Legal scholar William Ewald joins Jesse Wegman to discuss Wegman’s new book, The Lost Founder: James Wilson and the Forgotten Fight for a People’s Constitution, which explores the influence and legacy of forgotten founder and Supreme Court Justice James Wilson. Julie Silverbrook, vice president of civic education of the National Constitution Center, moderates.
Video
Participants
William Ewald is an internationally recognized scholar in comparative law, legal philosophy, and philosophy of mathematics. His influential, monograph-length article on the philosophical foundations of comparative law, “What Was it Like to Try a Rat?” has been translated into Chinese and Ukrainian. The broad strategy is to combine the historical study of legal systems with comparative law and with legal philosophy.
Jesse Wegman is a senior fellow in the Office of the President at the Brennan Center. He works with the Kohlberg Center on the U.S. Supreme Court, the Future of the Constitution Advisory Committee, and Brennan Center Ventures on electoral policy and democracy reform. From 2013 through 2025, Wegman was a member of the New York Times editorial board, where he wrote more than 1,000 editorials and signed pieces on law and politics, the Supreme Court, democracy, and the rule of law.
Julie Silverbrook is vice president of civic education at the National Constitution Center where she oversees the Center’s civic education strategy and the development and distribution of all educational products and programs.
Additional Resources
- Jesse Wegman, The Lost Founder: James Wilson and the Forgotten Fight for a People's Constitution
- Jesse Wegman, Let the People Pick the President: The Case for Abolishing the Electoral College
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