Judges and Juries, Part 1 | America's Written Constitution with Akhil Reed Amar

At the Revolution, the chief judges of ten of the thirteen colonies sided with George III rather than George Washington. Akhil Reed Amar argues that fact shapes all of Article III. This lecture explains why the judiciary gets one chapter where Congress and the presidency each got two: because the written Constitution says less about it, and because judges share Article III with juries. Amar reads the three articles as a record of the Revolution. Congress must be representative because the fight was over taxation without representation. The presidency borrows the monarchy's strengths without its heredity. And the courts come last because judges were the Crown's men while juries, assemblies, and militias were the patriots'. He then lays out the democratic pyramid running through the document, in which more accountable bodies choose less accountable ones: presidents pick judges, judges do not pick their chief, and Congress sets the size of the Court and the rules it follows. The lecture closes on Federalist 78, life tenure, and the open question of how robust a judicial review the framers actually had in mind. Chapters: 00:00 Why judges and juries share one chapter 02:45 The Revolution behind Articles I and II 06:18 Colonial judges sided with the King 08:23 How state constitutions treated their courts 11:07 The natural order of the three articles 13:11 The democratic pyramid 16:15 The least dangerous branch 17:16 Judicial review, expected but undefined 19:54 Life tenure and undiminishable salary Learning objectives: After watching, you'll be able to: - Explain why Article III is the shortest of the three branch articles - Describe the role of judges, juries, and militias during the Revolution - Trace the democratic pyramid from the Preamble through Article III - Identify the powers Congress holds over the structure of the federal courts - Summarize Hamilton's case in Federalist 78 for judicial independence 📺 Watch the full playlist on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCq6-l8oFuvk 🎓 Enroll on Coursera for assessments and a certificate: https://www.coursera.org/learn/written-constitution 🌐 Explore more learning opportunities on Yale Online: https://online.yale.edu/courses/americas-written-constitution