The ideas that formed the Constitution: Public Education
This is the last in the series on “The Ideas That Formed the Constitution.” It applies the series’ lessons to how we educate our young. The U.S. Constitution is America’s highest secular law—“the supreme Law of the Land” (Article VI). It structures the central...
The ideas that formed the Constitution: Coke, Blackstone, and English law
British institutions were important (although not controlling) models for the American Constitution-makers. For example, the Constitution’s bicameral federal Congress had some similarities with the British Parliament. The Constitution built on the British concept of...
The ideas that formed the Constitution: Vattel and the Law of Nations
Within the Constitution’s text are meanings most purported constitutional experts never see. They fail to see those meanings because they don’t take the trouble to learn enough about the environment in which the Constitution arose. Suppose you’re reading a novel in...