Timothy Sandefur's The Conscious Of The Constitution

In the book The Conscious of the Constitution, the author Timothy Sandefur argues the merits of using the Declaration of independence as a legal document in the legal fight to keep the government out of the lives of the american citizen and thus control how the government expands. This book is a heavy read that while bias toward a small government is a must read when wanting to understand the debate that takes place between the right and the left. The book answers and raises questions about the constitution that make it an important pillar to base constitutional debate.
Sandefur calls for people to take back over the government but at the same time brings in the complexities that is our nation by explaining how the United States is not a democracy and should never be one. He explains, that people need to take charge and become involved and educate themselves. He see the passage of Anti- gun laws and other bills as a growing disconnect between the politicians and the people as well as a direct attack on the Constitution. The author argues that the best option to fix this is in the Declaration of Independence and the natural rights that it professes that informed its drafting and approval. “The Declaration. . . must guide our understanding of our political and legal institutions” (p. 2). It is in this document and the
He argues that a proper use of “substantive due process,” with an understanding of natural rights as expressed in the Declaration, will guarantee individual liberty, and while he may be right he countermands himself in a way in which he tries to stop the expansion of government and thus shrink it. His solution instead would expand certain aspects of power that the federal government