Review: The Odd Clauses: Understanding the Constitution Through Ten of Its Most Curious Provisions
I heard about Jay Wexler’s interesting The Odd Clauses through Lowering The Bar, an entertaining and accessible blog of legal humor. Anyone who enjoys Lowering The Bar will enjoy The Odd Clauses.
Now that aficionados of legal blogs have stopped reading, I should say that Wexler picks 10 of the least exercised constitutional provisions and both explains their face meaning and application and uses them to illuminate the overall document. He picks the clauses from recent events, which both makes them more relatable and shows that even the oddest corners of the Constitution are relevant today. Now, some of the examples have been thrown out in debate rather than brought before the Supreme Court, but it would be a sadder world in which a discussion of Ron Paul’s suggestion to issue Letters of Marque and Reprisal was dismissed on such a technicality.
Wexler does a nice job at making his discussion both accessible and informed. The reader can see the research habits of a lawyer influencing his preparation and structure, and the phrasing and timing of a presenter in his prose. The result goes down easy as it covers all the bases.
Strongly Recommended.