Liberal legal commentator wants to trash the Constitution and start over: 'Slaver’s organizing document is trash'

Liberal lawyer Elie Mystal, who works as The Nation's justice correspondent, admitted Thursday that he wishes the entire United States Constitution could be trashed.

What did Mystal say?

During an interview with WPIX-TV, Mystal affirmed that he argues in his new book — "Allow Me to Retort: A Black Guy’s Guide to the Constitution" — that the U.S. Constitution should be "scrapped altogether."

"If we could throw that out and start over with a new document that was more inclusive of everybody that was written by everybody — at no point have black people, brown people, or women had a say in actually writing the Constitution or the amendments to that constitution — if we could throw that out and have a delegation of all Americans to write a new one? I would be all for that," Mystal said.

Using South Africa as a modern example, Mystal said that when apartheid ended in South Africa, the country eliminated its apartheid-era constitution and drafted a completely new governing document.

"I don't think that's going to happen here," Mystal conceded. "So, instead of that, what I'm really advocating for is that we interpret our constitution so that we extend justice and fairness and equality to all, as opposed to whatever the heck we do now."

Does Mystal's criticism hold muster?

The Constitution does, in fact, extend justice and fairness and equality to all in its current form, via the 14th Amendment's Equal Protection Clause, which says:

All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

Meanwhile, it is not true that black Americans and women have not had a say in shaping constitutional amendments.

While those who drafted and ratified the Constitution in the 1780s were white men, black Americans have been members of Congress since 1870 and women have been members of Congress since 1917. Black Americans and women were serving in state legislatures even earlier than their respective breakthrough dates in Congress.

Thus, because the ratification process for the Constitution requires approval from Congress and state legislatures, black Americans and women have had at least some say in shaping the majority of the Constitution's amendments.

Anything else?

In response to criticism of his comments on WPIX, Mystal said that he had triggered "white wing media this morning by noting that their slaver's organizing document is trash."

He also said that he could write a better constitution in just two weeks time.

Elie Mystal on Law & Libertywww.youtube.com