Home > Socrates > The Constitution of the United States
The Constitution of the United States
As read by David P. Currie
Edward H. Levi Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus
University of Chicago Law School The University of Chicago Law School proudly presents a reading of the Constitution of the United States by David P. Currie, Edward H. Levi Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus. We believe this to be the first free web-based audio version of the Constitution. The Law School asked Professor Currie to record the text in honor of his retirement, and the Law School presented the Class of 2006 a flash drive containing the audio file as a graduation gift. We have provided below links to the Constitution in its entirety, as well as files of its component parts. These components were created with academic use in mind, hoping that teachers might find it useful to play certain portions of the audio when teaching about those articles, sections, clauses, and amendments. You may wish to download the full text of the Constitution, which is available from, among other places, the National Archives. David P. Currie is uniquely qualified to be the voice on this recording. Professor Currie, one of the great constitutional law scholars and teachers, retired from full-time teaching at the University of Chicago Law School in 2006 after serving on the faculty for 44 years. He has taught courses in various aspects of constitutional law during that entire time period, including Constitutional Law I: Governmental Structure, Constitution in Congress, Comparative Constitutional Law, and Federal Jurisdiction. Among his many writings are the seminal works in the set The Constitution in the Supreme Court (The First Hundred Years, 1789-1888 (1985) and The Second Century, 1888-1986 (1990)) and the still-in-progress series The Constitution in Congress (The Federalist Period, 1789-1801 (1997), The Jeffersonians, 1801-1829 (2001), Democrats and Whigs, 1829-1861 (2005), and Descent into the Maelstrom, 1829-1861 (2005)). Professor Currie has also written a widely-read book for non-lawyers entitled The Constitution of the United States: A Primer for the People. In many ways this project can be seen as a companion to that volume. Professor Currie's has won the Law School's Graduating Students Award for Teaching Excellence a record four times, most recently from the Class of 2006. His unique qualifications, however, stem not only from his vocation, but his avocation as well. Professor Currie is an accomplished actor, most notably in the works of his beloved Gilbert and Sullivan. Professor Currie has been an active member of the University of Chicago Gilbert and Sullivan troupe for more than 40 years, and has performed in each of Gilbert and Sullivan's operas at least once. It is said (but unsubstantiated) that he has played every male role in the G&S canon. Professor Currie's full biography and CV. Professor Currie passed away on October 15, 2007. All of us at the University of Chicago Law School will miss him very much, and we are grateful that we have this recording to remember him by.
This recording was made on April 26 and May 5, 2006 at the studios of WHPK at the University of Chicago and post-production was done at the Digital Media Lab at the University of Chicago in May of 2006. The studio engineer was Patrick Reisinger and the post-production engineer was Luis-Manuel Garcia. We are grateful to Pat and Luis for their fine work. These audio files may be freely downloaded and the downloads used for any non-commercial purpose You may link freely to these pages but may not post them on another web site without express written permission of the University of Chicago Law School. Questions about this project may be directed to Marsha Nagorsky, Senior Director of Communications.
The following files are in mp3 format. If you would like to download a file, right-click and "Save Target As..." or "Save Link As..." (depending on your browser). A left click will open the file directly. The sizes of the largest files are indicated; unspecified files are smaller than 1.5 MB each. Entire Constitution of the United States [72 MB] All Articles of the Constitution [27 MB] All Amendments of the Constitution [20 MB] The Bill of Rights [1.8 MB] The Preamble Article I in its entirety [14.3 MB] Article I Section 1 Article I Section 2 [1.9 MB] Article I Section 3 [2 MB] Article I Section 4 Article I Section 5 Article I Section 6 Article I Section 7 [1.8 MB] Article I Section 8 [2.9 MB] Article I Section 9 [1.6 MB] Article I Section 10 Article II in its entirety [6 MB] Article II Section 1 [4 MB] Article II Section 2 Article II Section 3 Article II Section 4 Article III in its entirety [2.5 MB] Article III Section 1 Article III Section 2 Article III Section 3 Article IV in its entirety [2.1 MB] Article IV Section 1 Article IV Section 2 Article IV Section 3 Article IV Section 4 Article V in its entirety Article VI in its entirety Article VII in its entirety Amendment I
Amendment II Amendment III
Amendment IV
Amendment V
Amendment VI
Amendment VII
Amendment VIII
Amendment IX
Amendment X
Amendment XI
Amendment XII
Amendment XIII in its entirety
Amendment XIII Section 1
Amendment XIII Section 2
Amendment XIV in its entirety [1.5 MB]
Amendment XIV Section 1
Amendment XIV Section 2
Amendment XIV Section 3
Amendment XIV Section 4
Amendment XIV Section 5
Amendment XV in its entirety
Amendment XV Section 1
Amendment XV Section 2
Amendment XVI
Amendment XVII
Amendment XVIII in its entirety
Amendment XVIII Section 1
Amendment XVIII Section 2
Amendment XVIII Section 3
Amendment XIX
Amendment XX in its entirety
Amendment XX Section 1
Amendment XX Section 2
Amendment XX Section 3
Amendment XX Section 4
Amendment XX Section 5
Amendment XX Section 6
Amendment XXI in its entirety
Amendment XXI Section 1
Amendment XXI Section 2
Amendment XXI Section 3
Amendment XXII in its entirety
Amendment XXII Section 1
Amendment XXII Section 2
Amendment XXIII in its entirety
Amendment XXIII Section 1
Amendment XXIII Section 2
Amendment XXIV in its entirety
Amendment XXIV Section 1
Amendment XXIV Section 2
Amendment XXV in its entirety
Amendment XXV Section 1
Amendment XXV Section 2
Amendment XXV Section 3
Amendment XXV Section 4
Amendment XXVI in its entirety
Amendment XXVI Section 1
Amendment XXVI Section 2 Amendment XXVII |
