Constitutional

By The Washington PostSociety & Culture Documentary Education Government History

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Constitutional episodes

December 18, 2017 Taxes
Congress today faces the same question it faced a century ago when creating the modern tax system: What kind of society should America be?
43 min
December 04, 2017 The common defense
One intention the framers had when creating the U.S. Constitution was to “provide for the common defense.” But who shoulders that duty has not always been so clear.
50 min
November 20, 2017 War
What was the original point of the Second Amendment? We examine its colonial and revolutionary roots—plus its quiet companion, the Third Amendment—with renowned American history scholar Gordon Wood.
42 min
November 06, 2017 Love
The words "marriage" and "love" appear nowhere in the U.S. Constitution. Yet 50 years ago, the Supreme Court issued a decision that would embed those concepts in the heart of the document itself.
39 min
October 23, 2017 Fair punishment
"There is so much feeling of racial injustice around the issue of punishment. And you have to understand that those feelings have a history -- and that history is Parchman Farm."
52 min
October 09, 2017 Fair trials
In 1963, the Supreme Court ruled in Gideon v. Wainwright that states must offer a defense attorney to all poor people accused of crimes. The decision transformed the concept of fair trials in America, but left major challenges to the justice system today.
47 min
September 25, 2017 Congress and citizens
Is it a feature or a bug of the amendment process that an idea of James Madison's, more than 200 years ago, could be recently resurrected and etched into the U.S. Constitution?
39 min
September 11, 2017 Senate and states
When the United States changed its process for electing senators, did that lead to a decline in state power? Or did it instead bring us closer to a "more perfect union"?
46 min
September 04, 2017 Hear ye! Hear ye!
Now that we've concluded our mini-series exploring "we the people," we're moving to a biweekly schedule, with brand new Constitutional episodes coming out every other Monday. Stay tuned!
3 min
August 28, 2017 Gender
From the American Revolution through today, women have been leading a long-burning rebellion to gain rights not originally guaranteed under the Constitution.
49 min

About Constitutional

From the publisher's feed

With the writing of the Constitution in 1787, the framers set out a young nation’s highest ideals. And ever since, we’ve been fighting over it — what is in it and what was left out. At the heart of these arguments is the story of America.