It is the purpose of this section to establish four centers where nationally recognized distinguished experts in Constitutional law will produce, on a periodic basis, articles of current interest relating to the Constitution of the United States which are suitable for use by James Madison scholars, educational institutions, law school reviews, bar associations, and the news media.

In order to encourage recipient universities to provide such a continuing service, four endowments shall be established with funds from appropriations provided herein and such other amounts as may be contributed from other sources.

The income from each endowment shall be used to help support a chair for a Professor of Constitutional law.[1] Each endowment shall be held in trust with the income from the portion provided herein used exclusively to contribute toward the salary and related costs of the professor filling the chair and for services directly related to the support of such professor such as secretarial and research services. The recipient university shall from sources other than that portion of the endowment funded herein furnish the office, classroom and related services suitable to such a member of the faculty. The professor holding each chair shall file a copy of such articles with the Library of Congress, which shall make them available to libraries in the usual manner and the recipient of the endowment shall also make a copy available upon request by accredited educational institutions, bar associations, and general news media without royalty or charge other than the costs associated with printing or reprinting, handling and distribution.

That portion of each endowment provided by this chapter [2] and any accumulations attributable to such grant shall be invested by the recipient university in interest bearing obligations of the United States or in obligations guaranteed both as to principal and interest by the United States and shall be subject to audit by the Government Accountability Office for the sole purpose of determining that such funds are accounted for or have been used as provided herein. If a grantee university elects to discontinue such chair and support services, the corpus of the endowment attributable to the Federal grant shall revert to the Treasury of the United States.

The application for the grant for an endowment shall require only such information and supporting material as is reasonably necessary to assure that the funds will be used for the purposes described herein. Acceptance of the grant by each university shall constitute an agreement and obligation of that university to fulfill the obligations set forth in this section.

The grants for each endowment shall be for $800,000 and shall be offered to Howard University School of Law in Washington, D.C., Drake University School of Law in Des Moines, Iowa, the University of Akron School of Law in Akron, Ohio, and the University of South Carolina School of Law at Columbia, South Carolina.

(Pub. L. 99–500, § 101(b) [title VIII, § 817], Oct. 18, 1986, 100 Stat. 1783–39, 1783–81, and Pub. L. 99–591, § 101(b) [title VIII, § 817], Oct. 30, 1986, 100 Stat. 3341–39, 3341–81; Pub. L. 108–271, § 8(b), July 7, 2004, 118 Stat. 814.)