Work in Progress
A Defense of America: Her Unique Institutions and the Values that Underpin Them
Jacob Citron, Clemson University, Lyceum Thesis (2026–2027)
A Lyceum Thesis, undertaken in collaboration with Clemson’s Honors College and Economics department, exploring the moral and constitutional foundations of the American Founding.
Traffic Cameras and the Reclassification of Crimes to Civil Violations
Jacob Citron, 1 Clem. L. Rev. 51, 51–59 (2025)
In this paper, I analyze the increasing efforts by the states to crack down on speed and red-light violations via the use of traffic cameras, how the states seem to have gotten around the Confrontation Clause by reclassifying crimes to “civil violations,” and the numerous issues with this approach.
Liberty: The Key to Living Well
Jacob Citron, Golden View Classical Academy, Senior Thesis (2023)
In this thesis, I explore liberty as a requirement for living well. As Aristotle argued, happiness is the end at which all things aim, and the way to pursue happiness is to strive for virtue, which can only be achieved voluntarily, not through coercion. This brings us to the topic of tyranny and its unfortunate rise in America today. I will show how this complicates the pursuit of happiness and therefore the ability to live well. I will then present an alternative: a return to America’s founding principles—and will show why they work and how they are better. In order to live well, men must pursue happiness, and to do this, strive to be virtuous, and to do this, be in a state of liberty. In other words: in order to live well, man must be free.