215 episodes

Live constitutional conversations and debates featuring leading historians, journalists, scholars, and public officials hosted at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia and across America. To watch National Constitution Center Town Halls live, check out our schedule of upcoming programs at constitutioncenter.org/townhall. Register through Zoom to ask your constitutional questions in the Q&A or watch live on YouTube at YouTube.com/ConstitutionCenter.

Live at the National Constitution Center National Constitution Center

    • News

Live constitutional conversations and debates featuring leading historians, journalists, scholars, and public officials hosted at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia and across America. To watch National Constitution Center Town Halls live, check out our schedule of upcoming programs at constitutioncenter.org/townhall. Register through Zoom to ask your constitutional questions in the Q&A or watch live on YouTube at YouTube.com/ConstitutionCenter.

    Democracy Checkup: Preparing for the 2024 Election

    Democracy Checkup: Preparing for the 2024 Election

    Richard Hasen, author of A Real Right to Vote, Sarah Isgur, senior editor of The Dispatch, and Lawrence Lessig, author of How to Steal a Presidential Election, provide a health check on the state of American democracy, and look ahead to potential areas of vulnerability in the run-up to the 2024 election. Jeffrey Rosen, president and CEO of the National Constitution Center, moderates.

    Additional Resources

    Richard L. Hasen, A Real Right to Vote: How a Constitutional Amendment Can Safeguard American Democracy


    Lawrence Lessig and Matthew Seligman, How to Steal a Presidential Election


    Jeffrey Rosen, “The Supreme Court Says States Can’t Keep Trump Off the Ballot," We the People, National Constitution Center

    Trump v. Anderson (2024)

    Sarah Isgur and David French,“Indictment Watch: The Supreme Court Decides Whether States Can Disqualify Trump,” Advisory Opinions, The Dispatch


    Richard L. Hasen, “The Supreme Court Just Delivered a Rare Self-Own for John Roberts,” Slate (March 5, 2023)

    Conference Report, “Carter-Baker Commission: 16 Years Later” (2021)


    Trump v. Anderson, Amicus brief of Richard L. Hasen, Edward Foley and Ben Ginsburg



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    Sign up to receive Constitution Weekly, our email roundup of constitutional news and debate, at bit.ly/constitutionweekly. 
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    • 59 min
    The Pursuit of Happiness: A Book Launch and Conversation with Jeffrey Rosen and Jeffrey Goldberg

    The Pursuit of Happiness: A Book Launch and Conversation with Jeffrey Rosen and Jeffrey Goldberg

    On Presidents Day 2024, NCC President and CEO Jeffrey Rosen launched his new book at the NCC in conversation with Jeffrey Goldberg, editor in chief of The Atlantic. They discuss The Pursuit of Happiness: How Classical Writers on Virtue Inspired the Lives of the Founders and Defined America. This program was recorded live on February 19, 2024, and presented in partnership with The Atlantic. 

    Additional Resources:  


    Jeffrey Rosen, The Pursuit of Happiness: How Classical Writers on Virtue Inspired the Lives of the Founders and Defined America (2024) 

    Cicero, The Tusculan Disputations (ca. 45 BC) 


    The Quill Project  


    The King James Bible (1611) 


    Pythagoras, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy  


    The Webster-Hayne Debates  


    Trump v. Anderson 

    “Should President Trump Be Allowed on the 2024 Ballot?,” We the People podcast (Jan. 11, 2024) 

    “Rhetoric of Freedom,” The Atlantic (Sept. 1999) 


    Stay Connected and Learn More
    Continue the conversation on Facebook and Twitter using @ConstitutionCtr.
    Sign up to receive Constitution Weekly, our email roundup of constitutional news and debate, at bit.ly/constitutionweekly.
    Please subscribe to Live at the National Constitution Center and our companion podcast We the People on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app.

    • 1 hr 5 min
    Following Tubman’s Trail: Unveiling Stories of the African American Quest for Freedom

    Following Tubman’s Trail: Unveiling Stories of the African American Quest for Freedom

    In celebration of Black History Month, explore the history of the African American fight for freedom during the Civil War and Reconstruction periods with historians Edda Fields-Black, author of Combee: Harriet Tubman, the Combahee River Raid, and Black Freedom during the Civil War, and James Oakes, author of Freedom National: The Destruction of Slavery in the United States, 1861-1865. Thomas Donnelly, chief content officer at the National Constitution Center, moderates.

    Additional Resources

    Edda L. Fields-Black, COMBEE: Harriet Tubman, the Combahee River Raid, and Black Freedom during the Civil War

    James Oakes, Freedom National: The Destruction of Slavery in the United States, 1861–1865

    James Oakes, The Radical and the Republican: Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln, and the Triumph of Antislavery Politics

    UUSCT Pension Files


    Stay Connected and Learn More
    Continue the conversation on Facebook and Twitter using @ConstitutionCtr.
    Sign up to receive Constitution Weekly, our email roundup of constitutional news and debate, at bit.ly/constitutionweekly.
    Please subscribe to Live at the National Constitution Center and our companion podcast We the People on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app.

