Constitution

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  11/12/2021
  

  Bouie: Let's Remember the "Guarantee" Clause

  by Jamelle Bouie

  Article IV requires the federal government to guarantee a republican form of government in every state; James Madison's writings in the Federalist and John Marshall Harlan's dissent in Plessy should be touchstones for reviving the influence of the clause.

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• SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
  10/28/2021
  

  Inaction By Design: Blame the Founders for Stalled Legislation

  by Calvin Schermerhorn

  Although two Senators have been singled out by many liberals as villains, "today’s legislative sausage factory evokes the Founders’ recipe for federal inaction — and their suspicion of democracy."

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  11/2/2021
  

  Wilentz: New Book Says Jefferson Davis was Right About the Constitution. What About Lincoln?

  by Sean Wilentz

  Noah Feldman's new books says that, in 1861, Jefferson Davis was right about the Constitution's sanction of slavery, and only the rupture of the Civil War could amend and reset the document. Sean Wilentz disagrees. 

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• 10/24/2021
  

  Four Myths of Presidential Power

  by Daniel Farber

  History looms large in arguments about the Constitution these days. But there are widespread misunderstandings of what history tells us about presidential powers, from making war to being impeached. 

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• SOURCE: Washington Post
  9/23/2021
  

  Is the Constitutional Crisis Already Here?

  by Robert Kagan

  "The Framers did not establish safeguards against the possibility that national-party solidarity would transcend state boundaries because they did not imagine such a thing was possible."

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• SOURCE: Washington Post
  9/14/2021
  

  Why Can't our Political System Address our Biggest Problems? Blame the Founders

  by Max Boot

  From COVID to guns to infant mortality to health care, the United States does worse than other industrial democracies at managing basic problems. It's time to recognize that design flaws of the system are a big part of the problem. 

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• 9/19/2021
  

  For Constitution Day, Let's Toast the Losers of the Convention

  by Richard Hall

  "On Constitution Day, I say drink a toast to the losers. Let us study their criticisms of our imperfect system."

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  8/28/2021
  

  Bouie: The Founders Lived in a Foreign World

  Times columnist Jamelle Bouie draws on the work of historians Matt Glassman, Stanley Elkins and Eric McKitrick, and Susan Dunn to argue that the Founders did not, in fact, get it right the first time – even for the society they lived in, let alone for ours.

• 
• SOURCE: The Atlantic
  8/13/2021
  

  Schwarzenegger: Those Refusing Masking are "Schmucks"

  Did the Founders intend freedom to mean rejecting sacrifice for the common good? The Governator says that's ridiculous. 

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  8/4/2021
  

  Jefferson Expected the Constitution to Last 19 Years. Where are We Now?

  by Jesse Wegman

  Our eighteenth-century Constitution combines with twenty-first century partisanship to block meaningful reforms and place basic rights in the hands of the judiciary. A panel of legal scholars weighs in on the possibility of change. 

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• SOURCE: The Bulwark
  7/23/2021
  

  America's Founding was Imperfect. Just Ask the Founders

  by George Thomas

  "The American founding was imperfect. America’s founders weren’t just aware of the point, they insisted on it."

• 
• 6/6/2021
  

  America's First Peaceful (Just Barely!) Transfer of Power

  by Akhil Reed Amar

  While the selection of Thomas Jefferson as the third president in 1801 (after an electoral college deadlock) is touted as a crucial peaceful transfer of presidential power from one party to another, the transition was far more fraught with peril than most realize. 

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• SOURCE: WBUR
  5/17/2021
  

  'The Words That Made Us': Scholar Akhil Reed Amar On How To Better Understand The Constitution

  "Scholar Akhil Reed Amar says the one thing every single American shares is the United States Constitution. He shares why he wants Americans to better understand the words that made us."

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• SOURCE: Los Angeles Review of Books
  5/8/2021
  

  Hamilton, Hip-Hop, and the Law (Review)

  by Stephen Rohde

  Lisa Tucker's edited volume of essays uses the musical "Hamilton" as a lens on several significant legal issues ranging from originalism to employment discrimination. 

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• SOURCE: The Atlantic
  5/4/2021
  

  The Year That Changed Everything

  by Akhil Reed Amar

  A legal historian and constitutional scholar considers the founding document in terms of the process of its founding. Neither cynical nor purely idealistic, the Constitution did submit to ratification by a broad vote, but pursued national security by institutionalizing the slave power. 

• 
• 3/7/2021
  

  Was Madison Mistaken?

  by Carl Pletsch

  The divisive Trump years have called the wisdom of the Framers into question, but the author contends that James Madison in particular anticipated how a republic would be challenged by partisanship and designed one that could withstand that challenge (he just never claimed it would be easy). 

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• 2/21/2021
  

  Don't Defend Democracy With Half-Truths About the Past

  by Brook Thomas

  Although the Capitol riots raised deep concern about the rule of law, there is a deeper challenge ahead of the nation: to understand and change the undemocratic aspects of our foundational law and refuse half-measures in the name of unity.

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• SOURCE: The Atlantic
  2/15/2021
  

  The Founders Were Wrong About Democracy

  by David Frum

  The conservative commentator writes that the framers' concern with broad populist movements shouldn't overshadowing the greater damage done to democracy by a minority faction that controls key institutions and follows its own fickle self-interest.

• 
• SOURCE: The Nation
  11/17/2020
  

  American Democracy Was Never Supposed to Work

  by Richard Kreitner

  "Merely ousting Trump is not enough without addressing more fundamental weaknesses in our political system, especially an outdated Constitution that continues to serve a minority of wealthy and white citizens and to curb any movements that might threaten their wealth and power."

• 
• SOURCE: The Atlantic
  10/21/2020
  

  The Forgotten Third Amendment Could Give Pandemic-Struck America a Way Forward

  by Alexander Zhang

  Could the Third Amendment's ban on quartering of troops in private homes be expanded to establish a right to protection against pandemics? The history of troop quartering shows objections to it were closely connected with fear of disease.