Progressive Reforms, Part 2 | America's Written Constitution with Akhil Reed Amar

Only men could vote on whether women should vote. Akhil Reed Amar traces the fifty-year path from that problem to the Nineteenth Amendment, starting in the territory with the fewest women. This lecture covers the Progressive Era amendments in detail. On the income tax, Amar argues the power always existed, that Lincoln signed a progressive income tax during the Civil War and courts upheld it, and that the Court's later reversal rested on a reading of "direct tax" bound up with slavery-era compromises. The Sixteenth Amendment is one of only a few times Americans have overturned the Supreme Court by amendment. He then traces how the Seventeenth Amendment was preceded by improvised direct elections, from the Lincoln-Douglas contest of 1858 through southern primaries and the Oregon pledge system, and follows its downstream effects on one-person-one-vote, on cabinet service, and on the path from the Senate to the presidency. The Nineteenth Amendment gets the fullest treatment: why western territories with five men to every woman moved first, how state-by-state votes shifted from 70-30 losses to a bandwagon no ambitious politician wanted to be left off, and why Woodrow Wilson reversed himself and asked Congress for suffrage as a war measure. Chapters: 00:00 The income tax, and whether it was ever barred 02:50 The Court reverses itself, and Harlan dissents 05:57 The four times an amendment overruled the Court 07:00 The Seventeenth Amendment 10:06 The Oregon plan 11:40 Downstream effects on the cabinet and the presidency 15:44 The Nineteenth Amendment 17:15 Why the West enfranchised women first 20:55 The bandwagon, state by state 23:01 Wilson, the war, and the League of Nations Learning objectives: After watching, you'll be able to: - Explain why Amar considers the federal income tax constitutional before 1913 - Identify the Supreme Court decisions that Americans overturned by amendment - Describe the workarounds that produced direct Senate elections before the Seventeenth Amendment - Trace the effects of direct Senate election on cabinets, courts, and presidential politics - Analyze the federalism and wartime dynamics that produced the Nineteenth Amendment 📺 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