Your Weekly Constitutional

Ever heard of the Privilege and Immunities Clauses? Yep, there are two of them, and if they seem obscure to you, well you're not alone. The Supreme Court has interpreted them very narrowly - some would say "almost out of existence."

Akram Faiser, a professor at Lincoln Memorial University's Duncan School of Law, who holds dual U.S. and Canadian citizenship, wants to change that. He wants to interpret the Privilege and Immunities Clauses as broadly protecting American democracy by limiting wealth inequality and its political consequences.

Hmm, does that remind you of somewhere? Perhaps Canada? Eh?

Our new President has called for jail time, and perhaps a loss of citizenship, for Americans who burn the American flag.

Would such punishments be constitutional? Or would that pesky First Amendment get in the way? We’ll talk to our First Amendment Guy, Doug McKechnie, about this (ahem) fiery constitutional issue.

Would you like to talk to a former President? How about a former First Lady or Secretary of State? Think you might learn something?

This week we're talking about a place called the Miller Center of the University of Virginia, which has a very important mission: recording oral histories of each American presidency since Jimmy Carter’s.

We’ll speak with the Miller Center’s Russell Riley, who has recorded dozens of interviews with influential people in several different presidential administrations, and who will share some of the fascinating stuff he's learned with us.

In 2016, for the second time in sixteen years, a presidential candidate prevailed in the Electoral College while losing the popular vote – this time by a margin of roughly three million votes. Is it time to change our method of electing presidents?

Constitutional lawyer and historian David O. Stewart thinks so, and he’s decided to devote himself to a constitutional reform movement called the National Popular Vote Initiative.

Can we reform our electoral system without amending our Constitution? Should we?

We’ve talked about women’s suffrage many times before (check the rest of our podcast site if you don’t believe us). But this is the first episode in which we discuss a play about the 19th Amendment – a musical play, no less.

Our guest is Catherine Bush, the playwright-in-residence at the Barter Theatre in Abingdon, Virginia, who tells us all about her acclaimed and historically-accurate production of “Winter Wheat.”

We all learned in grade school that Abraham Lincoln “saved the Union.” But, in saving our nation, did he destroy our Constitution?

He did some pretty extreme things, after all, from suspending habeas corpus to signing the Emancipation Proclamation. Were his actions constitutionally justified, or not?

Join us for a fascinating discussion with Daniel Farber, who teaches at the University of California, Berkeley, and who presented this year’s R. Gerald McMurtry Lecture at Lincoln Memorial University’s Duncan School of Law.

If you’ve ever been in far western Kentucky, near Hopkinsville, you may have noticed something strange rising from the cornfields: it looks like the Washington Monument, but it’s not.

It is, in fact, a monument, but not to George Washington. This particular edifice memorializes a man whom we might consider the anti-Washington: Jefferson Davis, the first President of the Confederate States of America.

Stewart recently visited the Jefferson Davis State Historic Site and spoke with Ron Sydnor, its manager. Another surprise: Mr. Sydnor is African-American.

Ever heard of Roger B. Taney? He was the Chief Justice of the United States for almost 30 years, from 1836 to 1864. Today, he is remembered largely for one opinion he wrote, an opinion often considered the worst in U.S. Supreme Court history: Dred Scott v. Sandford.

Recently, Taney's bust, displayed in his home town of Frederick, Maryland, was vandalized, and a number of people have called for its removal.

Stewart talks with law professor Josh Blackman about this constitutional debate between present and past.

Stewart's college classmate, Bernice Kiyo Glenn, finishes the fascinating tale of her Japanese-American-Hawaiian family and its many dangerous journeys across the wide Pacific Ocean.

What Does it Mean to be an American?

Well, it means lots of different things, depending upon whom you talk to and whom you’re talking about. This week we bring you the first part of a compelling, two-part story of a Japanese-American family that spent decades crossing and re-crossing the Pacific Ocean between Japan and Hawaii.

Bernice Kiyo Glenn, a college classmate of Stewart’s, tells the tale.