Kendall Tietz
A law professor argued in a Boston Globe op-ed that the First and Second Amendments should be rewritten to change how it defines the freedom of the press and the right to bear arms.
Mary Anne Franks, a professor at University of Miami School of Law and author of “The Cult of the Constitution: Our Deadly Devotion to Guns and Free Speech,” wrote an op-ed in the Boston Globe arguing the Constitution has “competing interpretations” that “inspire religious-like fervor” leading to “irrational results.”
Franks’ book argued that the Constitution is “in the service of white male supremacy,” the Second Amendment is a “conservative fetish” and the First Amendment is a “liberal fetish” that “is less obvious but no less influential,” according to a description of the work written by Stanford University Press.
“The First and Second Amendments tend to be interpreted in aggressively individualistic ways that ignore the reality of conflict among competing rights,” she wrote.
Mary Anne Franks @ma_franks | Neither of the first two amendments is a model of clarity or precision. https://t.co/CKIU6us2BI
— Boston Globe Ideas (@GlobeIdeas) December 16, 2021
She argued both the First and Second Amendments “would be improved by explicitly situating individual rights within the framework of ‘domestic tranquility’ and the ‘general welfare’ set out in the Constitution’s preamble.”
The professor also believes the First Amendment should make clear that the freedom of expression is “consistent with the rights of others to the same and subject to responsibility for abuses.”
The Second Amendment “degrades” self-defense because of its “idiosyncratic and anachronistic focus on militias and ‘arms,’” and the right to protect your life should not boil down to the right to use a weapon, she said.
She suggested the Second Amendment be changed to explain that all people have a right to “bodily autonomy,” which includes the right of self-defense against “unlawful force and the right of self-determination in reproductive matters” and the government should take “reasonable measures” to protect public health and safety.
Franks did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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