More than 200 years after it was written, the Constitution still provides the framework for political life in the United States. Its provisions organize national political institutions, preserve basic rights for citizens, and arrange how the states fit into the workings of the national government. Within this framework, Americans have successfully strengthened their institutions in the face of new challenges and extended the political rights the Constitution establishes. In order to help students, their teachers, and the public think about the Constitution and its continued meaning in political life in 2006, four scholars at The University of Texas at Austin shared their perspectives on the ideas invested in the Constitution, the institutions created by it, and how the political society constituted in 1787 perseveres today. Their interpretations are part of the ongoing conversation among all members of the civic community that the Constitution created and helps to maintain.
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William Powers, Jr., President of The University of Texas at Austin, displays a keen interest in the development of the institutional roles created for the judicial branch by interpretations of the Constitution. In the first segment, he reflects on how the federal courts have accumulated prestige over time by serving as umpires in the political system. In the second segment, he examines the judicial branch's role in the innovative system of democratic politics created by the Constitution. Segment 1 Segment 2

Bruce Buchanan, Professor in the Department of Government and a scholar of the U. S. presidency, explores how the vagueness in the Constitutional provisions for the executive branch have been used by some Presidents to increase executive power. He examines this lack of specification in the first segment, and notes how this vagueness served to smooth over differences among some of the Framers. In the second segment, he explains how Presidents have responded to national crises by using the Constitution's vague specification of executive power to temporarily increase executive power, often with the support of an unsettled public. Segment 1 Segment 2

Gretchen Ritter, Director of the Center for Women and Gender Studies and Associate Professor in the Department of Government, shares her analysis of the notion of citizenship and the evolution of the rights attached to this notion within the Constitutional order. In the first segment, she discusses the Fourteenth Amendment's creation of the initial terms of national citizenship and its implication for civic community in the United States. She reflects on women's membership in this community in the second segment, drawing on her recent book The Constitution as Social Design: Gender and Civic Membership in the American Constitutional Order (Stanford University Press, 2006). Segment 1 Segment 2

Sean Theriault, Assistant Professor in the Department of Government, suggests that despite the fact that Congress has evolved in some directions that were probably unforeseen by the Framers: the legislative branch remains accountable to voters. His comments in the first segment discuss the impact of one of the influences in Congress least expected or desired by the Framers, political parties. In the second segment he assesses the impact of one of the processes set in place in the Constitution, the reapportionment and redistricting scheme for the House of Representatives. Segment 1 Segment 2