeeping and payroll serves posted an after tax season decline of 5.4 thousand jobs. Computer systems and design services had 1.7 thousand new jobs, but all other of the professional services did poorly. Among administrative support services, employment services added 3.6 thousand jobs, but investigation and security services lost 2.3 thousand jobs among small job declines in other support services.

Trade, transportation and utilities lost a net 3 thousand more jobs with both wholesale and retail trade lost jobs after last month’s big increase: wholesale down 3.7 thousand, retail down 1.1 thousand. Transportation had a small job gain but modal transportation generally lost jobs with air transportation leading the way, down by 8.7 thousand jobs. The couriers and messengers sub sector posted 1.4 thousand new jobs; warehousing and storage added 6.4 thousand jobs offsetting the modal transportation job losses.

Information services declined 2 thousand jobs with broadcasting down 4 thousand jobs and motion picture and sound recording down another 2.7 thousand jobs. Computing, data processing and web hosting added 3.7 thousand jobs but all other information services lost jobs. Finance and real estate lost a net 22 thousand jobs, twice the loss of last month. Finance and insurance lost 20.2 thousand of the jobs where insurance carriers lost 10.7 thousand jobs with more job losses for securities and investments, down 4.6 thousand jobs. Real estate lost 2.5 thousand jobs offset by 1.1 thousand new jobs in rental and leasing services, the only job gains in this sub sector. The other services category had 3 thousand more jobs, down from last month. Personal and laundry services had 3.6 thousand of the jobs offset with small job losses to repair and maintenance services and non-profit associations.

The economy added 172 thousand jobs for May. Establishment employment in May was reported as 159.001 million with an annual growth rate of 1.30 percent , an average growth rate. While the total increase provides an average growth rate for jobs, the mix of new jobs does not follow any sustainable pattern, but looks quite erratic. Health care had only about half the jobs it should have. Professional and business services continue to flounder with low job growth. This month’s big increase of local government jobs will not help sustain job growth in the future. This month’s job total is 503 thousand above May a year ago and 1.393 million jobs above May two years ago. The 503 thousand number is a little better this month but still low for a year of new jobs.

 

May Details 

Jobs

Total Non-Farm Establishment Jobs up 172,000 to 159,001,000

Total Private Jobs up 120,000 to 136,614,000

Total Government Employment up 52,000 to 23,387,000 Note 

Civilian Non-Institutional Population up 99 thousand to 275,054,000

Civilian Labor Force up 83 thousand to 170,078,000

Employed up 149 thousand to 162,771,000

Employed Men up 165 thousand to 85,172,000

Employed Women down 16 thousand to 77,599,000

Unemployed down 66 thousand to 7,307,000

Not in the Labor Force up 17 thousand to 104,976,000

Unemployment Rate stayed the same at 4.3% 7,307/170,078

Labor Force Participation Rate stayed the same at 61.8%, or 170,078/275,054

Summaries by Industry

Non Farm Total +172

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported Non-Farm employment for establishments increased from April by 172 thousand jobs for a(n) May total of 159.001 million. (Note 1 below) An increase of 172 thousand each month for the next 12 months represents an annual growth rate of +1.30% The annual growth rate from a year ago beginning May 2025 was +.32%; the average annual growth rate from 5 years ago beginning May 2021 was +1.84%; from 15 years ago beginning May 2011 it was +1.26%. The higher five year growth rate derives from the low Pandemic employment. America needs growth around 1.5 percent a year to keep itself employed.

Sector breakdown for 12 Sectors in 000’s of jobs 

1. Natural Resources +4

Natural Resources jobs including logging and mining increased 4 thousand from April with 613 thousand jobs in May. An increase of 4 thousand jobs each month for the next 12 months would be an annual growth rate of +7.88 percent.   Natural resource jobs were down 5 thousand from a year ago. Jobs in 2000 averaged around 603 thousand with little prospect for growth.  This is the smallest of 12 major sectors of the economy with .4 percent of establishment jobs.

2. Construction +17

Construction jobs were up 17 thousand from April with 8.337 million jobs in May. An increase of 17 thousand jobs each month for the next 12 months would be an annual growth rate of +2.45 percent.  Construction jobs are up 68 thousand for the 12 months just ended. The growth rate for the last 15 years is 2.79%. Construction jobs rank 9th among the 12 sectors with 5.3 percent of non-farm employment.

3. Manufacturing +7

Manufacturing jobs were up 7 thousand from April with 12.605 million jobs in May. An increase of 7 thousand jobs each month for the next 12 months would be an annual growth rate of +.67 percent.  Manufacturing jobs were down for the last 12 months by 46 thousand. The growth rate for the last 15 years is +.50%. Manufacturing ranks 6th among 12 major sectors in the economy with 7.9 percent of establishment jobs.

