"You have the right to remain silent."

Few Supreme Court decisions have produced words as instantly recognizable as Miranda v. Arizona. But sixty years after the landmark 1966 ruling, the constitutional argument behind those words is still very much alive.

On this episode of America at 250: Due Diligence, Bill Bernardoni and Steve Herman examine how Miranda changed police interrogation, why the Supreme Court believed a new safeguard was necessary, and whether the Fifth Amendment actually required the rule the Court created.

Dr. Richard Leo, professor of law and psychology at the University of San Francisco, takes us through the history of police interrogation — from the physical brutality of the old "third degree" to psychological coercion, false confessions, and the modern interrogation room. He explains why the Court sought a clear rule and why, despite early warnings that Miranda would cripple law enforcement, police departments largely adapted.

Then Professor Tom Hogan of South Texas College of Law approaches the case from a different constitutional perspective. Before Miranda, courts already excluded involuntary confessions obtained through physical or extreme psychological coercion. Hogan asks whether the Warren Court went beyond the text and original meaning of the Fifth Amendment by creating an additional constitutional rule.

Along the way, we revisit the Supreme Court's later decision in Dickerson v. United States, the continuing importance of confessions in criminal investigations, and the tension between protecting suspects and giving law enforcement the tools to solve serious crimes.

Sixty years later, Miranda remains the law — and part of the American vocabulary. But the deeper question remains: even if Miranda is a good rule, was it the Supreme Court's rule to make?

The 13th Amendment abolished slavery in America — but not completely.

Buried in its text is an exception allowing involuntary servitude "as a punishment for crime." That language would become enormously consequential after the Civil War, as Southern states built systems of Black Codes, vagrancy laws, convict leasing, and prison labor that pushed thousands of newly freed Black Americans back into conditions that often looked strikingly similar to slavery.

Bill Bernardoni and Steve Herman are joined first by Damon Root, senior editor at Reason and author of Emancipation War, to trace the political fight that produced the 13th Amendment, Abraham Lincoln's evolution on slavery, and why the amendment's punishment exception was included in the first place.

Then University of Mississippi Associate Professor Marvin King examines what happened after ratification — how Reconstruction gave way to new systems of racial and economic control, how the criminal justice system became part of that structure, and how those choices helped shape inequality for generations.

Finally, the episode looks at the modern effort to remove slavery and involuntary-servitude exceptions from state constitutions — and why, more than 160 years later, the debate over the 13th Amendment is still not over.

The story of America's founding is usually told through the same handful of names: Washington, Jefferson, Adams, Madison, Hamilton and Franklin. But the creation of the United States involved a much larger cast—and some of the men who helped shape the country have nearly disappeared from popular memory.

In the second installment of our "Forgotten Founders" series, America at 250: Due Diligence examines the lives and legacies of James Wilson and Roger Sherman, two enormously influential founders whose contributions remain far less familiar than those of their more celebrated contemporaries.

James Wilson signed both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, became one of the first justices of the United States Supreme Court and played a central role at the Constitutional Convention of 1787. He argued passionately for popular sovereignty and a government deriving its authority directly from the people. Wilson helped put the famous words "We the People" at the beginning of the Constitution and advocated for the direct election of the president long before such an idea had widespread support.

Yet Wilson's story ended dramatically. After becoming deeply entangled in land speculation and debt, the sitting Supreme Court justice was imprisoned for his debts, fled his creditors and eventually died of malaria while hiding in the back room of a tavern in North Carolina.

Jesse Wegman, author of The Lost Founder: James Wilson and the Forgotten Fight for a People's Constitution, joins Steve Herman and Bill Bernardoni to explain how Wilson became one of the most important legal and political thinkers of the founding era—and how his extraordinary fall helped erase him from the national story.

Then, Professor Mark David Hall turns to Roger Sherman, a self-taught Connecticut lawyer and statesman whose résumé rivals virtually anyone of the founding generation.

Sherman served on the committee that drafted the Declaration of Independence, the committee that developed the Articles of Confederation and the Board of War—all during 1776. He later became a key figure at the Constitutional Convention, where he helped shape the compromise between large and small states and pushed for a federal government based on limited, enumerated powers.

