The Constitution of the United States of America

An important re-read at any time, but especially now. We are facing such a powerful test of the strength and interpretability of this foundational document today, and that test will only increase in intensity in the coming years and decades. The core question for me whenever I read or consider the Constitution is the question of foresight: were the founding fathers “futurists” capable of crating a malleable document that can handle the technologies, movements, and mores of 350 years into the future? Did they seek to?

Are we to read some of the most consequential articles and amendments in the context of their time, waiting to be updated for the present, or is there a sacred underpinning to each that should not be changed or tampered with, because they hold fundamental truths of good governance that transcend time? We’ve obviously chosen the former in some cases in the subsequent history of America, but we have surprisingly, for the most part, held steady to this document in a way no other nation or prior civilization has. I am still struck with how short, yet seemingly encompassing, the document is. To look at single sentences in the present, and be struck with how many lives, how many years or judicial, social, military, and/or political history have subsequently been affected and guided by those few words, is baffling.