The Roberts Court has increasingly relied on history to resolve some of the most important constitutional questions of our time. Embracing a form of interpretation called “originalism,” the Court’s conservative majority argues that the original public understanding of the Constitution is what really counts. But discerning the goals and assumptions of those who ratified the Constitution requires an understanding of the document they were replacing: the Articles of Confederation. Today, the Articles are ignored as a false start. That’s a mistake. The Constitution was an explicit attempt to form a union “more perfect” than that of the Articles of Confederation, and they provide vital context to the framers’ choices. Join us in Philadelphia on Monday, May 12, at 11 a.m. ET as historians, journalists, law professors, and political scientists explore how the nation’s first experiment in self-governance paved the way for the Constitution we have today. Participants will examine the legacy of the Articles of Confederation, the founding debates over federal power, and the lasting influence of these debates on modern-day constitutional interpretation.
11-11:15 a.m. | Introductory Remarks
Jeffrey Rosen, president and CEO, National Constitution Center
Michael Waldman, president and CEO, Brennan Center for Justice
11:15 a.m.–12:30 p.m. | Panel 1: The Articles of ConfederationExplore the origins of the Articles of Confederation—examining the political, practical, and ideological reasons behind the states' sovereignty—and how the “firm league of friendship” among the 13 states ultimately became unworkable.
Aditya Bamzai, Martha Lubin Karsh and Bruce A. Karsh Bicentennial Professor of Law, University of Virginia School of Law
Johann Neem, professor of history, Western Washington University
Farah Peterson, professor of law, University of Chicago Law School
Jack Rakove, Coe Professor of History and American Studies, professor of political science emeritus, Stanford University
Moderator: Alicia Bannon, director of the Brennan Center Judiciary Program
12:30–1:15 p.m. | Lunchtime Keynote
1:15–2:30 p.m. | Panel 2: Debating the ConstitutionExamine the reasons for the Constitution’s plan of government, how it was understood at the time, and how concerns over its failings were addressed through ideological debates at the Constitutional Convention.
Jay Cost, Gerald R. Ford Nonresident Senior Fellow, American Enterprise Institute
Jonathan Gienapp, associate professor of history, associate professor of law, Stanford University
Kermit Roosevelt, David Berger Professor for the Administration of Justice, University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School
2:45–4 p.m. | Panel 3: The War Over the Constitution’s MeaningExplore governance under the new Constitution and the Articles’ long shadow, from the early republic to the post–New Deal modern era, and how competing narratives of the Constitution’s origin story evolved.
Ilya Somin, professor of law, Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University
Alan Trammell, associate professor of law, Washington and Lee University School of Law
Moderator: Wilfred U. Codrington III, Walter Floersheimer Professor of Constitutional Law, Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law; fellow, Brennan Center
4–4:15 p.m. | Closing Reflections
Registration information: online - in-person.
(source: Legal History Blog)
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