I would like to start out wishing each and every one of you our beloved listeners a

happy 4th of July and a safe 4th of July I hope you get to pop firecrackers. I hope you have great

barbecue plenty of beer good times much fellowship with your family if you end up out on the boat or in the backyard wherever you are, I hope you enjoy yourself.

But today is also a very important today.

And it's important that we remember why we're celebrating.

And that is the greatness of this country.

If you've listened to this show for very long, you know that I have a love and admiration which I freely

profess for the late great Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia and I'd like to

share with you some beautiful words about our country that Justice Scalia gave

before the House Judiciary Committee on the real key to what makes America special and distinct.

I speak to students especially, law students, but also college students and even high school students

quite frequently about the Constitution because I feel that we're not teaching

it very well. I speak to law students from the best law schools, people presumably especially interested in the law, and I ask them how many of you have read the Federalist papers?

And well, a lot of hands will go, no, not just number 48 and the big ones.

How many of you have read the Federalist papers, cover to cover?

Never more than about 5%. And that is very sad. I mean, especially if you're interested in the Constitution. Here's a document that says what the framers of it thought they were doing.

It's such a profound exposition of political science

that it is studied in political science courses in Europe and yet we have raised a generation of Americans

who are not familiar with it.

So when I speak to these groups, the first point I make, and I think it's even a little more fundamental than the

one that Stephen has just put forward.

I ask them, what do you think is the reason that America is such a free country?

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