Remarks prepared for “A House Divided: Protests, Patriots, and Partisanship,” a panel discussion presented by Mizzou’s Middleton Center for Race, Citizenship and Justice on November 11, 2020. All three of the synoptic Gospels tell a story in which Jesus says, “If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. If a house is […]
Our Promissory Note
Living downstream from the American founding, we are heirs today to what Martin Luther King, Jr., in his most famous speech, referred to as the “promissory note” implicit in our Declaration of Independence: that “all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the […]
A Primer on Constitutional Rights During Crises
If the state may conscript its citizens into military service and send them to war, may it do anything short of that? This question has taken on a new relevance in the age of COVID-19. State and local shelter-in-place orders have told residents, under penalty of law, that they cannot travel, cannot assemble peacefully in […]
Natural Justice and the Amistad
John Quincy Adams’ oral argument in the Amistad case is notable for its explicit appeal to the authority of the Declaration of Independence and to the practical political relevance of “the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God.” John Quincy Adams – son of the Revolution, former president, and sitting Massachusetts congressman – appeared at […]
