Latest / The Federalist Papers: Explained
Federalist No. 33 Explained: The Clause That Added Nothing
Article One, Section Eight lists everything Congress is allowed to do, and it is four hundred and twenty eight words long. Out loud, that takes three minutes. The laws Congress has actually made fill fifty four volumes of the United States Code. Bridging that gap is one sentence at the bottom of the list, thirty nine words, which its enemies called the sweeping clause and which Hamilton, defending it, called harmless. This episode is about how he could possibly mean that. Along the way: a Philadelphia committee that slipped the most powerful sentence in American law past a room full of…
The skinny
The skinny isn't ready yet — notes appear once the transcript is processed.