Subject: constitutional nit picking

Dear Rich,
One of your e-mailers wrote “I shouldn’t have to point out that out own Constitution allowed slavery.” A nit worth picking– the Constitution is silent on the topic of slavery. That is not the same thing as allowing slavery. Any state of its own volition could have outlawed slavery without so much as a comma needing to be changed in the Constitution. The main omissions to the Constitution were well recognized by some at the time who didn’t whine about it but got to work and quickly added The Bill of Rights, all according to the instructions for doing so as set out in the Constitution itself.

Subject: Gerecht on Iraq

I noted with interest your comments on the Corner re: the Iraqi constitution proposal that seems to be almost finalized.
I recommend you follow Reuel Marc Gerecht closely in the unlikely event that you do not already.
I predict that he’ll be a lot more comfortable with the role of Islam in the Iraqi constitution than many of the less informed folks on our side of the aisle. In previous articles, he’s stated that we may have to accept things that we do not like in terms of elements of sharia or women’s rights as well as the general resentment that the Shia may have towards us. Yet, as your posts today mention, they will still be focusing on their own problems in the framework of a constitution for a democracy rather than blaming the outside world for their ills. We will then have a more healthy ecosystem in the region by creating a non-theocratic shiite dominated state to replace an aggressive dictatorship misruled by a minority.
I’m sure he’ll opine in the Standard or through AEI within a few days.
My take is that the wording will be far scarier than the practice of emerging Iraqi constitutional law. Our own founding documents are not shy about mentioning the Almighty. I recall some righties in the US criticizing the EU constitution for failing to acknowledge the judeo-christian tradition that led to modern Europe. If it’s ok for us and the Europeans, why not the Iraqis?…..