The Words of War

War. What is it good for? Absolutely everything- regarding the Bill of Rights, that is.

It took the Civil War for the Bill of Rights, the first ten amendments to the Constitution, to become the standard bearer of freedoms Americans enjoy today, said Akhil Reed Amar, Sterling Professor of Law and Political Science at Yale University.

Amar addressed a packed Wilton Library on Thursday night. The overflow watched the talk on simulcast in the library's second-floor Rimer room.

"What we think we know about the Bill of Rights is probably right, but not for the reasons we know," said Amar, who authored several books, including "America's Constitution: A Biography".

To illustrate his point, Amar asked the audience to name famous Bill of Rights cases. "Marbury v. Madison!" "Tinker v. Des Moines!" "Miranda v. Arizona!" "Brown v. Board of Education!"

The audience failed the test.

"Not one of those cases is a Bill of Rights case," Amar said.

Originally, the Bill of Rights protected citizens against potential power abuse from the Federal Government. It didn't protect against power hungry states and localities. After the Civil War, Congress passed the Fourteenth Amendment.

The first article reads, in part: All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States…

"This Bill of Rights didn't mean very much at all until the Fourteenth Amendment. It didn't really protect at first," said Amar. And only recently did the courts start to uphold these rights.

The lecture, Bill of Rights: America's Parthenon, was the first of three lectures in a series sponsored by the Wilton Library and the Wilton Historical Society. 

"It makes sense to compare the Bill of Rights to the Parthenon because close attention and maintenance is needed to keep enduring symbols," said Owen Williams, member of both Wilton Historical Society and Wilton Library.

The Parthenon is the temple of the Greek goddess Athena.  It's considered one of the Western world's greatest cultural monuments.

Amar's work has been cited in more than 20 Supreme Court cases, including the landmark 1998 decision in Clinton v. City of New York, which ruled the presidential line-item veto unconstitutional.

What is considered constitutional has evolved as the United States has changed.

Less than a decade after the Bill of Rights was ratified, Congress passed the Alien and Sedition Act. The law severely crimped free speech under the first amendment. Under John Adams, it became a federal offense to criticize the president or incumbents. However, people could criticize the vice president and challengers. In other words, John Adams could slam Thomas Jefferson but not the other way around.

And where were the courts?

"The Federal Courts enthusiastically supported the Alien and Sedition Acts," said Amar who clerked for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer while Breyer sat on First Circuit Court of Appeals.

Indeed individual rights simply weren't protected.

In the beginning, separation of church and state didn't exist. In fact half of the states had established state-sponsored churches.  Connecticut supported the Congregationalists through taxes. And every state required religious tests for office holders. 

In the beginning, the second amendment called for the right to bear arms, and the right for a well-regulated militia. The aim was to protect people against an imperial center. After the Civil War, the intent changed. It protected against Klansmen and other marauding militias.

In fact, said Amar, most people don't realize ex-Union officers founded the National Rifle Association to protect against southern vigilantes in the wake of Reconstruction.

During the first 80 years of the country's life, people were wary of the nascent federal government.

"It was a new thing and people were nervous about it," Amar said. "People understood state government. After all the Virginia House of Burgesses had been up and running for nearly 200 years before the Constitution was ratified."

The Bill of Rights is a product of U.S. history, which was shaped by its wars. At first, the Bill of Rights reflected the states rights philosophy of the American Revolution. After the Civil War the intent got inverted. People were fearful of states' power, Amar said.

"The Framers built this very important house, this temple, this Parthenon if you like, which divided against itself and it fell," Amar said. "We built on the ashes of the second great war and in the rebuilding of that house America created the Fourteenth Amendment that gives us the bill of rights we have. We can give credit to Mr. Madison because he was there at the beginning. But in the end give credit to Mr. Lincoln. It's his Constitution that gives us the freedoms we have today."