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Civics In A Year
The Center for American Civics
131 episodes
3 days ago
A cabinet feud reshaped a nation. We follow Hamilton and Jefferson from principled disagreement to hard-nosed dealmaking, showing how a debate over debt, a national bank, and the reach of implied powers birthed America’s first party system—and moved the capital to the Potomac. Hamilton’s reports on credit, currency, and tariffs aimed to harden the young republic into a credible economic power. Jefferson and Madison fought back, citing constitutional limits and warning against a financial engi...
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A cabinet feud reshaped a nation. We follow Hamilton and Jefferson from principled disagreement to hard-nosed dealmaking, showing how a debate over debt, a national bank, and the reach of implied powers birthed America’s first party system—and moved the capital to the Potomac. Hamilton’s reports on credit, currency, and tariffs aimed to harden the young republic into a credible economic power. Jefferson and Madison fought back, citing constitutional limits and warning against a financial engi...
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Courses
Education
Episodes (20/131)
Civics In A Year
Hamilton Vs. Jefferson
A cabinet feud reshaped a nation. We follow Hamilton and Jefferson from principled disagreement to hard-nosed dealmaking, showing how a debate over debt, a national bank, and the reach of implied powers birthed America’s first party system—and moved the capital to the Potomac. Hamilton’s reports on credit, currency, and tariffs aimed to harden the young republic into a credible economic power. Jefferson and Madison fought back, citing constitutional limits and warning against a financial engi...
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4 days ago
22 minutes

Civics In A Year
Why Parties Emerged In Early America
Why did a Constitution that never mentions parties give birth to them almost immediately? We trace the story from ratification battles to cabinet showdowns, connecting the dots between Federalists and Anti-Federalists, the shockwaves of the French Revolution, and the intellectual scaffolding laid by Montesquieu and Madison. Along the way, we unpack how foreign revolutions reframed domestic loyalties, why the idea of a loyal opposition became a safeguard for liberty, and how institutions invit...
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5 days ago
21 minutes

Civics In A Year
Federalists Vs. Democratic Republicans
Forget today’s party machinery. We go back to the 1790s, when “party” meant faction, suspicion, and heated pamphlets rather than primaries and platforms. With constitutional law scholar Dr. Sean Beienberg, we trace how Federalists and Democratic Republicans sparred over the meaning of the Constitution, the reach of federal power, the role of religion in public life, and which European power the young republic should trust. We unpack the Federalist vision shaped by Alexander Hamilton: a comme...
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6 days ago
13 minutes

Civics In A Year
Reading Washington’s Farewell Address
What if the most important presidential “speech” was never meant to be spoken? We sit down with Samantha Snyder, research librarian at the George Washington Presidential Library at Mount Vernon, to explore why Washington printed his Farewell Address, how he shaped it with counsel from his circle, and what the text reveals about humility, unity, and the burdens of being first. Samantha pulls back the curtain on the archive: the tactile power of handwriting, the value of drafts and marginal no...
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1 week ago
31 minutes

Civics In A Year
Why January 1 Became America’s Civic Reset
Midnight sparks joy, but the deeper story begins when the noise fades. We explore how January 1 became one of America’s earliest federal holidays and why this date has long served as a civic reset—an annual reminder that renewal is something we do together, not alone. From the quiet power of colonial-era visits and reconciliations to the thunderclap of January 1, 1863, we connect personal resolutions to public purpose and trace the living tradition of watch night as a testament to freedom ren...
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1 week ago
7 minutes

Civics In A Year
Why America Made Christmas A Federal Holiday
A holiday can be more than a date off work; it can be a quiet pact about what a free people hold in common. We dig into Christmas as both a religious feast and a civic tradition, exploring why Congress recognized it in 1870 and how that choice still shapes American public life. With Dr. James Stoner of LSU, we trace the legal and cultural threads that turned a holy day into a shared civic rhythm—touching the Constitution’s “Sundays excepted” clause, early fights over Sunday mail, and the way ...
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2 weeks ago
29 minutes

