Vestal: Pocket Constitution worthy of buzz

In his online column today, Shawn Vestal/SR writes:

When Khizr Khan held up that pocket Constitution at the Democratic National Convention and taunted Donald Trump, it was a moment that reverberated with a lot of people in a lot of places.

One of those places was Malta, Idaho, population 193ish.

Malta is home to the National Center for Constitutional Studies, which produces and sells pocket Constitutions by the millions. A few of their constitutions have shown up in prominent places – in the hands of the Bundy family, during their high-profile clashes with the federal government in Nevada and Oregon. Gavin Seim, the far-right self-promoter who live-streamed the last hours of the Bundy standoff in Oregon, likes to hold one up whether he’s aggravating the Capitol police in Olympia or posing for his Facebook photo, Constitution in one hand and pistol in the other.

It has tended to be more common for people on the right, and in the patriot movement, to lionize the Constitution. So when Khan did it, NCCS spokesman and educator Dan Sheridan said he was elated.

“I was excited when he pulled it out – it was fantastic,” Sheridan said. “I’m happy when anyone is interested in our history and the Constitution.”

Ironically, the actual pamphlet Khan held was not the NCCS version. But the moment – and the ubiquitous photographs of Khan – jolted orders at the southeastern Idaho nonprofit organization just as surely as it jolted them at the ACLU, which distributed 100,000 free ones of their own in the wake of the convention. Sales of the NCCS document – which go for $1 each, or $35 for a box of 100 – jumped over the weekend following the convention, Sheridan said.

“That Monday we were No. 2 on Amazon,” he said. “No. 1 was Harry Potter, and No. 3 was Harry Potter.” More here (subscription).

Question: When did you last read the U.S. Constitution?