Constitutional Evil News Today

Mark A. Graber’s profile on The Conversation

On Jan. 1, 1808, a law passed by Congress and eagerly signed by President Thomas Jefferson in 1807 went into effect prohibiting the foreign slave trade.

Many people who came of age in the 1950s and 60s view the Supreme Court as a force for good when it comes to race. But the court has often been the most anti-progressive branch of the federal government.

Toggle open close Introduction The question of the hour is whether the Constitution is pro-slavery or anti-slavery. History has shown us that great leaders and reasonable men and women have changed their viewpoints on this question. Frederick Douglass, the foremost black abolitionist in the 1840s, called the Constitution a radically and essentially pro-slavery document, but by the 1850s, Douglass changed his mind, concluding, the Constitution, when construed in light of well-established rules o...