The American Presidency

Overview & Rationale

"We the People, in order to form a more perfect union… do ordain and establish this Constitution," begins the Preamble to the United States Constitution.

If the People ordain and establish the Constitution, then who is responsible for interpreting this "living" document? ¹ Should those who interpret the Constitution also represent the People? Should they be independent from the People? Should the People interpret the Constitution? Should the President, who takes an Oath to "preserve, protect, and defend" the Constitution, also interpret it? Whose interpretation matters?

In modern America, the role of interpreting the Constitution ultimately belongs to the nine Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States. ² Instead of asking how the Supreme Court interprets the Constitution, why don't we ask why they have this right and whether or not they should? ³

I admit to feeling a certain sense of heresy in suggesting that someone besides the Supreme Court should interpret the Constitution. I was educated in the South Carolina public school system and taught to respect the checks and balances of the United States Government from an early age. I was taught that the Constitution is a marvelous, "living" document that evolves over time, through amendments, to ensure continuity of "Blessings of Liberty to Ourselves and to our Posterity." ⁴ Indeed, that "the People" ordain the Constitution always suggested to me a sort of religious reverence for that four-page document. Unfortunately, the "sovereign voice of the People [through amendment] has been heard in the land only sixteen times in two hundred years." ⁵

In my own lifetime, the Constitution has only been amended once. For my students, it hasn't been amended at all: I wonder, how "alive" is the Constitution to them?

Indeed, for most students, this epic document is a short stop in our road trip through United States History: We read it. We talk about it. We answer some scenarios on the Bill of Rights. At the end of a week or two, we take a state-required test before it settles in the dust with all of the other obscurely-written stories from Old, Dead, White Guys with Weird Hair.

Still, we find ourselves talking about it from time to time: When a criminal is arrested, he (or she) may invoke his right to remain silent or his right to a trial by jury under the 5 ^th amendment. A gun activist without a license may invoke his/her right to bear arms under the 2 ^nd amendment. A gossiping columnist may publish false information on a celebrity and seek protection from prosecution for slander under the 1 ^st amendment. It is possible that a President may even offer an interpretation of his right to declare war as Commander in Chief. Jay Z interpreted his right to protection from "unreasonable" search and seizure in the song "99 problems."

Debates over who interprets the Constitution and how the Constitution should be interpreted are at the heart of my curriculum and provide students with a dynamic and evolving portrayal of both the Judicial and Executive Branches of government. In this unit, students will examine the function of judicial review as one of the Supreme Court's "checks" against the executive branch of government and, more specifically, how the executive branch has reacted to this tool. Using primary documents, we will examine in detail how Andrew Jackson, Abraham Lincoln, and Franklin Roosevelt have reacted to the concept of judicial review. While these are not the only Presidents who have questioned the role of the Supreme Court, I hope to offer a framework and starting point by which other discussions and criticisms can be examined.

As a teacher of primarily Hispanic students with recent immigration histories, I believe it is important that my students recognize they can and aught to play an active role in interpreting the Constitution. Indeed, many of my students feel largely disenfranchised from the American political system. Many students say they have been treated "differently" by officials, including teachers and even the police.

On a broader level, how can a Congress that is 85% white represent the interests of a high school that is 93% Hispanic? ⁶ As you might imagine, it is difficult for me to explain that the U.S. Government is truly representative of "the People." It's not as if any Mexican's assisted in drafting the Constitution: Why should my students assume that it protects their interests? Another question arose for me in the 2012 school year: "Why, Mr. Holder, aren't any Mexicans running for President?"

In the spirit of helping students become informed, conscientious citizens of our country, I believe it is important for students to access and engage in these debates first-hand, and I hope that my curriculum will provide a process and framework for helping students engage in the issue of judicial authority.

Students will read Supreme Court opinions and decisions in order to develop their critical reading skills and will pay special attention to the text structure of complex arguments. Students will also examine political cartoons, Presidential speeches, letters, and political commentary, past and present. Students will develop their abilities to locate, cite, and logically use evidence. They will compare and contrast the views of competing parties and will evaluate multiple sources by origin, type, and author's purpose. Ultimately, students will write their own opinions from the perspective of a Supreme Court Justice and as a President.