Civics In A Year
Inside The Sixth Amendment: Rights That Shape Justice
Power decides what counts as fair—unless people do. That’s the heartbeat of our conversation with Professor Esther Hong, a scholar of youth and adult carceral systems and a former appellate advocate, as we unpack how the Sixth Amendment still guards legitimacy in a justice system dominated by plea deals. We walk through the core rights—speedy and public trial, impartial jury, notice of charges, assistance of counsel, confrontation, cross-examination, and compulsory process—and trace how they ...
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3 weeks ago
18 minutes

Civics In A Year
What Gideon v. Wainwright Teaches About Rights, Funding, And Real Justice
A single Supreme Court decision promised that no one would face the power of the state without a lawyer. The more complex question: who pays, who shows up, and how do we make that promise real? We sit down with Professor Sarah Mayeux, a legal historian at Vanderbilt University and author of Free Justice, to trace how Gideon v. Wainwright redefined the right to counsel—and why the work of building public defense still challenges courts and communities today. We start with the legal arc that l...
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3 weeks ago
18 minutes

Civics In A Year
What Citizens United Actually Changed About Political Speech
Think you know Citizens United? The headlines got the heat, but the holding was far narrower than the myth. We walk through the real story—what the Court protected, what it left alone, and why the biggest shift in campaign money came from a different case altogether. We start with the foundation set by Buckley v. Valeo, where the Court split campaign finance into two buckets: contributions to candidates, which can be limited to deter corruption, and independent expenditures, which are protec...
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3 weeks ago
13 minutes

Civics In A Year
Chickens, Wheat, And The Commerce Clause
A chicken counter, a wheat field, and a school-zone arrest shouldn’t define the reach of federal power—but they do. We unpack how a few pivotal cases turned the Commerce Clause from a narrow trade rule into the engine of modern regulation, and where the Court has since tried to tap the brakes without stalling the system. We start with Schechter Poultry’s unanimous stand against federal micromanagement of a local butcher, then pivot to Wickard v. Filburn, where the justices embraced the aggre...
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3 weeks ago
20 minutes

Civics In A Year
How Supreme Court Rulings Reshaped The Second Amendment
The ground under the Second Amendment keeps shifting—and the story is bigger than a single case. With Professor Nelson Lund of George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School, we walk through the decisions that rewrote the playbook: Heller’s recognition of an individual right, McDonald’s incorporation against the states, Bruin’s insistence on a history-and-tradition test, and Rahimi’s controversial turn toward preventive disarmament for those deemed dangerous. Along the way, we unpack why...
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3 weeks ago
13 minutes

Civics In A Year
From Bakke To SFFA: How The Supreme Court Shaped Diversity In College Admissions
What happens when a single swing opinion steers higher education for decades—and then the Court changes course? We unpack the legal journey from Bakke’s fragmented ruling to the 2023 Students for Fair Admissions decision, tracing how Justice Powell’s narrow vision of “holistic” diversity took root, evolved in Grutter and Gratz, and ultimately ran into a stricter equal protection and Title VI jurisprudence. Along the way, we break down why quotas were off-limits, how individualized review beca...
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3 weeks ago
15 minutes

Civics In A Year
When Free Exercise Meets Compulsory Education In Wisconsin v. Yoder
A tiny truancy fine opened a constitutional door that still shapes classrooms today. We unpack Wisconsin v. Yoder, the 1972 Supreme Court case where Old Order Amish parents won a free exercise exemption from compulsory high school, and explore how that ruling moved from a narrow carve-out to a live wire in public education. Along the way, we surface the question Justice Douglas couldn’t let go: when parental faith guides a child’s schooling, what room is left for the child’s own future? We s...
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3 weeks ago
13 minutes