    • 1 hr
    Constitution Drafting Project: A Discussion of Five New Amendments

    Constitution Drafting Project: A Discussion of Five New Amendments

    The Center for Constitutional Design at Arizona State University and the National Constitution Center present a discussion on the NCC’s landmark Constitution Drafting Project, featuring members of the drafting teams: Caroline Fredrickson of team progressive, Timothy Sandefur of team libertarian, and Ilan Wurman of team conservative. They will discuss their approaches to constitution drafting, the various amendments they agreed on, and the project’s importance in today’s constitutional environment. Jeffrey Rosen, president and CEO of the National Constitution Center, moderates. 
    This program is presented in partnership with the Center for Constitutional Design at Arizona State University's Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law.

    Additional Resources
    National Constitution Center, Constitution Drafting Project
    National Constitution Center, Constitution Drafting Project, "The Proposed Amendments" (PDF)
    Ilan Wurman, A Debt Against the Living: An Introduction to Originalism
    Center for Constitutional Design at Arizona State University's Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law, 2024 Model Constitutional Convention
    Justice Stephen Breyer on the Importance of Civics Education
    Jeffrey Rosen, The Pursuit of Happiness: How Classical Writers on Virtue Inspired the Lives of the Founders and Defined America
    We the People: A Progressive Reading of the Constitution for the Twenty-First Century
    The Preamble to the Constitution
    The Declaration of Independence
    National Constitution Center, Supreme Court Case Library, Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (2010)


    Stay Connected and Learn More
    Continue the conversation on Facebook and Twitter using @ConstitutionCtr.
    Sign up to receive Constitution Weekly, our email roundup of constitutional news and debate, at bit.ly/constitutionweekly.
    Please subscribe to Live at the National Constitution Center and our companion podcast We the People on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app.

    • 56 min
    David Hume and the Ideas That Shaped America

    David Hume and the Ideas That Shaped America

    Called “a degenerate son of science” by Thomas Jefferson and a “bungling lawgiver” by James Madison, Scottish philosopher David Hume was cited so often at the Constitutional Convention that delegates seemed to have committed his essays to memory. Join Angela Coventry, author of Hume: A Guide for the Perplexed; Dennis Rasmussen, author of The Infidel and the Professor: David Hume, Adam Smith, and the Friendship That Shaped Modern Thought; and Aaron Alexander Zubia, author of The Political Thought of David Hume as they discuss Hume’s philosophical legacy and its profound impact on the shaping of America. Jeffrey Rosen, president and CEO of the National Constitution Center, moderates.

    Additional Resources
    Angela Coventry, ed. A Treatise of Human Nature: Being an Attempt to Introduce the Experimental Method of Reasoning into Moral Subjects
    Dennis Rasmussen, The Infidel and the Professor: David Hume, Adam Smith, and the Friendship That Shaped Modern Thought
    Aaron Alexander Zubia, The Political Thought of David Hume: The Origins of Liberalism and the Modern Political Imagination
    National Constitution Center Town Hall program, Montesquieu and the Constitution
    Jeffrey Rosen, The Pursuit of Happiness: How Classical Writers on Virtue Inspired the Lives of the Founders and Defined America
    Hume texts online
    Federalist No. 10
    The Continentalist
    Federalist No. 85
    
    Stay Connected and Learn More
    Continue the conversation on Facebook and Twitter using @ConstitutionCtr.
    Sign up to receive Constitution Weekly, our email roundup of constitutional news and debate, at bit.ly/constitutionweekly.
    Please subscribe to Live at the National Constitution Center and our companion podcast We the People on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app.

    • 59 min
    Unpacking the Supreme Court’s Tech Term

    Unpacking the Supreme Court’s Tech Term

    Several cases before the Supreme Court raise important questions at the intersection of technology and law. Join legal experts Alex Abdo of the Knight First Amendment Institute, Clay Calvert of the American Enterprise Institute, and David Greene of the Electronic Frontier Foundation for a conversation exploring key tech cases, including whether Florida and Texas can regulate the platforms’ content moderation policies. Jeffrey Rosen, president and CEO of the National Constitution Center, moderates.

    Additional Resources
    Knight Institute's Amicus Brief (in support of neither party), Moody v. NetChoice & NetChoice v. Paxton
    Clay Calvert, “Friends of the Court, Friends of the First Amendment: Exploring Amicus Brief Support for Platforms’ Editorial Independence,” AEI (Dec. 22, 2023)
    Knight Institute Amicus Brief in Murthy v. Missouri (in support of neither party)
    Clay Calvert, “Persuasion or Coercion? Understanding the Government’s Position in Murthy v. Missouri, Part I,” AEI (Jan. 8, 2024)
    David Greene, “In Jawboning Cases, there’s no getting away from textual analysis,” Knight First Amendment Institute (Nov. 7, 2023)
    David Greene, EFF Amicus Brief in O’Connor-Ratcliff v. Garnier and Lindke v. Freed (in support of Lindke and Garnier)
    Miami Herald Publishing Company v. Tornillo (1974)
    
    Stay Connected and Learn More
    Continue the conversation on Facebook and Twitter using @ConstitutionCtr.
    Sign up to receive Constitution Weekly, our email roundup of constitutional news and debate, at bit.ly/constitutionweekly.
    Please subscribe to Live at the National Constitution Center and our companion podcast We the People on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app.

    • 58 min

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