Constitutional Convention
History Ignored: James Wilson’s Speech on the Constitution
On Oct. 6, 1787, just over a week after the Confederation Congress voted to send the proposed Constitution to the 13 states for consideration, future Supreme Court justice James Wilson gave one the most prominent and important speeches in support of ratification. Yet,...
The 10th Amendment: An Introduction
“The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.” What does it mean, why did they think it was so important? And would we even have a...
Gouverneur Morris’s Rewriting of the Constitution
Recently, the Center for the Study of Constitutional Originalism held its annual Works-in-Progress Conference. One of the papers was written by Dean William Treanor of Georgetown Law School. (Both Bill and I were at Yale Law School as students and we both wrote...
The Constitution: A League of States Rather than a National Government
Today in 1787, representatives in Philadelphia signed the finalized United States Constitution. This occurred after a summer filled with contrasting proposals and rigorous debate. The convention decided upon a league of states rather than a national government,...