July 9, 2018 marked the 150th anniversary of the ratification of the 14th Amendment.
In anticipation of this momentous anniversary, this past April, the National Constitution Center partnered with the Thurgood Marshall Institute at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund for a day-long symposium about the 14th Amendment. In this episode, we feature a panel discussion from this symposium with some of America’s leading Civil War and Reconstruction scholars: Dr. Allen Guelzo of Gettysburg College, Martha Jones of Johns Hopkins University, Darrell A. H. Miller of Duke Law School, and Kurt Lash of the Richmond School of Law.
They tell the story of the 14th Amendment by focusing on the amendment’s intellectual origins, drafting, ratification, and original understanding. The host is Jeffrey Rosen. Sherrilyn Ifill, the seventh President and Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund and Trustee of the National Constitution Center, provides introductory remarks.
Today’s show was engineered by David Stotz and produced by Madison Poulter and Scott Bomboy. Special thanks to the NAACP for partnering with the NCC for this event.
July 9, 2018 also marked another historic event: President Trump nominated D.C. Circuit Judge Brett Kavanaugh to replace retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy on the Supreme Court. Next week, We the People will host Elizabeth Slattery of the Heritage Foundation and Brianne Gorod of the Constitutional Accountability Center to discuss President Trump’s two Supreme Court picks—Justice Neil Gorsuch and Judge Kavanaugh—and how both might change the future of the Supreme Court and constitutional law.
