How many times have you watched the news and heard the phrase: “The founders intended?” The United States federal government states that “the complex role of the Supreme Court in this system derives from its authority to invalidate legislation or executive actions which, in the Court’s considered judgment, conflict with the Constitution.” It is the job of the Supreme Court to interpret the Constitution. In my opinion, however, the Constitution, and what the founders intended is not an important argument in modern day politics.

Take for example, the most argued part of the Constitution, the Second Amendment. A study by Stanford medicine run by David M. Studdert, a leading expert in the fields of health law and empirical legal research, in 2022 revealed that Californiams living with a handgun are more than 2 times as likely to die from homicides involving firearms. Among people killed at home, those living with hand gun owners were more than 4 times more likely to be shot than the neighbors living in gun free homes. The second amendment is undoubtedly not supported by the argument for self defense as indicated by the previous evidence.

Another, less controversial part of the Constitution is the First amendment. It is often considered the single most important part of the constitution, protecting citizens basic rights. However, The First Amendment also allows mega churches to make billions of dollars a year.The Hartford Institute for Religion Research defines a Protestant congregation that has an average weekly attendance of 2,000 or more members in its worship services. Scott Thumma, professor of sociology and religion at Hartford Seminary told CNN that “the mega church on average has about $6.5 million in income a year.” “If you put together all the mega churches in the United States, that’s easily several billion dollars.” There are more than 1600 protestant megachurches in the United States. It is difficult to track how much money they make because they are not required to report taxes to the IRS. Churches are able to utilize money for good, but are not immune to misappropriation. It is for this reason that churches should have to prove their status as non for profit organizations.

Rearranging the Constitution to properly assess the needs of the citizens would lead to absolute chaos across America. With that being said, that does not mean we need to deify the Constitution. The best thing we can do to the Constitution is to continue to criticize it, continue to fight to change it, and continue to regard it as a document that is not perfect, but requires constant change.