Facilitator: Prof. Matt Costello
If, as Jedediah Britton-Purdy of Duke Law School suggests, “democratic
publics are the appropriate final arbiters of disputes about constitutional
meaning”, how should we, as the democratic public, interpret this 18th
century document for the 21st century? Reading the Constitution with a
focus on current issues and controversies might help us answer that
question. During this term, we will explore the Constitution paying
particular attention to such issues as separation of powers, state-federal
relations, and civil liberties and rights, and we will consider how this helps
us understand contemporary issues including taxes and tariffs, redistricting
and voting, freedom of religion and of the press, and immigration among
others.