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< Back KrisAnne Hall Advisor KrisAnne Hall received her bachelor’s degree in biochemistry from Blackburn College and her Juris Doctor from the University of Florida, College of Law. She served in the US Army as a military intelligence Russian linguist and was a prosecutor for the State of Florida for nearly a decade. KrisAnne also worked with a prominent national First Amendment Law firm where she traveled the country defending Americans whose Rights were violated by unlawful arrests and prosecutions. KrisAnne has been traveling and teaching American History, the Constitution, and the principles of Liberty both nationally and internationally for over a decade. KrisAnne is the most sought-after national speaker on the Constitution, averaging over 250 events in nearly 22 States every year for 7 years. She has written 6 books on American History and the US Constitution and has written and produced 2 Award-Winning Documentaries about American History and the Constitution. She also has an online teaching program for American History, Government, and the Constitution training hundreds of students, both adults and children, every month. KrisAnne is also a professor at River University School of Government in Tampa, and chief counsel for Liberty First Legal, a national nonprofit law firm defending Civil Rights. KrisAnne is a regular consultant on the Constitution for numerous radio, podcast, and television programs. She has been seen on Victory News, Flashpoint, CTN, OANN, and CourtTV. She has been interviewed by C-Span InDepth and her books and classes have been featured on CSPAN Book-tv. She can be found at KrisAnneHall.com KrisAnneHall.com LibertyFirstSocitey.com Instagram: @KrisAnne.hall X: @RealKahall Facebook: KrisAnne Hall, JD

Spiro Agnew Spiro Theodore Agnew was a Maryland lawyer, county executive, governor, and the thirty-ninth vice president of the United States. His rapid rise through Maryland politics brought him from county government to the governorship and then to the national Republican ticket. He served as Richard Nixon's vice president during Nixon's first term and resigned the office in 1973 following a separate corruption investigation. Agnew was born on November 9, 1918, in Baltimore, Maryland, to Theodore Spiros Agnew, a Greek immigrant and restaurant owner, and Margaret Akers. He attended Johns Hopkins University and later enrolled at the University of Baltimore School of Law. His education was interrupted by World War II, during which he served in the U.S. Army. After the war, he completed his law studies and was admitted to the Maryland bar. Agnew entered Maryland politics as a Republican at a time when the state was dominated by Democrats. He served as an assistant county attorney before becoming executive of Baltimore County in 1962. In 1966, he was elected governor of Maryland. As governor, he supported several civil-rights measures and government reforms, while also taking positions intended to appeal to suburban and moderate Republican voters. In 1968, Richard Nixon selected Agnew as his vice-presidential running mate. The Nixon-Agnew ticket defeated Democrat Hubert Humphrey and third-party candidate George Wallace. Agnew became vice president on January 20, 1969, and was reelected alongside Nixon in 1972. During his vice presidency, Agnew became known for forceful speeches criticizing antiwar protesters, the news media, and political opponents. In 1973, federal prosecutors investigating political corruption in Maryland began examining allegations involving Agnew. The investigation concerned payments and other benefits that prosecutors alleged Agnew had received while serving as Baltimore County executive, governor, vice president, and before. Agnew denied wrongdoing, but he resigned the vice presidency on October 10, 1973, after negotiating a plea agreement concerning tax evasion. He was succeeded by Gerald Ford under the recently ratified Twenty-Fifth Amendment. After leaving office, Agnew largely withdrew from political life. He moved to California and later spent his final years in Maryland. He wrote a memoir and worked in private business. Agnew died in Berlin, Maryland, on September 17, 1996, at the age of seventy-seven. Agnew's legacy is particularly significant because he was the second vice president to resign from office, after John C. Calhoun had resigned in 1832, although Calhoun's circumstances were entirely different. Agnew's resignation also became the first occasion on which the Twenty-Fifth Amendment's procedure for filling a vice-presidential vacancy was used. President Nixon nominated Gerald Ford, who was confirmed by both houses of Congress and became vice president on December 6, 1973. Vice President, Governor

