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Painting of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

The Nation Is Imperfect. The Constitution Is Still a 'Glorious Liberty Document.'

As part of its “1619” inquiry into slavery's legacy, The New York Times revives 19th century revisionist history on the founding.
U.S. Constitution

The President Who Would Not Be King

Executive power and the Constitution.
Painting by Titus Kaphar entitled "Page 4 of Jefferson’s ‘Farm Book"

How Proslavery Was the Constitution?

A review of a book by Sean Wilentz's "No Property in Man," which argues that the document is full of anti-slavery language.
George Washington is depicted in the 1856 painting "George Washington Addressing the Constitutional Convention" by Junius Brutus Stearns.

‘The President Himself May Be Guilty’: Why Pardons Were Hotly Debated By The Founding Fathers

The Mueller report raised the issue the Constitution’s framers feared in 1787: abuse of presidential power.

How Did the Constitution Become America’s Authoritative Text?

A new history of the early republic explores the origins of originalism.

What Did the Founders Mean by “Democracy”?

The main issue they were debating was how democratic a representative body should be. And their answer was “not very democratic at all.”

What America Gets Wrong About Three Important Words in the Second Amendment

The NRA misquotes George Mason to support its own view of "well-regulated militia."
Painting of the signing of the Constitution.

The Original Theory of Constitutionalism

The debate between "originalism" and the "living constitution" rages on. What does history say?

Confederate Revisionist History

Americans should not honor a revolt to uphold slavery with monuments or florid displays.
Original printing of the Articles of Confederation in a glass display case at Williams College in 2007.

‘We Have Not a Government’: The US Before the Constitution

What the political crisis in post-revolutionary America has to teach us about our own time.
Painting of the signing of the Constitution.

The Gun Argument That’s Not Even Wrong

Why the “Founders’ Intent” doesn’t matter.

Impeachment, American Style

It’s our democracy’s ultimate weapon for self-defense. But does intense political opposition justify its use?
Alexander Hamilton

The Hamilton Hustle

Why liberals have embraced our most dangerously reactionary founder.

Slavery, Democracy, and the Racialized Roots of the Electoral College

The Electoral College was created to help white Southerners maintain their disproportionate influence in national governance.

Were the Framers Democrats?

Review of The Framers' Coup: The Making of the United States Constitution, by Michael J. Klarman.
Poster for U.S. Census reading "Have your papers ready," featuring Uncle Sam writing in book
partner

Beyond Numbers: A History of the U.S. Census

To mark the culmination of Census 2010, we explore the fascinating story of how Americans have counted themselves.

Prior Convictions

Did the Founders want us to be faithful to their faith?
Elon Musk reacts on stage during a rally for Donald Trump at Madison Square Garden.

America’s Decline & Fall

The founders anticipated someone like Trump partly because they’d been reading Edward Gibbon’s 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.'
A drawing of protestors wrestling a tax collector to the ground.

A Prudent First Amendment

Often, the proper scope of the First Amendment can be determined only by considering both text and context.
"We the People" collage.

Is It Time to Torch the Constitution?

Some scholars say that it’s to blame for our political dysfunction—and that we need to start over.
Oil on canvas (1993–94) depicting the third signing of the Louisiana Treaty in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Trade, Ambition, and the Rise of American Empire

High ideals have always gone together with economic self-interest in the history of the United States.
Chief Justice John Roberts at the State of the Union on March 7.

The Supreme Court Turns the President Into a King

The conservative justices have ignored history altogether and created a shocking new precedent: The president is above the law.
James Madison by Gilbert Stewart, 1821.

How the Constitution Unifies the Country

Yuval Levin urges us to take America’s greatest constitutional thinker, James Madison, as our lodestar.
U.S. presidential seal

Founding-Era History Doesn’t Support Trump’s Immunity Claim

Historians Rosemarie Zagarri and Holly Brewer explain the anti-monarchical origins of the Constitution and the presidency.
Protesters outside the United States Supreme Court.

What Tocqueville Saw in the Courts

Tocqueville understood how constitutional review, without meaningful checks, could enable judicial despotism.
The leaders of the Continental Congress: Adams, Hamilton, Jefferson, and Morris.

The Disabled Founding Father who Put the ‘United’ in ‘United States’

Newly digitized journals reveal the life of Gouverneur Morris, the Constitution preamble writer, vocal opponent of slavery and disabled congressman.
Abraham Lincoln.

The Two Constitutions

James Oakes’s deeply researched book argues that two very different readings of the 1787 charter put the United States on a course of all but inevitable conflict.
Painting of a person facing another person whose head is made up of sixteen little heads. Untitled (Study) by Geoff McFetridge.

Originalism’s Charade

Two new books make a devastating case against claims that the Constitution should be interpreted on the basis of its purported “original meaning.”
Artwork of Congress on July 4, 1776

Eighteenth Century Track Changes: Uncovering Revisions in Founding Fathers’ Documents

Let’s consider the significance and responsibility of outlining, drafting, and shaping our nation as the Founding Fathers put pen to paper.
Contemplation of Justice statue

The Supreme Court’s Selective Memory

The Court’s striking down of a New York gun law relies on a fundamentally anti-democratic historical record that excludes women and people of color.

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