New Amendments and the Future of Constitutional Reform

We the People

National Constitution Center

News, News Commentary, History

4.6 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 1 June 2023

⏱️ 42 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Earlier this year, the National Constitution Center hosted an event in Miami, Florida, featuring a series of meaningful conversations about the Constitution with speakers of diverse perspectives. In this episode, we’re sharing one of those programs with you: A conversation with four leading constitutional experts about the NCC’s Constitution Drafting Project, the amendment process, Article V, and the future of constitutional reform. The four scholars are: Akhil Reed Amar of Yale Law School, Caroline Fredrickson of Georgetown Law, David French of the New York Times, and Ramesh Ponnuru of the National Review. Host Jeffrey Rosen moderates. Additional Resources National Constitution Center’s Constitution Drafting Project Stay Connected and Learn More Questions or comments about the show? Email us at podcast@constitutioncenter.org. Continue today’s conversation on Facebook and Twitter using @ConstitutionCtr. Sign up to receive Constitution Weekly, our email roundup of constitutional news and debate, at bit.ly/constitutionweekly. You can find transcripts for each episode on the podcast pages in our Media Library.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello friends. I'm Jeffrey Rosen, president and CEO of the National
0:07.0	Constitution Center and welcome to We The People, a weekly show of
0:10.6	constitutional debate.
0:12.5	The National Constitution Centers a nonpartisan nonprofit chartered by Congress to increase
0:17.4	awareness and understanding of the Constitution among the American people.
0:22.1	Earlier this year, the NCC convened in Miami for a series of great constitutional conversations.
0:28.0	This one is about the amendment process, Article 5,
0:32.5	and the future of constitutional reform.
0:35.5	The four scholars here are Aquille R.
0:38.4	R.
0:38.6	of Yale Law School, Carolyn Fredrickson of Georgetown Law,
0:42.1	David French of the New York Times, and Ramesh
0:44.5	the National Review. It was wonderful to host this conversation and I'm so
0:50.0	glad to share it with you. Enjoy it. Friends, the question of Article 5 and the amendment of the Constitution has suffused our wonderful discussions over these past two meaningful days.
1:07.0	We've talked a lot about how constitutional change should come.
1:11.0	Should it come from the courts or from the people through the amendment process and
1:15.8	we've talked about how controversial contested changes can be when they're
1:20.8	imposed by judges on a polarized nation and there's broad agreement
1:26.0	that amendments through the Article 5 amendment process reflecting
1:30.7	supermajority will would be preferable if we can muster the supermajority
1:36.5	to pass them. There's a widespread belief nowadays that the Constitution is essentially
1:40.9	unamendable because we don't have the super majorities
	...

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