From a reader:

Jonah, I will take the analogy one step further. Lawyers most remind me of pre-Reformation clergy in that lawyers shield “the law” from the Great Unwashed just as 15th Century priests tried to keep the Bible out of the common peoples’ hands. That is why a crystal-clear document like the Constitution has to be endlessly “interpreted” for we poor, unlearned folk. I am surprised that legal rulings are not handed down in Latin. Happy Thanksgiving,