Constitutional

In the "Constitutional" finale, we address listener questions about the history--and future--of the nation's governing document.

Why do First Amendment rights trump nearly every other right in America? Thank Jehovah's Witnesses.

How should the Constitution's privacy protections be translated for a new era? This is a question before the Supreme Court today, but it was also a …

The passage and then repeal of the 18th Amendment, banning alcohol in America, highlighted the pitfalls of trying to legislate against vice.

Congress today faces the same question it faced a century ago when creating the modern tax system: What kind of society should America be?

One intention the framers had when creating the U.S. Constitution was to “provide for the common defense.” But who shoulders that duty has not always …

What was the original point of the Second Amendment? We examine its colonial and revolutionary roots—plus its quiet companion, the Third …

The words "marriage" and "love" appear nowhere in the U.S. Constitution. Yet 50 years ago, the Supreme Court issued a decision that would embed those …

"There is so much feeling of racial injustice around the issue of punishment. And you have to understand that those feelings have a history -- and that history is Parchman Farm."

In 1963, the Supreme Court ruled in Gideon v. Wainwright that states must offer a defense attorney to all poor people accused of crimes. The decision …

Is it a feature or a bug of the amendment process that an idea of James Madison's, more than 200 years ago, could be recently resurrected and etched …

When the United States changed its process for electing senators, did that lead to a decline in state power? Or did it instead bring us closer to a "more perfect union"?

From the American Revolution through today, women have been leading a long-burning rebellion to gain rights not originally guaranteed under the …

As powerful as it was to change the Constitution after the Civil War, and enshrine racial equality into our governing document, that wasn’t enough to …

What makes someone American? A landmark Supreme Court case in 1898, involving a child born in San Francisco to Chinese immigrant parents, would help …

This "we the people" episode explores indigenous rights. In 1879, a case involving Chief Standing Bear came before a Nebraska courtroom and demanded …

In the premier episode of “Constitutional,” we go back in time to that hot Philadelphia summer in 1787 when a group of revolutionary Americans …

Preview The Washington Post's newest podcast, a narrative series about the revolutionary figures who shaped America's story. Subscribe now to get the …