American Constitutionalism in the States

Session Submission Type: Roundtable

Session Description

Constitutions protect individual rights, distribute modes of participation, determine citizenship, design authoritative institutions, and shape social equality and justice. They are the fundamental rules of the political game. There has been just one national convention in American history. This is not, however, representative of the American constitutional tradition. State constitution makers have gathered in hundreds of conventions to consider fundamental principles and revise structures of government. These debates are a rich, and often ignored, resource for exploring the path of American constitutionalism and the process of constitutional creation and revision. There have also been thousands of amendments to state constitutions through legislatures and, sometimes, the popular vote. Political scientists, historians, and legal scholars who study American constitutional development have neglected state constitutions due to an overwhelming preoccupation with the United States Constitution. Moreover, the rigid amendment process of the federal document has channeled scholarship to judicial interpretation or political construction of meaning. The first American constitutions were in fact state constitutions. These initial attempts influenced the Founders and later states. In fact, the vast majority of our constitutional history has taken place at the subnational level. State constitutions have begun to receive the attention they deserve in political science. It is clear that these documents – their creation, revision, and interpretation – have much to contribute when tracing the development of ideas and institutions in American politics. This roundtable will consider the current state of the subfield with seven scholars who have either recently written or are currently writing books about state constitutions. The group will offer insights from their own research and propose future lines of inquiry.

Sub Unit

• DIVISION 27: Constitutional Law and Jurisprudence

Chair

• Paul E. Herron Providence College

Presenters

• John Dinan Wake Forest University

• Amy B. Bridges University of California San Diego

• Emily Zackin Johns Hopkins University

• Joshua Braver Yale University

• Robinson Woodward-Burns Howard University