Constitution Day & Reexamining Conventional Assumptions About the Constitution

Please join the American Constitution Society on Constitution Day (Friday, September 17) at 1:30 PM for a conversation with Professor Maggie Blackhawk (Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Ojibwe) on reexamining conventional assumptions about the Constitution. As Professor Blackhawk has argued:

"Much of our constitutional law, from the treaty power to the war power, was established within the context of westward expansion and Manifest Destiny.... The federal government has been increasingly drawing on these doctrines to justify its actions. [Previous] administrations have pointed to the Indian Wars as precedent to justify executive action in the war on terrorism, with the Trump administration invoking the plenary power doctrine as justification for family separation, migrant detention camps, and religious persecution."

Join ACS & Professor Blackhawk in a conversation about how the oppression of Native Americans has been used as a constitutional justification for harming other vulnerable populations, and why the Court should consider overturning the plenary power doctrine.