As Chief Networker you are tasked with reaching out to potential clients such as donors, schools, and other charities. < Back Chief Networker Apply Now Job Type Volunteer About the Role As Chief Networker you are tasked with reaching out to potential clients such as donors, schools, and other charities. Requirements Relevant Prior Experience About the Company Amending America is an educational support services 501(c)(3) that specializes in American History, Civics, and Constitutional Law, and provides a variety of different resources for people to learn from including online courses, research projects, videos, and an extensive library of primary source documents. Apply Now

John Blair Jr. Blair came from one of Virginia's most prominent political families and developed a career almost entirely within the law and judiciary. Unlike Wilson and Jay, he was not primarily a national political theorist; his importance came from his long experience as a state judge and his participation in the formation of both Virginia's and the United States' constitutional governments. His judicial writings are particularly useful for studying the early development of constitutional review and textual interpretation. Blair was born in Williamsburg in 1732, the son of John Blair, a prominent colonial official who served on Virginia's Governor's Council and repeatedly acted as governor. He graduated from the College of William and Mary in 1754 and then studied law at London's Middle Temple. He returned to Virginia, was admitted to the bar, and began practicing law in Williamsburg. Blair entered the Virginia House of Burgesses in 1766 and participated in colonial resistance to Parliament's taxation policies. During the Revolution he served in the Virginia Convention of 1776 and on the committee responsible for preparing the Virginia Declaration of Rights and Constitution. He subsequently served on Virginia's Council of State, the General Court, the High Court of Chancery, and the Virginia Court of Appeals. In Commonwealth v. Caton (1782), Blair was associated with one of the earliest American judicial discussions of the authority of courts to reject unconstitutional legislative acts, although the surviving evidence leaves some uncertainty about the precise extent of his concurrence. Washington nominated Blair to the Supreme Court in September 1789, and he became one of its original Associate Justices. His most important Supreme Court opinion came in Chisholm v. Georgia , where he joined the majority and wrote a separate opinion based almost entirely upon the Constitution itself. Blair explicitly avoided the extensive historical and philosophical arguments found in the opinions of Jay and Wilson and treated the constitutional text as the principal source of the Court's authority. He also participated in Georgia v. Brailsford , Hayburn's Case , Glass v. Sloop Betsey , and other cases of the Jay Court. Blair resigned from the Supreme Court in 1795 because of poor health and the burdens associated with the federal judiciary's system of circuit riding. He returned to Williamsburg and largely withdrew from public life. He died there on August 31, 1800, and was buried at Bruton Parish Church. Blair's legacy rests particularly on his contribution to early American judicial review and constitutional interpretation. His career demonstrates that the idea of courts enforcing constitutional limitations did not originate solely with the federal Supreme Court in Marbury v. Madison ; state courts had already confronted the issue during the 1780s. His Chisholm opinion also provides one of the clearest examples of a founding-era justice reasoning directly from constitutional text rather than from broad political philosophy. Constitutional approach: Strong textual/original constitutionalist. Blair is probably the clearest of this first group to fit your “strict constitutionalist” category. His Chisholm opinion explicitly treated the Constitution as the governing source and rejected the need to consult European constitutional arrangements or broader historical theories. Key decisions and opinions: Case Subject Blair's participation Hayburn's Case (1792) Separation of powers Participated Georgia v. Brailsford (1792–93) Equity / state property Separate opinions Chisholm v. Georgia (1793) State sovereignty Separate opinion , majority Glass v. Sloop Betsey (1794) Federal admiralty jurisdiction Participated Penhallow v. Doane's Administrators (1795) Federal/state authority Participated In Chisholm , Blair joined Jay, Wilson, and Cushing in the majority, and all four wrote separately. In Georgia v. Brailsford , Blair also issued individual reasoning rather than simply joining a modern-style majority opinion. Justice, Delegate to the Constitutional Convention

< Back Alessandro Ciccarelli Volunteer Alessandro Ciccarelli is an American History Researcher at Tarpeia . A resident of Bristol, CT, received his Master of Arts in 2017 from Central Connecticut State University after majoring in Modern American History. Among his many interests in the field is Lyndon B. Johnson's Great Society and Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal.