4. Trade, Transportation & Utility -3

Trade, both wholesale and retail, transportation and utility employment were down 3 thousand jobs from April with 28.709 million jobs in May. A decrease of 3 thousand jobs each month for the next 12 months would be an annual growth rate of -.13 percent. Jobs are down by 56 thousand for last 12 months. Growth rates for the last 15 years are +.95 percent. Jobs in these sectors rank first as the biggest sectors with combined employment of 18.1 percent of total establishment employment.

5. Information Services -2

Information Services employment was down by 2 thousand jobs from April with 2.783 million jobs in May.  (Note 2 below)  A decrease of 2 thousand jobs each month for the next 12 months would be an annual growth rate of –.86 percent. Jobs are down by 81 thousand for the last 12 months. Information jobs reached 3.7 million at the end of 2000, but started dropping, reaching 3 million by 2004 but has stayed close to 3.0 million in the last decade. Information Services is a small sector ranking 11th of 12 with 1.8 percent of establishment jobs.

6. Financial Activities -22

Financial Activities jobs were down by 22 thousand jobs from April to 9.104 million in May. A decrease of 22 thousand jobs for the next 12 months would be an annual growth rate of -2.89 percent. Jobs are down by 107 thousand for the last 12 months.  (Note 3 below) This sector also includes real estate as well as real estate lending. The 15 year growth rate is +1.12 percent. Financial activities rank 8th of 12 with 5.8 percent of establishment jobs.

7. Business and Professional Services +6

Business and Professional Service jobs went up 6 thousand from April to 22.468 million in May. An increase of 6 thousand each month for the next 12 months would be an annual growth rate of +.32 percent. Jobs are down 18 thousand for the last 12 months. Note 4 The annual growth rate for the last 15 years was +1.76 percent. It ranks as 2nd among the 12 sectors now. It was 2nd in 1993, when manufacturing was bigger and third rank now with 14.1 percent of establishment employment. 

8. Education including public and private -5

Education jobs were down 5 thousand jobs from April at 14.863 million in May. A decrease of 5 thousand jobs each month for the next 12 months would be an annual growth rate of -.43 percent. These include public and private education. Jobs are down 40 thousand for the last 12 months. (note 5) The 15 year growth rate equals +.64 percent. Education ranks 5th among 12 sectors with 9.4 percent of establishment jobs.

9. Health Care +47

Health care jobs were up 47 thousand from April to 23.862 million in May. An increase of 47 thousand each month for the next 12 months would be an annual growth rate of +2.38 percent. Jobs are up 645 thousand for the last 12 months. (note 6)  The health care long term 15-year growth rate has been +2.28 percent lately compared to +2.38 percent for this month’s jobs. Health care ranks 2nd of 12 with 15.0 percent of establishment jobs.

10. Leisure and hospitality +70

Leisure and hospitality jobs were up 70 thousand from April to 17.079 million in May.  (note 7) An increase of 70 thousand each month for the next 12 months would be an annual growth rate of +4.94 percent. Jobs are up 240 thousand for the last 12 months. More than 80 percent of leisure and hospitality are accommodations and restaurants assuring that most of the new jobs are in restaurants. Leisure and hospitality ranks 4th of 12 with 10.7 percent of establishment jobs. It moved up to 7th from 4th in the pandemic decline.

11. Other +3

Other Service jobs, which include repair, maintenance, personal services and non-profit organizations were up 3 thousand from April to 6.030 million in May. An increase of 3 thousand each month for the next 12 months would be an annual growth rate of +.60 percent. Jobs are up 36 thousand for the last 12 months. (Note 8) Other services had +.81 percent growth for the last 15 years. These sectors rank 10th of 12 with 3.8 percent of total non-farm establishment jobs.

12. Government, excluding education +52

Government service employment went up 52 thousand from April at 12.548 million jobs in May. An increase of 52 thousand each month for the next 12 months would be an annual growth rate of +4.89 percent. Jobs are down 168 thousand for the last 12 months.  (note 9) Government jobs excluding education tend to increase slowly with a 15 year growth rate of +.38 percent. Government, excluding education, ranks 7th of 12 with 7.9 percent of total non-farm establishment jobs.

Prices and inflation measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for all Urban Consumers was up by a monthly average of 2.9 percent for 2025. 

