CONSTITUTION USA
with PETER SAGAL
BUILT TO LAST?
TUESDAY, MAY 28 @ 7:00PM & 12:00AM
EPISODE 4
Ask Americans what the Constitution’s most important feature is, and most will say it’s the guarantees of liberty enshrined in the Bill of Rights, the first ten amendments of the Constitution.
Americans are fiercely proud of their freedoms but they continue to argue about what those basic rights are and how they can be sustained in a changing world. Are our rights unchangeable, or should they evolve over time? What is the proper role for the courts in interpreting rights?
Peter travels to Iceland where a few years after the country’s economic collapse, leaders decided to create a new constitution, turning to the U.S. Constitution for inspiration and guidance. This prompts Peter to consider the extraordinary longevity of our own founding document. He’ll talk to a variety of Americans, including Justice Sandra Day O’Connor about why the Constitution, famously brief and full of vague language, has survived for more than two and a quarter centuries.
