This case begins with the American Revolution and concludes at the Constitutional Convention. It describes the many challenges faced by the United States under the Articles of Confederation—including debt, contraction of trade, recession, inflation, and Shays’ Rebellion—and how those problems informed key features of the U.S. Constitution.

This short (four-page) case uses an economic dispute between two men in 1780s Rhode Island to offer a more concrete demonstration of how rapid inflation affected debtors and creditors during the Critical Period. It is meant as a supplement to the “James Madison” case above, rather than a standalone case.

This case covers the first term of George Washington’s presidency and the push to ratify the Bill of Rights. It focuses especially on Alexander Hamilton’s proposal for a national bank and the question of whether Congress should have powers beyond those explicitly listed in the Constitution.

This case describes how the United States (and its colonial precursors) set policies with respect to Native Americans, from first contact through the presidency of Andrew Jackson. Much of the case is told from the perspective of the Cherokee Nation, as its various political factions lobby for and against the Treaty of New Echota, which, if ratified by the U.S. Senate, would remove the Cherokee from their native lands.

This case looks closely at state-level politics and the relationship between political parties and banking in early 19th century New York, including the formation of the modern political party under Martin Van Buren. The case culminates in a decision over whether the state legislature should continue to control the creation of each new bank in the state—through the so-called bank chartering system—or relinquish this authority and the immense political power it entailed.

This case explores the development of voting rights in the antebellum United States, with a particular focus on a populist movement to grant universal white male suffrage in 1840s Rhode Island. The case raises questions about the nature of voting rights and whether citizens have a right to overthrow a government that they believe does not represent them.

This case offers an overview of major infrastructure spending and fiscal crises in New York State in the first half of the 1800s, and it describes how reformers sought to address the issue of mounting public debt in the 1840s, following the Panic of 1837. In particular, it focuses on the state’s Constitutional Convention of 1846, where delegates considered an anti-debt amendment that would sharply limit the state’s ability to borrow money, including for infrastructure such as the Erie Canal, but would also include a democratic escape hatch, allowing the electorate to override strict restrictions on borrowing through a popular vote.

This case addresses the topic of public education in the United States through the early 1850s. It considers the rise of the Common School Movement over the first half of the nineteenth century, including the ideas of Horace Mann and the impact of immigration and religious diversity, and it culminates in a fiercely contested decision over tax-funded schools in New York State in 1851.

This case provides a broad overview of the economic, political, and moral issues that eventually led to the outbreak of the American Civil War. Students explore how these issues ensured sectional division between North and South, and they ultimately consider the options confronting President Lincoln as he decides how to respond to Southern secession.

This case provides a general overview of Reconstruction, starting with President Lincoln’s Reconstruction Acts passed during the Civil War. It details the experience of former slaves in the South as they seek to exercise their rights as equal citizens in the face of pervasive racism and organized violence. The case culminates with a decision facing Democratic and Republican leaders about whether to accept a “bargain” that would effectively end Reconstruction following the contested presidential election of 1876.

This case continues to examine some of the central issues of Reconstruction by focusing on a racially-charged murder trial that took place in Virginia shortly after Reconstruction formally ended, and that ultimately went to the U.S. Supreme Court. The prosecution of two black defendants before all-white juries at the state level—and the unprecedented intervention of a federal judge—provoked questions about the role of juries in American democracy and the balance between state and federal power on the critical issue of black civil rights following Reconstruction. [This case is an abridged and slightly revised version of an earlier case titled “Race, Justice, and the Jury System in Postbellum Virginia.” The full case is also available to teachers who wish to use it.]

This case describes how elections worked in the late 19th century, when “political machines” wielded enormous influence over voting at the local level and when casting a vote on election day was a very public affair. It addresses the many efforts of Progressive reformers to fight electoral corruption, and it hinges on a decision of whether to adopt an “Australian Ballot,” or secret ballot, in California in 1891.

This case explores how the federal government, under President Theodore Roosevelt, sought to adjudicate between the interests of capital and labor during the Second Industrial Revolution. In particular, it focuses on the federal government’s intervention in a major coal miners’ strike in Pennsylvania in 1902.

This case explores the power of the press in American democracy by examining the role of muckraking journalism in the Progressive Era. In particular, it traces how Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle, an explosive but unorthodox piece of investigative journalism presented in the form of a novel, almost overnight transformed the political environment surrounding federal regulation of the powerful meat-packing industry.

This case describes how Progressive Era reformers convinced numerous states and municipalities to adopt the initiative and referendum, and how these reforms changed the landscape of American democracy. It focuses on the particular example of Massachusetts, where statewide adoption of the initiative and referendum faced staunch opposition in 1918.

This case describes the debate in the 1920s over how the federal government should address the rapid development of a new communications technology with major implications for American democracy: broadcast radio. In particular, it focuses on President Calvin Coolidge’s decision of whether to sign a 1927 bill that would establish a Federal Radio Commission with the power to license radio stations.

This case focuses on a much heralded (and widely covered) Congressional investigation into the banking sector that took place in the depths of the Great Depression, amid intense public suspicion and anger toward leading financial institutions. It covers the first two years of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s presidency, including passage of the Glass-Steagall Banking Act in 1933, and culminates in a decision of whether to adopt the National Securities Exchange Act in 1934.

This case traces the long history of black disenfranchisement and racial segregation in the United States, from the Reconstruction Era to the 1960s. It describes the various strategies employed by civil rights activists, with a special emphasis on the civil disobedience protests of the modern Civil Rights Movement, and culminates in Martin Luther King’s decision of whether to lead protesters across Pettus Bridge on the famous protest march starting in Selma, Alabama on March 9, 1965.

This case addresses the topic of women’s rights in the United States from the American Revolution through the 20th century, including the Women’s Suffrage Movement and the rise of feminism. It introduces the principal women’s rights activists who pushed for a proposed “Equal Rights Amendment” to the U.S. Constitution, as well as prominent conservative activists who opposed the ERA, and it explores the ensuing nationwide debate that came to a head in the 1970s and early 1980s.

This case explores the history of redistricting and gerrymandering in the United States, with a particular focus on how redistricting has affected the voting strength of African American communities in the South. The case ends in 1993, when the Supreme Court had to determine whether North Carolina’s congressional district plan, which allegedly grouped voters by race, was a good-faith effort to comply with the Voting Rights Act or an unconstitutional racial gerrymander.

This case traces the long history of central banking in the United States and especially the development and transformation of the Federal Reserve, from its creation in 1913 to its unprecedented intervention in the Financial Crisis of 2007-2009. The case confronts some of the main arguments for and against the idea that monetary policy ought to be “independent” of democratic politics, and focuses particularly on efforts to “reign in” the Federal Reserve amidst the tumultuous financial events of 2007-2009.

This case presents excerpts from the landmark Supreme Court decision Citizens United, which determined that laws restricting independent corporate campaign expenditures violated the First Amendment. The majority opinion, the concurrences, and the dissent are presented in the case, and together they offer an overview of the facts of the case, a full century of federal law regulating corporate spending on elections, and key arguments on both sides of the case.