On Friday, April 10, 2026, the Institute for Justice’s Center for Judicial Engagement and the Liberty and Law Center at Antonin Scalia Law School celebrated 250 years of America in their own way. They held a conferenced entitled “The Other Declarations of 1776.”
While 2026 marked the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, it also marked the anniversary of various new states issuing declarations of rights in conjunction with their new state constitutions. The conference featured research, discussion, and debate exploring the history and ramifications of those “other” declarations of 1776. Several scholars presented draft papers at the conference, which will later be published in the Georgetown Journal of Law and Public Policy. To see what happened at the conference, and learn from our various speakers, please find below videos of each session.
VIDEOS FROM THE EVENT
Introductions and Keynote Address
Introductions by David Bernstein and JoAnn Koob, Liberty and Law Center, Anthony Sanders, Center for Judicial Engagement, and keynote address by Dr. Nicholas Cole, Oxford University’s Pembroke College and director of its Quill Project.
Panel I: From English Constitutionalism to American Constitution Making
Charles Thelen Plambeck, University of North Carolina School of Law (American Declarations of Rights and the Ancient Constitution); Lorianne Updike Schulzke, Northern Illinois University College of Law (Sufficient Bills of Rights); Laura Donohue, Georgetown Law School (commentary); Lael Weinberger, Antonin Scalia Law School (moderator).
Panel II: Slave Labor and Free Labor
Robinson Woodward-Burns, Howard University (The Declaration of Independence, Constitutions, and the Atlantic Slave Trade, 1763-1787); Joshua Windham, Institute for Justice (The Right to Right to Earn a Living in Pennsylvania); Robert J. Cottrol, George Washington University Law School (commentary); Keith Neely, Institute for Justice (moderator).
Panel III: Originalism and Change
Peter J. Allevato, Consovoy McCarthy (Originalism and the Weight of the First Declarations: A Case Study of Free Press Provisions); John Dinan, Wake Forest University (State Constitutional Amendment Processes and Development of State Declarations of Rights); Eric R. Claeys, Antonin Scalia Law School (commentary); Justin Pearson, Institute for Justice (moderator).
The Other Declarations Go to Court: A Time-Travel Mock Argument
For the Plaintiff: Madame Diana Simpson, Esq. For the Defendant: Mr. Samuel Gedge, Esq. Before “Judges”: Justice G. Barry Anderson, Supreme Court of Minnesota (ret. but unret. for this case); Laurent Sacharoff, Sturm College of Law; Cate Stetson, University of Virginia School of Law, Hogan Lovells.
Conference Speakers
Senior Research Fellow at Pembroke College, University of Oxford and Director of the Quill Project
Wake Forest University Department of Politics & International Affairs Professor and Department Chair
