A Dramatic Constitution

March 22: 2:00 pm – 3:30 pm

This program is free and open to the public. It is co-sponsored by the Bennington Chapter of American Association of University Women and is supported by the Vermont Humanities Council.

 While the United States Constitution is small in size, it is large enough to support our most dramatic disagreements. Beginning with the clash between slave states and free states, we have staged all of our controversies on the Articles and Amendments. Even during the Civil War, the Constitution held.

Once again we are divided on the merits of the Constitution: can it redeem us or is it a convenient cloak for white supremacy? Neither a divine document nor a tool of elites, the Constitution might also be seen as an invitation to develop the habits of political engagement through deliberation and adjudication.

In this presentation, Meg Mott considers how the Constitution both forces and frames our disagreements. In the first two centuries, citizens regularly debated public matters, drawing on the Constitution as a shared authority. What does it mean for our republic when only legal professionals take the stage?

After twenty years of teaching political theory and constitutional law to Marlboro College undergraduates, Meg Mott has taken her love of argument to the general public. Her award-winning series Debating Our Rights on the first ten amendments brings civil discussions on contentious issues to public libraries and colleges.