Join us for this exciting, free webinar series designed especially for teachers! Through this four-part series, you will not only gain Constitutional and Bill of Rights knowledge, but also methods to successfully educate your students on these areas in a meaningful way.

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Made possible through a generous grant from the F.M. Kirby Foundation.

Webinar Overview
The webinars will begin with an historical review and a conceptual discussion of the founding of the United States, with an emphasis on important founding documents. The series will then move to a study of the issues raised by the incorporation of the First Amendment into the Fourteenth Amendment Due Process clause, thus allowing it to be used by the Court to oversee the actions of the states. Finally, it will examine specific issues that emerge out of the First Amendment as seen in major Supreme Court decisions.

Participants will receive an in depth case book on the First Amendment to take back to their schools and share with their colleagues and students.

Each two hour session will include:

  • Dynamic content sessions with renowned constitutional and legal scholars.
  • Critical skill development and tools to apply teachings immediately in your classes.
  • Valuable reference materials and tools, including a list of books, casebook, and suggested lesson plans and activities to enhance your teaching.

If you have any questions, please email us with the button in the footer.

Webinar ONE

Introduction to series: “Creating and Recreating the First Amendment from the Constitutional Framers to the Roberts Court”

Bruce Allen Murphy
Fred Morgan Kirby Professor of Civil Rights
Lafayette College

  • Historical Overview and review of the Constitutional Founders’ First Amendment
  • Recreating the First Amendment Using the Fourteenth Amendment

Webinar TWO

“The Founders’ First Amendment Vision and Speaking Freely on College Campuses”

Keith Whittington
Princeton University

  • First Amendment Originalism vs. the “Living, Evolving” Constitution
  • Analyzing the First Amendment on college and high school campuses
  • The Tinker case and its judicial progeny
  • The impact of the 2021 Cheerleader social media case

Webinar THREE

“Freedom of Religion and the Constitution in America: from Chief Justice Waite to Justice Amy Coney Barrett”

Graham Lee
St. Joseph’s University

  • From the Reynolds case to Sherbert v. Verner to the Amish school case
  • The future of the Smith case and the COVID-19 church closure rulings
  • The establishment of religion and the rise and fall of the Lemon test
  • The Future of the Lemon test after the Trump appointments

Webinar FOUR

“The Times, Places, and Manners rule and the #BlackLivesMatter protests”

Nadia Brown
Georgetown University

  • Expression and sumbols in a protest setting
  • The George Floyd protests and the January 6th protest
  • The Confederate war monuments and COVID-19 closure protests
  • The state protest legal restriction movement