Jeffrey Boutwell is a retired independent historian with a B.A. in History from Yale and a Ph.D. in Political Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. This interview is based on his new book, Boutwell: Radical Republican and Champion of […]
Constitution
The Author’s Corner with Timothy Messer-Kruse
Timothy Messer-Kruse is Professor in the School of Cultural and Critical Studies at Bowling Green State University. This interview is based on his new book, Slavery’s Fugitives and the Making of the United States Constitution (LSU Press, 2024). JF: What […]
The Author’s Corner with Ralph Young
Ralph Young is Professor of Instruction in History at Temple University. This interview is based on his new book, American Patriots: A Short History of Dissent (NYU Press, 2024). JF: What led you to write American Patriots? RY: What inspired […]
Akhil Reed Amar: “Let the states decide whether Trump should be on their ballots”
Yale law professor and author Akhil Reed Amar, one of my go-to commentators on all things constitutional, wrote an amicus brief for the Section 3, 14th Amendment Supreme Court case Trump v. Anderson. Here is a taste of his piece […]
Civil War and Reconstruction historians: The 14th Amendment should bar Trump from the ballot in Colorado
Here is Martin Pengelly at The Guardian: Twenty-five historians of the civil war and Reconstruction filed a US supreme court brief in support of the attempt by Colorado to remove Donald Trump from the ballot under the 14th amendment, which bars insurrectionists […]
“Unheard of in American history”
Today at La Presse, the French-Canadian online newspaper based in Montreal, is running a short interview I did with them about the Colorado Supreme Court decision that takes Donald Trump off the ballot in that state. Here is an English […]
Will any GOP presidential candidate take advantage of the recent Colorado Supreme Court decision?
The Colorado Supreme Court says that Donald Trump is an insurrectionist and is thus disqualified from holding the presidency in 2024. This story is not over. Trump will appeal. Some commentators are saying the Supreme Court may have to decide […]
Colorado Supreme Court: Donald Trump is an insurrectionist and must be removed from the 2024 ballot
Early today we linked to a piece asking “when, if ever, can a democracy exclude anti-democratic politicians and parties from democratic elections?” Read it here. Well, it appears that the Colorado Supreme Court has its own ideas on the matter. […]
The Author’s Corner with Peter Radan
Peter Radan is Honorary Professor of Law at Macquarie University. This interview is based on his new book, Creating a More Perfect Slaveholders’ Union: Slavery, the Constitution, and Secession in Antebellum America (University Press of Kansas, 2023). JF: What led you to write […]
Could Vivek Ramaswamy pass his own citizenship test?
I think the upstart GOP presidential candidate would get at least one question wrong. Here is College of the Holy Cross historian Ed O’Donnell: Here is the full context: See our take on Ramaswamy’s recent GOP debate performance here. George […]
A conservative federal judge and liberal law professor say the Constitution prohbits Trump from ever being president again
I am guessing that Michael Luttig and Lawrence Tribe don’t agree on much about the law. But they do agree that the Fourteenth Amendment prohibits Trump from running for public office, including the presidency. Lutting is a retired George W. […]
Former Trump NSA Michael Flynn to pastors: “Put the Bible aside and read the Constitution during some of your sermons”
The latest from the Michael Flynn: I cannot find the context for this talk. Perhaps someone can help me on that front and I will add it to the post. But this is Christian nationalism in its most extreme form. […]
Federalist Society law professors make the case that Trump is ineligible to hold government office
On May 18, 2016, after Donald Trump had all but secured the GOP nomination for President of the United States, the candidate announced a list of 11 judges he would consider nominating to replace the deceased Antonin Scalia on the […]
A man “unprincipled in private life, desperate in his fortune, bold in his temper”: The founders expected someone like Trump
As Jeffrey Rosen of the National Constitution Center reminds us, the founding fathers anticipated “a demagogic challenge to the rule of law.” Here is a taste of his piece at The Wall Street Journal: The allegations in the indictment of Donald […]
Mike Pence responds to an election denier at an Iowa Pizza Ranch
Mike Pence ran into an election denier at a Sioux City, Iowa Pizza Ranch. (As a north Jersey kid who is half Italian I can’t get my head around the idea of a “Pizza Ranch”–but I digress). She told Pence […]
The Author’s Corner with Adrian Chastain Weimer
Adrian Chastain Weimer is Professor of History at Providence College. This interview is based on her new book, A Constitutional Culture: New England and the Struggle Against Arbitrary Rule in the Restoration Empire (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2023). JF: What […]
The Author’s Corner with Carl T. Bogus
Carl T. Bogus is Professor of Law Emeritus at Roger Williams University. This interview is based on his new book, Madison’s Militia: The Hidden History of the Second Amendment (Oxford University Press, 2023). JF: What led you to write Madison’s […]
Should we expand the House of Representatives?
Harvard political theorist Danielle Allen thinks we can solve some of our partisan differences and “renovate our democracy” by expanding the House of Representatives. She makes her case here. A taste: Why this one renovation above all others? Four reasons: […]
Current contributing editor Adam Jortner on Moore v. Harper
Check out Jornter’s piece, “The Supreme Court’s biggest case this term threatens American democracy.” Here is a taste: Moore v. Harper is perhaps the most significant case of the U.S. Supreme Court term beginning Monday. At stake is the question of […]
What if we took the originalist interpretation of the Constitution to its logical endpoint?
Writer A.J. Jacobs, the author of The Year of Living Biblically, spent one month trying to live by the Constitution “as strictly and literally as possible.” And he did it in New York City no less! Here is a taste […]