Amar argues the Constitution is rule by dead white men.

Evidence

I am inflamed rather than persuaded by prudential arguments such as the following: … Women today constitute a majority of … the … American polit[y]. They are today governed under a federal Constitution largely the making of men who died long ago, men who may not have had their interests foremost in mind… … This is not popular self rule; it is rule from cold graves of dead men … and by small clumps of old men in ordinary government. — Philip Chase Bobbitt, Reflections Inspired by My Critics, 279

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to debates about constitutional originalism, living constitutionalism, and the ‘dead hand’ problem in political theory.
• DEFINE: Illustrates the rhetorical ‘dead hand’ argument against constitutional continuity.