Constitutional Repertoires

From schoolroom reenactments of the Constitutional Convention to in-Congress readings and Broadway shows, performance comprises a crucial mechanism by which laypeople in the US understand “constitutionality”—the practices, laws, and actions permissible within the US political arena. These performances illustrate that constitutionality is not simply a set of legal procedures and concepts defined by a document, but a cultural field of which legal practices are one pillar. They also clarify how constitutional protections have come to be abrogated in their own name, and urgently call for intervention.