Does the U.S. Need a New Constitution?
One prominent law scholar has suggested that it's time to scrap the 225-year-old document and start over.
The Constitution of the United States was drafted in 1787 and has remained the supreme law of the land ever since. During that time, the document has also served as a model for many new nations and countries progressing towards more democratic forms of government.
But has the time arrived to overhaul it, or scrap it and start over entirely? On its face, it may seem a radical idea, but one prominent legal scholar made headlines this week by suggesting the Constitution's time has passed.
Georgetown law professor Louis Michael Seidman says that it's time to stop letting a "group of bright men with some odd ideas ... who have been dead for 200 years" to control our country.
Watch the video to learn more.
Wayne
9:20 am on Saturday, January 5, 2013
"A group of bright men with some odd ideas"...anyone who would make a statement like that is to be ignored. The "bright men" based their ideas on the experience and study of governments over the course of many centuries. The constitution is flexible and is the first government to state that the power of government is "derived from the people". These men do not control the country, they set up a system with rights, which they told us "we must defend". The nature of government from their study is that government will encroach and erode those rights if we let them. Franklin said, "we shall see if we deserve to keep them".
This "lawyer" is hogwash and power hungry.
Sergei MacCarron
6:16 pm on Saturday, January 5, 2013
These "bright men" all owned slaves, were white supremacists complicit in the genocide of the indigenous population, feared democracy as "mob rule", and set up a system so that the nation would be led by rich white men, and not people. Seems like the constitution has held up it's side of the bargain on that end.
Power is derived from people? So that's why they constantly said how much they despised rule of the people, thinking it mob rule? Is that why we weren't even allowed to elect our senators until about a century ago?
What "governments" did these bright men base their ideas on, considering just about every government at the time other than Britain was an absolute monarchy?
Stephen Eickhoff
12:51 pm on Monday, January 7, 2013
People like Sergei see history through the lens of the progressive. They don't see the irony of their indictments of the heroes of the Enlightenment, while in the early 20th century their kind were calling for the extermination of "undesirables" like the disabled and mentally ill. Progressives were the ones that wanted to force homosexuals into chemical treatment to "fix" them-- because "defectives" were a drain on society. So you see, people, that making arguments from a poisoned well-- that people you don't like don't have any good ideas-- is a losing proposition. It would be a losing proposition if, in fact, the founding fathers were "white supremacists" and committed "genocide". Of course, they were not. George Washington led no attacks against peaceful indigenous peoples-- indeed, it was the French who incited them to attack the British settlers-- and Franklin chose not to patent his inventions like the lightning rod and Franklin stove in the hopes that all could benefit from them. Indeed, these are the people that the left hopes you won't know the truth about, because then their individual accomplishments will inspire you rather than make you "useful idiots" and wards of the State.
Thomas F Keller
5:01 pm on Saturday, January 5, 2013
I think they should drop the Constitution, Yeah, who needs rights.....Why should we have to vote.....why should we know how to elect our representatives......why do we need the courts.......I think a old man summed it up the best.....GIVE LIBERTY or GIVE ME DEATH......
Sergei MacCarron
6:12 pm on Saturday, January 5, 2013
Rights aren't given to us by stupid words on a page, they're given by people struggling for nothing less. The past few presidents have been regularly violating the constitution with their domestic spy and indefinite detention programs. Have the words forbidding this magically sprung to life and prevented them from overstepping their bounds? Or are they routinely violating the constitution because people are allowing them?
Stephen Eickhoff
12:52 pm on Monday, January 7, 2013
I hear negative words, and no ideas. Are you a socialist, a "democrat", a classical liberal, or an anarchist? I have no idea.
gerhard sweetman
10:43 am on Sunday, January 6, 2013
Two trips to US Supreme court,local NJ zoning law,no jury trial,no grand jury,no right of association/assembly,no religious joining,NO RIGHT TO A HOME,ect. NOT HEARD.
5 Levels of govt goo, 1 fed 2 state 3 county 4 city 5 local laws,lawyers=goo & problem their job is to ####up life,liberty,& persuit of happyness
gerhard sweetman
10:55 am on Sunday, January 6, 2013
Home not castle,Local law allows yearly inspections/searches of homes by code enforcements. Apartments & maby homeowners with that clause in their morgage.
Keep silent you pussys/cowards, or join me
StGabes
12:38 pm on Monday, January 7, 2013
For one this guy is a Professor so right there is a red flag and he is anti-American so there is no credibility and he should be deported back to Korea...
Stephen Eickhoff
1:07 pm on Monday, January 7, 2013
I think Seidman, with 40 years of Constitutional study under his belt, knows better than to claim that the founders believed slavery was "fine". The facts are:
- The Constitution counts slaves as only 3/5 of a person to reduce the representation of the Southern states, thus making it easier to overcome their political power;
- The Constitution prohibited any laws regarding slavery until 1808, which while not as desirable as having no prohibition whatsoever was a reasonable compromise compared to prohibiting any laws indefinitely.
Indeed, as soon as 1808 rolled around, Congress passed a law prohibiting the importation of slaves, which President Thomas Jefferson signed-- one of those disgusting slave owners.
brian
3:35 pm on Monday, January 7, 2013
The constitution and the bill of rights are our secular bible. I really dont believe in destiny, but our founders were destined to create universal truths that are not to change with time or conservative/progressive leanings. They are absolute laws of humanity, and to argue this is either anarchistic or tyrannical.
gerhard sweetman
5:28 pm on Monday, January 7, 2013
Dont you get it, the bill of rights NOT IN LOCAL COURTS! jury trial,grand jury,zoning laws, home inspections, etc. Smell something?
hongfeng
8:41 pm on Sunday, January 13, 2013
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