U.S. Constitution Self-Study Materials

If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.

Thomas Jefferson

Topic 1: The Divinely Inspired Constitution

Topic 2: Equal Justice

Topic 3: Popular Sovereignty

Topic 4: Federalism

Topic 5: Separation of Powers

Topic 6: The Role of a Judge

Topic 7: Bill of Rights

Topic 8: Religious Liberty

Topic 9: Rule of Law

Topic 10: Civic Charity

Topic 11: Supporting and Defending the Constitution

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Study Questions
Gordon reading:
Does Gordon actually believe that no men are naturally better than others?
What does he mean when he says there is nothing moral in blood, but action and the causes that produce them are moral?
Adams Letters:
What is Abigail’s ultimate aims? Does she want women ruling? Voting? Something else?
What does John mean by masculine systems being “little more than theory”? Is there any significance there?
Virginia Declaration of Rights:
What rights stand out to you?
Why would a provision (no. 5) relating to separation of powers be included in a declaration of rights?
Declaration of Independence:
What rights are inalienable?
Why must one act prudently in determining that a dissolution of political bonds is necessary?
A Dissertation on Slavery:
How does inequality make a people unfit for equality? What are the pathologies of slavery?
Can one reconcile Tucker’s notion that an equal, natural-rights-based society can exclude persons for arbitrary reasons, such as race?
What, to the Slave, is the Fourth of July?:
Why did Douglass have so much scorn for Americans in the 19th century over the question of slavery and yet, in the same breath, express respect for the Founding Fathers?
Thomas G. West reading:
Was Mansfield correct that “a regime based on the self-evident half-truth that all men are created equal will eventually founder because of its disregard of the many ways in which mean are created unequal”?
How does the American regime attempt to maintain the tension between equality and inequality?
Herbert Croly reading:
Does the Square Deal inevitably fall apart?
Is it possible to have a government that does not discriminate between persons?
Does a natural-rights-based regime inevitably lead to oppression? Is a pure democratic regime self-defeating?

Separation of Powers

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Study Questions
The Founders’ Constitution - The authors state that Anti Federalists thought not enough had been done to separate the powers of the newly proposed federal government but that James Madison,
in The Federalist, had “admonished his readers to cease worrying about the dangers of yesteryear--the overbearing abuses of a hereditary king in collusion with a hereditary nobility--and guard instead against the dangers of today and tomorrow--the enterprising ambition of an assembly flush with a confidence derived from its base of popular support.” In other words, Madison was more worried about Congress exercising too much power than the executive branch doing so. Is that still a valid concern today? Were the Anti-Federalists onto something in their heightened concern about an overbearing executive branch? See also, Reading Six (excerpt from James Madison, Federalist No. 47); Reading Seven (excerpt from James Madison, Federalist No. 48); Reading Eight (excerpt from James Madison, Federalist No. 51); Reading Nine (excerpt from Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 71)
John Locke’s Second Treatise of Civil Government – Locke declares that “the Legislative [branch] must needs be the Supream, and all other Powers in any Members or parts of the Society, derived from and subordinate to it.” How would you characterize the position of Congress today in relation to the other branches of government?
William Blackstone’s Commentaries on the Laws of England – Blackstone extols the benefits and importance of an independent judiciary, saying, “[i]n this distinct and separate existence of the judicial power, in a peculiar body of men, nominated indeed, but not removeable at pleasure, by the crown, consists one main preservative of the public liberty, which cannot subsist long in any state, unless the administration of common justice be in some degree separated both from the legislative and also from the executive power.” Does colonial American experience bear that out? When Thomas Jefferson penned the Declaration of Independence not long after the first edition of Blackstone’s great treatise was published sometime between 1765 and 1769, he included an indictment of King George for having “made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.” Is an independent judiciary still a bulwark of liberty?
What the Anti-Federalists Were For – The author notes that the Anti-Federalist polemicist Centinel was unpersuaded by one of the Constitution’s basic premises, namely that the self-interest of various government actors would check the reaching for power by other actors and lead to a safe and satisfying balance of power. Centinel said, “If the administrators of every government are actuated by views of private interest and ambition, how is the welfare and happiness of the community to be the result of such jarring adverse interests?” Does that criticism have merit? Centinel went on to say, “I believe it will be found that the form of government, which holds those entrusted with power, in the greatest responsibility to their constituents, the best calculated for freemen.” Is that “hold them responsible” approach inconsistent with the checks and balances proposed by the Constitution’s framers or can it be viewed as subsumed within the design of the Constitution?
America’s Constitution, A Biography – Professor Amar writes that, “[a]lthough many modern Americans have been taught that the Constitution’s intricate machinery of multiple decision points was designed to minimize the number of federal laws, savvy eighteenth-century Americans understood that a bicameral legislature might well produce more statutes than would a unicameral body.” Do we have too many laws being passed by Congress today? Is it the number of statutes or rather the type and generality of statutes that cause you greater concern, if they are of concern at all?
Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo – In June, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down a much-anticipated decision addressing Chevron deference, a doctrine of statutory interpretation requiring federal courts to defer to federal agencies on the meaning and application of statutes within the purview of an agency’s expertise. While the majority opinion focuses on whether Chevron deference is consistent the Administrative Procedure Act of 1946, the case has obvious constitutional ramifications. See Loper Bright, 144 S.Ct. at 2273-75 (Thomas, J., concurring), and 2275-95 (Gorsuch, J., concurring); see also Reading 15, Egan v. Delaware River Port Auth., 851 F.3d 263, 278-83 (3d Cir. 2017) (Jordan, J., concurring in the judgment). After considering the views of the majority and the dissent, are you persuaded that Chevron deference cannot be squared with the declaration of Chief Justice John Marshall in Marbury v. Madison that “[i]t is emphatically the province and duty of the judicial department to say what the law is”, 1 Cranch 137, 177, 2 L.Ed. 60 (1803)?

“Our belief in divine inspiration gives Latter-day Saints a unique responsibility to uphold and defend the United States Constitution and principles of constitutionalism wherever we live. … There are other duties that are part of upholding the inspired Constitution. We should learn and advocate the inspired principles of the Constitution.”

President Dallin H. Oaks

Upholding a Divinely Inspired Constitution