What Happens if You REALLY Follow the Constitution
About this episode:
In the wake of several controversial rulings by the Supreme Court and the on-going debate about how the Constitution should be interpreted, Jacobs tried to get inside the minds of the Founding Fathers by living as closely as possible to the original meaning of the Constitution.
He asserted his right to free speech by writing his opinions on parchment with a quill and handing them out to strangers in Times Square. Because women were not allowed to sign contracts—he attempted to take over his wife’s day job, which involves a lot of contract negotiations. He also delivered a handwritten petition to Congress and applied for a Letter of Marque to become a legal pirate for the government.
He also dived deep into originalism and living constitutionalism, the two rival ways of interpreting the document.
A.J. Jacobs is a journalist, lecturer, and human guinea pig whose books include Drop Dead Healthy, The Year of Living Biblically, and The Puzzler. His new book is The Year of Living Constitutionally: One Man’s Humble Quest to Follow the Constitution’s Original Meaning.
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This video was sponsored by Brilliant.
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Transcript
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