Constitutional Topics

On its 238th Anniversary, a Look at the Constitution’s Creation: Trump’s Vision vs. the Founders’ Reality

This week, America marks the 238th anniversary of the signing of its most sacred civic document. In a new presidential proclamation, the U.S. Constitution is hailed as a “legendary charter” that codified “eternal truths.” But the story of the Constitution’s birth in the hot, stuffy summer...

The State Of Free Speech In America

It feels like the rules are changing. A protest that was once legal is now a crime. A bad joke that was once edgy is now a fireable offense. A political group you disagree with is suddenly labeled “extremist.” From college campuses in America to the halls of government in Europe and the streets...

From Abolitionists to Activists: A History of Violent Attacks on the First Amendment

The shocking attack on Charlie Kirk on a university campus feels like a uniquely modern horror, a symptom of our bitterly divided times. But the act of using violence to silence a political voice is, tragically, not new. It is part of a long and bloody thread that runs through the American story....

The American presidency is an office of immense power, but it is not a throne. The Constitution, through its brilliant and deliberate system of checks and balances, places firm limits on the executive. Yet throughout our history, some presidents have strained against those limits, testing the very...

You Can Thank a Supreme Court Showdown for Your Labor Day Weekend

As you fire up the grill this Labor Day and enjoy the last long weekend of summer, here’s a thought to go with your burger: where did your weekend actually come from? It wasn’t a gift from a generous boss or a natural feature of the calendar. The American weekend, and the 40-hour workweek that...

Who Decides ‘Presidential Fitness’? What Happens When a President is Unable to Serve

It is the most delicate and terrifying question in American governance: What happens if the President, the most powerful person in the world, is no longer mentally or physically capable of leading? Recent public concerns over the health of both former President Joe Biden and, more quietly, the...

3 Times the Supreme Court Admitted It Was Wrong

The Supreme Court is the final arbiter of American law. Its decisions are etched into the stone of legal precedent, shaping the nation for generations. But what happens when the guardian of our Constitution admits that it got the Constitution profoundly wrong? While rare, these moments of...

Federalism for Beginners: A Guide to the Tug-of-War Between the States and Washington

A president threatens to federalize a city’s police force. States legalize marijuana while federal law forbids it. Governors sue the administration over an environmental rule. Every day, the headlines are filled with stories that reveal a fundamental, deliberate, and often-fierce conflict at the...

The Four Most Contentious Presidential Elections in U.S. History, Explained

Americans often worry about the stability of the next election. But our constitutional system has already been tested by electoral chaos four separate times in its history, pushing the nation to the very brink. These are not just dusty stories from a history book. They are urgent lessons in how the...

3 Powers A Presidents Doesn’t Actually Have (But People Think He Does)

The American Presidency is the most powerful office on Earth. A single individual can command armies, negotiate with world leaders, and shape the course of history. But in our modern, often-heated political discourse, the immense power of the office can lead to a fundamental misunderstanding of its...

The Death of States’ Rights? A President’s “Novel Take” on the Constitution

In a social media post on Monday, the President of the United States made one of the most explicit and constitutionally radical claims of his time in office. Announcing a new push against mail-in ballots and voting machines, he declared that the states are “merely an ‘agent’ for the Federal...

A Brief History Of Gerrymandering: Why Your Vote Might Not Matter

In 1812, Massachusetts Governor Elbridge Gerry signed off on a new state senate district so bizarrely shaped that his opponents famously said it looked like a mythical salamander. A local newspaper cartoonist combined the two, and the “Gerry-mander” was born. For over 200 years, this dark art...

Should a President have the power to revoke the citizenship of a political opponent?

Is your American citizenship a permanent, unassailable right, or is it a privilege the government can revoke if it decides you are no longer worthy? This is not a theoretical question. This week, the President of the United States declared he was giving “serious consideration to taking away”...

The Constitutional Danger of Outsourcing American Detention

In a stunning revelation submitted to a federal court, the government of El Salvador has declared that the Venezuelan migrants deported by the Trump administration to its maximum-security CECOT prison remain under the “sole custody” and “exclusive legal responsibility” of the United States....

Who Gets Drafted in a New World War?

Our world is on a razor’s edge. We see it in the Middle East, where the exchange of fire between Israel, Iran, and now the United States has turned a shadow war into a direct conflict. We see it in the enduring tensions between nuclear powers like India and Pakistan, and in the instability that...

Liberty, Equality… and Gender Identity: The Constitution and Transgender Rights

⬇️ Join the conversation and make your voice be heard. At the center of today’s fiercest political and cultural fault lines lies a question the framers of the Constitution never saw coming: How does an 18th-century charter of governance grapple with 21st-century understandings of identity? As...

A Tale of Two Independence Days: The Promise of July 4th and the Reckoning of Juneteenth

  America has two days that celebrate independence. One commemorates the birth of a nation; the other, the liberation of its people. One is the articulation of a promise; the other, the beginning of its painful and long-overdue delivery. The Fourth of July and Juneteenth are not competing...

A War for the Soul of America

There is a war being waged for the soul of America. It is not being fought with guns and cannons, but in our children’s classrooms. It is a battle over our very identity, a coordinated effort to tear down our heroes, slander our founding, and teach a new generation to be ashamed of their own...

Lincoln’s Warning: Is America More Divided Today Than It Was 167 Years Ago?

On this day, June 16, in 1858, a lawyer from Illinois named Abraham Lincoln accepted the Republican nomination for Senate and delivered one of the most consequential speeches in American history. He warned a nation already fracturing under the pressure of slavery that a “house divided against...

How Past Presidents Used the Insurrection Act And What The Constitution Says About It

The recent deployment of National Guard troops to Los Angeles and discussions about potential Marine involvement have brought to the forefront critical questions about the constitutional limits of federal military power within the United States. To grasp the significance of these events, it’s...