Your Weekly Constitutional

Montpelier's African American Descendants' Project seeks to identify and create bridges to living descendants of the African American women and men who were enslaved at Montpelier and elsewhere in Orange County, Virginia.

Hannah Scruggs is an important part of the project. In addition to her research skills, she brings her heritage: she is a descendant of a nearby enslaved community.

In this episode, she shares her experiences, professional and personal, with Stewart.

Article II of the Constitution gives the President virtually unfettered authority over foreign affairs and the conduct of war. Franklin Roosevelt certainly used that power to maximum effect before and during World War II.

One overlooked theater of that war is far more important than most Americans realize: Latin America. Author Mary Jo McConahay describes President Roosevelt’s decade-long dance with the Axis Powers and their Latin American sympathizers in her new book, The Tango War.

Join us for a fascinating discussion, chock full of stories, revelations, and unexpected characters—from Nelson Rockefeller to Mickey Mouse.

Brian Dirck, a historian from Anderson University, was 2018's R. Gerald McMurtry Lecturer at Lincoln Memorial University's Duncan School of Law.

Brian tells us about what he refers to as Lincoln’s Golden Apple—the idealism that motivated Lincoln’s practical politics.

Melanie Reid teaches criminal law and procedure at Lincoln Memorial University’s Duncan School of Law. Recently, she wrote an article on a surprisingly complicated topic: double jeopardy.

You’ve heard of it, but, chances are, you don’t fully understand it. Neither did Stewart. But Melanie explained it to him. She'll explain it to you, too.

If you’re accused of a crime and you can’t afford a lawyer, you have a right to a state-appointed public defender.

But what happens if you get into non-criminal legal trouble, like a landlord-tenant case or a property dispute? Who you gonna call? Legal Aid.

Dave Yoder, the former Executive Director of Legal Aid of East Tennessee, tells us all about this important organization. But Legal Aid can’t do it alone. It needs the assistance of dedicated private attorneys, attorneys like Tony Seaton of Johnson City, Tennessee who joins us to discuss what he calls Access to Justice.

You may never have heard of Elbert Williams. We aim to fix that. Because Elbert Williams deserves to be remembered.

He was the very first member of the NAACP to be killed for his efforts in the modern civil rights movement. No one even knows where he’s buried.

Retired Tennessee trial attorney Jim Emison has devoted years to finding Elbert and telling his story. Join us for a poignant and inspiring tale.

Some controversies never die. Soon after James Madison published his notes on the Constitutional Convention -- the most complete and thorough account of that secret proceeding -- his political rivals accused him of slanting his version of events.

In a recent book, Mary Bilder of Harvard University published what she claimed was new evidence that Madison's editing was more than just editing. Two Madison scholars, Jonathan Gienapp of Stanford University, and Lynn Uzzell, the former Scholar in Residence at Montpelier, tell us about the continuing debate.

As James Madison noted in 1822: "Knowledge will forever govern ignorance: And a people who mean to be their own Governors, must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives."

So it's pretty obvious why we’ve interviewed best-selling author James Loewen several times. This time, we’re talking about the re-issue of his most famous book, in which he tells us “Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong.”

The Goldwater Rule prohibits psychiatrists and psychologists from diagnosing anyone unless they have examined the patient personally.

But some health care professionals insist that another ethical concept trumps the Goldwater Rule: the duty to warn others if a patient is a threat.

The “patient” in question is Donald Trump, and these professionals have decided to warn the world that he is dangerously mentally ill. They’ve even written a book: Rocket Man: Nuclear Madness and the Mind of Donald Trump.

We hear from both sides on this contentious issue: Dr. Charles Dike of Yale, who defends the Goldwater Rule, and Dr. John Gartner, who taught for many years at Johns Hopkins, and who is one of the founders of the group Duty to Warn.

LMU Law School's Professor William Gill continues his update of immigration issues, telling us about his own experiences representing migrants caught up in ICE raids in Morristown, Tennessee.