Live at the National Constitution Center

The Evolution of Judicial Independence in America — Part 1

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The National Constitution Center and the Federal Judicial Center present a three-part discussion exploring the evolution of judicial independence in America and its critical role in our democracy from the Founding to present day.

This episode features a conversation with historians Mary Sarah Bilder of Boston College Law School and Jack Rakove of Stanford University, exploring the founders’ intentions surrounding the establishment of the federal judiciary and the role of the courts during the nation’s formative years. Jeffrey Rosen, president and CEO of the National Constitution Center, moderates.  

This program is presented in partnership with the Federal Judicial Center.


Additional Resources

  • National Constitution Center, "Article III," Interactive Constitution
  • Jack Rakove, Original Meanings: Politics and Ideas in the Making of the Constitution
  • Mary Sarah Bilder, Madison's Hand: Revising the Constitutional Convention
  • James Madison, Notes on the Federal Convention of 1787
  • Federalist 78
  • Marbury v. Madison (1803)
  • McCulloch v. Maryland (1819)
  • Alexander Bickle, The Least Dangerous Branch: The Supreme Court at the Bar of Politics
  • John Adams, A Defense of the Constitutions of the Government of the United States
  • Ed. Max Skjönsberg, Catharine Macaulay: Political Writings
  • Wendell Bird, Criminal Dissent: Prosecutions under the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798


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