A Constitutional Ship of Theseus

Some scholars have predicted that the fall of the American experiment is inevitable and will expire like countless empires before it. However, using they mythical metaphor of Theseus’s ship may offer attorneys some hope, writes Christian Ketter in his March Illinois Bar Journal article, “A Constitutional Ship of Theseus.” 

The Constitution as a Ship of Theseus reveals it is a document without expiration, just like the mythical ship whose parts were all gradually replaced at sea but still (arguably) remained the same ship. Amendments, continual interpretations, and interpreters—both elected and appointed—have fortified the vessel of the Constitution, Ketter suggests. This understanding demonstrates how the Constitution maintains its identity and why predictions of its inevitable fall may be overly dire.

Read Ketter's full article, “A Constitutional Ship of Theseus,” in the March 2022 Illinois Bar Journal.