And just think, if our Constitution were in Latin, we wouldn’t have to hear all the living-document, but-
now-it-means stuff!
It would be an utter disaster. We would see even more of the “living document” stuff, as politicians and lawyers would lie through their teeth and most of us would just have to accept it. We would also see regular Americans Googling their way to sites like, “Latin for Dummies” and trying to pretend that they actually understand Latin well enough to know how to read and interpret legal documents. What a mess it would be.
Very few people would have the education to be able to read and understand the Constitution, so we would be forced to trust a few people and leave our law-making in their hands. We do that now, and it’s pretty bad, as Congresspeople count on the fact that many of us do not know the Constitution and they try to sneak laws through that are simply “not in there.” Even our President messes with the meaning of the Constitution and tries to make us believe things that are simply not in the Constitution.
If the Constitution was in Latin, the Congresspeople and President and Supreme Court would have a field day–they could say ANYTHING, and most Americans would have little choice but to trust that they were telling us the truth. It would leave us wide open for a dictatorship–heck, they could tell us that the Constitution allows for a dictator, and most of us would have no clue.
Require Latin for all U.S. students in the U.S.? It wouldn’t make a difference at all! My children were required to take French throughout their school years at their school (age 3 through 12th grade). Only a few years out of high school, they remember very little of it, and certainly not enough to be able to correctly translate and interpret a legal document.
At the moment, the U.S. Constitution is beautifully simple for even middle school students and I’m glad.
