For almost as long as telephones have been a common feature in homes and offices, telecommunication companies have regularly been faced with a situation where demand in a particular street or area exceeds the number of physical copper pairs available from the pole to the exchange.
This incident prompted Thoreau to write his famous essay, âCivil Disobedienceâ (originally published in 1849 as âResistance to Civil Governmentâ). Thoreauâs minor act of defiance caused him to conclude that it was not enough to be simply against slavery and the war. A person of conscience had to act.
Louis Michael Seidman, a professor of constitutional law at Georgetown University, is the author of the forthcoming book âOn Constitutional Disobedience.â. A version of this op-ed appears in print on December 31, 2012, on page A19 of the New York edition with the headline: Letâs Give Up on the Constitution.Loading...S the nation teeters at the edge of fiscal chaos, observers are reaching the conclusion that the American system of government is broken. But almost no one blames the culprit: our insistence on obedience to the Constitution, with all its archaic, idiosyncratic and downright evil provisions.