The Constitution Is Still Working... But Just Barely. w/ NYU Professor Melissa Murray

Two weeks before America turns 250, Grant sits down with NYU Law Professor Melissa Murray, co-host of the Strict Scrutiny podcast and one of the country's leading legal scholars, to talk about her brand new book: The US Constitution: A Comprehensive and Annotated Guide for the Modern Reader.

The conversation covers what the framers actually got wrong (they were elitists who didn't trust ordinary people), what they got right (the structural checks that are still holding, barely), and what most Americans don't know about the Constitution because we stopped teaching it properly. Melissa makes the case that the Reconstruction Amendments, not the 1787 original, are the actual foundation of the multiracial democracy we're trying to preserve right now, and explains why the people who want you to stop teaching slavery also want you to stop knowing about those amendments.

They also get into the Supreme Court's six-to-three supermajority, what it would actually take to fix it (court expansion, term limits, jurisdiction stripping), why the electoral college is the one amendment Melissa would wave a wand to remove, and what an ordinary college student with a library card did in 1992 to get the 27th Amendment ratified.

This is a different kind of episode. Come for the civics. Stay for the hope.

CHAPTERS:

0:00 Why the Constitution feels stale... and why it isn't

1:08 Meet Melissa Murray: NYU Law professor, Strict Scrutiny co-host, author of the new annotated Constitution

2:38 How is the Constitution holding up right now?

3:33 What the framers were actually afraid of: trauma, tyranny, and why they divided power the way they did

5:35 Congress is on the couch: why the framers never anticipated two branches facilitating one branch's excesses

7:30 What the framers got wrong: they didn't trust ordinary people, and they built that distrust into the structure

8:52 How the Senate became popularly elected — and why it took the Gilded Age for people to get fed up enough to demand it

10:42 The Constitution moves: how moments of rupture and trauma have driven every major amendment

13:30 Red states and a constitutional convention: why that should scare you

14:31 The Reconstruction Amendments are the real foundation of American democracy and why you weren't taught that

16:11 The Constitution as owner's manual vs. flower care instructions — and why both might be right

21:00 The Supreme Court's six-to-three supermajority and how Neil Gorsuch got there illegitimately

25:00 Court reform: term limits, jurisdiction stripping, expansion — what's on the table

31:44 How to actually strengthen the Constitution: statutes, turnout, and why doubling the electorate is possible

36:37 Judicial interpretation as the main engine of constitutional change — and what to do about this court

38:25 Why the Constitution is only 12 pages — and why Melissa's book is 300

40:00 If you could add one amendment: get rid of the electoral college. Then DC statehood. Then Puerto Rico.

MAKE IT MAKE SENSE SUBSTACK

The US Constitution: A Comprehensive and Annotated Guide for the Modern Reader

PROMO CODE:

This episode is sponsored by SaySo. SaySo is a brand new news app built for people who actually want to be informed, not just keep scrolling. No outrage-chasing algorithm, no AI slop, just vetted creators delivering fact-driven coverage you can get through in a few minutes a day. I'm one of the early creators on the platform, posting there alongside others I trust. Check it out and download SaySo