--- title: Bernie Sanders' Idea for Amending the Constitution description: The insurgent Democratic candidate was on-message back in 1987 canonical: https://time.com/4037304/bernie-sanders-constitution-1987/ author: Lily Rothman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-09-17T13:30:32.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T10:59:49.610Z article:section: History og:title: Bernie Sanders' Idea for Amending the Constitution og:description: The insurgent Democratic candidate was on-message back in 1987 og:url: https://time.com/4037304/bernie-sanders-constitution-1987/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt13719da79f879475/698863eaab6d7783dc6a630d/bernie.jpeg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Bernie Sanders, Bernard Sanders og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Bernie Sanders' Idea for Amending the Constitution twitter:description: The insurgent Democratic candidate was on-message back in 1987 twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt13719da79f879475/698863eaab6d7783dc6a630d/bernie.jpeg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Bernie Sanders' Problem With the Constitution  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Sep 17, 2015 1:30 PM UTC  Six months after he scored a surprise victory to become mayor of Burlington, Vermont's largest city, Bernie Sanders is pictured at city hall on Sept. 15, 1981. Six months after he scored a surprise victory to become mayor of Burlington, Vermont's largest city, Bernie Sanders is pictured at city hall on Sept. 15, 1981.Donna Light—AP  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Sep 17, 2015 1:30 PM UTC [In this week’s issue of TIME](http://time.com/4038080/the-gospel-of-bernie/), Sam Frizell takes a look at the rise of Bernie Sanders, the rumpled senator from Vermont who has proved to be a surprisingly hardy challenger to Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton. A big part of the magic, he concludes, is that Sanders’ economic justice-heavy platform comes from the candidate’s true convictions. A sign of that can be found in Sanders’ thoughts about the Constitution nearly three decades ago. Back in 1987, for a special issue commemorating the Constitution’s 200th birthday, TIME polled a variety of “students of democracy” on the document’s strengths and weaknesses, and how they would like to see it changed. One of those who responded was Sanders, then the socialist mayor of Burlington, Vt. His point reminds us that the Constitution may be more prone to change than the candidate: --- > “” --- **_Read the full story from 1987, here in the TIME Vault:_** [Contention and Continuity](http://time.com/vault/issue/1987-07-06/page/64/) **_Read the new cover story, here on TIME.com:_** [The Gospel of Bernie](http://time.com/4038080/the-gospel-of-bernie/) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4037304/bernie-sanders-constitution-1987/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4037304/bernie-sanders-constitution-1987/"},"headline":"Bernie Sanders' Problem With the Constitution","datePublished":"2015-09-17T13:30:32.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T10:59:49.610Z","description":"The insurgent Democratic candidate was on-message back in 1987","url":"https://time.com/4037304/bernie-sanders-constitution-1987/","keywords":["politics","Bernie Sanders"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt13719da79f879475/698863eaab6d7783dc6a630d/bernie.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Lily Rothman","jobTitle":"Rothman is managing editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/"}],"articleSection":"History","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt13719da79f879475/698863eaab6d7783dc6a630d/bernie.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Bernie Sanders, Bernard Sanders","caption":"Bernie Sanders, Bernard Sanders","creditText":"Donna Light—AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/history/","name":"History"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/politics/","name":"politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4037304/bernie-sanders-constitution-1987/","name":"Bernie Sanders' Problem With the Constitution"}}]}] ```