OpEd: Our Broken Constitution

Sandford Levinson published an op-ed about our broken constitution in Monday's Los Angeles Times.

"To believe that our Constitution is perfect," the Texas law professor wrote, "-- or even truly adequate to the world we live in — is equivalent to believing that it is safe to continue driving a car with bad brakes and dangerously worn tires. Even if we have been able to make trips safely in the past, we are criminally negligent in believing that we can continue to do so.

"... it is extraordinarily difficult to amend the U.S. Constitution. A mere 13 legislative houses in separate states can block an amendment supported by the overwhelming majority of Americans....This does not free us, though, from the duty to reflect on the adequacy of the Constitution and to take measures to lessen the unacceptable risks that it poses to 'government of the people, by the people, and for the people'."

The Framers left a lot unfinished, not all of it completed by the conclusion of the bloodiest civil war in history. Even if reform does not always succeed, having serious debates -- on, say, clarifying the Second Amendment's muddy language on gun possession or about ridding the document of such ridiculously antiquated and undemocratic institutions as the Electoral College and the U.S. Senate -- would go a long way toward making our practical democracy more functional.

Our Broken Constitution by Prof. Sanford Levinson in the L.A. Times.