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Disaster for the Constitution: Flawed Assertions of State Sovereignty
No doctrine has posed a greater threat to the U.S. Constitution than the flawed assertion of state sovereignty. It represented the...
Brenna Gerhardt
May 6, 20213 min read


Probing Federalism: The Supremacy Clause
“Federalism,” which refers to the allocation of powers between the federal and state governments, has been a source of contention since...
Brenna Gerhardt
Apr 29, 20213 min read


A Cell Phone Recording, First Amendment Rights and a Guilty Verdict
When 17-year old Darnella Frazier used her cell phone on May 25, 2020, to record the murder of George Floyd, a horrifying episode which,...
Brenna Gerhardt
Apr 22, 20213 min read


The Biden Commission and the Concept of Court-Packing
President Biden recently signed an executive order creating a bi-partisan commission that will study U.S. Supreme Court reform and, among...
Brenna Gerhardt
Apr 15, 20213 min read


The Personal Constitution: Embodied in the First Amendment
The concept of the “Personal Constitution,” which we introduced in this column last week, is personified in the First Amendment freedoms,...
Brenna Gerhardt
Apr 8, 20213 min read


Personalizing the Constitution
Together, the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution form what Gunnar Myrdal called, the “American Creed.” The...
Brenna Gerhardt
Mar 31, 20213 min read


Fundamental Fairness: Statehood for Washington DC
The introduction of H.R. 51, a bill to make Washington, D.C. the 51st state—the “Washington, Douglas Commonwealth”--would grant its...
Brenna Gerhardt
Mar 25, 20214 min read


Protecting Freedom of Speech
As we have seen in our recent discussion of tests employed by the U.S. Supreme Court to determine the parameters of speech afforded...
Brenna Gerhardt
Mar 19, 20213 min read


Holmes’s Defense of Freedom of Speech
Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes’s invention in 1919, in Schenck v. United States, of the Clear and Present Danger Test, provided little...
Brenna Gerhardt
Mar 12, 20213 min read


Dissenting Speech v. National Security Claims
The question of governmental authority to punish speech in the name of national security came before the Supreme Court for the first time...
Brenna Gerhardt
Mar 3, 20214 min read


May Government Curtail Free Speech?
Does the government have authority to curtail speech that might cause injury to our national security?
Brenna Gerhardt
Feb 26, 20214 min read


Free Speech Clause: Origins and Purposes
The guarantee of freedom of speech, central to Americans’ participation in self-governance and the life of the nation...
Brenna Gerhardt
Feb 19, 20213 min read


Free Constitutional Seminars
The U.S. Constitution is all-Broadway, all the time. Americans may not realize its center stage presence in the life of the nation, but
Brenna Gerhardt
Feb 12, 20213 min read


The Constitution and the Trump Impeachment Trial
The forthcoming Senate impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump raises a host of constitutional questions...
Brenna Gerhardt
Feb 5, 20214 min read


Trial for a Former President?
Does the U.S. Senate have the authority to hold an impeachment trial for former President Donald Trump?
Brenna Gerhardt
Jan 29, 20213 min read


Impeachment Trial of Senate
Sometime soon, private citizen Donald Trump will become the first former president to face a Senate impeachment trial...
Brenna Gerhardt
Jan 22, 20214 min read


Removing A President
Memories of the footage of the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, on January 6, 2021, will be forever etched in the minds of the citizenry.
Brenna Gerhardt
Jan 19, 20215 min read


Impeachment Thwarts Trump Pardon
President Donald Trump’s assertion of constitutional authority to grant himself a pardon was effectively blocked on January 13...
Brenna Gerhardt
Jan 15, 20214 min read


What Does a Coup Look Like?
To its horror, America witnessed on January 6, 2021, an insurrection. Millions watched, in real time...
Brenna Gerhardt
Jan 8, 20213 min read


Reversing Electoral College Vote?
Efforts by President Donald Trump and congressional republicans to subvert the ceremonial counting of electoral votes is a witches' brew...
Brenna Gerhardt
Jan 1, 20214 min read
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