The Brian Lehrer Show Jill Lepore on the American Constitution
Sep 16, 2025
Jill Lepore, a Harvard history professor and New Yorker staff writer, delves into the complexities of the U.S. Constitution. She highlights the challenges of amending it compared to state constitutions and explores the framers' original intentions for a structured government. Lepore discusses how historical events, like slavery and political parties, shape our understanding of the document, and reflects on pop culture influences, even noting Bugs Bunny as a lens to interpret constitutional debates. Her insights illuminate the ongoing relevance of the Constitution in today's political landscape.
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States Amend More, Federal Constitution Endures
- State constitutions are amended far more often than the U.S. Constitution and succeed about 75% of the time when proposed.
- The U.S. Constitution has one of the lowest amendment rates among national constitutions, making it unusually durable.
Founders Saw The Constitution As A Machine
- The framers thought of the Constitution as a machine rooted in Newtonian mechanical philosophy.
- That machine metaphor encouraged stability and made tinkering with the Constitution undesirable.
Amendability Was Built On Belief In Progress
- 18th-century belief in moral and legal progress underpinned a commitment to amendability.
- Framers wanted durability combined with a workable amendment process to avoid insurrection as the only route for change.
