In this controversial and provocative publication, Mary Anne Franks examines the thin line between constitutional fidelity and constitutional fundamentalism.

Constitutional fundamentalists read the Constitution selectively and self-servingly. Fundamentalist interpretations from the Constitution elevate particular constitutional rights above all others, advantage the most powerful members of society, and undermine the integrity of the document all together. The conventional fetish for the Second Amendment ( about The Cult from the Constitution enforced by groups such as the NRA) provides an obvious example of constitutional fundamentalism; the liberal fetish for the First Amendment (enforced by groupings such as the ACLU) is usually less apparent but no less important. Economic and civil libertarianism possess increasingly merged to produce a deregulatory, ‘free-market’ approach to constitutional privileges that achieves fullest manifestation in the idealization of the Internet. The worship of guns, speech, and the web in the name of the Constitution has blurred the boundaries between conduct and speech and between veneration and assault.

But the Constitution itself provides the antidote to fundamentalism. The Cult from the Constitution lays uncovered the dark, antidemocratic outcomes of constitutional fundamentalism and urges listeners to take the Constitution significantly, not selectively.