JFK's Wall

About this episode

The episode analyzes John F. Kennedy's speech in the context of American religious debate and its constitutional implications.

Our journey through the centuries of religious practice, attitudes, and constitutionalism has reached the 20th century, when several presidential elections set mileposts for the American religious debate. The first major party Catholic candidate, Al Smith, met the worst sort of vitriol and prejudice, and was destroyed by it. This cast a shadow over the later campaign of John F. Kennedy, and he answered it in a speech that we analyze and place in context, even as we thrill to the great man’s voice one more time. We then trace a line from that speech, through several Supreme Court memberships, to the American cultural and constitutional religious landscape as the 21st century dawns. Fittingly, perhaps, one of the jurists who has been prominent on this issue, Justice Thomas, celebrates a milestone on the Court. CLE is available for lawyers and judges from podcast.njsba.com.

People in this episode

Host: Akhil Reed Amar

Topics covered

• religious practice
• constitutionalism
• presidential elections
• American religious debate
• 20th century history

Keywords

• JFK
• Al Smith
• religion
• constitutionalism
• Supreme Court
• 20th century
• American history

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Supreme Court

More episodes of Amarica's Constitution

• Bigotry vs Bureaucracy: State Action and Private Freedom · June 10, 2026 · 1h 31m
• Rosen on Liberty; Gorsuch on Gorsuch - with Jeffrey Rosen and Justice Neil Gorsuch · June 3, 2026 · 1h 17m
• Unrehearsed Answers · May 27, 2026 · 54 min
• Scrip for Scripture on the National Mall · May 20, 2026 · 1h 22m
• Fourteen Colonies, Ten Commandments · May 6, 2026 · 1h 35m
• Remember the Alamo Heights · April 29, 2026 · 1h 40m