Linda Monk on NPR

In February 2003, Linda Monk talked about the origins of the Constitution and the state constitutions on National Public Radio. They discussed why it is that most people (politicians, included) don't know enough about the Constitution.

Her favorite phrase is "We The People."

She was joined by Nat Hentoff, Alan M. Dershowitz, and Linda Chavez.

Hentoff talked about the "no law" clause of the First Amendment and our freedom of "conscience" --interestingly enough, the words "conscience" never appear in the Constitution.

I disagree with Monk's view that the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments constituted a second Bill of Rights and found that her analysis of the ratification process was too Beardian, but found that it was very interesting all the same.

Chavez talked about how she's made a career based on the notion of the Constitution's color-blind nature and how that's in keeping with the 13th, 14th, and 15th.

Dershowitz talked about the one-word missing from the Constitution -- God. He talked about the "no religious test" clause and how that established a pluralistic democracy and how that broke down a hierarchy of citizenship. The First Amendment, he writes, that the establishment clause and the free exercise thereof, clash and how we might reconcile those differences.