Lori Falce set out at the beginning of 2026 to remind her readers what the U.S. Constitution is all about. She wanted to have something special to offer to TribLIVE’s opinion page that marked the country’s 250th anniversary. Granted, the Constitution came several years after the Declaration of Independence, but the document is the bedrock that supports all the laws of the land. It established the structure and powers of a federal government.
Falce is the community engagement editor for TribLIVE, the digital news platform published by Trib Total Media in western Pennsylvania. Her series goes beyond the best-known amendments. It’s a look at every amendment, with expert sourcing from local institutions. Some of the amendments may not seem relevant today, but they all played an important part in the “Constitution Under Construction,” which is what Falce named her column.
She used building metaphors to make the Constitution’s amendments easier to understand. The Eighth Amendment, for example, functions like a building code for the justice system. Excessive bail or fines are not allowed. No cruel or unusual punishments. But it requires an “implied measure of proportionality,” as one of F...