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What should the next Constitutional Amendment be?
A Constitution Day Essay Contest
Center for Civic Engagement Bard College
 

The United States Constitution is the oldest surviving, written and codified national constitution still in force anywhere in the world. For more than two hundred and thirty years it has remained durable, supplying a framework by which American economic, political and democratic life has evolved in the United States.

However, values, politics and technology have evolved since 1787. Many people assume that if the Constitution was to be written today, it would look substantially different. In 2020 the National Constitution Center Drafting Project actually sponsored this exercise by commissioning three teams of constitutional scholars (conservative, libertarian, and progressive) to draft new constitutions for the United States from scratch. Interestingly, all three teams kept the basic 1787 architecture of federalism and separated powers. Two years later the teams reconvened and agreed on five amendments.



Your essay should do three things:
1.  Write the amendment
Provide the text of your proposed amendment. What would it say as ratified in the Constitution? Most amendments are short, precise, and built to be interpreted by people who will not be able to ask what you meant. Alternatively, the Preamble is aspirational. You can write your amendment as they are traditionally written or you can submit an aspirational amendment using poetry, creative writing or through some other creative form. Artistic license is encouraged.

2.  Make the case that this belongs in the Constitution
An amendment requires two-thirds of both houses and three-quarters of the states. Understanding why you are proposing a particular amendment is critical. Why does your idea need the protection of the Constitution? What would go wrong if it were just a statute? Provide an argument for what you hope to accomplish and why you believe it is important. Support using three academic sources, and where needed, additional primary sources (primary sources do not count as academic sources).

3.  Take the strongest objection seriously
Every amendment has intended or unintended impacts and future generations are bound to uphold it. Consider the best argument against your proposal and respond to it within your essay.

Somewhere to start
The National Constitution Center has published all three of the 2020 draft constitutions along with essays from each team explaining their choices: Constitution Drafting Project

Eligibility

• Undergraduates currently enrolled at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson. One entry per student.

Requirements and Submission

• 750 - 1,500 words, not counting the text of your proposed amendment, in-text citations, or your reference list.
• Include the full text of your amendment, set off from the body of the essay.
• Use at least three academic sources, cited in APA style with in-text citations and a reference list.
• Submit as a PDF to [email protected]. 

Prizes and Recognition

• Why this amendment, and use of scholarship to support, 30%
• Engagement with the strongest counterargument, 25%
• Amendment text, clear, workable, drafted to survive interpretation 20%
• Writing, clarity, structure, and command of words 15%
• Originality and imagination 10%
• All placing essays will be published in the Annandale Advocate.
• Both first-place amendments will be framed and hung in the Center for Civic Engagement for the following year. Winners will be announced in early December.

What counts as an academic source:

• Three scholarly secondary sources in which the author is analyzing constitutional questions:
• Peer-reviewed journal articles (political science, history, law reviews)
• Books from academic presses
• Scholarly edited volumes and handbooks
• Primary sources are in addition to the three academic sources. The Constitution itself, Supreme Court opinions, the Federalist Papers, ratification debates, statutes, and other countries’ constitutions are excellent materials to reference. Cite them in addition to three academic sources.
• News coverage, advocacy organization white papers, encyclopedias, and think tank reports also do not count as academic evidence, though they can be cited in addition.

Citing legal materials

• APA has no format of its own for court cases, statutes, or constitutional text instead deferring to Bluebook for all of them. So if you cite a case alongside three journal articles, you can include two different citation formats within the same essay. 

For Example:
Constitution:  U.S. Const. amend. XIV, § 1.
Cases:  Obergefell v. Hodges, 576 U.S. 644 (2015).
Everything scholarly: standard APA author-date.

Submission Agreement
By entering, you agree that if your essay places first, second, or third:

• The Center for Civic Engagement may publish it in the Annandale Advocate.
• The CCE may display it at the Center, and in the case of a first-place essay display it framed there for one year, and use it in materials about the contest online and on campus.
• Your name may appear with it.
• You keep the copyright to your essay. This permission is non-exclusive, which means you stay free to publish the piece anywhere else, at any time, including before winners are announced. We ask only that you tell us if it appears elsewhere first.
• If you would rather be published under initials or without your name attached, say so when you submit and we will honor it. This will not affect judging, which is blind in any case.
• Essays that do not place will not be published or displayed.