Constitution center takes its research on the road

Judges need a strong Constitution. UW–Madison’s Center for the Study of the American Constitution will help 25 of them from across Wisconsin fortify their understanding of the relationship between the Constitution and contemporary legal issues at a special conference May 7 and 8 at Wisconsin Dells.

Center director John P. Kaminski says this event is only the most recent in a year of traveling seminars the center has presented or will offer. For example, Kaminski and Richard Leffler, the center’s deputy director, have been presenting to federal judges across the country, from Portland, Maine, to Honolulu, with stops in New York, Denver, Los Vegas, Los Angeles and many other places. Kaminski also addressed about 60 appellate judges in a seminar sponsored by the American Bar Association, discussing how public opinion has affected American jury trials.

Kaminski says the seminars help judges relate their own work to the nation’s historical heritage and philosophical underpinnings. He says many judges also find or renew an interest in history, and the center is able to assist them further with bibliographic help in pursuing their own reading programs.

Over the years, the center has offered learning opportunities on the drafting and ratification of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, the creation of the independent judiciary and various bibliographic studies associated with the founding of the republic. In May, the Wisconsin judges will examine the constitutional and social history of the revolutionary generation from 1763-1803. The role of minorities and women will figure prominently in the proceedings because of the ongoing importance of the subject, Kaminski says.

“Judges are eager to learn about the historical basis of many problems women and minorities face today,” Kaminski says.

The center has a vast collection of materials on which to base its seminars. Housed in its files are copies of more than 100,000 documents gleaned from more than 1,000 libraries, historical societies, town clerks’ offices, private collections and printed sources. Letters, speeches, newspaper clippings, political cartoons, diaries, journals, essays, legislative and executive records, pamphlets and broadsides that reflect the debate over constitutional ratification.

Acknowledged as conducting the most definitive constitutional research in the country, the center so far has produced 14 of an anticipated 22 volumes dealing with constitutional ratification. In addition, center staff have completed a four- volume series on the first federal elections, plus many ancillary works for both classroom use and the general public.

“When they are published, the other volumes in the project will open up this formative period of American history to people all over the world who have access to volumes through the United States Information Agency’s 66 libraries world- wide,” Kaminski says. “Obviously, the Wisconsin Idea goes much farther than the boundaries of the state.”