Bill of Rights

Is the American conception of constitutional rights too absolute?

A review of three books about Abraham Lincoln, the 14th Amendment, and Reconstruction.

The question of how to balance state and national power was perhaps the single most important and most challenging question confronting the early republic.

Anti-federalist Luther Martin's agenda failed at the Constitutional Convention, but his criticisms of the Founders may still resonate with us today.

Jefferson and his connection to partisanship in early America.

The origin story of “one nation, indivisible.”

An overlooked corner of the Constitution hints at a right to be protected from infection.

A lost volume of American history finds the light of day.

The latest struggle to define America's founding charter will define the country for generations to come.

In 1790, as the First Amendment was being ratified, George Washington made a promise to American Jews.

A new history of the early republic explores the origins of originalism.

Mercy Otis Warren used her wit to agitate for independence.

The origins of the more passive view of the freedom of the press can be traced back to Benjamin Franklin.

Would the Founders have protected people we execute now?

The Founders never intended to create an unregulated individual right to a gun.

A review of a handful of new books that embody the new liberal originalism.

A case of 18th-century politicking has stymied our ability to deal with a 21st-century crisis.

One nation, under the gun.

Was the 2008 Heller decision a victory for originalism or a living Constitution?

A warning from September 2001 about government overreach in the name of national security.