The CPI May report for the 12 months ending with April shows the 

CPI for All Items was up 3.8% 

CPI for Food and Beverages was up 3.1% 

CPI for Housing was up 3.6% 

CPI for Apparel was up 4.2% 

CPI for Transportation including gasoline was up 7.1% 

CPI for Medical Care was up 2.5% 

CPI for Recreation was up 2.3% 

CPI for Education was up 2.8% 

CPI for Communication was down 2.0% 

Sector Notes__________________________

(1) The total cited above is non-farm establishment employment that counts jobs and not people. If one person has two jobs then two jobs are counted. It excludes agricultural employment and the self employed. Out of a total of people employed agricultural employment typically has about 1.5 percent, the self employed about 6.8 percent, the rest make up wage and salary employment. Jobs and people employed are close to the same, but not identical numbers because jobs are not the same as people employed: some hold two jobs. Remember all these totals are jobs. back

(2) Information Services is part of the new North American Industry Classification System(NAICS). It includes firms or establishments in publishing, motion picture & sound recording, broadcasting, Internet publishing and broadcasting, telecommunications, ISPs, web search portals, data processing, libraries, archives and a few others.back

(3) Financial Activities includes deposit and non-deposit credit firms, most of which are still known as banks, savings and loan and credit unions, but also real estate firms and general and commercial rental and leasing.back

(4) Business and Professional services includes the professional areas such as legal services, architecture, engineering, computing, advertising and supporting services including office services, facilities support, services to buildings, security services, employment agencies and so on.back

(5) Education includes private and public education. Therefore education job totals include public schools and colleges as well as private schools and colleges. back

(6) Health care includes ambulatory care, private hospitals, nursing and residential care, and social services including child care. back

(7) Leisure and hospitality has establishment with arts, entertainment and recreation which has performing arts, spectator sports, gambling, fitness centers and others, which are the leisure part. The hospitality part has accommodations, motels, hotels, RV parks, and full service and fast food restaurants. back

(8) Other is a smorgasbord of repair and maintenance services, especially car repair, personal services and non-profit services of organizations like foundations, social advocacy and civic groups, and business, professional, labor unions, political groups and political parties. back

(9) Government job totals include federal, state, and local government administrative work but without education jobs. back

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Notes

Jobs are not the same as employment because jobs are counted once but one person could have two jobs adding one to employment but two to jobs. Also the employment numbers include agricultural workers, the self employed, unpaid family workers, household workers and those on unpaid leave. Jobs are establishment jobs and non-other. back

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Woodrow Wilson: The Light Withdrawn

Christopher Cox, Woodrow Wilson: The Light Withdrawn, (NY: Simon & Shuster, 2024), ISBN 978-1-6680-1078-5

This new biography of Woodrow Wilson gets its subtitle from the first line of the John Greenleaf Whittier poem “Ichabod.”

So Fallen! So lost! The light withdrawn

Which once he wore!

The Glory from his gray hairs gone

Forevermore!

Biographies of presidents typically emphasize their time in office and the political events they pursue, but this biography concentrates on racial and gender discrimination during Woodrow Wilson’s life and how he addressed them before and after he became president The book covers 495 pages with the narrative partitioned into four parts. Part I begins with a summary discussion of the early crusade against slavery and women’s suffrage movement before turning to Wilson’s 1856 birth, early life, education, a brief year practicing law, marriage and accepting faculty posts teaching at Bryn Mawr, Wesleyan University, and Princeton University; he accepted the Princeton Board’s offer to be their president in June 1902.

Other Wilson biographies write extensively of his legislative record: the Federal Reserve Act, Clayton Antitrust Act, Federal Trade Commission Act, and progressive income tax, but none of that appears in this Cox biography. Instead, the narrative through the book emphasizes the documented record of Wilson’s personal relations with family and friends and with university scholars and politicians, both his supporters and detractors. Beginning with his academic years he published books of history and politics in 1885, 1889, 1893, 1897, and 1902. Cox scoured these works and Wilson’s other writing, archival letters, relationships, and associations. The narrative returns repeatedly to the published record of his racial views and his decades long opposition to woman’s suffrage.

The chapters of Part I offer a sampling of Woodrow Wilson’s views during Reconstruction and the early Jim Crow south. He predicts the right to vote without regard to race would “make the ‘disintegration of southern society’ and the ‘irretrievable’ alienation of ‘the white men of the South,’ its ‘real leaders.’” In his History of the American People he explained “It is ‘the mere instinct of self-preservation’ that forced ‘the white men of the South’ to do everything within their power to restore white supremacy ‘by means fair or foul.’”  Wilson’s apologizes for the Ku Klux Klan admitting “the Klansmen ‘took the law into their own hands,’ but undertook ‘by intimidation what they were not allowed to attempt by the ballot.’” He concluded the Klan was “really ‘for the mere pleasure of association, for private amusement.’” Cox provides a thorough narrative of his discomfort and unlikely appointment to teach at Bryn Mawr, a women’s college. Bryn Mawr documents an early episode of a long trail of evidence documenting Wilson’s refusal to accept women as equals.

