The Law of the Land, Part 2 | America's Written Constitution with Akhil Reed Amar

Why should a document from 1787 outrank a law passed this year by elected representatives? Akhil Reed Amar answers that the Constitution is higher law because it has the deeper democratic foundation. This lecture finishes the original Constitution with Articles VI and VII. Amar contrasts the Supremacy Clause with the Articles of Confederation, which never called themselves law and which state courts treated as a treaty that later statutes could override. He then builds the hierarchy of legal authority as a democratic gradient: the Constitution and its amendments, which required two-thirds of each house and three-quarters of the states, then federal statutes, then treaties, then state constitutions and statutes. On that reading, treaties sit below statutes rather than beside them, which is why raising an army, creating a federal crime, or repealing a statute all require the House. He reads the Supremacy Clause as the answer to secession, then turns to Article VII, the last sentence of the original document and the mirror of the Preamble, which cashed out "We the People" as specially elected ratifying conventions and set nine states as the threshold for a union no one had to join but no one could later leave. Chapters: 00:00 What remains: Articles VI and VII 02:16 What the Articles of Confederation never claimed 04:47 Why the Constitution is the supreme law 06:52 The hierarchy: Constitution, statutes, treaties 10:59 What a treaty cannot do on its own 13:34 The Supremacy Clause and secession 15:09 Article VII and the ratifying conventions 19:47 Why nine states, and not thirteen 22:18 From rear portico to passageway Learning objectives: After watching, you'll be able to: - Explain the Supremacy Clause and what it changed from the Articles of Confederation - Justify constitutional supremacy on democratic rather than merely formal grounds - Rank constitutional provisions, statutes, treaties, and state law by authority - Identify actions that require the House of Representatives and cannot be done by treaty - Describe why ratification used specially elected conventions rather than referenda 📺 Watch the full playlist on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCq6-l8oFuvk 🎓 Enroll on Coursera for assessments and a certificate: https://www.coursera.org/learn/written-constitution 🌐 Explore more learning opportunities on Yale Online: https://online.yale.edu/courses/americas-written-constitution