Some of the most powerful sentences in American law are also the shortest. A close reading of the Fourteenth Amendment's sixteen words on the equal protection of the laws, what each word is doing, why the framers chose person and not citizen, and how a clause written against the Black Codes became, a century later, the engine of Brown v. Board.

Field Notes on the Republic was written and read by Michael Fowler. It was produced for Quorum (Supply Co.), an American civic purveyor. Music is "When Johnny Comes Marching Home," performed by the U.S. Military Academy Band, West Point.

When the Supreme Court hands down a decision, the deeper argument is about how the Constitution should be read at all. This essay takes up the case for reading it narrowly and states it at full strength: an argument about modesty, accountability, and the limits of unelected judicial power. The companion living-constitution essay gives the other side the same fair hearing.

Field Notes on the Republic was written and read by Michael Fowler. It was produced for Quorum (Supply Co.), an American civic purveyor. Music is "When Johnny Comes Marching Home," performed by the U.S. Military Academy Band, West Point.

Few features of American government are argued about more heatedly than the Electoral College. This essay sets out the case for it, the argument its serious defenders actually make, grounded in federalism and coalition-building, and then marks honestly where that case is genuinely contested. Not a verdict, but a fair hearing of a real disagreement.

Field Notes on the Republic was written and read by Michael Fowler. It was produced for Quorum (Supply Co.), an American civic purveyor. Music is "When Johnny Comes Marching Home," performed by the U.S. Military Academy Band, West Point.