Part II offers a discussion of him as Princeton President, elected Governor of New Jersey and first term as president. His years in politics forced him to take positions and make decisions on race and woman’s suffrage rather than write or ventilate about them. Cox quotes Wilson as telling his gubernatorial campaign manager he was “definitely and irreconcilably opposed to woman suffrage” and that “woman’s place was in the home.” His writing and documented decisions find him opposed to admitting black men to Princeton, opposing unions, opposing immigrants and purging the federal government of black employees while arranging to have the racist film “Birth of a Nation” shown at the White House.

Available evidence permits Cox to give readers an idea of Wilson in his personal life. Hundreds of letters survive to and from his two wives, Ellen Axxon and Edith Galt, and a third relationship with Mary Peck Hulbert. In letters to Ellen, he wrote “Marriage alone was a woman’s ‘essential condition’ for the performance of her ‘proper duties.’” Readers learn Wilson leaves on vacations without Ellen such as one to Bermuda where he meets Mary Peck and starts an indeterminate relationship of eight years documented with 700 letters. We learn of the personal Wilson, a man of “immutable routines,” who enjoys taking afternoon drives and plays golf as part of his daily schedule, finishing 1,200 rounds of golf as president.

Part III, entitled Holding Back the Tide, covers December 1916 to December 1917, a period that energized the Women’s suffrage movement with intensified political pressure to secure national voting rights. Cox covers their campaign thoroughly. Readers meet many women, the groups they organize and the protest marches and demonstrations they conduct. During this period, Wilson reversed his pledge to keep America out of WWI. He prevailed on Congress to declare war to make the world “Safe for Democracy” while simultaneously demanding to silence opposition to American entry into WWI in a well-documented campaign of repression and censorship. During this period the war became an excuse for Wilson to repress and censor woman demonstrating for voting rights. Cox narrates Wilson’s deliberate use of arrest, intimidation and violence to end street protest that included periods of physical abuse in jails and forced feeding of hunger strikers.

Part IV has the remaining years of his second term. By this time women had the right to vote in 13 states, including New York, increasing the political risk to Democratic party opponents of voting. Then Republicans took over the House and Senate in the November 1918 election. When WWI ended November 11, Wilson insisted on going to Paris to negotiate the peace treaty and establish a League of Nations instead of staying home to confront domestic turmoil, especially passing a federal budget, inflation and violent race riots. Cox tells the remaining story of Wilson maneuvering within his administration and his posturing in the House and Senate in the political fight to secure voting rights for woman. Cox gives details of the Congressional debate and final votes in June 1919. Tennessee became the last state to ratify the Susan B. Anthony Amendment that finally became part of the U.S. Constitution August 18, 1920. The narrative ends here, or rather just stops.

Over many years I have read dozens of biographies of Presidents including Woodrow Wilson. None I know of leave out so much of their political record to focus on the man and the ethical principles that drive their decisions and their conduct as this biography. Any illusion that Woodrow Wilson was a confident, accepting and fair-minded gentleman disappears in this Cox biography. The glory from his gray hairs gone. Forevermore!

 

 

Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and his Disastrous Choice to Run Again

Jake Tapper, & Alex Thompson, Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and his Disastrous Choice to Run Again, (New York: Penguin Press, 2025), ISBN 9798217060672, $32.00 

 I was given a copy of Original Sin and read it wondering what it could tell me of the Biden saga that I did not already know? We know Joe Biden was 82 for the 2024 presidential election and would be 86 at the end of a second term. How much more information did I need since I could see he had aged just looking at him on television and then he accepted a debate with Trump, which ended any doubt about another term given the blank pauses and fumbling speech. In the Author’s Note they tell readers “Our only agenda is to present the disturbing reality of what happened in the White House and the Democratic presidential campaign in 2023-2024, as told to us by approximately two hundred people, including lawmakers and White House and campaign insiders, . . .” 

 The book has 19 chapters and runs 314 pages and I can testify the authors did an impressive job organizing the material from all those interviews and writing a clearly worded narrative. The primary story they tell shows Joe Biden, his wife Jill and his loyal White House advisors unable to face the very real doubts of a second term; there was denial and a loss of objectivity but nothing Joe Biden did could be called a cover up, a term that connotes legal misconduct. Since presidents have to be visible, their family and advisors have no duty to offer any doubts they might have to the public; the public must expect to make up their own mind. 

The authors interviewed Democratic and Republican office holders, party officials, pollsters and other journalists, both necessary and appropriate, but they added related personal and family history to the primary story. I tried to connect the discussion of the Biden family troubles of sons Beau, and Hunter and daughter Ashley, but that discussion always felt tacked onto their stated purpose: “Our only agenda is to present what happened in the White House and the Democratic presidential campaign.” 