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William Cushing Cushing was the longest-serving of Washington's original Supreme Court appointees. His career illustrates the transition from colonial Massachusetts law to revolutionary state constitutionalism and finally to federal constitutional law. He spent more than twenty years on the Supreme Court, although the Court's early docket was sufficiently small that his surviving opinions are much fewer than those of later justices. Cushing was born in Scituate, Massachusetts, on March 1, 1732, into a prominent Massachusetts legal family. He attended Harvard College and graduated in 1751, then studied law and entered practice in 1755. He subsequently moved to the Maine district of Massachusetts, where he held several local judicial offices. In 1772 Cushing joined the Massachusetts Superior Court of Judicature, succeeding his father. When revolutionary authorities reorganized the Massachusetts judiciary in 1775, Cushing was the only royal-era judge to retain his judicial position. He became Chief Justice in 1777 and served in that position until Washington appointed him to the Supreme Court. One of the most consequential episodes of his state judicial career came in 1783 in Commonwealth v. Jennison , where his charge to the jury treated the Massachusetts Constitution's declaration that all men are born free and equal as incompatible with slavery. Washington nominated Cushing on September 24, 1789, and he joined the Supreme Court in 1790. Cushing participated in many of the Court's earliest cases, including Chisholm v. Georgia , Georgia v. Brailsford , Hayburn's Case , and Glass v. Sloop Betsey . In Chisholm , he joined the majority and wrote a separate opinion emphasizing the Constitution's language rather than relying heavily upon European legal history. His approach was comparatively direct and textual, particularly when compared with the more philosophical opinions of Wilson and Jay. Cushing remained on the Supreme Court until his death, although illness increasingly limited his activity during his final years. After Rutledge's failed nomination, Washington nominated Cushing as Chief Justice in 1796, and the Senate confirmed him, but Cushing declined the position because of his health. He continued as an Associate Justice until September 13, 1810, when he died at his home in Scituate. Cushing's legacy rests on both his long service and his role in the formation of early American constitutional law. His Chisholm opinion is particularly useful for understanding early textual constitutional interpretation because he deliberately focused on the Constitution itself rather than foreign legal systems. His earlier Massachusetts judicial treatment of slavery also makes him an important figure in the development of constitutional liberty before the federal abolition amendments. Of the first five justices, Cushing is one of the clearest examples of a justice who sought the answer principally in the constitutional text. His Chisholm opinion explicitly rejected reliance on English and foreign law when determining the meaning of the Constitution. Key decisions and opinions: Case Subject Cushing's participation Hayburn's Case (1792) Separation of powers Participated Georgia v. Brailsford (1792–93) Equity / state property Separate opinion Chisholm v. Georgia (1793) State sovereignty Separate opinion, majority Glass v. Sloop Betsey (1794) Federal admiralty jurisdiction Participated Penhallow v. Doane's Administrators (1795) Federal/state admiralty jurisdiction Participated In Chisholm , Cushing was one of the four justices who separately concurred in the judgment against Georgia. Justice

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Jimmy Carter James Earl “Jimmy” Carter Jr. was the 39th president of the United States, serving from 1977 to 1981. Born on October 1, 1924, in Plains, Georgia, Carter came from a rural farming family and built a career that took him from the U.S. Navy to Georgia politics and ultimately the White House. His presidency was marked by important achievements in diplomacy, energy, environmental protection, and human rights, but also by severe economic difficulties and international crises. After leaving office, Carter established an extraordinary record of humanitarian service through the Carter Center, eventually receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002. He died in 2024 at the age of 100, making him the longest-lived president in American history. Carter was born into a family deeply connected to rural Georgia. His father, James Earl Carter Sr., was a farmer and businessman, while his mother, Lillian Gordy Carter, was a registered nurse. In 1928, the family moved to a 350-acre farm in Archery, a small African American community near Plains, where Carter experienced the rural South firsthand. He attended public schools in Plains and later studied at Georgia Southwestern College and the Georgia Institute of Technology before entering the United States Naval Academy, from which he graduated in 1946. As a young naval officer, Carter became a submariner and eventually joined Admiral Hyman Rickover's nuclear submarine program, studying reactor technology and nuclear physics. His upbringing, education, military service, and strong religious faith would all shape his later approach to public service. Carter married