Legal Foundations

The American Experiment may be centuries old, but its fundamental legal foundations owe a debt to longstanding principles, including ideas from some Jesuits from the 1500s and 1600s, and to influential thinkers and activists that carried their ideas forward.

It may not have legal force, strictly speaking, but the ideas still matter -- and it provides a reminder that today's law depends on the consent of the governed, which can't always be taken for granted.

What was "Shays's Rebellion" about? How strong should the federal government be, compared to the states? What did the Federalist Papers argue? Can the Anti-Federalists teach us useful things today?

What are the important provisions in the U.S. Constitution -- and it's Amendments -- that matter for government finance? What do they say, and what do they mean?

This section provides a summary of historical Supreme Court decisions framing federal and state law governing our public purse(s).

A review of the passage and current incarnation of important laws framing government spending, borrowing, taxation and financial reporting -- at the federal as well as state and local levels.