The Gift of the Constitution

Editorial of The New York Sun | December 25, 2019

As President Trump and Speaker Pelosi retreat to their corners for Christmas, we find ourselves thinking of the gift of the Constitution. It was ten years ago that the Sun started writing about America’s “constitutional moment.” We had just brought out — as “The Citizen’s Constitution” — our annotated guide to the national parchment. It was animated by a sense that our politics had become so divided, so bitter, that our factions would end up fighting ever more battles on America’s legal bedrock.

What an understatement that turned out to be. Who could have imagined how ubiquitous the resort to the Constitution would become in our everyday politics. When we started writing about the “constitutional moment,” the soothing years of George W. Bush had just ended, and the mellifluous years of Barack Obama were just beginning. President Trump hadn’t even fetched up on the scope. Now almost everything, including junior high school bathrooms, becomes a constitutional test.............To Read More...