From FDR to Biden: The Creation of the Modern Presidency

The Center for Constitutional Design at Arizona State University and the National Constitution Center hosted a discussion exploring how the institution of the modern presidency has evolved through the lens of studying the constitutional visions and approaches to executive power of some of America’s past presidents. Presidency experts Sidney Milkis and Barbara Perry of the University of Virginia’s Miller Center and Stephen Knott of Ashland University joined moderator Jeffrey Rosen, National Constitution Center President and CEO, for this conversation.

Amending the Constitution: Twin Jeopardies

The Center for Constitutional Design hosted its inaugural Constitution Day Address, with speaker Russ Feingold, President of the American Constitution Society. He served as a United States Senator from Wisconsin from 1993 to 2011 and a Wisconsin State Senator from 1983 to 1993, and from 2013 to 2015, he was the United States Special Envoy to the Great Lakes Region of Africa and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In his lecture: Amending the Constitution: Twin Jeopardies, Senator Feingold discussed an initially fringe but growing effort to call the first-ever constitutional convention under the provisions of the U.S. Constitution. He also discussed the need for a new process that would allow more frequent, democratic constitutional change. The lecture, thus, offered a warning and a way forward concerning Article V of the Constitution. This event was supported by a Constitution Day Grant from the Jack Miller Center.

Money, Politics, and the U.S. Constitution

Who gets to decide whether and how to regulate money in our campaigns and elections? For the past 50 years, the Supreme Court has made itself the nation’s apex regulator of money-in-politics. Through its campaign finance decisions, the Court has taken many options off the table from state and federal policymakers. But is this the way things should be, as a matter of constitutional structure? There is a growing movement — which includes state lawmakers from both major political parties — that is calling for a constitutional amendment that would empower Congress and the States to choose whether and how to regulate money-in-politics. In this panel, we explored the text and theory of the proposed amendment through an interactive discussion with both its advocates and skeptics.

The State of Free Expression in the U.S. and Abroad

Join free-speech advocates Garry Kasparov, former world chess champion, political activist, and chairman of the Renew Democracy Initiative; Evan Mawarire, Zimbabwean pastor and democratic activist; and Suzanne Nossel, CEO of PEN America, as they discuss the state of free expression in the United States, Russia, Zimbabwe and around the world. Jeffrey Rosen, president and CEO of the National Constitution Center, moderates. This program is presented as a partnership between the National Constitution Center, the Renew Democracy Initiative, and the Center for Constitutional Design at Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law.

Five Amendments: Next Steps for Constitutional Change

The Center for Constitutional Design and the National Constitution Center host a discussion of the amendments to the Constitution proposed by the National Constitution Center’s Constitution Drafting Project. This pathbreaking initiative asked three teams of progressive, libertarian, and conservative scholars to convene online for a constitutional convention. After a week of dialogue, deliberation and compromise, the ideologically diverse delegates agreed on proposals for five constitutional amendments, ranging from term limits for Supreme Court justices to resurrecting the legislative veto and making it easier for national majorities to amend the Constitution.

Can the Legislative Power Be Delegated to the Administrative State?

A debate about whether the legislative power can be delegated between Professor James Stoner, Hermann Moyse, Jr., Professor and Director of the Eric Voegelin Institute in the Department of Political Science at Louisiana State University, and Michael Rappaport, the Hugh & Hazel Darling Professor of Law at the University of San Diego School of Law, where he is also the Director of the Center for the Study of Constitutional Originalism.