Photo: Caitlin Cunningham

Constitutional Crisis

In an acclaimed new book, Law School Professor Aziz Rana argues that mythologizing our founding document is impeding the country’s progress.

The Constitution is often held up as the bedrock of American democracy, a sacrosanct founding document that not only defines our rights as citizens but, two centuries after its ratification, continues to show us the way toward a brighter and more just future. But what if that very belief is actually holding back American progress? That’s the argument in an influential new book written by the renowned legal scholar Aziz Rana, who recently joined the Law School as the J. Donald Monan, S.J., University Professor of Law and Government.

In The Constitutional Bind: How Americans Came to Idolize a Document That Fails Them, Rana writes that while there have been ebbs and flows of reverence for the Constitution over time, our current level of veneration, which borders on worship, is largely a product of the twentieth century, coinciding with America’s rise as a global power. As America’s prominence on the global stage grew, he argues, the Constitution helped us explain what made our country special. “My book is really an effort to understand American constitutional culture,” Rana said. “How did we get to a point where it’s very hard to think and talk about the Constitution precisely because of the outsized cultural role it plays?”

Book cover

The book has generated glowing praise from media outlets, reviewers, and legal scholars alike. The New Republic called it “charismatic and forceful on every page,” while Kirkus described it as a “work of legal and political history that speaks eloquently to democratic reform.” Yale Law School’s Reva Siegel, meanwhile, hailed the book as “paradigm shifting.” When Rana submitted a related op-ed to The New York Times that called for changes to the Constitution, the former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi applauded his “strong case for legislative solutions that will reinforce American democracy.”

As reactions like these indicate, Rana’s hiring last year was a significant coup for the Law School. “He is at once a pioneer who is exploring the horizons of several fields, and also a committed classroom teacher and mentor to the next generation of lawyers,” Boston College Provost and Dean of Faculties David Quigley said.

Rana, as it happens, is also the husband of the prominent international economic law scholar Odette Lienau, who in 2023 was hired away from Cornell University to become the Law School’s inaugural Marianne D. Short, Esq., Dean. When it was announced that Rana would also leave Cornell to join the Law School faculty, it represented a unique opportunity for BC to add two academic stars at the same time (see Power Couple, below). Quigley said that Rana has already begun making his mark in Law School classrooms. “He seeks to embody our ideal of the teacher-scholar,” he said.

Of course, as the success of The Constitutional Bind demonstrates, Rana’s influence has hardly been limited to Chestnut Hill. The book may seem a timely commentary on our current moment of debate about the democratic merits of the Electoral College, the Senate, and the Supreme Court, but Rana argues that demands to amend the Constitution are as old as the document itself. America has a long history of thinkers who have pushed for a “deeper transformation” of the Constitution, he writes, only to be “thoroughly marginalized” by the modern era. The book explores both how we came to worship the Constitution and how we can move beyond the current legislative gridlock that the document enables. Rana was born in Los Angeles but spent his early childhood in his father’s home country of Kenya. He moved back to the States when he was six, but traveled to Kenya often to visit family. “I think of myself as very much an American, but I feel like I have a perspective that’s shaped by the time I spent outside the country,” he said.

Rana attended Harvard as an undergrad (that’s where he and Lienau met), then earned a JD from Yale Law School and a PhD in political science from Harvard. He was the Richard and Lois Cole Professor of Law at Cornell, where he taught from 2010 to 2023. In the classroom, he said, “the energy from the students and the shifting perspectives and dynamics immeasurably improve not just my teaching, but my thinking generally. It’s definitely had an impact on the writing I do.”

Cornell Law Professor Michael Dorf said Rana’s students loved him, even those who may have disagreed with him on some issues. “I think that’s because of his sincerity and his generosity toward the students,” Dorf said. “He’s not judging them. He’s giving his account.”

Lienau echoed the sentiment. “He’s an incredibly compelling teacher, but also a kind person,” she said. “He goes to a conference and somehow ends up on three different dissertation committees for people at other institutions, or ends up being asked to write tenure letters.”

Rana began working on The Constitutional Bind ten years ago. Even then, at a very different moment in American politics, he was struck by the mythology surrounding the Constitution, right down to the way it was taught in law school. He rewrote the introduction to the book repeatedly as time went on, with each of the revisions reflecting the shifting times and attitudes around the document. “The last version,” he said, “highlights how we’re living during this moment in which constitutional support is really breaking down.”

Photo of Odette and Aziz

Power Couple

When the Law School hired the powerhouse Cornell University law professor Odette Lienau in 2023 to become the inaugural Marianne D. Short, Esq., Dean, she wasn’t the only acclaimed academic who arrived in Chestnut Hill. Lienau is married to Aziz Rana, a renowned legal scholar who joined the Law School as the J. Donald Monan, S.J., University Professor of Law and Government.

Lienau and Rana met on their first day as Harvard undergraduates. “We were in the same dorm, and I remember thinking he seemed cool, smart, kind,” Lienau said. “And fun.” Lienau, who focuses on international economic law, grew up in Indonesia, while Rana, a constitutional law scholar, was raised in both Kenya and the States. Their specialties today may be different, but Lienau said they both have always been “very interested in the larger issues of the world, in questions of justice.” They also both majored in political science at Harvard, and even won the same prestigious academic prize, one year apart.

These days, they’re not just each other’s biggest supporters, they’re also the closest editors of each other’s work, even though their expertise and views differ widely. “I have her editing voice in my mind when I think of my own writing,” Rana said. “Her influence for me goes from the conversation level to real hands-on advice and editing work.” Even as she was preparing for the move to BC, he recalled, Lienau gave him page-by-page edits of his new book.

Lienau said it’s been helpful throughout their careers to have each other as a knowledgeable sounding board. “We understand where the other person is coming from,” she said, “but can also say, ‘this is too much in the weeds.’”After living in Cambridge and Somerville during their years at Harvard, Rana said the couple, who have two children, have been charmed by getting to know Boston in a different era of life. “We have a lot of connections and positive memories and associations with Boston,” he said. “What's been really fun is just getting a broader experience of the city.”

Back To Top