J.H. Snider, Editor
Snider at Emancipation Gardens,
St. Thomas
Note: Snider is next to a statue commemorating the emancipation of USVI’s slaves in 1848. The text on the statue reads “freedom” (the text is directly under the torso).
Snider at USVI Legislature,
St. Thomas
Note: This Capitol Building and its accompanying grounds may be the most citizen-unfriendly in the United States except when the Legislature is holding a public meeting.
Snider at Alexander
Hamilton Exhibit,
Ft. Christian, St. Croix
Note: Raised in Christiansted, St. Croix, Hamilton later attended both the U.S. constitutional convention of 1788 and the New York State convention of 1788. In The Federalist Papers, Hamilton championed the constitutional convention as part of the genius of American democracy; see the Hamilton quote on the home page of this website.
Snider at Hamilton’s,
St. Croix
Note: Snider is eating dinner at Hamilton’s restaurant under a painting depicting Hamilton’s death by a duel at the hands of U.S. Vice President Aaron Burr.
About The USVI Constitutional Convention Clearinghouse
The USVI Constitutional Convention Clearinghouse is a project of The State Constitutional Convention Clearinghouse, which covers constitutional convention information in U.S. states and territories. Its mission is to conduct high-quality, independent research on USVI’s constitutional convention history and, based on that research, provide recommendations for the public and policymakers.
These clearinghouses are a project of iSolon.org, a 501(c)(3) public policy institute founded in 2007 that focuses on the most difficult areas of democratic reform─where elected officials have a conflict of interest in bringing about reforms that might reduce their own power.
About J.H. Snider
J.H. Snider is the editor of The USVI State Constitutional Convention Clearinghouse. From 2011-2013, Snider was a fellow at Harvard University’s Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics, and during Spring Semester 2008 a fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy. From 2001-2007. he was a senior research fellow and research director at the New America Foundation. He has also been a fellow at the American Political Science Association (a Congressional Fellow), Northwestern University (a University Fellow), and the Harvard Business School (a Nonprofit Fellow). He has a Ph.D. in American Government from Northwestern University and undergraduate and master’s degrees from Harvard University.
Snider is a member of Oxford University’s U.S. State Constitutions Network, the author of “Does the World Really Belong to the Living? The Decline of the Constitutional Convention in New York and Other US States, 1776–2015,” Journal of American Political Thought 6, no. 2 (Spring 2017), and the author of more than fifty local op-eds on upcoming state constitutional convention referendums (see below).
To send J.H Snider a message, please use this contact form.
USVI Publications
Snider, J.H., Policy Brief: The Proper Scope of USVI’s Constitutional Convention, USVI Constitutional Convention Clearinghouse, January 2, 2024.
Snider, J.H., Policy Brief: Fixing USVI’s Constitutional Convention Enabling Act, USVI Constitutional Convention Clearinghouse, March 27, 2023, revised with addendum on January 1, 2024. The accompanying original news release can be found here.
Snider, J.H., USVI’s End-run Against America’s State Constitutional Tradition, Constitutional Conversations (a publication of the Center for Constitutional Design based at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law), June 7, 2023.
Snider, J.H., Implementing the Constitutional Convention Voters Approved in 2020, The Virgin Islands Consortium, March 24, 2023.
Snider, J.H., Where a U.S. Territory Can’t Get Its Own Constitution: A Self-Serving Legislature Drives the Plot in a Story of Democratic Failure, Zocalo Public Square, March 2, 2023.
J.H. Snider’s presentation, Reforming the Process of Democratic Reform, at the Global Forum on Modern Direct Democracy, Mexico City, March 2, 2023.
Compendium of Snider’s Popular Articles
Snider, J.H., The State Con-Con Papers, Social Science Research Network, November 8, 2021.