Live at the National Constitution Center

Last Friday, the National Constitution Center hosted a national Town Hall program on policing, protests, and the Constitution. The wide-ranging discussions covered qualified immunity for police officers, the history of racial inequality, protests and the First Amendment, and more. Part two of the discussion, this panel, features Monica Bell of Yale Law School, David French of The Dispatch, Janai N...

Last Friday, the National Constitution Center hosted a national Town Hall program on policing, protests, and the Constitution. This episode features National Constitution Center President Jeffrey Rosen’s keynote conversation with Judge Theodore McKee of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. Their wide-ranging discussion covered qualified immunity for police officers, the history of raci...

Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist George F. Will joins Saikrishna Prakash, professor of law at the University of Virginia, for a conversation on Prakash's new book, The Living Presidency: An Originalist Argument against Its Ever-Expanding Powers. They explore the expansion of presidential power from the founding era to today; provide their take on what, if any, constraints there may be on executive...

Hosted on the 124th anniversary of the infamous decision, this virtual program tells the story of Plessy v. Ferguson in which the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of segregation. National Constitution President Jeffrey Rosen was joined by Steve Luxenberg, associate editor at The Washington Post and author of Separate: The Story of Plessy v. Ferguson and America’s Journey from Slavery to...

Over the last two weeks, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments remotely, by teleconference, allowing the public to listen in in real time for the first time in history. The National Constitution Center recapped those arguments live on C-SPAN with advocates on either side of each case. This episode features the recap of Trump v. Mazars and Trump v. Vance — disputes over whether President Trump mus...

In this virtual program, National Constitution Center President Jeffrey Rosen is joined by Montana Attorney General Tim Fox and New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal. They discussed the constitutional and policy challenges posed by coronavirus—including the difficulties managing prison outbreaks and criminal justice proceedings, challenges to their stay-at-home orders from various groups, how...

Conservative intellectual Yuval Levin discusses the decline in trust in American institutions as told in his new book A Time to Build: From Family and Community to Congress and the Campus, How Recommitting to Our Institutions Can Revive the American Dream. He shares his findings on Americans’ growing distrust in institutions created by the Constitution—like Congress, the presidency, and the Suprem...

Today we’re sharing a “live” program that, because the Center is temporarily closed, was held virtually, over Zoom. National Constitution Center President Jeffrey Rosen brought together Jesse Wegman, Amel Amed, and William Ewald to discuss the Electoral College. They detailed how the founders envisioned the Electoral College, how it’s evolved over time, and whether the system should remain or be r...

This week, we’re sharing another program held back in March before the National Constitution Center went remote. This program is part of our yearlong celebration of the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment. It features New York Lieutenant Governor Kathleen Hochul and former Congresswomen Melissa A. Hart and Donna F. Edwards. They explore the unfinished work of women’s suffrage and how the fight...

Welcome to Live at the National Constitution Center, our newly-renamed podcast sharing live constitutional conversations held here at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia and across America. The center is temporarily closed to the public due to coronavirus, but, before we went remote, we held a few programs that we’re excited to share here on the podcast in the coming weeks. This episo...

We’re changing our name! to Live at the National Constitution Center. New name, same podcast bringing you live constitutional conversations held here at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, and across America. Check out these highlights from last season, and stay tuned for new episodes coming soon! Questions or comments about the podcast? Email us at podcast@constitutioncenter.org. Th...

Americans sometimes find themselves at the center of some of the biggest moments in constitutional history. John Tinker, one of the students who brought the lawsuit in the landmark student speech case Tinker v. Des Moines; Karen Korematsu, daughter of Fred Korematsu, petitioner in the Japanese internment case Korematsu v. United States; and Cheryl Brown Henderson, daughter of Reverend Oliver Brown...

This time of year back in 1916, Senate confirmation hearings were beginning for Louis D. Brandeis. After a lengthy confirmation process, Brandeis was confirmed as the first Jewish Supreme Court Justice, and went on to write landmark opinions on free speech, privacy, and more. In this 2016 program, National Constitution Center President Jeffrey Rosen and Brandeis scholars Philippa Strum and Melvin...

