Journal of American Constitutional History
Current Issue: Fall 2026
Articles
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Constitutional Interpretation without a Constitution: Debating Union in the Early United States
In ways still not adequately appreciated, understanding the Constitution of 1787 meant first understanding the nature of the union that it governed.
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A Patchwork Oligarchy: State Court Approaches to the Police Power During the Progressive Era
During the Progressive Era, at least some state courts responded to progressive criticisms of conservative judicial activism. A study of six states shows that, as Progressive criticisms peaked, the courts’ strike-down rates began to decline.
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The Chief Magistrate
Founding-era portrayals of the “Hebrew Republic” not only had an exclusionary influence that forever delegitimized kings in America but also shaped Founding-era thinking about a president who is republican and not royalist, who is subject to and not immune from the rule of law.
Recent Issue: Summer 2026
Articles
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Recovering the Lost Pragmatist Promise of Legal Process
The dim view of Legal Process Theory canonized by prominent scholars in the Critical Legal Studies and Critical Race Theory movements in their attack on liberal legalism are mischaracterizations.
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“Perpetuate the Union, and Redeem the Honor of the Republican Name”: Monarchy, Empire, and James Madison’s Negative on State Laws
Recovering why Madison believed his proposed “negative” over state laws could translate the unifying force of monarchy into a republican form offers a corrective to flattened understandings of Madisonian nationalism. His famous arguments about faction and minority rights emerged from a broader project focused on reconciling national power, federal union, and popular government.
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The Birth of Compact Theory
For claims about constitutional interpretation that hinge on the Constitution’s “original meaning,” it matters whether members of the Philadelphia Convention, or the state ratifying conventions, or the early post-ratification congresses, asserted that the Constitution was a compact of the states; or whether, instead, compact theory was a novelty that gained adherents only much…
Editorial Board
Editor-in-Chief
- David S. Schwartz
Senior Editorial Advisors
- Mary Sarah Bilder
- Jud Campbell
- Jonathan Gienapp
- Risa Goluboff
- Alison L. LaCroix
- John Mikhail
- Farah Peterson
- Richard Primus
- Aziz Rana
- Bertrall Ross
- Rachel Shelden
- Franita Tolson
- Robert L. Tsai
Managing Editor
- Jennifer Hanrahan
Editors
- Gregory Ablavsky
- Richard Albert
- Jack M. Balkin
- Stuart Banner
- Samantha Barbas
- William Baude
- Maggie Blackhawk
- Pamela Brandwein
- Holly Brewer
- Tomiko Brown-Nagin
- Christine Kexel Chabot
- Andrew Coan
- Saul Cornell
- Donald Dripps
- Mary L. Dudziak
- Max Edling
- Laura F. Edwards
- Sam Erman
- Daniel R. Ernst
- William B. Ewald
- Martin S. Flaherty
- Matthew L.M. Fletcher
- William E. Forbath
- Maeve Glass
- Sarah Barringer Gordon
- Mark A. Graber
- Craig Green
- Joanna Grisinger
- Ariela Gross
- Roderick Hills
- Daniel Hulsebosch
- Martha S. Jones
- Laura Kalman
- Andrea Scoseria Katz
- Andrew Kent
- Michael J. Klarman
- Heinz Klug
- Felicia Kornbluh
- Anna O. Law
- Thomas H. Lee
- Sanford Levinson
- Gerard Magliocca
- Jane Manners
- Maeva Marcus
- Julian Davis Mortenson
- Cynthia L. Nicoletti
- Victoria Nourse
- William J. Novak
- James E. Pfander
- Jack N. Rakove
- Gautham Rao
- Noah A. Rosenblum
- Christopher W. Schmidt
- Sarah A. Seo
- Jed Shugerman
- Reva Siegel
- Rogers M. Smith
- Brad Snyder
- Clyde S. Spillenger
- Matthew Steilen
- Karen Tani
- George Thomas
- William M. Treanor
- Mark Tushnet
- Anne Twitty
- Michael Vorenberg
- Rosemarie Zagarri
- Mary Ziegler
About the Journal of American
Constitutional History
Who We Are
The Journal of American Constitutional History is a peer-reviewed web-based journal publishing high-quality scholarship on U.S. constitutional history. Our editorial board includes over 60 leading scholars in the field.
Why We’re Here
We seek to promote inter- and multi-disciplinary scholarly dialogue on constitutional history at a time when law office history is increasingly casting its shadow over both scholarship and jurisprudence. Our Journal provides a space for scholarship that tries to understand the past, rather than to distort it to influence present controversies. With a rapid and hassle-free publication process, the Journal of American Constitutional History offers an attractive alternative to both student-edited law reviews and print peer-review journals.
What We Publish
We seek articles from the disciplines of law, history, or political science that focus on historical questions touching on the American Constitution or constitutional development, or that contain a substantial element of historical analysis in addressing contemporary issues of U.S. constitutional law. We accept articles of varying lengths and allow authors to conform to the norms and citation styles of their disciplines.