The Constitution Explained by Historian Jill Lepore [5:06-10:07]

So I wouldn't say that each, all the amendments have garnered equal attention in legal scholarship or by the courts. And it nor is it consistent over time. Well, again, the Knight Amendment, the enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights should not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people. Right. Okay. So I'll explain it to you. Okay. So the reason that Madison did not want to bill of rights before he said, okay, I guess this is necessary is if the government is a monarchy, then the king has all the power. And you need to declare the rights of the people because you have to carve out from the massive power, the absolute power of a monarch rights that are retained by the people. Right. In a monarchy, you need a bill of rights. Madison said, and this was the argument the federalist made in the federalist papers, in a republic, the people are the governors. We rule ourselves, we create the government, we consent to be governed. So we have never given away any rights. If we make a list of rights, then we risk, this is why amendments were considered not only unnecessary but dangerous, that is bills of a bill of rights set of amendments, then we risk only having the rights that we remember to list. Do you know what I mean? If it's not on the list, then you don't have that right because you made a list. So better just not to make the list because we haven't given away any rights. That's what that was federalist said that again and again and again and again. And the anti-federalist was like, we don't trust you, we want to have some rights. So the ninth amendment is like, okay, well, let's also say, it's a little bit like, you know, when the genie asks you for three wishes, and you say, my first wish is I want more wishes. It's like the ninth amendment is like, and I have all the rights that are, I have all the other rights that even if we didn't list them. And Jill LaPore also mentioned, the third amendment, no soldier, no soldier shell in the time of peace be courted in any house without the consent of the owner nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law. I guess we're not having to house soldiers in our houses, unless for some reason. Joel Columbia South Carolina, please go ahead with your question or comment for Jill LaPore talking about the US Constitution. Well, thank you. I'm enjoying this program. Jill, I teach a course at the South Carolina Honors College on the United States Constitution, and I can tell you that my students are very concerned about the environmental degradation is going on. And I wonder if you believe we can possibly gin up support through the internet, especially from young people for a constitutional convention as allowed for an article. I love your writing and I've got a student is in Harvard Graduate School of History. Her name is. I can't think of her name right now, but she's she's a fan of yours too. Well, thanks, thanks, thanks so much. You know, there is a lot going on right now in just kind of trying to get young people to use their imaginations about constitutional reform and constitutional possibility. I believe it's the University of Arizona that has annually a mock constitutional convention they bring college students from all over the country. And I think also high school students, so I'd encourage your class to look into that. I had a number of students who worked on the amendments project who went to that and had a really great time really, really fun. In fact, I got so fascinated by this environmental protection amendment from 1970 because I came across in the papers of the great birch buy of Indiana, who was the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on Constitutional Amendments. The letter signed from like 420 high school students from Wisconsin, maybe, I don't remember where the students were from. Urging him to hold hearings on an environment on Gailard Nelson's environmental protection amendment. So I think it is a young person's issue. And I think it's as urgent now as it was in 1970, if not more so. Unfortunately, we were unable to get through the history of the U.S. Constitution in a half an hour, Jill, which was our goal. Pardon me, we the people is the name of the book, a history of the U.S. Constitution. Jill Lapor's previous books, a couple of them include these truths, a history of the United States, and the secret history of Wonder Woman, which came out in 2014. If you want to see Jill Lapor talk about Wonder Woman, go to booktv.org, type her name in the search function at the top. And you can hear about the secret history of Wonder Woman. Jill Lapor, thank you for being on Book TV.