February 12th is President Abraham Lincoln’s birthday, so we’re sharing a program that dives into one of the most pivotal periods of his political life. Sidney Blumenthal discusses his book Wrestling with his Angel: The Political Life of Abraham Lincoln 1849-1856 – the years when Lincoln emerged from political defeat and began to build his career on the national stage – in conversation with Nation...

 The Iowa Caucus kicked off the 2020 presidential primaries this week, so we’re sharing a primer on the history and influence of presidential campaigns. Communications scholar Geoffrey Cowan and historian David Greenberg explain how our primary system originated in the midst of Teddy Roosevelt’s quest for a third term, how campaigning and “spin” has evolved since then, and more in this program fro...

This Thursday is President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's birthday, so we’re sharing a program that explores how FDR and other presidents have dealt with America’s biggest constitutional crises. Historians and presidential biographers Annette Gordon-Reed, Sidney Blumenthal, and Sean Wilentz joined NCC President Jeffrey Rosen for this program held at Congress Hall, the first meeting place of the U.S....

Rep. John Lewis’ childhood aspiration was to be a preacher, and he practiced sermons in front of the chickens on his family farm in rural Alabama. Little did he know that he would soon lead the “freedom rides” fighting segregation in the south, give a keynote address at the March on Washington at age 23, and become a 17-term congressman. Rep. Lewis shares inspiring stories from that journey in thi...

With the Senate impeachment trial of President Trump approaching, we’re sharing a past program featuring Joshua Matz – co-author (with Laurence Tribe) of To End a Presidency: The Power of Impeachment, counsel for the House Judiciary Committee, and an adjunct professor at Georgetown Law Center. Matz explains his belief that the creation of the impeachment power was a “gamble” taken by the Framers w...

In light of the recent U.S. airstrike that killed Iranian military leader Qasem Soleimani – we’re sharing this program from fall 2017 on war powers and the Constitution. John Yoo of Berkeley Law, Deborah Pearlstein of Cardozo Law, and Ben Wittes, Editor-in-Chief of Lawfare, discuss the president’s ability to order unilateral airstrikes, the definition of “imminent threats”, and other topics that l...

Two leading Fourth Amendment scholars join NCC President Jeffrey Rosen to trace the history and interpretation of the Fourth Amendment from the founding to today. They explain some Fourth Amendment basics like: What is a warrant? What are subpoenas? When and why can they be issued? They also dive into key Supreme Court opinions that interpreted the Fourth Amendment, and give their takes on whether...

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg joins National Constitution Center President and CEO Jeffrey Rosen to discuss his new book, Conversations with RBG: Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Life, Love, Liberty and Law—an informal portrait of the Justice through an extraordinary series of conversations, starting in the 1990s and continuing to today. They expand upon several of the conversations...

On June 8, 1972, the South Vietnamese air force dropped napalm on its own troops and civilians after mistaking them for North Vietnamese forces. Nine-year-old Kim Phúc Phan Thi, who was severely injured, was running from the bombed village when an Associated Press photographer captured her and others in one of the most iconic photographs from the Vietnam War, which later won the Pulitzer Prize. In...

Last week, the National Constitution Center hosted a timely two-part discussion of impeachment. Part two features current and former members of Congress, including Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon, Vice Chair of the House Judiciary Committee, which unveiled articles of impeachment against President Trump today. The panelists share their unique insights into what constitutes and impeachable offense and the cu...

This week, the National Constitution Center hosted a timely two-part discussion of impeachment. In panel one, leading constitutional scholars break down the facts at the center of the current impeachment inquiry, and share their thoughts on what the Framers of the Constitution might think of whether those facts rise to the level of an impeachable offense under their conception of and the definitio...

This week, we’re sharing a past program on the Civil War and Reconstruction and public memory. Leading civil war historians Eric Foner, Thavolia Glymph, and Kate Masur explore the questions: How do we define Reconstruction? What was that period like politically and economically, for ordinary Americans and for the country’s leaders? How can we better understand the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments b...