Live at America's Town Hall

National Constitution Center President and CEO Jeffrey Rosen engages in a wide-ranging conversation between U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Stephen Breyer.  

Cass Sunstein, former White House advisor, identifies the most common misconceptions and illuminates the constitutional design behind the process.

Join experts for a debate on one of the most-watched Supreme Court cases this term – Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission – involving free speech, religious liberty, and equal rights. Experts include, Stephanie Barclay of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, Paula Greisen, one of the attorneys representing the same-sex couple at center of the case, and Brendan O'Niell, editor of Spiked Online.

Historians Carol Berkin and Denver Brunsman, community leader Farah Jimenez, and Constitutional Sources Project’s Executive Director Julie Silverbrook discuss priceless documents from the Founding era, highlight the enduring importance of America’s Founding, and discuss how the Founding era documents and debates can help guide conversations that resonate today within communities often left out of the Founding narrative, including minorities, women, and others.  

Hendrik Meijer discusses his biography, Arthur Vandenberg: The Man in the Middle of the American Century, on the mid-20th century Michigan senator who evolved from America’s leading isolationist into its leading internationalist and spearheaded coalitions that continue to form the foundation of American foreign and domestic policy today. Jeffrey Rosen, president and CEO of the National Constitution Center, moderates.

Leading Civil War historian Edward Ayers provides a fresh history of two astounding events at the crux of America’s history as described in his new book, The Thin Light of Freedom.

Legendary journalist Bob Schieffer provides an inside look at the changing role of media and asks whether today’s citizens are more informed or just overwhelmed.

Gold Star father and 2016 DNC speaker Khizr Khan discusses his family’s pursuit of the American dream and the importance of the Declaration of Independence and U.S. Constitution.

Sidney Blumenthal, author of Wrestling With His Angel, brings Lincoln from the wilderness to the peak of his career as he takes control of the nation’s most profound spiritual crisis — slavery — and enters the battle for the nation’s soul. Michael Gerhardt, National Constitution Center scholar-in-residence, moderates.

Join distinguished legal experts Erwin Chemerinsky, Frederick Lawrence, and Slate’s Dahlia Lithwick, to examine the Supreme Court’s 2016-17 session.

Owen Fiss, leading constitutional theorist and Yale Law School professor, explores the purpose and possibilities of life in the law through moving accounts of 13 lawyers who shaped the legal world during the past half-century.

Former U.S. Ambassador Mark Gitenstein and authors Edward Luce and Jan-Werner Müller explore the growing influence of populism around the world.

Kristina Arriaga, vice chairwoman of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, Dan Barker, co-president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, Khalid Latif, executive director and chaplain of the Islamic Center at New York University, and Rabbi David Saperstein, former U.S. Ambassador for International Religious Freedom, doscuss the state of religious freedom in America.

Filmmakers Ken Burns and Lynn Novick discuss their visceral, immersive documentary on the Vietnam War in a special National Constitution Center event.

Scholars Deborah Pearlstein, Ben Wittes, and John Yoo discuss the Framers’ original vision of war powers and how presidents have viewed war powers over time.