Civics In A Year
Why Engel v. Vitale Redefined Faith And Public Schools
A 22-word morning prayer, written by New York’s Board of Regents, ignited one of the most significant constitutional rulings of the last century. We sit down with Professor Katskee to unpack Engel v. Vitale and the First Amendment principles it cemented: government cannot compose or sponsor official prayers, and genuine religious liberty flourishes when the state steps back. From the text of the establishment and free exercise clauses to the human realities inside classrooms, we explore what ...
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4 weeks ago
17 minutes

Civics In A Year
How Tinker v. Des Moines Empowered Student Speech
A simple black armband became a turning point for student rights. We sit down with Mary Beth Tinker to revisit the 1965 protest that led to Tinker v. Des Moines and the Supreme Court’s declaration that students do not shed their constitutional rights at the schoolhouse gate. Alongside Mary Beth, Pennsylvania civic educator Shannon Salter brings the story into today’s classrooms, where free speech collides with dress codes, book bans, social media, and the daily realities of learning in commun...
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1 month ago
50 minutes

Civics In A Year
How The Pentagon Papers Redefined Free Speech And Government Accountability
We trace the 15-day showdown over the Pentagon Papers and how the Supreme Court drew a bright line against prior restraint. The story moves from Ellsberg’s leak to the Court’s ruling that the press serves the governed, not the governors. • Vietnam-era context and collapsing public trust • Ellsberg’s decision to copy and share the study • The Times publishes and triggers an emergency court fight • What prior restraint means and why courts disfavor it • Near v. Minnesota as the legal foundatio...
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1 month ago
10 minutes

Civics In A Year
New York Times v. Sullivan
Professor Samantha Barbas traces how New York Times v. Sullivan reshaped libel law, empowered investigative reporting, and protected the civil rights movement, then tests the standard against today’s social media landscape. She unpacks “actual malice,” reputation, and current calls to revisit the ruling. What you will learn in this episode: • what libel is and why it matters • the meaning of actual malice as reckless disregard • civil rights origins of the Sullivan decision • how the ruling...
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1 month ago
10 minutes

Civics In A Year
Baker v. Carr Explained: From Unequal Districts To One Person, One Vote
Imagine sharing a district with nine times as many people as the voters next door and getting the same single representative. That stark imbalance was common before Baker v. Carr, and it’s the starting point for our deep dive into how the Supreme Court reshaped representation, why one person, one vote became the baseline, and where the law is drifting now. We sit down with Professor Stephen Wermiel to unpack the two-step process that changed modern apportionment. First came Baker v. Carr in ...
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1 month ago
16 minutes

Civics In A Year
How Brown v. Board Ended Legal School Segregation
A nine-page Supreme Court opinion changed the course of American education—and it wasn’t an accident. We walk through the legal strategy that chipped away at Plessy, the political maneuvering that elevated Earl Warren, and the consolidated cases that gave Brown its force. From the NAACP’s focus on the false promise of “equal” to South Carolina’s attempt to preserve segregation by upgrading Black schools, the road to 1954 was crowded with tactics, pressure, and surprising alliances. Once Warr...
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1 month ago
12 minutes

Civics In A Year
From Schenck To Social Media: How Free Speech Law Evolved
Free speech law didn’t spring fully formed; it was hammered out case by case, crisis by crisis. We unpack how Schenck v. United States, a 1919 wartime case that actually upheld a conviction, planted the “clear and present danger” idea and nudged the Court away from the sweeping “bad tendency” rule. From there, we follow the thread through Holmes and Brandeis, whose dissents helped build a sturdier shield for political dissent, all the way to Brandenburg v. Ohio and its demanding standard: onl...
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1 month ago
23 minutes

Civics In A Year
A cabinet feud reshaped a nation. We follow Hamilton and Jefferson from principled disagreement to hard-nosed dealmaking, showing how a debate over debt, a national bank, and the reach of implied powers birthed America’s first party system—and moved the capital to the Potomac. Hamilton’s reports on credit, currency, and tariffs aimed to harden the young republic into a credible economic power. Jefferson and Madison fought back, citing constitutional limits and warning against a financial engi...