Sherman continued shaping the new government after ratification, serving in Congress and playing an important role in the development of the Bill of Rights. The only known surviving handwritten working draft of the Bill of Rights is in Sherman's hand.

Hall, editor of The Collected Works of Roger Sherman and co-editor of America's Forgotten Founders, discusses Sherman's political philosophy, religious beliefs, concerns about concentrated federal power and the reasons such an influential figure eventually faded from popular memory.

Together, Wilson and Sherman reveal a founding generation far larger, more complicated and more interesting than the familiar pantheon of five or six famous names.

Why do some founders become national icons while others disappear? And how different would our understanding of the Constitution be if we remembered the people who helped create it?

"I plead the Fifth."

It's one of the most recognizable phrases in American law — and one of the most misunderstood.

In this episode of America at 250: Due Diligence, Bill Bernardoni and Steve Herman look at how the Fifth Amendment's protection against self-incrimination became intertwined with guilt in the American imagination.

Brandeis University professor Thomas Doherty takes us back to the 1947 Hollywood hearings, when the Hollywood Ten refused to answer questions from the House Un-American Activities Committee and ultimately went to prison for contempt of Congress. From there, the story moves to mob boss Frank Costello, the televised Kefauver hearings and the McCarthy era, when congressional investigations became national television events and "taking the Fifth" took on a meaning far beyond the courtroom.

Then constitutional scholar Jeffrey Rosen, former president and CEO of the National Constitution Center and a professor at George Washington University, traces the protection against self-incrimination back to England's Star Chamber and explains what the Fifth Amendment actually protects — in criminal cases, congressional hearings and an era of cell phones, digital records and electronic evidence.

From Frank Costello and Joseph McCarthy to Oliver North and Anthony Fauci, it's a look at why Americans have been trained to hear silence as an admission of guilt — even though the Constitution says it isn't one.

Everyone knows Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Hamilton and Franklin. But some of the people who played crucial roles in creating the United States have almost disappeared from the story.

In this episode of America at 250: Due Diligence, Steve Herman and Bill Bernardoni look at two of the most consequential—and most overlooked—figures of the founding generation: John Dickinson and Gouverneur Morris.

Historian Dr. Jane Calvert, director and chief editor of the John Dickinson Writings Project and author of Penman of the Founding, explains how Dickinson became one of the most famous Americans of the revolutionary era, why he refused to support independence when Congress voted in 1776, and why his decision to abstain was very different from opposing the Revolution. She also discusses Dickinson's military service, his antislavery efforts, his influential political writings and how John Adams helped shape the negative reputation that followed him for generations.

Then Syracuse University professor Dennis Rasmussen, author of The Constitution's Penman: Gouverneur Morris and the Creation of America's Basic Charter, introduces listeners to one of the most colorful characters at the Constitutional Convention. Morris spoke more often and proposed more motions than any other delegate and ultimately became the principal draftsman of the Constitution's final text—including the words "We the People." Rasmussen explores Morris' opposition to slavery, his vision of a strong national government and presidency, his remarkable career in revolutionary France, and the mystery of why someone so central to the Constitution remains largely unknown today.

Two founders who helped shape the American Revolution and the Constitution. Two very different reasons they faded from public memory. And a larger question: Who gets remembered in American history—and who gets left out?

The fight over church and state is back in the classroom.

Texas requires the Ten Commandments to be displayed in public schools. Similar laws have emerged in Louisiana and Arkansas, while states are also considering Bible-based curriculum and school chaplain programs. Supporters argue these policies recognize America's history and religious heritage. Opponents say they cross a constitutional line by putting government behind a particular faith.

In this episode of America at 250: Due Diligence, Bill Bernardoni and Steve Herman examine how an argument that began before the Constitution was written continues to shape American politics and public education.

Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-founder of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, discusses her organization's legal challenges to Ten Commandments laws and why she believes freedom of religion must also protect Americans from government-imposed religion.

Then religion journalist Bob Smietana steps back from the courtroom to examine the larger story: the political and religious forces driving these measures, the rise of Christian nationalism, and why teaching about religion can be very different from government promoting it.

From Baptist preachers jailed in Colonial America to today's battles over scripture on classroom walls, the underlying question remains remarkably familiar:

When government gets involved in religion, whose religion wins?