Rosalynn Smith in 1946 and initially pursued a career in the Navy. When his father died in 1953, Carter resigned his naval commission and returned to Georgia to take over the family farm and operate a seed and farm-supply business with Rosalynn. He became increasingly involved in his community, serving on local boards dealing with education, health care, and the library. In 1962, he won election to the Georgia State Senate, beginning his political career. After an unsuccessful campaign for governor in 1966, Carter won the governorship in 1970 and served from 1971 to 1975. As governor, he promoted government reform, improved race relations, appointed African Americans to state positions, pursued tax reform, and sought to modernize Georgia's government. His reputation as a reform-minded Southern Democrat helped him emerge as an unlikely national political figure, and in 1976 he won the Democratic presidential nomination and defeated incumbent President Gerald Ford. Carter became president on January 20, 1977, entering office during a period of economic uncertainty and declining public confidence in government. His administration pursued an ambitious energy program, created the Department of Energy, expanded environmental protections, and supported the creation of the Department of Education. In foreign policy, Carter emphasized human rights and diplomacy, negotiating the Panama Canal treaties and establishing formal diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China. His greatest diplomatic achievement came in 1978, when he brought Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin together at Camp David, resulting in the 1979 Egypt-Israel peace treaty. However, Carter's presidency was also overshadowed by high inflation, an energy crisis, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, and the Iranian hostage crisis, in which 52 Americans were held hostage for 444 days. Carter lost the 1980 election to Ronald Reagan, ending his presidency after one term. Carter's post-presidency became one of the most consequential in American history. In 1982, he and Rosalynn founded the Carter Center in Atlanta, which worked to promote democracy, monitor elections, protect human rights, resolve international conflicts, and combat disease. Carter personally participated in diplomatic missions around the world, including efforts involving North Korea, Haiti, Bosnia, Sudan, and other areas of conflict. He also became closely associated with Habitat for Humanity, working alongside Rosalynn to help build and renovate homes for people in need. His humanitarian work earned him the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, advance democracy and human rights, and promote economic and social development. He also became a prolific author, writing more than thirty books on politics, history, religion, memoir, and other subjects. Jimmy Carter died peacefully at his home in Plains, Georgia, on December 29, 2024, surrounded by his family. He was 100 years old and had lived longer than any other American president; his wife Rosalynn had died the previous year after 77 years of marriage. Carter's legacy is complex: his presidency is often remembered for economic problems and major foreign-policy crises, but historians have increasingly recognized his accomplishments in diplomacy, human rights, energy, environmental protection, and the restoration of public trust after the turmoil of the Nixon era. His post-presidential humanitarian work arguably became an even greater part of his historical reputation, with the Carter Center continuing efforts to promote peace, democracy, health, and human rights around the world. Carter ultimately came to represent a distinctive model of public service—one in which a former president continued working for the public good long after leaving the White House. President, Governor

John Tyler John Tyler was the tenth president of the United States, serving from April 6, 1841, to March 3, 1845. Born into the prominent Virginia planter and political class, Tyler entered public life as a firm believer in states’ rights, limited federal power, and strict adherence to the Constitution. Although he began his political career as a Democrat-Republican and later became a Whig, his independent views repeatedly put him at odds with his own parties. Tyler became president unexpectedly following the death of William Henry Harrison, and his presidency established the important precedent that a vice president who succeeds to the presidency becomes the full president rather than merely an acting president. His administration also helped advance the annexation of Texas, while his resistance to Whig economic policies left him politically isolated. Tyler was born on March 29, 1790, at Greenway Plantation in Charles City County, Virginia, into a wealthy and politically influential family. His father, John Tyler Sr., was a prominent Virginia politician who served as governor of Virginia and later as a judge. Tyler was raised in the traditions of the Virginia planter aristocracy and received a classical education at home before attending the College of William and Mary. He graduated in 1807 at only seventeen years old and studied law under his father. Admitted to the Virginia bar in 1809, Tyler quickly began practicing law and developing the political philosophy that would characterize much of his