 I found it difficult to construe the loss of son Beau to cancer and Hunter’s legal missteps as part of President Biden’s Decline, or his decision to press on for a second term. The discussion of these matters feels especially callus and unnecessary given just the facts the authors provide. They explain “The Plea Deal.” Hunter would plead guilty to evading $200,000 in income taxes and illegal possession of a fire arm. Biden opponents howled their objections and the federal judge in the case, Maryellen Noreika, a Trump appointee, refused to accept the plea deal, dragging out the case further. 

As I recall President Biden promised to allow his appointed Attorney General, Merrick Garland, to go ahead and prosecute Hunters case as part of his general promise to avoid interfering with federal law enforcement, but that was before losing the 2024 election and listening to Trump make repeated threats to him and his family with claims the Biden’s were part of an “organized crime family.” Recognizing the harassment Trump would create for his family he used his pardon power to protect them at the last moments of his term. In doing so, he was defensive and suggested toxic politics had something to do with the outcome of the case and his need to give blanket pardons. For this decision, the author’s make sweeping condemnation; they quote the prosecutor characterizing the pardons as “gratuitous and wrong” and that Merrick Garland was “tremendously disappointed” and that “To many Democrats, this was another ignominious act by a president who repeatedly put the interests of his family ahead of those of this party and country.” These conclusions feel sanctimonious and hypocritical given Trump’s pardons of hundreds of the January 6 felons. To some of us Hunter Biden’s crimes feel trivial compared to assaulting the U.S. Capital and refusing to accept the 2020 election results. 

I struggle to find a purpose for writing the story of Joe Biden’s Decline. A four page conclusion chapter asks “What if a president is unable to discharge their duties but doesn’t recognize that fact?” The authors admit those close to President Biden were always ready “to attest to his ability to make sound decisions if on his own schedule.” There is a suggestion Congress could legally require the president’s physician to certify to Congress the president is fit to serve, but so far in U.S. history only death assures a president will be unfit for office; there is no mention that anyone in Congress has offered such legislation. The authors mention several other questionable presidents, but offer no solution to future presidents and evaluating their qualification for office. 

 If there was a lessen for the future in the Joe Biden case I could not find it in Original Sin. I make note that both authors have worked in corporate media and wonder if they could keep their jobs writing a similar book about Donald Trump? .

Coming Up Short

Robert B. Reich, Coming Up Short: A Memoir of My America, (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2025), $30.00, ISBN 9780953803288

In his newest book, Coming Up Short, author Robert Reich offers readers a unique combination of personal memoir, U.S. history and policy discussion condensed into 350 pages. Born in 1946 he grew up as a founding member of the boomer generation. He lived through the Civil Rights and Vietnam War era while a student and then took an active role in politics, serving in judicial and administrative appointments during the Ford, Carter and Clinton administrations. While he never held political office, he made an unsuccessful run for governor of Massachusetts and served as an informal advisor to political candidates and office holders during his years as a professor in academia.

The narrative follows a rough chronology through his life divided into six parts that serve as chapters.  Since he met bullies growing up in South Salem, New York and attending Lewisboro elementary school, standing up to America’s rich corporate bullies becomes a theme guiding the narrative. Education at Dartmouth College, Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar and Yale Law School and his work as a clerk to a federal judge, Assistant Solicitor General to Robert Bork, policy director at the Federal Trade Commission, and Secretary of Labor allowed him to meet dozens of future and current politicians and write opinion informed by personal experience.

Reich expresses his support for equal rights and social justice with the stories of his encounters with dozens of politicians and celebrities he met during his career. Boomers especially get a chance to reconsider old events in a new perspective. In 1965, as Dartmouth class president, he met Hillary Rodham, then a student at Wellesley College, and then introduced her to Bill Clinton six years later while they and Clarence Thomas were all Yale law students. While still a student  he was an intern for Robert Kennedy, then volunteered for the Gene McCarthy presidential campaign, traveled to England with Bill Clinton to be Rhodes scholars and figure out how to evade the Vietnam draft. He met Robert Bork while his law school student and then worked for him when Bork was Solicitor General. A 22-page saga of Bork’s career and the origins of the term “Borked” follow. Reich suggests Bork deserved better than he got from the press and Congress.

Reich titles Part III, The Giant U-Turn, that identifies a 1971 letter of attorney and later Supreme Court justice Lewis Powell to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce recommending a shift of corporate America to “mobilize for political combat.”  Before describing some of the resulting abuses and characteristics of corporate misconduct, Reich describes his work with the Carter administration and defends President Carter as not as bad as we think. In two other sections he discusses his relationship with John Kenneth Galbraith and a professorial tenure battle of his wife while at Harvard.

