Jeffrey Rosen is the president and CEO of the National Constitution Center, increasing awareness and understanding of the U.S. Constitution as an interactive museum, national town hall and provider of nonpartisan resources for civic education. There, he hosts the weekly “We the People” podcast of constitutional debate. Rosen is also a professor at George Washington University Law School and a contributing editor at The Atlantic. He was previously the legal affairs editor of The New Republic and a staff writer for The New Yorker. The author of eight books, including “Conversations with RBG: Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Life, Love, Liberty, and Law,” Rosen’s latest is “The Pursuit of Happiness: How Classical Writers on Virtue Inspired the Lives of the Founders and Defined America.”
Previously
![The Question of Happiness](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/466d2aa3-f782-4de2-8e55-9d035f0d8f07/u.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C339%2C4651%2C2618&w=400)
From the ancients to our forefathers to our modern-day achievement-obsessed culture, the question of what makes us happy continues to perplex. Why are we eternally fascinated...
![Is America Due for a Third Founding?](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/6874200e-8497-4909-820e-1560b4d07526/53813331777_b9beb549db_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C0%2C8256%2C4640&w=400)
We the people were not truly “We the People” until the Reconstruction amendments altered our Constitution in a post-Civil War "second founding". As we confront another democra...
![Supreme Court Review](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/7fa00011-6f3c-4016-bdd4-abe2c81807c9/53012197073_fecd0b838b_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C0%2C8096%2C4557&w=400)
June brings the end of the Supreme Court term and, once again, a historically low number of decisions — but those decisions have a tremendous impact on the lives of Americans....
![Is Our Political System an Ill Fit for the Times?](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/3c1e52f4-033d-4ca4-a58a-1d39f10de49b/53012202863_13f5792695_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=870%2C525%2C7386%2C4160&w=400)
The designers of our democratic republic created a political system and institutions intended to avoid concentrated power, mob rule, and to defuse factions. Is the America we...
![Is the Weakest Branch Becoming the Most Dangerous?](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/2c4bcd9e-e1d4-4192-bfb3-868529352bf5/52186392326_82701b383a_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C0%2C8256%2C4646&w=400)
As Alexander Hamilton famously wrote in the Federalist Papers, the judiciary is the weakest of our three branches of government. Without “purse” or “sword,” the US Supreme Cou...
![Beyond Roe and Dobbs: Understanding the New Reproductive Rights Landscape (Deep Dive)](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/e776cf85-745d-40da-b0b5-0a9a1d96a74f/52186651994_7337d98d3e_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C259%2C5392%2C3032&w=400)
In the first of a two-part discussion, experts explain the Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, which is widely misunderstood: What did Roe actually hold? And how does t...
![The Chief: The Life and Turbulent Times of Chief Justice John Roberts](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/null207511a8-2c1d-42e2-a2aa-a0f758d06ecb/48153957992_06512a3198_h.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C0%2C1600%2C900&w=400)
Is the current chief justice of the United States a conservative activist, or a neutral umpire concerned first and foremost with preserving the institution of the Supreme Cour...
![Our New Supreme Court](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/null63da24b9-8325-4048-979a-ddb9c77212a2/48152681642_35bb3b7243_h.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C31%2C1600%2C901&w=400)
This term, the Supreme Court will decide landmark cases involving partisan gerrymandering, the census, abortion, voting rights, and free speech. With Chief Justice John Robert...
![Addressing Trust as an Element of Media and Democracy](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/nullf9020078-e434-4527-8066-ea692620aec8/48152074791_332728d052_h.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C22%2C1600%2C901&w=400)
This session considers the importance of trust, and a healthy distrust, in the well-being of a democracy and the role of the press in this equation drawing on the report of th...
![What Is Conservatism?](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/nullc01c07fa-ed29-466d-873a-8f5ea4ff7b15/what-is-conservatism-aif19.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C0%2C2560%2C1440&w=400)
No democracy can last for long absent a morally sound and seriously intellectual conservative movement, posits New York Times op-ed columnist Bret Stephens. By definition, he...
![American Democracy in 2018: What Would the Founders Think?](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/e5da65a3-aac7-45b5-8578-602d80110cdb/43115129891_f3cb20a4d2_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C63%2C3000%2C1690&w=400)
Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and Thomas Jefferson united in support of the US Constitution, but they had very different ideas about how to strike the balance between nat...
![The Supreme Court Now: The Most Recent Decisions, the Deciders, and What to Expect Next](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/c838658b-f6e3-4424-8526-f64ada0e2f4f/43021349522_68c6beb818_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C184%2C3000%2C1687&w=400)
From same-sex wedding cakes and voting rights to gerrymandered congressional districts and public unions, the latest Supreme Court term was full of newsmaking decisions, even...
![Is Your Online Bubble a Threat to Democracy?](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/f031701e-2ddd-4b72-a089-26f4b5f6e7c6/29176506438_dd91a90416_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C550%2C6989%2C3930&w=400)
When we speak and associate with others in real life, the First Amendment governs interactions, granting broad rights of individual speech and association. Yet when we interac...
![Social Media Versus American Democracy](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/ecff0e10-0252-4638-8be0-e00347b160f3/29136464838_a9f0d469ef_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=771%2C417%2C5574%2C3136&w=400)
The Founders created a representative republic rather than a direct democracy, designed to slow down deliberation so that majorities could rule based on reason rather than pas...
![The Bill of Rights at 225: Why History Matters](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/nullf83eb920-e8d5-4194-8ef0-b5635de0b3b2/28091953485_d7fb37c39b_h.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C22%2C1600%2C901&w=400)
2016 is the 225th anniversary of the adoption of the Bill of Rights. David Rubenstein, in conversation with Jeffrey Rosen, discusses the significance of the US Constitution’s...
![Deep Dive: The Supreme Court 2016, the Election, and the Future of the Constitution](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/80cd9f65-02e4-4b1c-a3d4-fb143a03d40c/27426033714_2d162246d1_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C614%2C7360%2C4145&w=400)
Regardless the outcome of the 2016 election, a Trump or Clinton victory will transform the future of the Constitution, from affirmative action to campaign finance to voting ri...
![The Curse of Bigness: Why Louis Brandeis Matters](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/4dba7701-39b9-4925-ae7e-ee66b70afda6/27936017792_6380ffb6d8_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C112%2C4000%2C2250&w=400)
Louis Brandeis was the greatest critic of big business and big government since Thomas Jefferson. Jeff Rosen and Jeffrey Goldberg postulate about Brandeis’s relevance for the...
![Deep Dive: Privacy and Security—What’s the Right Balance?](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/nullcfd98f30-ce0d-4fec-9d8e-ba4f393fa7c6/27918753272_9593baf3f8_h.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C147%2C1600%2C899&w=400)
The mounting tension between privacy and security hit another inflection point when the FBI filed a suit against Apple earlier this year. Although the highest-profile case to...
![After the Gavel: The Supreme Court, the Future, and You](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/c9bba8b7-071f-4e2a-aa27-81882645443f/14379642279_12fd883ac9_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C630%2C6048%2C3402&w=400)
As the Supreme Court wraps its term, a team of legal experts debates the big decisions, partisanship on the Court, and how it all might shape the future. From affirmative acti...