Conversations with Texas Scholars About the US Constitution

More than 200 years after it was written, the Constitution still provides the framework for political life in the United States. Its provisions organize national political institutions, preserve basic rights for citizens, and arrange how the states fit into the workings of the national government. Within this framework, Americans have successfully strengthened their institutions in the face of new challenges and extended the political rights the Constitution establishes. In order to help students, their teachers, and the public think about the Constitution and its continued meaning in political life in 2006, four scholars at The University of Texas at Austin shared their perspectives on the ideas invested in the Constitution, the institutions created by it, and how the political society constituted in 1787 perseveres today. Their interpretations are part of the ongoing conversation among all members of the civic community that the Constitution created and helps to maintain.

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Media

William Powers, Jr. President of The University of Texas at Austin, displays a keen interest in the development of the institutional roles created for the judicial branch by interpretations of the Constitution. In the first segment, he reflects on how the federal courts have accumulated prestige over time by serving as umpires in the political system. In the second segment, he examines the judicial branch's role in the innovative system of democratic politics created by the Constitution.
"Courts As Umpires"
"The Judiciary and Democracy"

Bruce Buchanan, Professor in the Department of Government and a scholar of the U. S. presidency, explores how the vagueness in the Constitutional provisions for the executive branch have been used by some Presidents to increase executive power. He examines this lack of specification in the first segment, and notes how this vagueness served to smooth over differences among some of the Framers. In the second segment, he explains how Presidents have responded to national crises by using the Constitution's vague specification of executive power to temporarily increase executive power, often with the support of an unsettled public.
"The Vagueness of Article II"
"Crisis and Executive Power"

Gretchen Ritter, Director of the Center for Women and Gender Studies and Associate Professor in the Department of Government, shares her analysis of the notion of citizenship and the evolution of the rights attached to this notion within the Constitutional order. In the first segment, she discusses the Fourteenth Amendment's creation of the initial terms of national citizenship and its implication for civic community in the United States. She reflects on women's membership in this community in the second segment, drawing on her recent book The Constitution as Social Design: Gender and Civic Membership in the American Constitutional Order (Stanford University Press, 2006).
"The 14th Amendment and Citizenship"
"Women and the Constitutional Community"

Sean Theriault, Assistant Professor in the Department of Government, suggests that despite the fact that Congress has evolved in some directions that were probably unforeseen by the Framers: the legislative branch remains accountable to voters. His comments in the first segment discuss the impact of one of the influences in Congress least expected or desired by the Framers, political parties. In the second segment he assesses the impact of one of the processes set in place in the Constitution, the reapportionment and redistricting scheme for the House of Representatives.
"The Constitution and Parties in Congress"
"Reapportionment in Congress"

People

William Powers, Jr., is the president of The University of Texas at Austin. Before taking office on February 1, 2006, he served as dean of the university's School of Law. He is a University Distinguished Teaching Professor and holds the Hines H. Baker and Thelma Kelley Baker Chair in Law. He is the author of dozens of articles on tort law and legal philosophy and of several books, including "Cases and Materials in Products Liability" (with David Fischer, Michael Green and Joseph Sanders), "Cases and Materials in Torts" (with David Robertson, David Anderson and Olin Guy Wellborn) and "Texas Products Liability Law." He recorded for the Constitution Day Project in 2006.

Bruce Buchanan is a Professor in the Department of Government. He is a nationally recognized scholar of presidential and American politics, American institutions, public policy and political behavior. His books include The Presidential Experience (Prentice-Hall, 1978), The Citizen's Presidency (Congressional Quarterly, 1987), Electing A President (Texas, 1991), Renewing Presidential Politics (Rowman and Littlefield, 1996), The State of the Presidency (ed. LBJ School/Library 2002), Presidential Campaign Quality (Prentice- Hall, 2004) and The Policy Partnership (Routledge, 2004). He recorded for the Constitution Day Project in 2006.

Gretchen Ritteris a Professor in the Department of Government. She specializes in studies of American politics, constitutional development, and gender politics from a historical and theoretical perspective. She is currently examining the impact of work-family issues on gender equity in the United States. She is the Director of the Center for Women's and Gender Studies at UT-Austin, and the author of two books, Goldbugs and Greenbacks: The Antimonopoly Tradition and the Politics of Finance in America (NY: Cambridge University Press, 1997) and The Constitution as Social Design: Gender and Civic Membership in the American Constitutional Order (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2006). She recorded for the Constitution Day Project in 2006.

Sean Theriault is an Associate Professor in the Department of Government, where specializes in American politics. His particular interests are in the U.S. Congress, American political development, and political history. His current research explores party polarization in the U.S. Congress, and he is the author of Party Polarization in Congress (Cambridge University Press, 2008) and The Power of the People: Congressional Competition, Public Attention, and Voter Retribution, (The Ohio State University Press, 2005). In the spring of 2005, he received the Eyes of Texas Teaching Excellence Award. He recorded for the Constitution Day Project in 2006.