4/28/2025

Last week’s curation at RealClear’s American Civics portal begins with a piece from Jack Miller Center fellow Howell Keiser at RealClearHistory. Keiser argues that the Trump administration’s fights with the judicial branch have precedent within the American political tradition. During both the drafting of the Constitution and also during President Andrew Jackson’s presidency, clashes occurred over the authority of the Supreme Court to decide the meaning of the Constitution – and whether their interpretation bound the other branches. Seen in this light, Keiser writes, “Trump’s confrontations with the judiciary continue a centuries-old debate over the balance of power in American governance that shows no signs of abating.”

At RealClearBooks&Culture, American Civics portal editor Mike Sabo reviews Paul Seaton’s “Public Philosophy and Patriotism: Essays on the Declaration and Us.” Seaton gives an excellent overview of the place the Declaration of Independence occupies in the American mind. “The Declaration tells a grand story of a people vying for self-government in a land offering much promise, but also plenty of peril,” Sabo writes. “It speaks of the spirited character of a free people and the lengths they will go to secure liberty for themselves under God’s watchful eye.” A work of practical statesmanship – as distinct from a purely theoretical treatise – the Declaration is not ultimately concerned with the protection of individual rights, but with the “Safety and Happiness” of the governed, Seaton contends. Sabo writes that Seaton also dispenses with arguments from both the left and right that seek to dismiss the Declaration or transform it into something other than what it is. Ultimately, Sabo argues, “The only way through our current political struggles starts with imitating the mind and character of the men who modeled statesmanship in 1776.”