Constitution Daily

Smart conversation from the National Constitution Center

Battle for the Constitution: Week of October 19, 2020 Roundup

October 23, 2020 by NCC Staff

Below is a round-up of the latest from the Battle for the Constitution: a special project on the constitutional debates in American life, in partnership with The Atlantic.

Life Without Parole for Kids Is Cruelty with No Benefit

By Brandon L. Garrett, L. Neil Williams, Jr. Professor of Law, Duke University School of Law

Brandon L. Garrett discusses the current state of sentencing juveniles to life without parole, arguing that it is wrong and that the Supreme Court should make that clear in a case it will hear this term.

The Mess Congress Could Make

By Lawrence Lessig, Roy L. Furman Professor of Law and Leadership, Harvard Law School

Lawrence Lessig walks through the complicated process of how a contested election result would be settled in Congress—and how intense partisanship could lead us to a crisis.

The Forgotten Third Amendment Could Give Pandemic-Struck America a Way Forward

By Alexander Zhang, J.D./Ph.D. Student, Yale University

Alexander Zhang writes about how worries over diseases were a key part of the Third Amendment—which forbids the government from generally unilaterally housing soldiers in the homes of private civilians—and how that history could allow people to interpret the Amendment to include a right to be protected against possible infection.