Justice Stevens: Six Little Ways To Change The Constitution

Just a few words can hold a world of meaning. John Paul Stevens, the retired Supreme Court justice, has written a short new book in which he proposes a few words here and there that would create some sweeping changes.

The book, Six Amendments: How and Why We Should Change the Constitution, details the half-dozen ways Stevens thinks the Constitution could be improved, changes that he says are worth the trouble of the arduous amendment process.

To start, he proposes changing the First Amendment, the protection of free speech, so that it allows “reasonable limits” on the amount of money candidates for public office or their supporters can spend on election campaigns.

Stevens would add words to the Second Amendment to read, “the right of the people to keep and bear arms when serving in the militia shall not be infringed.” He would also end the death penalty, adding it to the prohibitions on “excessive bail and cruel and unusual punishment.”

“I think in time that what I have to say about each of these six issues will be accepted as being consistent with what the framers really intended in the first place,” Stevens tells NPR’s Scott Simon. “I think in time, reason will prevail.“

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