ConLaw Class 1 – Our Founding Documents

January 15th, 2015

The lecture notes are here. The live chat is here.

Our Founding Documents

Note: Read these documents in their entirety. They’re not long. And no one should graduate law school without reading them at least once.

This is the Declaration of Independence (July 4, 1776).

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This is the first page of the Articles of Confederation (Ratified in 1781).

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These are the four pages of the Constitution of the United States of America. The Constitution was proposed on September 17, 1787, and ratified on June 21, 1788 with the ratification of New Hampshire, the 9th State to join the Union.

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These are the first Ten Amendments to the Constitution, proposed in 1789 and ratified in 1791 (the phrase “The Bill of Rights” only came into common parlance following the Civil War).


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