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PODCAST

Civics In A Year

The Center for American Civics

What do you really know about American government, the Constitution, and your rights as a citizen?Civics in a Year is a fast-paced podcast series that delivers essential civic knowledge in just 10 minutes per episode. Over the course of a year, we’ll explore 250 key questions—from the founding documents and branches of government to civil liberties, elections, and public participation.Rooted in the Civic Literacy Curriculum from the Center for American Civics at Arizona State University, this series

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All Episodes

21:30

Why Parties Emerged In Early America

Civics In A Year ·

2026/01/07

Why did a Constitution that never mentions parties give birth to them almost immediately? We trace the story from ratification battles to cabinet showdowns, connecting the dots between Federalists and Anti-Federalists, the shockwaves of the French Revolution, and the intellectual scaffolding laid by Montesquieu and Madison. Along the way, we unpack how foreign revolutions reframed domestic loyalties, why the idea of a loyal opposition became a safeguard for liberty, and how institutions invit...

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13:18

Federalists Vs. Democratic Republicans

Civics In A Year ·

2026/01/06

Forget today’s party machinery. We go back to the 1790s, when “party” meant faction, suspicion, and heated pamphlets rather than primaries and platforms. With constitutional law scholar Dr. Sean Beienberg, we trace how Federalists and Democratic Republicans sparred over the meaning of the Constitution, the reach of federal power, the role of religion in public life, and which European power the young republic should trust. We unpack the Federalist vision shaped by Alexander Hamilton: a comme...

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31:31

Reading Washington’s Farewell Address

Civics In A Year ·

2026/01/05

What if the most important presidential “speech” was never meant to be spoken? We sit down with Samantha Snyder, research librarian at the George Washington Presidential Library at Mount Vernon, to explore why Washington printed his Farewell Address, how he shaped it with counsel from his circle, and what the text reveals about humility, unity, and the burdens of being first. Samantha pulls back the curtain on the archive: the tactile power of handwriting, the value of drafts and marginal no...

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7:54

Why January 1 Became America’s Civic Reset

Civics In A Year ·

2025/12/31

Midnight sparks joy, but the deeper story begins when the noise fades. We explore how January 1 became one of America’s earliest federal holidays and why this date has long served as a civic reset—an annual reminder that renewal is something we do together, not alone. From the quiet power of colonial-era visits and reconciliations to the thunderclap of January 1, 1863, we connect personal resolutions to public purpose and trace the living tradition of watch night as a testament to freedom ren...

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29:32

Why America Made Christmas A Federal Holiday

Civics In A Year ·

2025/12/23

A holiday can be more than a date off work; it can be a quiet pact about what a free people hold in common. We dig into Christmas as both a religious feast and a civic tradition, exploring why Congress recognized it in 1870 and how that choice still shapes American public life. With Dr. James Stoner of LSU, we trace the legal and cultural threads that turned a holy day into a shared civic rhythm—touching the Constitution’s “Sundays excepted” clause, early fights over Sunday mail, and the way ...

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18:26

Inside The Sixth Amendment: Rights That Shape Justice

Civics In A Year ·

2025/12/22

Power decides what counts as fair—unless people do. That’s the heartbeat of our conversation with Professor Esther Hong, a scholar of youth and adult carceral systems and a former appellate advocate, as we unpack how the Sixth Amendment still guards legitimacy in a justice system dominated by plea deals. We walk through the core rights—speedy and public trial, impartial jury, notice of charges, assistance of counsel, confrontation, cross-examination, and compulsory process—and trace how they ...

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18:35

What Gideon v. Wainwright Teaches About Rights,...

Civics In A Year ·

2025/12/22

A single Supreme Court decision promised that no one would face the power of the state without a lawyer. The more complex question: who pays, who shows up, and how do we make that promise real? We sit down with Professor Sarah Mayeux, a legal historian at Vanderbilt University and author of Free Justice, to trace how Gideon v. Wainwright redefined the right to counsel—and why the work of building public defense still challenges courts and communities today. We start with the legal arc that l...

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20:29

Chickens, Wheat, And The Commerce Clause

Civics In A Year ·

2025/12/19

A chicken counter, a wheat field, and a school-zone arrest shouldn’t define the reach of federal power—but they do. We unpack how a few pivotal cases turned the Commerce Clause from a narrow trade rule into the engine of modern regulation, and where the Court has since tried to tap the brakes without stalling the system. We start with Schechter Poultry’s unanimous stand against federal micromanagement of a local butcher, then pivot to Wickard v. Filburn, where the justices embraced the aggre...

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13:25

What Citizens United Actually Changed About Political...

Civics In A Year ·

2025/12/19

Think you know Citizens United? The headlines got the heat, but the holding was far narrower than the myth. We walk through the real story—what the Court protected, what it left alone, and why the biggest shift in campaign money came from a different case altogether. We start with the foundation set by Buckley v. Valeo, where the Court split campaign finance into two buckets: contributions to candidates, which can be limited to deter corruption, and independent expenditures, which are protec...

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13:33

How Supreme Court Rulings Reshaped The Second Amendment

Civics In A Year ·

2025/12/18

The ground under the Second Amendment keeps shifting—and the story is bigger than a single case. With Professor Nelson Lund of George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School, we walk through the decisions that rewrote the playbook: Heller’s recognition of an individual right, McDonald’s incorporation against the states, Bruin’s insistence on a history-and-tradition test, and Rahimi’s controversial turn toward preventive disarmament for those deemed dangerous. Along the way, we unpack why...

