Scope and Contents

This amendment states that excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted. Minsky used the book Forlorn Hope: The Prison Reform Movement by Larry E. Sullivan to illustrate this point. He notes that during the 1990's the drive toward prison reform reversed. Prison libraries were closed, chain gangs and striped uniforms came back, and prison populations increased. The book is bound in stripes with the word "CONVICT" on the back cover, printed inkjet on canvas, and is chained to a miniature jail cell of painted wood.According to an interview of Richard Minsky by Bob Andelman on http://vimeo.com/36516102, only nine copies of this book object were produced even though 25 copies were planned. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

Scope and Contents The Fourth Amendment concerns the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures. Richard Minsky describes his version on this amendment on his website. Regarding the enclosed book, Neuromancer, "The novel that introduced us to Cyberspace. Every day there are more issues about government searches of our emails, web habits, and hard drives. You can read about the implications at The Electronic Frontier Foundation and Quest of the Unquietmind. The book was originally issued as a paperback in 1984 and received major awards for science fiction writing. The binding is in limp black leather, to preserve the soft feel of the paperback. A shuriken (Ninja throwing star) is on the cover, and is an image that appears throughout the text. The pink slipcase has the text of the fourth amendment hot-stamped in hologram foil on one side. The hologram makes the text appear as colored digital code...

Scope and Contents Minsky's contribution to this trade edition book is the bookbinding and end papers that deal with the tragic death of Princess Diana. The amendment deals with the enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people: The Right to Privacy. Minsky notes that we all assume we have a right to privacy, but every day that right seems to diminish. From our personal data on the internet to telemarketing at dinnertime, we are barraged. And that's just the tip of it. This book identifies many serious legal issues surrounding privacy considerations. When people become public figures the violation of privacy becomes extreme. Occasionally those of us not in the public eye are reminded just how dangerous and invasive the thirst for vicarious living can be. The binding is an inkjet print on canvas of Princess Diana, with tabloid headlines on the back cover and endpapers with photos of her wrecked car. It comes in a velour...

Scope and Contents The Second Amendment, printed on the book covering label, states "A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed." Minsky has bound a copy of Gathering Storm: America's Militia Threat by Morris Dees with James Corcoran. On his web site, Minsky describes this work as follows: " Morris Dees is the Chief Trial Counsel of the Southern Poverty Law Center. This book documents the hate group roots of the militia movement. Dees is intimately familiar with the players. Militia spokesman and former Ku Klux Klan Grand Dragon Louis Beam was prosecuted by Dees when he led the KKK intimidation of Vietnamese fishermen in Texas. Dees' office was firebombed, and his commitment to freedom has made him a target of racist assassins. The front endpaper (detail, left: inkjet and gold leaf on Rives BFK) is an image of the author as a target. The halo is gold leaf, as in...

Scope and Contents The Seventh Amendment states, "In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed $20, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise reexamined in any court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law." Minsky bound a copy of The Litigation Explosion: What Happened When America Unleashed the Lawsuit by Walter K. Olson.Minsky writes in his web site description of the Bill of Rights series, "In 1789 twenty dollars went a long way. Since the 1970's, 'civil' lawsuits have flooded the judicial systm. Now a multibillion dollar business, the litigation industry proceeds on flimsy pretexts, preceding a search for evidence. The spine of the binding is gold leather with the title foilstamped in silver(neither is the genuine metal). The gold and silver make it hard to decipher. the covers appear to be a collage of $20 bills, but closer examination reveals them to be...