Dr. Doctrine

The publisher’s blurb tells us that Charles Fried’s new book “fills the need for an account” of constitutional law that is

“free from legal jargon and clear enough to inform the educated layperson, yet which does not condescend or slight critical nuance, so that its judgments and analyses will engage students, practitioners, judges, and scholars.” The author himself tells us that “commercial speech only attains constitutional protection if it is true.” Well. I wouldn’t ask my parents—educated laypersons if I know any at all—to read this book if I wanted any future invitations to visit the old homestead. Nor would I assign it to my (undergraduate) students in constitutional law. At the beginning of the term, they would find it simply bewildering; and by the end, the better among them surpass Fried in their ability to think about the Constitution. Can I sue Harvard University Press?

About the Author

Matthew J. Franck

Matthew J. Franck is a senior fellow at the Witherspoon Institute, a senior contributing editor of Public Discourse, a lecturer in politics at Princeton University, and professor emeritus of political science at Radford University.

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The publisher’s blurb tells us that Charles Fried’s new book “fills the need for an account” of constitutional law that is

“free from legal jargon and clear enough to inform the educated layperson, yet which does not condescend or slight critical nuance, so that its judgments and analyses will engage students, practitioners, judges, and scholars.” The author himself tells us that “commercial speech only attains constitutional protection if it is true.” Well. I wouldn’t ask my parents—educated laypersons if I know any at all—to read this book if I wanted any future invitations to visit the old homestead. Nor would I assign it to my (undergraduate) students in constitutional law. At the beginning of the term, they would find it simply bewildering; and by the end, the better among them surpass Fried in their ability to think about the Constitution. Can I sue Harvard University Press?

About the Author

Matthew J. Franck

Matthew J. Franck is a senior fellow at the Witherspoon Institute, a senior contributing editor of Public Discourse, a lecturer in politics at Princeton University, and professor emeritus of political science at Radford University.