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15:30

From Bakke To SFFA: How The Supreme Court Shaped...

Civics In A Year ·

2025/12/17

What happens when a single swing opinion steers higher education for decades—and then the Court changes course? We unpack the legal journey from Bakke’s fragmented ruling to the 2023 Students for Fair Admissions decision, tracing how Justice Powell’s narrow vision of “holistic” diversity took root, evolved in Grutter and Gratz, and ultimately ran into a stricter equal protection and Title VI jurisprudence. Along the way, we break down why quotas were off-limits, how individualized review beca...

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13:56

When Free Exercise Meets Compulsory Education In...

Civics In A Year ·

2025/12/16

A tiny truancy fine opened a constitutional door that still shapes classrooms today. We unpack Wisconsin v. Yoder, the 1972 Supreme Court case where Old Order Amish parents won a free exercise exemption from compulsory high school, and explore how that ruling moved from a narrow carve-out to a live wire in public education. Along the way, we surface the question Justice Douglas couldn’t let go: when parental faith guides a child’s schooling, what room is left for the child’s own future? We s...

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17:09

Why Engel v. Vitale Redefined Faith And Public Schools

Civics In A Year ·

2025/12/15

A 22-word morning prayer, written by New York’s Board of Regents, ignited one of the most significant constitutional rulings of the last century. We sit down with Professor Katskee to unpack Engel v. Vitale and the First Amendment principles it cemented: government cannot compose or sponsor official prayers, and genuine religious liberty flourishes when the state steps back. From the text of the establishment and free exercise clauses to the human realities inside classrooms, we explore what ...

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50:55

How Tinker v. Des Moines Empowered Student Speech

Civics In A Year ·

2025/12/12

A simple black armband became a turning point for student rights. We sit down with Mary Beth Tinker to revisit the 1965 protest that led to Tinker v. Des Moines and the Supreme Court’s declaration that students do not shed their constitutional rights at the schoolhouse gate. Alongside Mary Beth, Pennsylvania civic educator Shannon Salter brings the story into today’s classrooms, where free speech collides with dress codes, book bans, social media, and the daily realities of learning in commun...

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10:29

How The Pentagon Papers Redefined Free Speech And...

Civics In A Year ·

2025/12/11

We trace the 15-day showdown over the Pentagon Papers and how the Supreme Court drew a bright line against prior restraint. The story moves from Ellsberg’s leak to the Court’s ruling that the press serves the governed, not the governors. • Vietnam-era context and collapsing public trust • Ellsberg’s decision to copy and share the study • The Times publishes and triggers an emergency court fight • What prior restraint means and why courts disfavor it • Near v. Minnesota as the legal foundatio...

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10:50

New York Times v. Sullivan

Civics In A Year ·

2025/12/10

Professor Samantha Barbas traces how New York Times v. Sullivan reshaped libel law, empowered investigative reporting, and protected the civil rights movement, then tests the standard against today’s social media landscape. She unpacks “actual malice,” reputation, and current calls to revisit the ruling. What you will learn in this episode: • what libel is and why it matters • the meaning of actual malice as reckless disregard • civil rights origins of the Sullivan decision • how the ruling...

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16:39

Baker v. Carr Explained: From Unequal Districts To...

Civics In A Year ·

2025/12/09

Imagine sharing a district with nine times as many people as the voters next door and getting the same single representative. That stark imbalance was common before Baker v. Carr, and it’s the starting point for our deep dive into how the Supreme Court reshaped representation, why one person, one vote became the baseline, and where the law is drifting now. We sit down with Professor Stephen Wermiel to unpack the two-step process that changed modern apportionment. First came Baker v. Carr in ...

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12:59

How Brown v. Board Ended Legal School Segregation

Civics In A Year ·

2025/12/08

A nine-page Supreme Court opinion changed the course of American education—and it wasn’t an accident. We walk through the legal strategy that chipped away at Plessy, the political maneuvering that elevated Earl Warren, and the consolidated cases that gave Brown its force. From the NAACP’s focus on the false promise of “equal” to South Carolina’s attempt to preserve segregation by upgrading Black schools, the road to 1954 was crowded with tactics, pressure, and surprising alliances. Once Warr...

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23:27

From Schenck To Social Media: How Free Speech Law...

Civics In A Year ·

2025/12/05

Free speech law didn’t spring fully formed; it was hammered out case by case, crisis by crisis. We unpack how Schenck v. United States, a 1919 wartime case that actually upheld a conviction, planted the “clear and present danger” idea and nudged the Court away from the sweeping “bad tendency” rule. From there, we follow the thread through Holmes and Brandeis, whose dissents helped build a sturdier shield for political dissent, all the way to Brandenburg v. Ohio and its demanding standard: onl...

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15:32

Dred Scott, America’s Breaking Point

Civics In A Year ·

2025/12/04

A Supreme Court tried to settle the slavery question and instead set the country ablaze. We unpack Dred Scott v. Sandford with Dr. Beinberg, tracing how a case about one man’s claim to freedom morphed into a sweeping judgment that denied Black citizenship, stripped Congress of authority over the territories, and elevated slaveholding to a protected property right. Rather than take a narrow path, the Court chose a maximal ruling that collided with text, history, and public sentiment—and pushed...

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150 results

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