career. His upbringing instilled in him a strong attachment to Virginia, skepticism toward concentrated federal power, and a belief that the Constitution strictly limited the authority of the national government. Tyler entered politics in 1811 when he was elected to the Virginia House of Delegates at the age of twenty-one. He subsequently served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1817 to 1821, where he generally supported the limited-government principles associated with the Democratic-Republicans and opposed measures he believed exceeded Congress's constitutional authority. He served as governor of Virginia from 1825 to 1826 and then represented Virginia in the U.S. Senate from 1827 to 1836. Tyler became increasingly opposed to President Andrew Jackson's use of federal power, particularly his decision to destroy the Second Bank of the United States, and briefly became associated with the emerging Whig Party. In 1836, he resigned from the Senate rather than comply with Virginia's legislature when it ordered its senators to vote against Jackson's administration. Tyler's reputation as a states' rights conservative eventually made him an attractive running mate for the Whigs, and in 1840 he was nominated for vice president alongside William Henry Harrison. The election of 1840 brought Harrison and Tyler to the White House in a landslide victory over Martin Van Buren, but their partnership lasted only a few weeks. Harrison died on April 4, 1841, after just thirty-one days in office, making Tyler the first vice president to succeed to the presidency. Tyler immediately asserted that he was the full president, establishing what became known as the "Tyler precedent." His presidency quickly became contentious because he rejected major elements of the Whig program, including Henry Clay's efforts to establish a new national bank. Tyler vetoed two Whig-backed bank bills, causing most of his cabinet to resign and leading the Whigs to formally expel him from the party. Despite his political isolation, his administration achieved several important successes, including the Webster-Ashburton Treaty with Britain in 1842, which settled several long-standing boundary disputes. Tyler increasingly turned his attention toward the annexation of Texas, and in the final months of his presidency he signed a treaty to annex Texas, although the Senate rejected it. His administration ultimately succeeded in advancing the issue enough that Congress approved annexation shortly after he left office. After leaving the presidency on March 4, 1845, Tyler returned to his Virginia estate, Sherwood Forest, where he largely withdrew from national politics. He remained interested in the sectional crisis over slavery and sought to promote compromise between the North and South. When the Civil War approached, however, Tyler increasingly supported the Southern states' position. In 1861, he chaired the Washington Peace Conference, an unsuccessful effort to prevent secession through constitutional compromise. After Virginia seceded, Tyler supported the Confederacy and was elected to the Confederate House of Representatives in 1861, although he died before he could take his seat. His decision to support secession marked a dramatic final chapter in the career of a man who had once occupied the highest office in the United States. John Tyler died on January 18, 1862, in Richmond, Virginia, at the age of seventy-one, apparently from a stroke. Because he had joined the Confederacy, he became the only former U.S. president to receive an official Confederate funeral, and he was buried at Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond. Tyler's historical legacy is complicated: his presidency was often considered unsuccessful because he lacked a stable political party and faced relentless opposition from Congress, yet he established a crucial constitutional precedent concerning presidential succession and played an important role in the movement toward the annexation of Texas. His administration also demonstrated the difficulty of governing when a president's constitutional convictions conflict with the program of the political party that elected him. Tyler's later allegiance to the Confederacy has further shaped his reputation, making his life an unusual bridge between the early republic and the coming Civil War. President, Vice President, Representative, Senator, Governor

As Chief Secretariat you will be in charge of taking and preserving the minutes of meetings, organizing & scheduling meetings & events, advising the Chair, and coordinating & communicating with the other Chiefs. < Back Chief Secretariat Apply Now Job Type Volunteer About the Role As Chief Secretariat you will be in charge of taking and preserving the minutes of meetings, organizing & scheduling meetings & events, advising the Chair, and coordinating & communicating with the other Chiefs. Requirements Have several years of relavent work experience Have a letter of reommendation from your previous employer regarding secretary work About the Company Amending America is an educational support services 501(c)(3) that specializes in American History, Civics, and Constitutional Law, and provides a variety of different resources for people to learn from including online courses, research projects, videos, and an extensive library of primary source documents. Apply Now