Akhil Reed Amar, Yale law professor, argues that the Nineteenth Amendment quietly undermines the standard story of constitutional legitimacy. He starts from the popular sovereignty theory that gives the Constitution its authority because 'the people' ordained it, then asks what that theory means for a founding and a Reconstruction built entirely by male voters. Using a hypothetical Violence Against Women Act, Amar contends that courts should be wary of striking down laws protecting women's equality by leaning on a legislative history produced by an all-male Congress and electorate. The lecture moves from abstract theory into a concrete doctrinal payoff, closing with implications for free speech and for how Reconstruction-era amendments should be read today. Part of Amar's Yale course on the unwritten Constitution, this installment treats suffrage as a hinge point in constitutional interpretation rather than as its own subject.