Reread the Constitution

Pauline Maier is a professor of American History at M.I.T. the and author of American Scripture: Making the Declaration of Independence. Here is her advice for President-elect Obama.

From Reader's Digest

Read more memos to President-elect Barack Obama.

Mr. President: May I suggest that before swearing to uphold the Constitution you take the time to reread it. It's short and won't take long, but it’s had a rather bumpy ride lately and needs more careful attention. Its meaning has, of course, been explained over some 200 years of jurisprudence, but its basic points were meant to be clear to anyone. Your most illustrious predecessors knew the Constitution well and honored the limits imposed on executive power and the prerogatives granted to the legislative and judicial branches of government. Please don't skip the amendments, particularly those that protect the rights of the people, along with the provision on Habeas Corpus in Article I, Section 9.

In fact, if you could encourage the people to read the Constitution, that would help get your administration off to a good start. How can we link arms in defense of what the United States stands for, or should stand for, unless we know very well exactly what that fundamental document of our nationhood says?

From Reader's Digest - January 2009

• Barack Obama
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• Presidential Inauguration

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