Cabinet Conversations: Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness
April 22, 2026
The story of America’s founding remains one of contention, evolution and aspiration. President Lincoln considered the Declaration of Independence and Constitution as “an apple of gold” and “the picture of silver subsequently framed around it.” What do these documents reveal about the elasticity of our democracy, and what “unfinished work,” as Lincoln described, remains for us today?
Revisit the founding ideals of the United States and trace the complex path from the Declaration of Independence to the Constitution in this thought-provoking conversation with leading scholars and experts. Together, we’ll explore how the framers’ ambitious yet imperfect vision for liberty and equality has been interpreted, challenged and expanded through the lens of constitutional law and how the arts shape and foster national memory.
Cabinet Conversations will take place in the Frances and Craig Lindner Center for Culture and Leadership before the 7 p.m. Performance of 1776. Registration for Cabinet Conversations and performance tickets are sold separately. To purchase tickets for 1776, please click here.
Guest Speakers
Robyn Asleson is curator of prints and drawings at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery. She specializes in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century British and American art and has published extensively on transatlantic crosscurrents in the history of art. Her lectures and publications reflect a longstanding interest in the role of women as cultural agents and the relationship between portraiture and the performing arts. Her most recent exhibition, Brilliant Exiles: American Women in Paris, 1900-1939, received the Smithsonian Secretary’s Research Prize. She is currently developing an exhibition about writers who shaped the idea of America. Asleson holds B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. degrees from Yale University.
John Mikhail is the Carroll Professor of Jurisprudence at Georgetown University Law Center, where he has taught since 2004. He teaches and writes on a variety of topics, including constitutional law, legal history, moral psychology, and human rights. His recent scholarship has focused mainly on American constitutional history, including the original understanding of the Preamble, Tenth Amendment, and Emoluments, Ex Post Facto, and Necessary and Proper Clauses. Professor Mikhail received his B.A. from Amherst College, a Ph.D. in Philosophy from Cornell University, and his J.D. from Stanford Law School, where he was Senior Article Editor of the Stanford Law Review and Senior Submissions Editor of the Stanford Journal of International Law. Before coming to Georgetown, he was a Lecturer and Research Affiliate at MIT, an associate at Simpson, Thacher & Bartlett, and a judicial clerk to Judge Rosemary Barkett on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. Professor Mikhail served as the Law Center’s Associate Dean for Research and Academic Programs from 2017 to 2020 and its Associate Dean for International and Transnational Programs from 2011 to 2013