The Oldest Constitutional Question

Run time: 1 hour

In this episode, Richard Primus and John Harrison join to discuss Primus’s new book The Oldest Constitutional Question: Enumeration and Federal Power, which challenges the prevailing understanding of congressional power and argues that Congress is not limited to its textually enumerated powers. Their conversation traces how this fundamental disagreement has shaped key moments in American constitutional history, from the Founding era to the New Deal, and why the debate remains unsettled today. Listen now

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August 9, 1974: Gerald Ford becomes president in a constitutional first

by NCC Staff | Read time: 2 minutes

“On August 9, 1974, Gerald Ford officially became president in the most unusual of circumstances, as Richard Nixon left Washington and Ford took office without the benefit of direct election to presidential office. …” Read more

10 fascinating facts about Watergate

by NCC Staff | Read time: 3 minutes

“On June 17, 1972, police caught five men breaking into the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate complex in Washington, D.C. So how did a “third-rate burglary” escalate into a near constitutional crisis? …” Read more

August 6, 1945: The United States drops an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima

With the Pacific Theater of World War II claiming thousands of lives per day, the Truman Administration resolved to use the United States arsenal’s two nuclear bombs to force Japan to capitulate. The fear of “the Bomb” and nuclear holocaust would become a mainstay in the wake of this event. Films like Duck and Cover (1952) would be produced and distributed by state and federal authorities in an effort to assuage public fears with limited effect. This document is the official pronouncement of that era of nuclear fear commencing. Read on the Founders' Library

Article I, Section 8

“The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;...”

Read interpretations in the Interactive Constitution

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