In my previous post I joked about Justice Scalia earning royalties from selling Constitutions based on all the originalist opinions he wrote.

Well if someone is going to earn some Sheckels from selling Constitutions, I’m sure as hell glad that its the Cato Institute.

Congrats to Roger Pilon (here is a pic of a Constitution he signed), Ilya Shapiro, and everyone else at Cato, as the Cato Pocket Declaration and Constitution has officially landed at #6 on the Washington Post Best Seller List. It came only 3 places behind Glenn Beck’s latest rant, and ahead of Freakanomics and Sense and Sensibilities and Seamonsters.

This is my favorite Pocket Constitution, and I have signed copies from Justice Scalia and Thomas, as well as many others. Buy a copy and support a great group of libertarians!

I see a parallel with the Cato Constitution selling so many copies of a 200 year old document, and the sale of Ayn Rand’s opus, Atlas Shrugged, which has been flying off the shelves since the election of our 44th President. With society’s move towards statism, the people realize how important the precepts of Jefferson, Madison, and Rand are. As Roger inscribed, I hope that the Cato Constitution inspires us all to better secure the precepts set forth in these documents.

While I am on the topic of pocket constitutions, something I take seriously, it is also worth noting that the Federalist Society pocket constitution does NOT include the Declaration of Independence. This always irked me. And the American Constitution Society pocket constitution not only includes the Declaration and the Constitution, but additionally the Gettysburg Address. I suppose the Gettysburg Address is relevant to the extent it impacted the drafting of the Reconstruction Amendments, but I’m not quite why it is in there.