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Photograph by Dwight Eschliman for TIME   People on the right
and left constantly ask what the framers would say about some
event that is happening today. What would the framers say about
whether the drones over Libya constitute a violation of Article
I, Section 8, which gives Congress the power to declare war?
Well, since George Washington didn't even dream that man could
fly, much less use a global-positioning satellite to aim a
missile, it's hard to say what he would think. What would the
framers say about whether a tax on people who did not buy health
insurance is an abuse of Congress's authority under the commerce
clause? Well, since James Madison did not know what health
insurance was and doctors back then still used leeches, it's
difficult to know what he would say. And what would Thomas
Jefferson, a man who owned slaves and is believed to have
fathered children with at least one of them, think about a half-
white, half-black American Pres