Legal Commentary

I sometimes find it useful to draw the Constitution on the board during my Legislation class.  For instance, when I discuss the doctrine of constitutional avoidance, I draw statutes getting "bent" around the Constitution.  (It is sort of like how celestial objects bend light around them, except the opposite because the Constitution pushes statutes away from its edge.)  Anyway, when I do so, I always just draw the Constitution as a circle.  But it occurs to me that this decision is, as they say, undertheorized (I couldn't help saying that).

So, readers, what shape or symbol should we draw on the board to represent the Constitution?  What is the best you can come up with?

Now, I suppose some people might defend the choice of the circle even on due reflection.  Perhaps their view is that the circle is the perfect shape for our (to them) perfect Constitution.  That is altogether too sanguine, I'd say.  I think a more accurate design would have some lopped-off stumps and other parts kind of pasted on incongruously, to recognize the fact of amendment.  If that starts to get too literal or too complicated, maybe we should just use a triangle, to represent the three branches.   

So what do you think?

Note: I'm aware that one could come up with really impressive and elaborate visual depictions of the Constitution or constitutional law more broadly, such as the beautiful drawings in Laurence Tribe's The Invisible Constitution.  Part of the challenge here is to come up with something a normal person could draw in a few strokes of the dry erase marker.