The United States Constitution: It's not just for conservatives anymore.

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With that thesis in mind, a new liberal think tank and public interest law firm launched in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, hoping to catch a progressive wave in both election politics and scholarly research on the meaning of the nation's founding document.

"There's nobody out there systematically making the argument that the Constitution's text and history are on the progressive side," says Douglas Kendall, founder of the new Constitutional Accountability Center. "The Constitution is, in its most vital respects, a progressive document."

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Kendall was inspired to reinvent his organization in part by Amar's scholarship. Amar's acclaimed 2005 book "America's Constitution: A Biography" describes a document which, with the post-Civil War and Progressive Era amendments, is more democratic and egalitarian than previously considered.

But Amar says that he is far from the first to invoke the Constitution's text for progressive causes. "Before there was Thomas, before there was Scalia, before there was Bork, there was Hugo Black," he says. He recalls a 1968 CBS interview with the late Justice Black, who waved his copy of the Constitution in answer to questions. "He was the greatest textualist there was."

Black's invocation of the Constitution's text, says Amar, formed the basis of the Warren Court's expanded protection of free expression, defendants' rights, desegregation, separation of church and state, and the concept of "one person, one vote."

Liberals Launch Firm for Constitutional Fights
Well-funded progressive group takes a page from conservative efforts

Tony Mauro
Legal Times
June 6, 2008

http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1202421974827