The Conservative Constitution

What this episode covers

This show is the third in a series of three programs I am doing on the National Constitution Center's Constitution Drafting Project. Part II, with Caroline Fredrickson – representing Team Progressive – aired two weeks ago. Part I, with Timothy Sandefur of Team Libertarian, re-aired last week. We have already heard from the libertarian and progressive teams in the National Constitution Center's drafting project. Now it's time to hear from the lead of "Team Conservative." Professor Ilan Wurman of Arizona State's Sandra Day O'Connor Law School will be representing his colleague's revisions to America's founding document.Wurman is author of a number of books and articles on the judicial philosophy of originalism, which holds that the Constitution should be interpreted according to the framers' original intent. His most recent book is an introduction to the 14th amendment called "The Second Founding." In addition to several nuts-and-bolts changes, Team Conservative took an interesting approach of altering the Constitution so as to emphasize the upholding of the common good. These days, there is much talk about the elusive common good, and roughly as many opinions about it as there are American citizens.Can we unite around certain principles that will lead to the flourishing of the common good without eroding the individual liberties enshrined in the original Constitution?

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