Tipsheet

Ginsburg: Yeah, the U.S. Constitution Isn't All That Great

That freedom thing is so overrated.

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was recently in Egypt answering questions about law and how the newly reformed government should function. She encouraged revolutionaries in the country not to model their new constitution after the Constitution of the United States. The comment came just after Egyptian officals detained 19 Americans for "suspicous crimes."

"I would not look to the U.S. Constitution, if I were drafting a constitution in the year 2012," Ginsburg said in an interview on Al Hayat television last Wednesday. "I might look at the constitution of South Africa. That was a deliberate attempt to have a fundamental instrument of government that embraced basic human rights, have an independent judiciary. It really is, I think, a great piece of work that was done."