Fundamentalism in American Religion and Law: Obama's Challenge to Patriarchy's Threat to Democracy

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Fundamentalism in American Religion and Law: Obama's Challenge to Patriarchy's Threat to Democracy. By David A. J. Richards. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010. 313pp. $90.00.

Homosexual marriage and unfettered access to abortion (including partial-birth abortion) are aspects of a fundamental constitutionally guaranteed "right to intimate life," claims David A. J. Richards. If they are part of such a basic constitutional right, why have they not been acknowledged? Why do advocates of an "originaUst" approach to constitutional exegesis so vehemently oppose them?

The answer, claims Richards, is the continuing hold of "patriarchy" that is the supposed heritage of both …