All along we insisted that the book be simple but smart. There is a way, we believe, to write simply and still discuss the Constitution in a sophisticated way—to be succinct and accurate, not simplistic and distorted. Unfortunately, most popular treatments of the Constitution—in school textbooks, website sources, and the mass media—fail badly on this score. They are riddled with errors, myths, and distortions small and large. They invariably teach that the Supreme Court, in Marbury v. Madison, invented the idea of "judicial review" (false); that the interpretation of the Constitution is exclusively for the courts (false); that the Supreme Court always has the last word on the meaning of the Constitution (false); that the meaning of the Constitution's words evolves fluidly over time (false); and, perhaps most outrageously of all, that the history of the Constitution has been one of steady progression toward justice (false). Each of these propositions—widely accepted by most Americans, even those who claim some familiarity with the Constitution—is seriously flawed. Some are half-truths; some are quarter-truths; some are just plain wrong.
(Michael Stokes Paulsen and Luke Paulsen, The Constitution: An Introduction [New York: Basic Books, 2015], xiv [italics in original])
