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The US Constitution was created as a framework on which to build the federal government, but the Framers were deliberately vague in some areas to allow flexibility. It would be impossible for them to foresee all possible conditions future generations of officials might face, or to make allowances for changes in society or to the Constitution itself, let alone dictate solutions to conflicts. For this reason, it's not always possible to intuit the Framers' intentions.

The Federalist Papers, written primarily by Alexander Hamilton and James Madison under the pseudonym "Publius," was intended to educate the population and sell the states on ratifying the Constitution. These documents went into much greater detail about how the Founding Fathers viewed the purpose and function of each branch of government, and the relationships between the federal government and the states.

While Hamilton and Madison represented but one ideological viewpoint, their writing provides valuable insight when attempting to interpret the Constitution.

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14y ago
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8y ago

<p><p>It really isn't vague. Sometimes it is hard to read today because it is written in the language of the 18th century and sometimes we have to reason out what they meant. They made it flexible so the future could change or adapt it to situations, but were brilliant enough to know that things would be different in the future. We are lucky they did this because if you compare our world and the world 200 years ago the differences are outstanding. Franklin was so forward thinking he left a bank account for the city of Philadelphia to be opened in the 1990's.

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Q: Why is the Constitution so vague legal scholars and US Supreme Court justices sometimes cite The Federalist Papers in their writing?
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