As unusual as these times seem in some ways, the question of constitutional change that looms in front of us—as Americans and as contributors to this symposium—is not new. It is the same question that faced James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and the other delegates who met in Annapolis in September 1786 in a precursor to […]
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John Marshall, Judicial Supremacy, and a Post-Ginsburg Court
The death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has rocked the nation. It has inserted the Court, whether they like it or not, into the epicenter of the presidential election. Yet, her passing in the heat of a presidential election crystalizes a deeper problem in American politics: The Supreme Court’s outsized influence in the […]
The Free Exercise Clause, New Originalism, and Reconsideration of Employment Division v. Smith
Many were drawn to the on-line symposium The First Amendment and Religious Liberty, featuring chapters from the just published Cambridge Companion of the same name. I especially benefited from essays by Donald Drakeman and Marc DeGirolami. But missing was a chapter on the big event coming this autumn in the U.S. Supreme Court, when the […]
Faith, Just War, and the American Revolution
The problem of legitimate resistance to tyranny – how a people should resist a tyrant – is perennial. Scholars have recently called into question that which was once considered established beyond doubt – that the Revolution and American independence were both necessary and good. Americans today may indeed face challenges similar to those of colonial […]
Thomas Jefferson at Mizzou
On a bench in the quad a few yards away from the main administration building at Mizzou sits a statue of Thomas Jefferson, lap desk perched on his knee, drafting the Declaration of Independence. The statue was donated to the university in 2001 by the MU Jefferson Club and has been the subject of controversy […]
