Starting about a decade or so ago, statements made by public officials would send me flipping through my pocket-size text of the U.S. Constitution, searching for relevant provisions. Often, as I suspected, the statements flat out contradicted the Constitution, but sometimes, the language of the Constitution was vague enough to create plausible loopholes. Other times, the Constitution simply did not envision the concepts that were being considered.
While stuck at home during the pandemic, I spent more time tuning into the political channels and reading more articles in newspapers than ever before. With appeals stayed and discovery slowed, I started jotting down my thoughts to address some of the ideas that appeared to undermine our system of government.
I started to think that the way to fend off the attacks on the spirit of the Constitution would be to choose one or two issues to champion for an amendment. But I could not settle on the most burning issue to pursue. Privacy? Abortion? Gun rights? The Electoral College? Impeachment? States rights? Freedom of speech and religion?
After taking Con Law in law school, I have had only one or two cases that remotely involved Constitutional issues or claims in almost 44 years as a civil trial lawyer primarily handling business disputes. Clearly, I am far from being a Constitutional scholar.
Nevertheless, I thought that as a trial lawyer whose job is to make complex cases simple, I was well qualified to analyze the issues, propose common sense and compassionate solutions, and convey my proposals in language that laypersons can readily understand.
As I kept reading through the Constitution, I realized that laser surgery was not enough because the patient needed multiple organ and joint replacements. So, like a corporate attorney tasked with amending a company’s contracts for the umpteenth time, I decided that a wholesale restatement of the Constitution was necessary.
After all, the Constitution is over 235 years old, has been amended 27 times, has related provisions scattered throughout (provisions relating to the President appear in Article II and the 12th, 20th, 22nd, and 25th Amendments), and uses archaic language, grammar, and spelling. So, I embarked on rewriting and reorganizing the Constitution. Once I decided not to only edit the document, I began writing what became a wish list for an ideal Constitution for the 21st century. I felt like the Framers themselves, thinking outside the box and following my imagination for a better government, although I at least had the advantage of working from a first draft. While I retained many provisions, particularly the powers of Congress, I restructured many others.
For example, my Restated Constitution expands personal rights and liberties in a Bill of Rights that appears in Article I, establishes an independent commission to administer national elections and appoint federal judges, downsizes Congress to a single chamber of 100 members with term limits, eliminates the Electoral College and Presidential immunity from criminal prosecutions, and creates age and service limits for all federal judges, among many other things. I explain the purpose and history of current provisions and why and how to improve them.
I drafted my book on my laptop. My outline was the Constitution itself. Whenever I came across a provision I did not understand or a provision that raised questions about how it had been applied over the years, I simply looked up pertinent passages in the essays by Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison in The Federalist as to the original purposes and conducted research on the internet regarding the application in later years.
After a brief Overview, I presented the entire text of the Restated Constitution in Part One, indicating new language in bold. In Part Two, I explained section by section the history of the original provision (if there was one), the problems with that provision, and my replacement with an improved provision in the Restated Constitution. In the Overview, I encouraged readers, particularly nonlawyers, to skip over Part One if reading the whole text in one gulp seemed too daunting.
I researched and wrote at night and on the weekends while continuing to practice law. I started the book in late 2022 and finished the first draft in Spring 2023, benefiting from a week of devoted writing while my wife was away on a trip. A retired partner at my firm was kind enough to read through my first draft and review it with me page by page. Over the summer, I incorporated many of his suggestions into a second draft.
Bearing in mind that I wanted to make the book accessible to nonlawyers, I initially thought it would weigh down the reading and make the book appear too scholarly if I inserted lots of distracting footnotes. Eventually, however, I decided I needed to cite my sources to lend credibility and to fend off any potential claims of defamation or plagiarism. To avoid the distraction factor, I decided to use endnotes rather than footnotes.
Then, I tried to find a publisher. I knew that getting a mainstream publisher required working through a literary agent, which would be very difficult. I gave up that search after a few futile months and turned to university presses that accept manuscripts without insisting on working through agents. Apparently, I lacked the requisite professorship, Ph.D., or name recognition that university presses seem to prefer. At least, they let me know right away that they were not interested, sometimes within minutes after I sent a query by email.
It was very discouraging to get rejections or no responses from agents and publishers after spending so much time thinking, researching, drafting, redrafting, and creating. Consequently, weeks and months would go by without attempting new avenues toward publication. The silver lining, though, was that in the meantime, developments in the 2024 Presidential campaign and Supreme Court decisions kept providing more material and new provisions for the Restated Constitution.
In July 2024, I decided that the book was done, and I turned to a self-publishing service. The service designed the front and back covers, the spine, graphics, the text font and size, and the formatting in general, all based on my input and final approval. It converted my footnotes, which I had easily inserted through Microsoft Word, into end notes, which I had no clue how to create. The service helped me with determining the retail price of the book and registering it with the U.S. Copyright Office.
Most importantly, the service arranged for distribution through IngramSpark, the world’s largest wholesaler of books, which, in turn, has made my paperback and E-book available through Amazon, Barnes & Noble’s website, Apple, and other large retailers. With a self-publisher, there is no initial or subsequent mass printing. Rather, IngramSpark prints hard-copy books as they are ordered. Of course, E-books are instantaneously available.
The basic cost of turning my manuscript into a paperback and E-book was about $3,500. Like any good lawyer, however, I have not been able to resist the urge to tinker and improve, and, as a result, I have incurred additional charges for changing the title (after a search on Amazon unearthed too many books with a similar title), improving word choices, revising sections of the Restated Constitution as new ideas kept occurring to me, catching more typos, and addressing new developments. Because there was no initial printing, the ability to readily update the book's text is a huge plus, despite the additional cost.
While a mainstream publisher provides panache and validation for authors, as well as publicity and promotion, there are certain advantages to self-publishing. For example, I had total control over the content and was not subject to an editor insisting on revisions and reorganization.
I was also able to bring the book to market much faster than I could have under a mainstream publisher's timetable. As a result, from my first contact with the service in July 2024, I was able to release the book right after New Year’s Day, 2025. I could have released it in late November, but the service advised me that I could make more of a splash after Christmas. The lead time for a mainstream publisher, on the other hand, would have been more than a year.
Since I am in charge of marketing, I have publicized my book to my many connections on LinkedIn and other contacts. I have discussed it on This Week in Connecticut with Dennis House, a Sunday morning political television show on WTNH, the ABC affiliate in New Haven, Connecticut. I have written an opinion piece calling for a Constitutional convention that appeared in the Connecticut Mirror, an electronic newspaper.
I also presented a CLE seminar explaining the Restated Constitution for my law firm and plan to offer seminars to other law firms and bar associations. One of my college professors asked me to speak to his class on the history of democracy, and I am hoping to promote my book as a classroom text in addition to the mass market. I am looking into participating in podcasts with a political or legal bent.
I cannot say enough about the benefits of self-publishing. For a few thousand dollars, authors gain full freedom of expression and design. With some legwork, they can promote their books as extensively as they want and may recoup the initial costs and even turn a profit, like some famous books that were initially self-published, such as Sense and Sensibility, A Christmas Carol, The Tale of Peter Rabbit, and The Martian.
Seeing my name on a book sitting on my bookshelf has been a satisfying accomplishment. This work, which contains my musings, ideas, and concepts for a better America, might someday bring about positive change and has capped my career as a lawyer.
Reimagining a More Perfect Union: A Better Constitution for Modern America is now available for purchase through Barnes & Noble or Amazon.
