I have a funny filter I use sometimes to avoid silly conversations. I say, “I won’t talk about our government or politics with anyone who hasn’t read the Constitution in the last 3 years.” 

It’s a little tongue-in-cheek, but I’ve used it effectively more than a few times. It saves me from the misery of talking to someone who has no fundamental knowledge as to what they’re talking about. 

Fundamental knowledge when talking about the functioning of our government means the U.S. Constitution.

When I say “functioning of our government”, I’m not just talking about politics. This goes beyond politics. Politics are periodic machinations on top of a system of rules. Think of it like a math formula. Politics are the ever-changing variables, but the system of rules is the underlying equation – the formula itself.

The origin of our system of rules is the Constitution. The Constitution contains the bedrock elements of our system of rules: the three branches, fundamental rights for citizens, parliamentary procedure, checks and balances, our approach to federalism. These are the actual legal pillars of our society. 

By using my tongue-in-cheek conversation filter for many years now, I’ve developed my own cross-section poll of how many Americans have actually read the Constitution. The answer: not many. 

A Marquette poll from 2019 showed that 57% of Americans haven’t read it. My experience is more like 8 out of 10 – and keep in mind that I’m around lawyers a lot, so my sample pool is skewed. In law school, lawyers-to-be spend a year carefully going through the document.

Even though most people haven’t read the Constitution, I have been asked more than once: “If I were going to read it, where should I start?”

This is the best response you can ask for from someone who hasn’t read it.

Let me try to answer the question.

First, let’s zoom out and take a look at the document itself.

Constitution: The Document Itself

Our Constitution isn’t long: only 7,726 words. That’s short. If you assume the average newspaper article is around 750 words, reading the Constitution is like reading 10 newspaper articles. Or maybe 4-5 magazine articles. This isn’t a novel we’re talking about.

We should consider ourselves lucky, by the way – our Constitution is among the world’s shortest. The gold medal for the shortest one goes to Monaco at 3,814 words. Italy’s is 11,708. Ireland’s is 16,007. Greece, the world’s bastion of democracy, comes in at 26,989. But no one holds a candle to India, clocking in as the world’s longest constitution with an astounding 146,385 words. That is a novel, actually almost two novels. ^[1]

The average person can read 7,726 words in an hour or less, so anyone can find time to read our Constitution. 

Next, let’s get some historical context. 

Historical Context

When was the Constitution written? Who was in the room? What were they thinking about at the time?

Those questions take us to the summer of 1787 in Philadelphia when 55 people gathered to hash out a new system of government for a fledgling start-up of a country. At the time, we were just an assemblage of war-trodden colonies trying to figure out how to unify more. The Articles of Confederation from 1777 were more focused on unifying the colonies for the purposes of fighting the Revolutionary War. Ten years later, we needed an overhaul. 

That summer, a group of 55 men of varied backgrounds and interests – the “Framers” of our Constitution – hammered out the first version of the document that still provides the operating instructions for running our country today. As of the date of this writing, it has lasted 237 years. 

Think about that for a second. Imagine our country was an actual start-up company and we had to write up corporate documents and a business plan that needed to last 237 years. Good luck on nailing that over the course of a summer.

But the Framers did nail it. At least most of it. There have only been 27 amendments in 237 years. They got a whole lot right at the outset. 

Where in the Constitution did the Framers really nail it? Where specifically? 

The Fundamental Pillars

What did they specifically get right that summer in Philly – I mean, spot on – that has created the freedom we enjoy? What are the fundamental pillars of freedom, found in the Constitution?

My answer to those questions comes from something I heard a judge say one night in my moot court class during law school. [2]

This gentleman was a sitting judge on the Washington DC drug court – quite the busy place. He saw cases all day and had great instincts for the courtroom. He knew what law students should be focusing on as we started to learn about how to handle ourselves deftly in a courtroom. A credible moot court instructor, for sure.

But what was even more interesting was his personal background. He was a descendent of slaves from the Mississippi Delta. In his childhood home, he and his family lived & slept on the dirt floors of former slave cabins. No bathrooms, barely a kitchen. They lived off the land. When he told us his life story on the first night of class, you could’ve heard a pin drop.

Then he started getting into his perspective on the law and our court system. You can imagine how I perked up to listen to him. I’m certain that I was listening to him more intently than any other moment during my law school tenure. Who better for me to listen to talk about the self-improving nature of our legal system than this man? Who could possibly have had more credibility than him? He understood not just the law and how our system started back in 1787, but how it has changed since. He saw what worked and what didn’t, with his own eyes. 

He had a grasp on the full picture of our system and had felt its impact personally. And he explained it beautifully that night.

At one point, he posed a question to the room: 

“What are the fundamental pillars of a free society?” 

He held up his hand and counted off:

“One, freedom of the press… and two, an independent judiciary.”

Aha, there’s a hint as to how to answer the “where to start reading the Constitution” question. 

“One, freedom of the press… and two, an independent judiciary.”

What makes those two so fundamental?

Think of it from the perspective of the judge – a man who grew up sleeping on dirt floors, educated himself, found his way into the law, and climbed all the way up to sitting there that night with me in Foggy Bottom, Washington, DC as an esteemed member of the judiciary, purveying these gems of wisdom to me.

Freedom of the press gives us citizens the right not just to speak out – this comes from the freedom of speech – but also to publish our speech. This is really important because we have the ability to speak out publicly when things are wrong. To shine lights into dark corners. To root out bad actors. To point out where the law isn’t being upheld. And, to print it. In the judge’s case, it gave journalists the ability to help people in the Mississippi Delta who were being underserved by our nation’s system of laws. 

It turns out most people behave better when they know their wrongdoings could be broadcast to the world the next day.

And once the wrongdoings have been publicized, those who are aggrieved need a place to go where they can get redress. This is where the independent judiciary comes in. 

Those who are wronged – as we define it in our system of rules – need a fair place where they can air their grievances. They need an impartial forum, with rules of evidence, and due process. 

They need to be able to walk up the courthouse steps and file their pleading, while tipping their cap to the blindfolded lady of justice on their way in. And that courthouse needs to be a place where the system of rules is upheld above all else, an independent beacon of objectivity.

So, where to start if you want to read the Constitution?

Our freedom of the press can be found in the First Amendment of the Constitution. The independent judiciary was created by Article 3, and its independence and fairness is guardrailed by other rights that are sprinkled throughout the Bill of Rights. 

Those are a few good places to start if you want to read the Constitution and think more deeply about its principles. 

Those two pillars – freedom of the press and an independent judiciary – are where freedom was born. At least according to a judge from Mississippi. 

I tend to agree with him.

—–

I keep a pocket-sized copy of the Constitution in my desk drawer. I’ve had one since I swore in as a lawyer. In New York, they actually require that new attorneys give the oath orally, in person. Here’s what I said one day in Albany, New York, in January 2008:

I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support the constitution of the United States, and the constitution of the State of New York, and that I will faithfully discharge the duties of the office of attorney and counselor-at-law, according to the best of my ability. [3]

And because I swore to support the Constitution, I try to re-read it frequently enough that it stays top of mind. After all, it doesn’t take more than an hour to read all 7,726 words.

Each time I read it, I’m reminded of those two fundamental pillars of a free society as shared with me one fall evening by a judge from Mississippi. Without those two pillars, freedom as we know it fundamentally falls apart.

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Source

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_national_constitutions

[2]  Moot Court is a clinic-like course in law school where law students practice handling court procedures and making arguments in a courtroom setting.

[3] https://www.nycourts.gov/courts/ad2/forms/law%20guardian%20h
andbook/orientationtotheprofessionprogrammaterials.pdf