Scholar Exchanges

Examines the amendment process outlined in Article V of the Constitution, highlights amendments that have been added to the Constitution over time, and introduces some that didn't make the cut. Explores some modern proposed amendments, including those written by the Center's bipartisan Constitution Drafting Project.

Explores how ancient Greek and Roman political thought influenced the founding generation, from their education and experiences during the American Revolution to their debates over the design of the U.S. Constitution.

Examines the powers granted to Congress under Article I of the Constitution, explores key debates over the legislative branch at the Constitutional Convention, and traces how congressional power has evolved throughout American history.

Examines the powers and limits of the presidency under Article II of the Constitution, explores key debates over executive power at the Constitutional Convention, and considers some of the enduring constitutional questions about the scope of presidential power.

Explores the role and powers of the judicial branch under Article III of the Constitution, Examines the development of judicial review, including Marbury v. Madison, and considers how U.S. Supreme Court justices are nominated and confirmed, how cases reach the Court, and how the justices hear and decide cases.

Examines the challenges of governing the new United States after independence and the founding generation’s concerns about concentrated national power. Explores the structures, powers, limitations, and accomplishments of the government under the Articles of Confederations and traces the challenges and debates that ultimately led to the Constitution Convention of 1787.

Explores the origins of bills and declarations of rights and the documents and ideas that influenced the founding generation. Examines the debates over whether the Constitution needed a bill of rights, the amendments proposed by James Madison and debated and revised by the First Congress, and the rights and liberties protected by the first 10 amendments, that later became known as the U.S. Bill of Rights.

Explore what “the pursuit of happiness” and civic virtue meant to the founding generation and how leading thinkers connected individual character with the responsibilities of citizenship and self-government. Examines the founders’ efforts at self-improvement and invites learners to consider the role of civic virtue in American constitutional democracy today.

Explores the Constitution’s protections for civil rights and liberties, beginning with the idea of natural rights. Examines key constitutional amendments and landmark U.S. Supreme Court Cases to consider how the meaning and scope of rights, liberty, and equality have developed over time.

Examines the Constitution’s compromises over slavery, the growing constitutional conflict over slavery in the decades before the Civil War, including the debate over whether the Constitution is a pro- or anti-slavery document. Explores key constitutional questions raised by the Civil War and examines how the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments (known as the Reconstruction amendments) reshaped the Constitution in the aftermath of the conflict.

Introduces the Constitution’s Preamble, seven articles, and 27 amendments, and explores how Americans debate constitutional questions. Examines different methods of constitutional interpretation and provides a framework for distinguishing constitutional arguments from broader political or policy disagreements and engaging thoughtfully with competing constitutional perspectives.

Examines the events and ideas that led the American colonies to declare independence in 1776. Explores the Declaration’s text and its principles of equality, natural rights, government by consent, and the pursuit of happiness, and considers how later generations have drawn on its promises throughout American history.

Explores the founding debates over how to select the president of the United States and the constitutional design of the Electoral College, including the changes by the 12th Amendment. Examines how the Electoral College operates today, key Supreme Court decisions involving presidential electors, and competing constitutional arguments over its future.

Explores two central features of the Constitution’s structure: federalism and the separation of powers. Examines how power is divided between the federal government and the states, how authority is distributed among the three branches of the federal government, and how checks and balances operate through key historical debates and U.S. Supreme Court cases.

Examines what the First Amendment’s protections for religious liberty through the Establishment and Free Exercise Clauses. Explores the role of religious liberty in the founding era, the constitutional principles underlying both clauses, and key U.S. Supreme Court cases interpreting the relationship among religious exercise, government action, and the First Amendment.

Examines the text and history of the First Amendment’s protection of freedom of speech and explores the constitutional boundaries of protected expression. Considers historical controversies from the Sedition Act of 1798 through the World War I era, the development of modern First Amendment doctrine, including the Brandenburg test, and landmark cases involving student speech in public schools.

Examines the text and history of the 14th Amendment, with particular attention to its Citizen, Privileges or Immunities, Due Process, and Equal Protect clauses, as well as its enforcement provisions. Explores how the amendment transformed the Constitution after the Civil War and traces major constitutional debates over citizenship (Wong Kim Ark case) equality, (women’s suffrage movement) freedom (Plessy v. Ferguson and Brown v. Board of Education), and congressional power.

Examines the text and history of the Fourth Amendment’s protections against unreasonable searches and seizures and traces how the U.S. Supreme Court has interpreted those protections over time. Explores landmark cases involving privacy, policing, schools, and new technologies and considers how enduring Fourth Amendment principles apply to changing circumstances.

Explore landmark U.S. Supreme Court cases by building your own docket! Select up to seven cases from the Center’s Supreme Court Cases Library and review the facts of each case, the key constitutional question, arguments, decisions and significance of each case.

Explores the complex constitutional relationship among Native nations, the states, and the federal government. Examines founding-era encounters and debates involving Native peoples, the Constitution’s treatment of Indian affairs, and landmark U.S. Supreme Court cases addressing tribal sovereignty, federal power, and the status of Native nations within the U.S. constitutional system.

Explores the long campaign for women’s suffrage, from the founding era and the Seneca Falls Convention through Reconstruction and the decades of organizing that culminated in ratification of the 19th amendment in 1920. Examines the arguments, strategies, leaders, and constitutional debates that shaped the movements for women’s voting rights.

Explores three key principles of the Revolution: popular sovereignty, natural rights, and the rule of law. Examines the intellectual origins of these ideas and how they shaped colonial debates over events, including the Stamp Act and Boston Massacre, culminating in their expression in the Declaration of Independence.

Examines the text and history of the Second Amendment’s, including founding-era debates over militia, standing armies, and the right to keep and bear arms. Explores how debates over the amendment developed after the founding and examines modern U.S. Supreme Court decisions, including District of Columbia v. Heller (2008), McDonald v. City of Chicago (2010), and New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. Bruen (2022).

Explores the major debates and decisions of the Constitutional Convention of 1787, including representation in Congress, federalism, executive power, and slavery. Examines the compromises and competing constitutional visions that shaped the document and considers why the delegates ultimately proposed an entirely new constitution to replace the Articles of Confederation.

Explores the history of voting rights in America, from the founding era through Reconstruction, the women’s suffrage movement, the civil rights movement, and president day. Examines the constitutional amendments that expanded protections for voting rights, landmark legislation, and key U.S. Supreme Court cases addressing the right to vote and the regulation of elections.

Explores the role of women in shaping America’s constitutional history, beginning the founding era with Abigail Adams’ call to “Remember the Ladies.” Examines key figures, movements, constitutional amendments and U.S. Supreme Cases to trace women’s effort to secure political participation, equality, and constitutional rights.