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Chapter 2

Chapter 2: The Constitution and the Founding

BigThink Video Exercises

What is the legacy of slavery in America?

Melissa Harris-Lacewell is Associate Professor of Politics and African American Studies at Princeton University.

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1. What does she argue to be the defining issue that led to the development of the Electoral College and the U.S. Senate? Do you agree with her?
2. What other factors contributed to the creation of Electoral College and the U.S. Senate? What states supported these systems? What states opposed them?

The challenge of constitutional interpretation

Kenji Yoshino is the Chief Justice Earl Warren Professor of Constitutional Law at the NYU School of Law. Prior to moving to NYU, he was the inaugural Guido Calabresi Professor of Law and Deputy Dean of Intellectual Life at Yale Law School, where he taught from 1998 to 2008.

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3. Watch the first 2:45 of the segment. What does he contribute to the idea that the Constitution is a “living document”?
4. What problems are there in how the Constitution is interpreted? How do we reconcile them?

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