Part IV has eighty pages, the longest in the book, which Reich entitles Failure. It describes his work as a Democratic party advisor to Senator Gary Hart, Governor and presidential candidate Michael Dukakis, and Bill Clinton.  After Clinton wins the presidential election he becomes Secretary of Labor, which he hoped would allow him to pursue an agenda to benefit the working class. Reich describes his failed efforts as Secretary of Labor by narrating his bureaucratic policy battles with Secretary Robert Rubin and with stories of Alan Greenspan and others.

One of his failures occurred at a Bridgestone tire plant in Oklahoma where a failure to install safety cutoff switches had killed and injured workers and remained as a risk to injure more. Reich responded to the failure by seeking an emergency order to require installation of cutoff switches and imposed a $7.5 million fine. The company denied all wrong doing and threatened to close the plant. Reich backed down: “The bullies won. I am haunted by our failure. All I had considered was the moral superiority of my position and the thrill of the spectacle. I hadn’t imagined Bridgestone would take hostage the livelihoods of more than a thousand people.” He was haunted because he made the wrong decision to give in! He left the job at the end of Clinton’s first term to spend more time with his kids; a claim we can believe but readers might conclude, as I did, that he was worn out with Bill Clinton and his Wall Street tilt.

In the gathering storm, the title for Part V, readers get subtitled commentary on episodes of misconduct and cowardice by individuals in positions of leadership. Reich quotes from a speech he made to the Democratic Leadership Council where he warned them of a two tiered society of winners and losers. After the warning come stories of people who promoted or acquiesced in the two-tier society: Roger Ailes, Rush Limbaugh, Bill Clinton, Al Gore, Barak Obama, Alan Greenspan, Robert Rubin and others.

About midway through Part V Reich switches to the aftermath of the Bush recession to discuss the tea partiers, occupiers and other angry people.”  There is special mention of the cowardice of Clinton and Obama: “Both Clinton and Obama stood by as corporations busted trade unions, backbone of the working class.” Recall Obama did not prosecute the Bush era banking looters. Reich recounts visits to Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Missouri, and North Carolina and the anti-establishment rage he found there. He goes on to discuss the end of the American Dream and the end of the Republican party as a political party. The final subsection offers the five elements that make fascism. He finishes with “Americans can preserve our democracy and share our prosperity only by attacking and countering concentrated wealth and the political corruption that accompanies it.” 

Part VI, The Long Game, ends the book with a smorgasbord of personal stories, a few suggestions, and a tiny slice of optimism. One story was his failed campaign for Massachusetts governor. As a political advisor he thought he knew elective politics but running for office taught him the essential personality traits he does not have: narcissist, extrovert, method actor, thick skin, and also avoid consultants and be respectful of media. He concluded “Running for office made me even more keenly aware of the role and responsibility of mainstream media in a democracy in danger of coming apart.”

Other stories describe an aborted appearance with “Dr. Phil,” his friendship and admiration for Bernie Sanders, the pleasure of seeing and remembering some of his students. The last pages have some broad suggestions for restoring capitalism, reclaiming patriotism, creating better workplaces, and sharing profits. The book ends with thoughts on growing old, 79, and the need for the younger generation to take over and restore democracy.

The Reich book is built on the same ethical principles as similar books and commentary by others like Arlie Russel Hochschild, Heather Cox Richardson, and recent books of Steven Brill and David Leonhardt. However, his 60 year career in politics and academia required him to confront an unusually long list of political disputes and meet an unusually long list of people who became colleagues, friends and adversaries. Unlike political memoirs in my experience Reich agonizes over his failures. Unlike corporate media he calls evil by its true name: campaign finance is bribery, Trump Republicans are liars, enablers and accessories to crimes against the constitution. Anita Hill was right, Justice Alito is the most cognitively dishonest justice since Roger Taney, Democrats Al Gore, Bill Clinton and Barak Obama are cowards; the Democratic party has failed for decades to protect the working class, and more.

In a section titled “My Illicit Affair” Reich describes his friendship with Republican Senator Allan Simpson of Wyoming, a political opponent he admired for “his sincerity and passion for democracy.”  Still friends in 2016, Reich asked why more Republicans weren’t speaking out against Trump.

“They’re scared,” he said.

“Scared of Trump?”

“No,” he said, lowering his voice. “They’re scared of the kind of people Trump is attracting and what he’s bringing out in them.”

“You mean they’re scared of being physically harmed?”

“Friend it only takes one nut case?”

Enough said.

