
How citizen activists - not just courts - shape constitutional law. Named a Washington Post Notable Book, "Engines of Liberty" reveals the hidden forces behind marriage equality, gun rights, and post-9/11 civil liberties. Even NRA's president called Cole's analysis "the most accurate I've ever read."
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What happens when the people sworn to protect our freedoms become the very ones threatening them? After 9/11, the Bush administration declared entire zones "law-free." During Trump's campaign, promises to jail opponents and ban religious groups sent chills through constitutional scholars. Yet history reveals something remarkable: even when power seems absolute, ordinary citizens have repeatedly bent the arc of constitutional law toward justice. The real question isn't whether courts will save us-it's whether we're willing to organize and fight. Through three seemingly unrelated battles-marriage equality, gun rights, and human rights after 9/11-a pattern emerges. Constitutional change doesn't flow down from marble courtrooms. It rises up from kitchen tables, state legislatures, and relentless organizing across decades. The victories belong not to lone heroes in black robes but to networks of determined citizens who refused to accept that fundamental rights were beyond reach. Picture Evan Wolfson in the 1980s, a law student so convinced that gay couples deserved marriage rights that he wrote a 141-page manifesto-yet couldn't find a single constitutional law professor willing to supervise it. Consider Marion Hammer, the NRA's first female president, transforming gun rights from fringe theory into constitutional doctrine. Think of Michael Ratner, filing what he called a "completely hopeless" lawsuit to challenge Guantanamo detentions when the entire legal establishment said prisoners had no rights.