This week marks 238 years since the signing of the U.S. Constitution at Independence Hall in Philadelphia.

The language of that document has been debated ever since by lawyers, judges, and scholars.

Tonight, we bring you the first of two conversations about that debate.

Omna Nawaz recently sat down with John Malcolm. He's the

executive editor of The Guide to the Constitution, which is put out by the Conservative Heritage Foundation.

It's part of our On Democracy series about the range of perspectives about how our government should

function, what led to this moment in history, and where the country

goes next.

John Malcolm, welcome to The News Hour.

Thanks for being here.

It's a pleasure to be with you.

So there were two earlier editions of this book, 2005 and 2014.

You have called this edition dramatically different from those first two.

So how so and why this book now?

This volume, 900 pages, covers every clause of the Constitution, 213 essays. There's a preface

by Justice Alito and a forward by former Attorney General Ed Meese. It covers each clause

all the way from the experience of what the colonists were experiencing

with respect to that issue at the hands of the British, and then how that issue was treated

in the Articles of Confederation, how it was discussed at the Constitutional Convention,

how it was discussed at the ratifying conventions, and then how early administrations,

the Washington, Adams,

Jefferson administration treated that issue. And then finally, how the courts have treated that

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