The Interbellum Constitution

Run time: 1 hour

Political theorist William B. Allen and Alison LaCroix join Jeffrey Rosen to explore the intellectual foundations—from Montesquieu and beyond—of constitutional interpretation from the founding to the Civil War. They also discuss historical practice and tradition in interpreting the Constitution throughout the interbellum period, and how this history applies to debates over constitutional interpretation today. Listen on We the People or Watch the America’s Town Hall program

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“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.”

Read interpretations in the Interactive Constitution

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