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Constitution

Current contributing editor Adam Jortner on Moore v. Harper

John Fea   |  October 5, 2022

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?

John Fea   |  October 1, 2022

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...

In a sermon on “defending truth,” Tim Barton makes multiple false claims

John Fea   |  September 30, 2022

The son of Wallbuilders founder David Barton recently gave a rambling “history” sermon at Christian Missions Church in Jacksboro, Texas. This is what can happen when the past is only useful as a form of activism. Here is Barton: Let’s...

Is an Article V rewriting of the U.S. Constitution in the near future?

John Fea   |  September 14, 2022

It’s possible. Here is historian James Banner at The Bulwark: Radical conservative activists are working with Republican state legislators to trigger an extraordinary special convention to rewrite the Constitution of the United States. The possibility of it actually happening is...

The American history some conservative evangelicals wish weren’t true

John Fea   |  August 25, 2022

Baptist News Global’s Rodney Kennedy asked historians Randall Balmer, Bill Trollinger, and yours truly to suggest a few historical facts that conservative evangelicals wish weren’t true. Here is my contribution to the piece: Fea says evangelicals wish it weren’t true...

The “civic grit” of Liz Cheney

John Fea   |  August 16, 2022

Today is primary day in Wyoming. It is likely that Liz Cheney will not win her GOP primary race against Trump-backed Harriet Hageman. This piece explains why. Over at The Bulwark, American historian James Banner lauds Cheney for defending the...

George Will: “Amend the Constitution to bar senators from the presidency”

John Fea   |  April 28, 2022

Will offers a stinging critique of GOP Senators who appear to be using their Senate seats to run for president. Here is a taste: In Jonathan Haidt’s recent essay for the Atlantic, “Why the Past 10 Years of American Life Have Been...

Republicans on the judiciary committee are still very upset at how Amy Coney Barrett’s faith was handled during her confirmation hearings.

John Fea   |  March 22, 2022

Earlier today I wrote about Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson’s faith and her previous connection to an evangelical church and Christian school. In that piece I noted that Texas senator Ted Cruz had used his written questions to Jackson...

Sorry Michael Flynn, the Constitution does not mention the word “Creator” four times. In fact, it never mentions the word.

John Fea   |  March 9, 2022

Here is Kyle Mantyla at Right Wing Watch: Michael Flynn, a right-wing conspiracy theorist who served as national security adviser to former President Donald Trump, spoke at a campaign rally Saturday for MAGA pastor Jackson Lahmeyer in Oklahoma, where he falsely claimed that “the word ‘Creator’ is in...

Ohio Senate candidate Josh Mandel does not believe in the separation of church and state

John Fea   |  January 30, 2022

In a recent debate between Ohio U.S. Senate candidates Morgan Harper (D) and Josh Mandel (R), the question of the separation of church and state came up. Watch: Here is Mandel’s answer in writing: I do not believe in the...

Allen Guelzo on Noah Feldman on Abraham Lincoln

John Fea   |  January 12, 2022

In November we called your attention to Noah Feldman’s argument about Lincoln and the Constitution in his new book The Broken Constitution: Lincoln, Slavery and the Refounding of America. In that book, the Harvard Law professor argues that Lincoln violated...

Did Abraham Lincoln break the Constitution?

John Fea   |  November 3, 2021

Harvard law professor Noah Feldman believes that he did, and it had little to do with his support of the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendment. Here is a taste of his recent piece at The New York Times: In April...

Josh Hawley’s “Love America Act.” Let’s break it down

John Fea   |  August 8, 2021

Last week we published a post on Missouri Senator Josh Hawley’s op-ed in The New York Post condemning critical race theory and promoting his personal view of what young Americans should learn in history class. His views are encapsulated in...

How do Christian nationalists deal with the Establishment Clause?

John Fea   |  June 22, 2021

Recently, a scholar in another discipline asked me how Christian nationalists who study the American past “ignore, navigate around, or distort the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.” I address this in Was America Founded as a Christian Nation?: A...

Newseum’s First Amendment monument will move to Philadephia’s Constitution Center

John Fea   |  March 19, 2021

Here is Stephen Salisbury at The Philadelphia Inquirer: The Newseum, an interactive museum in Washington, D.C., devoted to journalism, is gone, succumbing to financial woes. It closed at the end of 2019. But while the building on Pennsylvania Avenue has...

Michelle Bachmann: This week revealed the “greatest attack” on the “foundations” of America that “we have ever seen in 400 years”

John Fea   |  March 14, 2021

Michelle Bachmann, the new dean of Regent University’s school of government, visited MAGA evangelical Jim Garlow’s “election integrity” prayer meeting this week. You can watch it here. (It was posted on Eric Metaxas’s Rumble page). Bachmann warns the pro-Trump evangelical...

Mitch McConnell clarifies his vote to acquit Trump in a *Wall Street Journal* op-ed.

John Fea   |  February 16, 2021

Mitch McConnell is a weasel. He is also a very crafty politician. In his mind, moral conviction always takes a back seat to his quest for political power. This was on display Saturday when he voted to acquit Donald Trump...

The names of the GOP senators who voted against the constitutionality of the second Trump impeachment trial

John Fea   |  February 9, 2021

Today the Senate debated the constitutionality of the second Trump impeachment trial. (Is it constitutional to convict a former president in an impeachment trial?) The Senate voted to move forward with the trial by a vote of 56-44. Six Republicans...

Evangelical law professor and former federal judge Michael McConnell argues that the Senate can try Trump because he was impeached while still in office

John Fea   |  February 5, 2021

Michael McConnell teaches law at Stanford. In 2002, George W. Bush nominated him to the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals and the Senate approved his nomination unanimously. Bush also had him on his short list for a Supreme Court nomination....

What should we make of Trump’s 1776 Commission Report? Part 3

John Fea   |  January 21, 2021

Read previous installments in this series here. It is now difficult to find the 1776 Commission Report, but I managed to locate a copy in the Internet Archive. The authors begin with the Articles of Confederation. The report teaches a...

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