“In the 1790s, two political parties emerged, each with its own view of what the American Revolution had been fought for and what it had achieved. The Federalists, those who supported the Washington and Adams administrations, believed that the Revolution had established representative government and majority rule as the backbones of popular sovereignty. Americans would…
Tag: U.S. Constitution
Jack M. Balkin: “How to tell if you are in a constitutional crisis”
When people talk about constitutional crisis in the Trump Administration: ‘A constitutional crisis occurs when there is a serious danger that the Constitution is about to fail at its central task. The central task of constitutions is to keep disagreement within the boundaries of ordinary politics rather than breaking down into anarchy, violence, or civil…
The Constitutional debate at the 1788 Virginia Ratification Convention
In The Fate of the Revolution: Virginians Debate the Constitution (2016) Lorri Glover “raises the provocative, momentous constitutional questions that consumed Virginians, echoed across American history, and still resonate today. This engaging book harnesses the uncertainty and excitement of the Constitutional debates to show readers the clear departure the Constitution marked, the powerful reasons people…