Noah Feldman, Columnist

The Constitution Is Alive, No Matter What Trump Does

The 230-year-old document fits America’s modern democracy because it has evolved to do so.

January 20, 2019 at 2:00 PM UTC

Noah Feldman is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. A professor of law at Harvard University, he is author, most recently, of “To Be a Jew Today: A New Guide to God, Israel, and the Jewish People."

To “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States” — To “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States”
Photographer: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Provide news feedback or report an error

Site feedback:

Take our Survey

Since President Donald Trump took the oath of office two years ago, a big question has been whether the 230-year-old Constitution is capable of meeting today’s challenges. Judging by his willingness to flout it — for example by threatening to declare an emergency and spend money without Congress’s approval — Trump’s answer seems to be no.

Meanwhile, a corresponding skepticism of the Constitution’s vitality may be emerging among Democrats, fueled by factors such as Trump’s assertiveness, an acknowledgment of the Framers’ racism and a sense of stagnated progress. Take a look at a recent Washington Post interview with Beto O’Rourke, the former Texas congressman, in which he posed “the question of the moment” and asked non-rhetorically: