Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Fair Construction To Living Constitution: Analyzing Constitutional Interpretation Throughout United States History, Joshua Lloyd

Senior Honors Theses

The proper method of constitutional interpretation has been debated throughout the history of the Supreme Court. This debate has been defined by the tension between the originalist and living constitution jurisprudences. Each has been dominant at one point in United States history. A fair construction jurisprudence was almost universally utilized by the Supreme Court to interpret the Constitution according to its original meaning until Plessy v. Ferguson. Then, due to an alliance between evangelicals and progressive scholars, a broader, more lenient living constitution jurisprudence developed which allowed justices to interpret the Constitution in light of changing social norms. Finally, …

Fixing America's Founding, Maeve Glass

Faculty Scholarship

The forty-fifth presidency of the United States has sent lawyers reaching once more for the Founders’ dictionaries and legal treatises. In courtrooms, law schools, and media outlets across the country, the original meanings of the words etched into the U.S. Constitution in 1787 have become the staging ground for debates ranging from the power of a president to trademark his name in China to the rights of a legal permanent resident facing deportation. And yet, in this age when big data promises to solve potential challenges of interpretation and judges have for the most part agreed that original meaning should …

Building A Regime Of Restrictive Immigration Laws, 1840-1945, Felice Batlan

All Faculty Scholarship

H-Pad is happy to announce the release of its sixth broadside. In “Building a Regime of Restrictive Immigration Laws, 1840-1945,” Felice Batlan traces a century of U.S. government laws, policies, and attitudes regarding immigration. The broadside explores how ideas about race, class, religion, and the Other repeatedly led to laws restricting the immigration of those who members of Congress, the President, and the U.S. public considered inferior and/or a threat.

Land And Law In The Age Of Enterprise: A Legal History Of Railroad Land Grants In The Pacific Northwest, 1864-1916, Sean M. Kammer

Department of History: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Federal land subsidies to railroad corporations comprised an important part of the federal government’s policies towards its western land domain in the middle decades of the nineteenth century. In all, Congress granted over a hundred million acres to railroad corporations to subsidize construction of a transcontinental railway network. Long after the last such grant in 1871, these land grants continued to incite political contests in Congress and state legislatures and legal disputes in communities across the West. By the end of the century, railroad corporations had become manifestations not just of the threatening growth of corporate power in the United …

Indigenous Women, Mother Tongues, And Nation Building In New England: A Tribal Policy Leadership Series, Amy Den Ouden, Chris Bobel

Office of Community Partnerships Posters

In collaboration with the Wôpanâak Language Reclamation Project (WLRP), Indigenous women educators and leaders, the Dept. of Women’s and Gender Studies is redesigning WOST/WGS 270, Native American Women in North America, to incorporate a lecture series on nation building and a semester-long community engagement project fostering student leadership in a research and policy formation project focused on legislating and funding a Native American language education law in Massachusetts.

'Dred Scott V. Sandford' Analysis, Sarah E. Roessler

Student Publications

The Scott v. Sandford decision will forever be known as a dark moment in America's history. The Supreme Court chose to rule on a controversial issue, and they made the wrong decision. Scott v. Sandford is an example of what can happen when the Court chooses to side with personal opinion instead of what is right.

Underwood, Warner Lewis, 1808-1872 (Sc 2678), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 2678. Letters of Warner Lewis Underwood of Bowling Green, Kentucky, written to his family from Texas, Washington, D. C., Scotland, and Frankfort, Kentucky. He writes to his wife of business and household matters,and of political affairs during his service in the Kentucky Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives. A letter to his son-in-law from Scotland, where Underwood was serving as consul, praises his Civil War service. Correspondence with his son discusses the younger Underwood’s law studies in Albany, New York.

States' Rights Apogee, 1760-1840, Ryan Setliff

Masters Theses

America's states' rights tradition has held much influence since the ratification of the U.S. Constitution in 1788. In late 1798, in response to the Federalist administration's adoption of the Alien and Sedition Acts, the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions were formally adopted by the legislatures of Virginia and Kentucky respectively. These resolutions set a lasting precedent for state interposition and nullification. As well concurrence with these doctrines can be found in the Virginia Resolves of 1790, the constitutional debates of 1787-1790, and all throughout the colonial-revolutionary period of the 1760s to 1780s. In time, the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions would gain …

A Plea For Freedom: Enslaved Independence Through Petitions For Freedom In Washington D.C. Between 1810 And 1830, Trevor J. Shalon

Department of History: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Between 1810 and 1830, over 190 petitions for freedom by African Americans went through the District Court of Washington D.C. The free African American community which had emerged following the American Revolution had been restricted in the beginning of the nineteenth century and the rights granted to free and enslaved African Americans were retracted. The methods by which enslaved African Americans had used to obtain their freedom were eliminated and more innovative methods would needed in order to continue the expansion of the free community.

As the nineteenth century progressed, as other methods were eliminated, the number of petitions issued …

Constitution Day 2012: The American Judiciary, Robert Berry

Librarian Publications

Robert Berry, research librarian for the social sciences at the Sacred Heart University Library, has written an essay about the role of the American Judiciary in interpreting laws of the United States government. The essay was written for the occasion of Constitution Day 2012 at Sacred Heart University.

Mcchord, William Caldwell, 1850-1928 (Sc 2323), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and full-text scan (click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 2323. Paper by William Caldwell McChord titled "Memoirs of William Caldwell McChord, Springfield, Kentucky." The paper details McChord's upbringing, education, experience in the Civil War, and legal and political career in Washington County, Kentucky. Includes an account of the claim that Washington County was Abraham Lincoln's true birthplace. Also includes genealogical information on the McChords and related families.

Legacy Of A Leader, Michael Staib

Honors Independent Research Papers

This study assesses the historical legacy of former Commander-In-Chief and 40th President, Ronald Wilson Reagan. Research references Reagan’s formidable contribution to subsequent U. S. politics by analyzing his domestic and foreign policy. Ultimately, Reagan revolutionized the presidency and provided conservative reconstruction, restoring moral guidance to American society. Epitomizing the Roosevelt Corollary, the aphorism popularized by Teddy Roosevelt, “Speak softly, but carry a big stick,” Reagan followed an aggressive foreign policy. Exercising diplomacy, Reagan deterred those countries deemed dangerous, while preserving peace with amiable nations. Essay examines his ideological perspective, constitutional interpretation, executive appointment of Supreme Court justices, laissez-faire economic strategy, …

Fountain Run Missionary Baptist Church - Fountain Run, Kentucky (Sc 1456), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 1456. Monroe County Circuit Court case involving members of the Fountain Run Missionary Baptist Church. The injunction enjoined certain members (or ex-members) from threatening, etc., those in the majority.

“Don't Buy Another Vote. I Won't Pay For A Landslide": The Sordid And Continuing History Of Political Corruption In West Virginia, Allen Hayes Loughry Ii

SJD Dissertation Abstracts

This study documents the long and sordid history of corruption--both perceived and corroborated--in the West Virginia political process. The researcher explores the considerable amounts of money spent by wealthy individuals for election or re-election. It documents the effect of high-cost elections, an effect which in many instances has spawned criminal activity. The author relates ostensibly ceaseless measures of corruption at the executive, legislative, and judicial levels. The findings indicate the existence of problems in West Virginia politics since the State's inception in 1863, including vote buying, vote rigging, undue geographical barriers, and lawlessness leading to numerous declarations of martial law. …

Labor, The Law, And Economics: The Organization Of The Chicago Flat Janitors' Union, 1902-1917, John Jentz

Library Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Press Bulletin, Vol. Vii, No. 9, 1942, Unknown Unknown

Japanese American WWII Incarceration Camp newspapers

Poston Relocation Center newspaper covers emergency committeemen, Strikers subject to penalty, martial law, water systems, cancelled movie, groups cancelled, cash advance, clothing allowance, first aid classes, filing card, small pox survey, and sports score results.

Arkansas Territory General Assembly Records, 1819-1820; 1835

Finding aids

This collection contains bound volumes of enrolled bills and acts from Arkansas Territory.