The alarmingly low percentage of Americans who have even a basic understanding of the U.S. Constitution has been lamented by civic leaders and educators for decades. The most recent Annenberg Constitution Day Civics Survey fuels their concerns: only 5% of Americans could correctly name all five First Amendment rights while an alarming 20% could not even name a single one.
In the wake of several controversial rulings by the Supreme Court, the upcoming presidential election, and the ongoing debate about how the Constitution should be interpreted, bestselling author A.J. Jacobs realized that he, like so many Americans, also knew very little about the foundational 230-year-old document. In his characteristic style, he decided to go all-in on his quest to understand how the Constitution is relevant to our lives today.
We are excited to welcome Jacobs to share his adventures in constitutional immersion as told in his new book, The Year of Living Constitutionally: One Man’s Humble Quest to Follow the Constitution’s Original Meaning. During this session, he will talk about his experience following the original letter of American law, during which he walked around Manhattan wearing a tricorne hat and a 1700s musket and transformed his home into a traditional 1790s household by lighting candles, boiling mutton, and—because women were not allowed to sign contracts—attempting to take over his wife’s day job, which requires a lot of contract negotiations. He will also talk about his experiences delivering a handwritten petition to Congress, applying to become a legal pirate for the government, and battling redcoats as part of a Revolutionary War reenactment group.
Although much of his lived experience is clearly quite humorous, Jacobs has a very serious intent. He wants to give us an open and honest look into the basic tenets of the Constitution as he presents the two dueling concepts of interpreting the age-old document: originalism and living constitutionalism. As the 2024 presidential election approaches and the Supreme Court continues to rule on a series of landmark cases, there is no better time to have a deeper understanding of our democracy and what is at stake as we cast our ballots this fall.
