ABA Division for Public Education

After nine grueling months of debate, on June 21, 1788, New Hampshire became the ninth and final state needed to ratify the United States Constitution, enacting what remains the longest-standing written national constitution in the world.

Ratification had been anything but guaranteed, but a secret PR campaign waged by Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison helped push it across the finish line.

Learn more: https://to.pbs.org/4aXHylP

The nation’s founders created the judiciary as an independent, co-equal branch of government to make sure it is protected from outside political influences. The ABA is committed to upholding the Constitution, the judicial process and equal justice under the law. Learn more at: https://bit.ly/4fX0Bhv

⏳ LAST CHANCE to be at the NCSS Summer Virtual Conference! This event, keynoted by America's Government Teacher Sharon McMahon, kicks off tomorrow, June 23.

➡️ Attend from anywhere. Register now: https://hubs.li/Q04hDqFT0

We're excited to have our Executive Director Kelly McFarland Stratman speaking at the Smithsonian National Education Summit, centered around this year’s theme: Together We Thrive: Towards a More Perfect Union.

Join educators and leaders from across the country as we come together to share ideas, learn from one another, and help shape the future of education: https://hubs.li/Q04kHjhy0

Designed to help soldiers transition to civilian life after WWII, the Servicemen's Readjustment Act, or GI Bill, was signed into law by President Franklin Roosevelt on this day in 1944.

With provisions for low-cost housing, education, and small business loans for returning soldiers, the bipartisan bill fueled America's middle class in the postwar era.

📸: President Roosevelt signing the G.I. Bill into law (FDR Library)

Poll workers are crucial to American democracy. The ABA is working to recruit lawyers to become poll workers for the upcoming midterm elections. Learn how you can help: https://bit.ly/3PQc2yQ

The United States Congress first exercised its Constitutional power to make war on June 18, 1812, issuing a declaration against Great Britain which President James Madison signed into law.

The move was brought on by months of British attacks on U.S. maritime trade, British kidnap of American sailors, and American designs on British territories in the north and west of the continent.

Though the War of 1812 ended in a stalemate, it served as the new nation's first assertion of its sovereignty on the world stage.

📜: "An Act Declaring War Between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the Dependencies Thereof, and the United States of America and Their Territories" (National Archives)

in 1957, the U.S. House of Representatives approved the Civil Rights Act of 1957, the first major civil rights legislation in decades.

The act established a Civil Rights Division within the Department of Justice and aimed to safeguard voting rights for all Americans, among other protections. President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed it into law three months later.

📸 courtesy of Library of Congress