The Original Meaning of the 14th Amendment

 

Randy E. Barnett, Evan D. Bernick, The Original Meaning of the 14^th Amendment: Its Letter and Spirit, (Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press, 2021), 382 pages, ISBN 9780674257764

The book’s introduction begins “Nothing in the Constitution of the United States is more important to contemporary American law and politics than the Fourteenth Amendment. The book that follows gives a “comprehensive account of the original meaning and purposes” of its key components, which are Section 1 and Section 5. The authors organized the history around the three key clauses of the second sentence to Section 1. Part I has The Privileges or Immunities of Citizenship Clause, Part II has The Due Process of Law Clause and Part III has The Equal Protection of Laws Clause. A conclusion of 14 pages ends the book. Be sure to read the March 12, 1871 letter of Supreme Court Justice Joseph Bradley reproduced in the preface. It foreshadows what to expect from American courts.

The Introduction explains the origins of originalism and begins developing the original public meaning of the 14^th Amendment from 1868.  To do this the authors review historical writing of legal scholars that develops a distinction between the public meaning of the original text in contrast to how the text is applied later in constitutional disagreements. While the Constitution has some indeterminant words and phrases Barnett and Bernick argue it conveys an original spirit: “Where the letter of the Constitution is unclear, fidelity to the Constitution’s design requires that judges, legislators, and other constitutional decision makers turn to the law’s original spirit.”

The Privileges or Immunities of Citizenship Clause discussion in Part I makes up the longest section of the book with 217 pages. The clause as written in the Fourteenth Amendment rephrases the original Article IV, Section 2 from the 1787 Constitution. As originally written it was “The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities of Citizens of the several States.” The Fourteenth Amendment adds the phrase “No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the Privileges or Immunities of Citizens of the United States.

The original phrase suggests states are free to define rights for their citizens and apply them to residents and all others traveling into, or through, their state; citizenship varies by state. The Fourteenth Amendment applies to Citizens of the United States, hoping to establish some uniform rights to U.S. citizens. Neither phrase defines Privileges and Immunities, which remains open to interpretation.

Barnett and Bernick narrate and document the history of the chaotic contest to define the Privileges and Immunities of Citizens. From 1787 to 1868 the demands of southern slave holders to exclude black people - free blacks, slaves - from any rights of citizenship dominant the narrative. The federal courts took the southern side – Barren v. Baltimore, Dred Scott v. Sandford to wit – which helped generate the rise of the Republican Party.

Southern secession in 1860-61 left the federal government with northerners determined to redefine and guarantee a national citizenship for all.  Chapter 4 and 5 provide a thorough discussion of the Congressional debate to define privileges and immunities of citizens and to embody them into the 13^th Amendment in 1865 and 14^th Amendment in 1868.

Ratifying the two amendments did not end the citizenship debate. Chapter 6, entitled Enforcing Citizenship, is the longest chapter in the book at 49 pages. It narrates the continuing debate that brought passage of the 15^th Amendment to guarantee the right to vote and for the need to enforce the 14^th Amendment. The 14^th Amendment includes Section 5 that gives Congress the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of Article 1. Barnett and Bernick give a thorough account of the Congressional debate of enforcement efforts leading to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1866 and the Enforcement Acts in 1870-71, legislation intended to quell the violence of southern groups such as the KKK.  

The second half of Chapter 6 reviews the depressing and disruptive role that the federal courts took to redefine the privileges and immunities of citizenship to suit the racist South. In their preface the authors remind readers of the Supreme Court case of Barren v. Baltimore, which claimed the first eight amendments constrained only the federal government, but not state power. This ruling allowed the southern states to pursue their racist agenda with impunity. After winning the Civil War, northern politicians were determined to define and apply the Privileges and Immunities of Citizenship to everyone, everywhere. Again though, the Supreme Court went to work to neutralize these efforts. The most notorious of these came after the legislature of Louisiana granted a monopoly to a New Orleans slaughterhouse, denying the right of citizens to choose their occupation as a fundamental part of citizenship.  

In the Slaughterhouse cases that ended in 1873 the District Court ruled against the monopoly, but a 5 to 4 majority of the Supreme Court reversed that ruling as a radical interference with states rights.  Justice Samuel Miller writing for the majority, decided overruling a state grant of monopoly would “fetter and degrade the State governments by subjecting them to the control of Congress in the exercise of powers heretofore universally conceded to them of the most ordinary and fundamental character.” … “We are convinced that no such results were intended by the Congress which proposed these amendments, nor by the legislatures of the States which ratified them.” The opinion by Justice Miller intends to repeal the Fourteenth Amendment by judicial decree and return to what Justice Bradley wrote in dissent as “that spirit of insubordination and disloyalty to the National government …”

After the judicial review Barnett and Bernick return to the evidence they argue defines citizenship and the original meaning of the 14^th amendment.  Chapter 7 reviews the debate and views of contemporary academics, which includes five separate theories of U.S. citizenship before moving onto Implementing the Privileges and Immunities Clause in Chapter 8. Barnett and Bernick argue historical evidence establish an operational definition of Privileges and Immunities of citizenship, which are “a set of rights that preexists the interpretation and application of the clause by a judge. We maintain that, in 1868, a preexisting set of privileges and immunities was locked into the Constitution by the original meaning of the 14^th Amendment.”

