Our Constitution

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Declaration of Independence: The King Treats the Colonists’ Petitions with Contempt Oct 13, 2026

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This is the twenty-first episode in a podcast series celebrating the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence by exploring the colonies’ grievances against King George III. After listing the twenty-seven grievances, the Declaration of Independence faults King George III for treating the colonists’ petitions for redress with contempt. Consequently, the Declaration of Independence explains, the colonies have exhausted their options to reconcile with Great Britain and are declaring independence. Underscoring the importance of the right to petition the government to a free country, the First Congress included the right as one of the fundamental freedoms protected by the First Amendment when it submitted the Bill of Rights to the states for ratification.

Declaration of Independence (Grievance 27): The King Enlists Enslaved Persons and Native Americans to Fight the Colonists Oct 06, 2026

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This is the twentieth episode in a podcast series celebrating the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence by exploring the colonies’ grievances against King George III. While much of the Declaration is framed in elevated, universal language, the 27th grievance addresses slave revolts and warfare by Native Americans tribes in way that reflects prejudices and fears of the founding era. This episode places this grievance in its historical context and examines its relationship to the Constitution’s treatment of African Americans and Native Americans when it was drafted in 1787.

Declaration of Independence (Grievances 23-26): The King Wages War on Colonists Sep 29, 2026

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This is the nineteenth episode in a podcast series celebrating the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence by exploring the colonies’ grievances against King George III. This episode examines the 23rd through 26th grievances, which accuse King George III of abdicating government in America by declaring the colonists outside his protection and waging war against them. Collectively, these grievances reflect the view that it was the Crown, not revolutionary Americans, that had severed the bonds between Britain and the colonies. This episode examines the nature of allegiance under the Constitution as well as the duty of the federal government to protect the states and how power over the military is divided between the legislative and executive branches of government.

Declaration of Independence (Grievance 22): The King Approves Suspending Colonial Legislatures Sep 22, 2026

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This is the eighteenth episode in a podcast series celebrating the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence by exploring the colonies’ grievances against King George III. Grievance 22 charges that the King and Parliament have not just suspended colonial legislatures but have also claimed absolute power to make laws for the colonies, even with respect to local matters. This episode addresses Parliament exercising its authority to suspend colonial legislatures; the role of the Declaratory Act of 1766 and the New York Restraining Act of 1767; and various ways that the Constitution protects state autonomy.

Declaration of Independence (Grievance 21): The King Approves Rewriting Colonial Charters Sep 15, 2026

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This is the seventeenth episode in a podcast series celebrating the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence by exploring the colonies’ grievances against King George III. Grievance 21 accuses the King and Parliament of abolishing colonial charters, which were the colonies’ fundamental laws that established the terms under which they operated. This included Parliament’s passage of the Massachusetts Government Act in 1774 in response to the Boston Tea Party, which replaced critical provisions of Massachusetts’s Charter of 1691 in order to increase the King’s authority over the colony. This episode explores the various ways in which the Constitution’s Framers protected state governments from federal encroachment, including Article V of the Constitution, which bars amendments that would abolish equal state suffrage in the Senate.

Declaration of Independence (Grievance 20): The King Approves the Quebec Act Sep 08, 2026

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This is the sixteenth episode in a podcast series celebrating the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence by exploring the colonies’ grievances against King George III. The 1774 Quebec Act established a new form of provincial government in Quebec without locally elected assemblies and expanded the province’s territory into land the colonists hoped to settle. This episode explores the influence of the Declaration’s twentieth grievance, which describes these changes as a dangerous example of arbitrary rule that could spread to the thirteen colonies and how the Constitution counteracts the danger of government overreach and arbitrary action.

Declaration of Independence (Grievances 18 and 19): The King Deprives Colonists of Trial by Jury Sep 01, 2026

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This is the fifteenth episode in a podcast series celebrating the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence by exploring the colonies’ grievances against King George III. Grievances 18 and 19 charge the King with denying colonists the right to a local trial heard by a jury of their peers. Although the jury was a fixture of English justice, the power of colonial juries to acquit defendants stoked fears in Great Britain that colonial lawbreaking would go unpunished. These fears culminated in Parliament’s passage of several laws that made it easier to try colonists without a jury, and, in some cases, allowed British authorities to try colonists in England. This episode discusses the role of the colonial jury and how Parliament’s attempts to disempower the jury invigorated the right to a jury trial in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

Declaration of Independence (Grievance 17): The King Taxes Colonists Without Their Consent Aug 25, 2026

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This is the fourteenth episode in a podcast series celebrating the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence by exploring the colonies’ grievances against King George III. Grievance 17, which charged the King and Parliament with imposing taxes on the colonists’ without their consent, is often given as the primary reason for the American Revolution. Chief among the British taxes that fueled the American Revolution were the Sugar Act of 1764, the Stamp Act of 1765, and the Revenue Act of 1767. In granting the national government’s taxing authority to Congress, the Framers ensured that taxes would reflect the will of the people and linked a state’s responsibility for paying direct taxes to the size of the state’s representation in Congress so that poor states with large populations could not shift the burden of direct taxes to wealthy states with small populations.

Declaration of Independence (Grievance 16): The King Cuts Off Colonial Trade Aug 18, 2026

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This is the thirteenth episode in a podcast series celebrating the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence by exploring the colonies’ grievances against King George III. In late December 1775, Parliament passed the Prohibitory Act, which barred “all manner of trade and commerce” with the colonies during the “continuance of the present Rebellion.” The act provided that all ships of the colonies or ships of other countries attempting to trade with the colonies along with their cargoes would be subject to forfeiture to the King “as if the same were the ships and effects of open enemies.” This episode explores Grievance 16 and how the Framers’ experiences with the Prohibitory Act and other restrictions on colonial trade contributed to provisions of the Constitution that facilitate American trade, including by providing Congress with exclusive or plenary authority over commerce among the states.

Declaration of Independence (Grievance 15): The King Approves the Murder Act Aug 11, 2026

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This is the twelfth episode in a podcast series celebrating the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence by exploring the colonies’ grievances against King George III. Grievance 15 addresses Parliament’s 1774 Administration of Justice Act, which authorized the Massachusetts governor (or lieutenant-governor in his place) to move capital trials of British officials, and those working at their direction, to England. Enacted in response to the Boston Tea Party, the Act reflected Parliament’s increasing concern about colonial hostility to British civil and military personnel stationed in Massachusetts. This episode explores how our Constitution addresses federal and state court jurisdiction over crimes.

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