Khizr Khan Has Inspired People to Buy the Pocket Constitution Beloved by the Bundy Gang

The war of words between Donald J. Trump and the family of a U.S. soldier killed in Iraq has undermined the Republican presidential nominee.

But the fight also had an unanticipated side effect: When military father Khizr Khan challenged Trump to read the U.S. Constitution, sales of the document skyrocketed, becoming an Amazon best-seller.

The version of the Constitution people bought? It's the same booklet carried around by the Oregon occupiers during the 41-day standoff at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in January.

The pocket-sized edition contains a version of the U.S. Constitution cloaked in rhetoric and recruitment material for the right-wing religious group National Center for Constitutional Studies, says Taylor McKinnon from the Center for Biological Diversity.

"It's a perverse result of Khan's powerful speech that those recruitment materials would be purchased by so many people," says McKinnon, whose environmental group was one of the loudest voices decrying the Malheur occupation.

The wildlife-refuge occupation resulted from the Bundy family's belief that the federal government cannot lay claim on public federal lands. The armed militants frequently held up the NCCS booklet when making their claims at the refuge.

The occupation was led by Ammon Bundy, the son of outlaw Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy.

In the Los Angeles Times, Cliven Bundy described his pocket Constitution: "It's something I've always shared with everybody and I carry it with me all the time. That's where I get most of my information from."

The NCCS booklet, entitled, "Pocket Constitution (Text from the U.S. Bicentennial Commission Edition)," has gone up in price.

Last month, it sold for $1. Now it starts at $2.90.

Willamette Week