This is an important book. It's a mere 200 pages, plus another 27 pages of footnotes and glossary and an appendix of closing comments. That last bit is worth the price of the entire book. If you don't count Life's interruptions, it took me a month to read [Retained by the People] because I had to ponder (interpret, if you will) the text. I suppose if I had any college courses in Constitutional Law, it would have been easier; maybe not.

The perspective of the writing is from the Left of Political Center. There is somewhat harsh criticism of the Conservative judges serving on the Supreme Court. He dished it out to the more Liberal judges as well, but not to the same degree.

The 9th Amendment states (in my own words), "By the way, we've mentioned a few Rights of the People earlier, but we want to state for the record that there are lots of other unspecified rights that belong to the People. The Government must understand that what ~it~ may do is defined in the Constitution only, and anything else is not the Government's to muck around with". And now you see why I'm not in politics -- I lack eloquence.

This book ought to be required reading for all kids in high school taking U.S. History 101. ( )