2008 Woodie Awards
U.S. Constitution during war, crisis
Charity Allman
Issue date: 9/24/07 Section: Politics
- Page 1 of 1
The United States recently celebrated its 220th Constitution Day Sept. 17. Justin Wert, from the University of Oklahoma, helped Brookhaven College celebrate.
Wert said he recently won an award for his dissertation titled "The Not-So-Great Writ: Habeas Corpus and American Political Development."
Wert came to Brookhaven to talk about the persistence of politics, rights, war and constitutionalism.
His talk centered on what happens to the U.S. Constitution during times of war and in times of crisis.
He said when crisis hits America the politics of the U.S. change with the times.
"No matter what happens to us as a country, we still have tradition and political heritage," Wert said.
He said there are two times in U.S. history when the political landscape has been changed: during World War II and again in the war on terrorism.
"To understand, we should not try to understand political responses to the war on terror," Wert said. "The same things that you thought on 9/10/01 are pretty much the same things that you thought on 9/12/01.
"When war happens something fundamentally different happens to American constitutionalism," Wert said.
He said scholars have tried to understand what happens to a country during times of war. They've come up with two models: one being the crisis model, where the government tries to seize more power than they should.
The other is the Milligan model, where government steps up and protects the American rights.
"In my studies, I have found that both these models are not very persuasive," Wert said.
Trying to explain what happened to constitutionalism during war is not as easy as saying the government let us down nor is it as simple as saying the government really stepped up, Wert said.
Wert said he recently won an award for his dissertation titled "The Not-So-Great Writ: Habeas Corpus and American Political Development."
Wert came to Brookhaven to talk about the persistence of politics, rights, war and constitutionalism.
His talk centered on what happens to the U.S. Constitution during times of war and in times of crisis.
He said when crisis hits America the politics of the U.S. change with the times.
"No matter what happens to us as a country, we still have tradition and political heritage," Wert said.
He said there are two times in U.S. history when the political landscape has been changed: during World War II and again in the war on terrorism.
"To understand, we should not try to understand political responses to the war on terror," Wert said. "The same things that you thought on 9/10/01 are pretty much the same things that you thought on 9/12/01.
"When war happens something fundamentally different happens to American constitutionalism," Wert said.
He said scholars have tried to understand what happens to a country during times of war. They've come up with two models: one being the crisis model, where the government tries to seize more power than they should.
The other is the Milligan model, where government steps up and protects the American rights.
"In my studies, I have found that both these models are not very persuasive," Wert said.
Trying to explain what happened to constitutionalism during war is not as easy as saying the government let us down nor is it as simple as saying the government really stepped up, Wert said.
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