The US Constitution Turns 233…and Justice Antonin Scalia speaks beyond the grave as a new book is released….

Amid the rapid movement of the stock market and cloud data platform Snowflake’s IPO – now one of the largest rollouts in the public technology space – the 233rd anniversary of the signing of the United States Constitution quietly passed without much fanfare.

Following numerous meetings, debates, and drafts, the final version of the Constitution of the United States emerged from the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia on September 17, 1787. To read it in the light of the Declaration of Independence that was drafted almost a decade earlier is to understand the careful thought given by the American Founding generation in ways that opened a new way of life for all people in every state of the Union. To be sure, the Constitution’s articles contained compromises that were and are disappointing in their scope, but the scaffolding created by these leaders allowed a new nation to form and strengthen in ways that would, over time, become a more perfect Union.

Reading the initial plans of James Patterson of New Jersey, Alexander Hamilton of New York, and James Madison of Virginia is an exercise worth doing. Entering the colonial world of America is a window into the mind of those who sought to create a new nation that could sustain the test of time and emerge as a world leader in liberty. When Connecticut’s Roger Sherman synthesized the various plans into one harmonious document, the stage was set for each state to carefully examine, debate, and finally ratify the document that has served us well for almost 250 years.

Every American would benefit from reading both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Future generations would benefit from the people of today teaching their key concepts and articles to the people of tomorrow. For the gift given to us at the founding of our nation is a gift that must remain vibrant in the hearts and minds of all Americans lest we drift away from its core principles of liberty and equal justice under law.

I was delighted to see the release of The Essential Scalia – the long awaited book containing some of the greatest writings of the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. Known as Nino by his friends and colleagues, Justice Scalia’s opinions and essays contained in this book represent some of the finest legal writing in the history of the United States.

Perhaps one of the greatest contributions of the book is the Foreword by his fellow Supreme Court Justice, Elena Kagan. Justice Kagan’s foreword is part memoir and part law school lesson as she takes the reader into her chambers and the relationship she shared with a man with whom she often disagreed.

Though they often disagreed about various legal cases that would come before them, Justice Kagan said she held to an unwavering rule. “When Nino circulated a new opinion,” she writes, “I would put aside whatever else I was doing to read it. Whether I expected to agree or to disagree, I wanted to know immediately – not in a day or in an hour but right now – what Nino had to say.”

One of my favorite lines comes from his dissent an abortion case of in 1992. His opening sentence is worth the price of the book: “The States may, if they wish, permit abortion on demand, but the Constitution does not require them to do so. The permissibility of abortion, and the limitations upon it, are to be resolved like most important questions in our democracy: by citizens trying to persuade one another and then voting.”