The authors list and summarize these rights as those enumerated in the Constitution of 1868, the enumerated rights in the Civil Rights Act of 1866 and those enumerated rights added to the constitution after 1868. In addition, they list other unenumerated rights. Here they suggest that if individual citizens have for at least a generation of thirty years been entitled to enjoy a right as a consequence of accepted practice it can become a privilege and immunity of citizenship. The authors give examples as part of a thorough discussion of how this should work in practice, arguing in sum that judges should “discover the law” rather than “make the law.” Part I ends with “We can state with confidence that the original public meaning of the Privileges and Immunities Clause does “lock in” certain identifiable rights; that it does not lock in others; and that it does not delegate to Congress or the federal courts unbounded discretion to specify the rights that states cannot abridge.”

From here the book moves to a 53 page historical discussion of Due Process of Law and 52 page Part III on the Equal Protection of the Law. Both phrases apply to persons in contrast to the Privileges and Immunities of Citizenship. The narrative here traces the long history of the Due Process of Law back to its British origins. Discussion defines and distinguishes procedural due process and substantive due process. The spirit of substantive due process “impose a duty on both state and federal judges to make good-faith determinations of whether legislation is calculated to achieve constitutionally proper ends.” Historical discussion includes a review of legislative debate, legal cases and academic interpretations to bar arbitrary power and the proper ends of legislative power.

The Equal Protection of the Laws narrative also traces the meaning of equal protection through history. Again, Barnett and Bernick review the legislative debate, legal cases and academic writing. At a minimum equal protection guarantees a duty to protect against physical violence, but also entitles people to equal access to courts and nondiscriminatory enforcement of state and federal laws intended to protect life, liberty and property.

The Original Meaning of the 14^th Amendment combines many elements of a textbook with a well-organized historical discussion used as evidence to support tightly focused argument.  Barnett and Bernick appear to recognize the complexity of their effort and so use standard textbook devices to help readers.  The introductory chapter includes a seventeen-page “Preview of Our Findings.” Chapters begin with summaries of what will come and chapters end with summaries of major points. Part and Chapter titles and many sub headings resemble a textbook’s emphasis on orderly presentation. Important legal and constitutional terms are explained. While the writing is clear and avoids academize, serious readers will feel a need to go back and reread sections as they move along in what is not light reading.

I looked for, but did not find, a discussion of the case of Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific R. Co. from May 10, 1886, in which Chief Justice Waite declared "corporations are persons within the meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States." This declaration was not made as part of the case opinion but declared as true by proclamation in a case head note. To my knowledge it has never been disputed by Congress or a federal court, but has justified many judicial favors for corporate America, along with the prostitution of the 14^th Amendment.

Barnett and Bernick make a good case to justify their conclusions already cited above. The founding fathers accepted slavery as a condition of getting the constitution ratified. Even so Congress retained the power to abolish slavery in the territories and the District of Columbia while northern states could protect free blacks and escaped slaves. There was a begrudging acceptance of slavery for what was initially an immoral Constitution, but Barnett and Bernick establish the politicians that drafted and steered the 14^th Amendment to ratification intended to correct that, but they wanted more than that. The record cited establishes they wanted to construct privileges and immunities of citizenship known and protected equally for all. Since 1868 many judges and justices in the courts seem to think their personal interpretation will be a good substitute for the confines of positive law.  Barnett and Bernick sound as tired of that as the rest of us.

Our New White House - Coming Soon

It should be obvious to one and all that Trump intends and expects to demolish the entire White House and have his rich looting friends build him whatever he wants. No lawful means exists in this disintegrating country for opponents to prevent it.

As I write this it’s February 4, 2026 and Trump continues to announce targets of people and things he expects to destroy in his public pronouncements. Include now the Kennedy Center, which he says he will “remodel.” He has no authority to do that or appropriation to pay for it, but our paralyzed Congress does nothing and his corporate friends give him the money as a bribe.

Who will seriously believe Trump will leave a symbol of American history and democracy like the White House? Better to ask yourself if non violent protest will save the country? Remember your state National Guard has a right to bear arms.