Starting Points - A Journal of American Principles and American Practices

07/25/2023

From our symposium on Indigenous Thought and Politics: David Myer Temin on the build-up to the Supreme Court case Haaland v. Brackeen (decided last month) and indigenous sovereignty.

As scholars, advocates, and citizens from Indigenous societies across the Americas have argued since the beginning of European colonization, “Indigenous sovereignty” consists in the power and right of Indigenous peoples to govern themselves and their relations with other societies on their own t...

07/25/2023

New article on the Supreme Court - and what it can teach us about our political order by how it makes decisions - by David Golemboski, Augustana University, formerly of the Kinder Institute on Constitutional Democracy.

The Supreme Court has been facing a crisis of public confidence. This was true even prior to the controversy around Justice Clarence Thomas’s undisclosed financial ties to a billionaire conservative political donor, and prior to the spate of right-leaning rulings that marked the end of the court.....

11/06/2022

Starting Points is currently accepting submissions for a symposium on indigenous thought, politics, and history. Contributions should elaborate on indigenous politics, broadly construed, with a particular emphasis on sovereignty, citizenship/membership, or political thought.

Please send submissions and pitches to [email protected], along with any general questions.

Happy writing!

We accept submissions on a rolling basis. Stay up-to-date by joining our mailing list!

09/30/2022

JMC fellow Andrew Porwancher has recently written a piece for Starting Points on "The Strange Birth (and Stranger Death) of Judicial Restraint", which explores ideas from his new book.

09/12/2022

Starting Points is currently accepting submissions for a symposium on indigenous thought, politics, and history. Contributions should elaborate on indigenous politics, broadly construed, with a particular emphasis on sovereignty, citizenship/membership, or political thought.

Please send submissions to [email protected] by Nov. 15th, along with any general questions.

Happy writing!

https://startingpointsjournal.com/about-us/

We accept submissions on a rolling basis. Stay up-to-date by joining our mailing list!

09/09/2022

Begin your morning with a book review.

Matthew D. Wright of Torrey Honors writes on Adrian Vermeule's "Common Good Constitutionalism," calling it a "vigorous, thoughtful, and brisk sketch" on how the classical legal tradition undergirds the American constitutional order.

https://startingpointsjournal.com/book-review-common-good-constitutionalism-by-adrian-vermeule/

Book Review: Common Good Constitutionalism by Adrian Vermeule September 6, 2022Matthew D. Wright Share this article: In Common Good Constitutionalism, Harvard law professor Adrian Vermeule seeks to accomplish for the whole of American constitutional law what the landmark Dobbs opinion delivered to t...

07/20/2022

This week, Gregory Spindler penned a new article on the election of 1796.

Read how "strong personalities, the emergence of two political factions...blatant foreign interference, and behind-the-scenes maneuvering" make for a fascinating electoral study.

https://startingpointsjournal.com/a-signal-like-dropping-a-hat-the-contentious-election-of-1796/

“A Signal, Like Dropping a Hat”: The Contentious Election of 1796 July 18, 2022Gregory Spindler Share this article: While scholars have justifiably given the election of 1800 much attention, the contest of 1796 deserves its own share of scholarly interest as Stephen Kurtz, Joanne Freeman, and Jo...

07/04/2022

Happy Independence Day!

A reflection by Justin Dyer of The University of Texas at Austin on Martin Luther King Jr.'s "Promissory Note":

Our Promissory Note July 4, 2020Justin Dyer Share this article: Living downstream from the American founding, we are heirs today to what Martin Luther King, Jr., in his most famous speech, referred to as the “promissory note” implicit in our Declaration of Independence: that “all men, yes, bla...

07/04/2022

Founding Editor Adam Seagrave and Editor Justin Dyer are moving on from Starting Points this summer.

We are grateful for all of the time and effort that they have each poured into making Starting Points a forum for sharing non-partisan political ideas and wish them all the best in their new endeavors!

Alan Gibson of the Kinder Institute on Constitutional Democracy and Aaron Kushner of the School of Civic and Economic Thought and Leadership will take over as lead editors.

