Smart conversation from the National Constitution Center
On September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks carried out against the United States would become the catalyst for at least two wars, dozens of new pieces of legislation, the creation of the Department of Homeland Security, and a slew of court cases that would test the boundaries of the Constitution.
The U.S. Supreme Court in the last few terms has been carving a legacy of religion-favored rulings in such areas as employment, school funding, health care, and more. It’s apparently not done yet.
Requirements to wear facemasks in the fight against Covid-19 are back in the news after some political leaders have issued mandates requiring or banning masks in certain situations. So what are the core constitutional issues in these mask controversies?
On June 17, 1972, police caught five men breaking into the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate complex in Washington, D.C. So how did a “third-rate burglary” escalate into a near constitutional crisis?
A recent National Labor Relations Board decision will allow giant inflatable rats to remain at some union protest sites. But the commonly seen symbols still face a possible deflation in towns with strict permitting rules.
The legendary confrontation between William Jennings Bryan and Clarence Darrow in the Scopes Monkey Trial took place on a hot Monday afternoon on July 20, 1925. But the real clash of the cultural titans didn’t exactly match what was later popularized in movies and theater.
On July 3, 1978, the Supreme Court issued its historic verdict in the George Carlin “seven dirty words” case, a decision that still holds sway over the use of indecent and obscene language on television, and in a new era of mass communications.
During U.S. Supreme Court arguments in April in the case of the cursing cheerleader, Justice Stephen Breyer was frustrated with the lawyers for the cheerleader and the school district that had suspended her for her vulgar comments on social media.
In a closely watched decision, the Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday that a public school student’s off-campus Snapchat rant was protected free speech and she had been wrongly suspended by school administrators.
On June 21, 1989, a deeply divided United States Supreme Court upheld the rights of protesters to burn the American flag in a landmark First Amendment decision.