Don't Ask Jill Lepore if the United States Is in a Constitutional Crisis
The Harvard historian discusses government shutdowns and examines the rights and duties of American citizenship.
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Harvard historian Jill Lepore has written a book examining why the US Constitution is so difficult to amend. America has one of the world's lowest constitutional amendment rates, which wasn't the founders' original intention in 1787.
They designed the amendment process to be challenging but achievable, yet it proved more mathematically difficult than anticipated. Political polarization, which began around 1968 alongside rising income inequality, has made amendments virtually impossible. The last significant amendment lowered the voting age to 18 in 1971.
This constitutional stagnation has shifted power to the Supreme Court, which now interprets the Constitution rather than formally amending it. The rise of originalism in the 1970s represents a conservative strategy to control constitutional interpretation.
Lepore argues the Constitution was meant to evolve with changing circumstances, and she sees the 2026 anniversary as an opportunity for Americans to reconsider their relationship with the founding document.
Original Article
foreignpolicy.comhttps://foreignpolicy.com/2025/10/05/jill-lepore-us-constitutional-crisis/