04/25/2022

On April 29, 2022, the Constitutional Studies Forum at the University of Nebraska-Omaha will be hosting a lecture and follow-up discussion panel on the legacy of James Madison. "The Consistency of James Madison—The Case of the Bill of Rights" will be presented by JMC faculty partner Michael Zucker...

04/15/2022

157 years ago today, Abraham Lincoln died at 56. We'll reflect with an article that offers a blend of historical depth and contemporary insight.

Read Kinder Institute on Constitutional Democracy Director & Starting Points Editor Justin Dyer’s “Lincoln's House Divided and Ours,” from 2020.

https://startingpointsjournal.com/lincolns-house-divided-and-ours-dyer/

Lincoln’s House Divided and Ours December 4, 2020Justin Dyer Share this article: Remarks prepared for “A House Divided: Protests, Patriots, and Partisanship,” a panel discussion presented by Mizzou’s Middleton Center for Race, Citizenship and Justice on November 11, 2020. All three of the sy...

03/14/2022

"The 574 federally acknowledged Native nations" within the U.S. "occupy a distinctive political and legal niche."

In this 2020 essay, David E. Wilkins of the
Jepson School of Leadership Studies at Richmond writes on the difficult balance of "Indigenizing the U.S. Constitution."

"While U.S.-based Native nations have most certainly suffered from the brevity and ambiguity of their constitutional mentions, they have also endured because of it. Given this tenuous situation, there is great risk in relinquishing their status as extra-constitutional sovereigns through the act of the adoption of an Indigenous-defining amendment."

https://startingpointsjournal.com/indigenizing-the-us-constitution-wilkins/

Indigenizing the U.S. Constitution November 23, 2020David E. Wilkins Share this article: The 574 federally acknowledged Native nations inhabiting what is now the United States occupy a distinctive political and legal niche within the larger society. They are recognized as the original sovereigns of....

03/07/2022

JMC faculty partner Carol McNamara and fellow Trevor Shelley have recently edited a volume on citizenship and civic leadership in America. Several JMC scholars served as contributors.

02/26/2022

As tensions between Russia and Ukraine reach a fever pitch following news of missile strikes, occupations, and threats of war, a University of Missouri expert in international diplomacy said Americans should prepare for a lengthy multinational affair. "This is the beginning of a new era in internati...

01/18/2022

Have you heard of the Civic Literacy Curriculum (CLC)? Associate Professor of SCETL, Adam Seagrave, says that the CLC was created “to support students, parents, and teachers who are engaged in the vital work of educating for citizenship in American constitutional democracy.” 🏫

Read more of Professor Seagrave's perspective on the CLC in his interview with RealClearPolitics here: http://ow.ly/wHkp50HueLa

12/30/2021

Prof. Shlomo Slonim of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem responds in his new article to a question proposed in our last month:

"Is Madison the father of the Constitution? Is that even a title worth exploring?"

Read from Slonim below.

https://startingpointsjournal.com/james-madison-father-of-the-constitution/

James Madison, “Father of the Constitution” December 23, 2021Shlomo Slonim Share this article: First, I wish to commend Starting Points Journal for launching their symposium on James Madison, especially the pieces challenging his informal title as “Father of the Constitution.” This subject i...

12/17/2021

Why do we remember Jefferson before Madison?

M. Andrew Holowchak poses this question in our newest article and derives answers from several historical perspectives.

"In sum, while Jefferson was imaginative, Madison was often his political imagineer."

https://startingpointsjournal.com/why-we-remember-jefferson-and-not-madison/

Why We Remember Jefferson and Not Madison December 17, 2021M. Andrew Holowchak Share this article: Scholars are wont to paint antipodally Jefferson and Madison, and for good reasons. Most depictions show, in effect, that by psychological disposition, Madison was better suited to be a Hamiltonian Fed...

12/07/2021

JMC faculty partner George Thomas has recently written a piece for Starting Points on "The (Un)Written Constitution", which explores ideas from his new book.