This class will offer a distinctive and timely look at our founding document with emphasis on how it has evolved over the last 239 years. It will provide a perspective of today's polarized government by offering a view of the Constitution not as a fixed, worshiped artifact, but as a dynamic arena of "fierce, logical, passionate...struggle for a more perfect union." A significant focus of this course will be on "We the people," the opening words of the Preamble to the Constitution, and how the understanding of who is included within that term has changed over time. The title of this SDG comes from our core book We the People: a History of the U.S. Constitution, by Jill Lepore, the noted Harvard University history professor and staff writer for The New Yorker. We will also consider changes to the Constitution that may occur during the time of this SDG as we review cases recently decided or now pending before the Supreme Court involving significant constitutional issues.

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