We the People

Latest Episodes:

Judge David Tatel on Vision: A Memoir of Blindness and Justice Jul 18, 2024

Show notes

Judge David Tatel’s new memoir, Vision: A Memoir of Blindness and Justice, recalls his remarkable legal career. In this episode, Judge Tatel joins Jeffrey Rosen to discuss his experience as a civil rights lawyer, landmark cases he presided over as a federal judge, the challenges his blindness posed, and how he overcame them.

Resources:

Judge David S. Tatel, Vision: A Memoir of Blindness and Justice(2024)

Questions or comments about the show? Email us at podcast@constitutioncenter.org. 

Continue today’s conversation on Facebook and Twitter using @ConstitutionCtr. 

Sign up to receive Constitution Weekly, our email roundup of constitutional news and debate, at bit.ly/constitutionweekly. 

You can find transcripts for each episode on the podcast pages in our Media Library. 

Presidential Immunity From the Founding to Today Jul 12, 2024

Show notes

On July 1, 2024, the Supreme Court handed down its 6-3 ruling in the landmark case Trump v. United States, finding that the president is entitled to presumptive immunity from prosecution for all official acts, but not for unofficial acts. In this episode, Sai Prakash of the University of Virginia Law School and Michael McConnell of Stanford Law School join Jeffrey Rosen to delve into the Supreme Court’s immunity decision and explore the history of presidential power and immunity from the founding to present day, and whether the Court’s decision comports with the original understanding of the Constitution.

Resources:

Trump v. United States (2024)
Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo (2024)
Michael McConnell, The President Who Would Not Be King: Executive Power Under the Constitution (2020)
“Former Federal Judge Michael McConnell Discusses Presidential Immunity and Trump Cases with Pam Karlan,” Stanford Legal podcast
Sai Prakash, Imperial from the Beginning: The Constitution of the Original Executive (2015)
Sai Prakash, The Living Presidency: An Originalist Argument Against Its Ever-Expanding Powers (2020)
“Does the Supreme Court ruling make the president a king? Not quite, says this Virginia law professor,” WTOP News (July 2, 2024)
Sai Prakash, Prosecuting and Punishing Our Presidents, Texas Law Review (Nov. 2021)

Questions or comments about the show? Email us at podcast@constitutioncenter.org. 

Continue today’s conversation on Facebook and Twitter using @ConstitutionCtr.

Sign up to receive Constitution Weekly, our email roundup of constitutional news and debate, at bit.ly/constitutionweekly. 

You can find transcripts for each episode on the podcast pages in our Media Library. 

Trump v. United States and the National Security Constitution Jul 02, 2024

Show notes

In this episode, Harold Hongju Koh of Yale Law School, Deborah Pearlstein of Princeton University, and Matthew Waxman of Columbia Law School  join Jeffrey Rosen for a conversation to explore Trump v. United States and the updated edition of Koh’s landmark book, The National Security Constitution in the Twenty-First Century. This program originally streamed live on July 1, 2024 as part of the NCC’s America’s Town Hall program series.

Resources:

Harold Koh, The National Security Constitution in the Twenty-First Century (2024)
Trump v. United States (2024)
Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo(2024)
United States v. Curtiss-Wright Export Corp. (1936)
Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer (Steel Seizure Case) (1952)
The Pacificus-Helvidius Debates of 1793-1794
Deborah Pearlstein, “Lawyering the Presidency,” The Georgetown Law Journal (2022)
Deborah Pearlstein, “The Executive Branch Anticanon,” Fordham Law Review (2020)
Matthew C. Waxman, “War Powers Reform: A Skeptical View,” Yale L. J. Forum (2024)

Questions or comments about the show? Email us at podcast@constitutioncenter.org. 

Continue today’s conversation on Facebook and Twitter using @ConstitutionCtr. 

Sign up to receive Constitution Weekly, our email roundup of constitutional news and debate, at bit.ly/constitutionweekly. 

You can find transcripts for each episode on the podcast pages in our Media Library. 

Recapping the Supreme Court’s 2023-24 Term Jun 29, 2024

Show notes

As the Supreme Court term nears its end, the Court has issued a series of decisions in many blockbuster cases, including overturning Chevron deference, upholding a law disarming domestic violence offenders and applying obstruction laws to January 6 prosecutions. Sarah Isgur of The Dispatch and Marcia Coyle of The National Law Journal join Jeffrey Rosen to review the Supreme Court’s most important decisions from this term so far.

Resources:

Fischer v. United States (2024)
Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo (2024)
United States v. Rahimi (2024)

Questions or comments about the show? Email us at podcast@constitutioncenter.org. 

Continue today’s conversation on Facebook and Twitter using @ConstitutionCtr. 

Sign up to receive Constitution Weekly, our email roundup of constitutional news and debate, at bit.ly/constitutionweekly. 

You can find transcripts for each episode on the podcast pages in our Media Library. 

The Interbellum Constitution Jun 20, 2024

Show notes

In this episode, political theorist William B. Allen, editor and translator of a new edition of Montesquieu’s The Spirit of the Laws, and Alison LaCroix, author of The Interbellum Constitution: Union, Commerce, and Slavery in the Age of Federalisms, join Jeffrey Rosen to explore the intellectual foundations—from Montesquieu and beyond—of constitutional interpretation from the founding to the Civil War. They also discuss historical practice and tradition in interpreting the Constitution throughout the interbellum period, and how this history applies to debates over constitutional interpretation today. This program was streamed live on June 17, 2024, as part of our America’s Town Hall series.

Resources:

• Alison LaCroix, The Interbellum Constitution: Union, Commerce, and Slavery in the Age of Federalisms, 2024

• Montesquieu, ‘The Spirit of the Laws’: A Critical Edition, edited and translated by W. B. Allen, 2024

• The Commerce Clause

• Alison LaCroix, “James Madison v. Originalism,” Project Syndicate (Aug. 26, 2022)

• 10th Amendment

• Andrew Jackson, Proclamation Regarding Nullification, (December 10, 1832)

• Martin v. Hunter's Lessee (1816)

• Preamble to the Constitution

Questions or comments about the show? Email us at podcast@constitutioncenter.org.

Continue today’s conversation on Facebook and Twitter using@ConstitutionCtr.

Sign up to receive Constitution Weekly, our email roundup of constitutional news and debate, at bit.ly/constitutionweekly.

You can find transcripts for each episode on the podcast pages in our Media Library.

Can the Constitution Serve as a Document of National Unity? Jun 13, 2024

Show notes

In this episode, AEI’s Yuval Levin, author of American Covenant: How the Constitution Unified Our Nation—and Could Again, and Aziz Rana, professor at Boston College Law and author of The Constitutional Bind: How Americans Came to Idolize a Document That Fails Them, join Jeffrey Rosen for a discussion about whether the Constitution has failed us or can serve as a document of national unity.

Resources:

Yuval Levin, American Covenant: How the Constitution Unified Our Nation—and Could Again(2024)
Aziz Rana, The Constitutional Bind: How Americans Came to Idolize a Document That Fails Them(2024)
“The Modern History of Originalism,” NCC’s We the People  podcast, (Aug 2023)
Article V, Interactive Constitution

Questions or comments about the show? Email us at podcast@constitutioncenter.org. 

Continue today’s conversation on Facebook and Twitter using @ConstitutionCtr. 

Sign up to receive Constitution Weekly, our email roundup of constitutional news and debate, at bit.ly/constitutionweekly. 

You can find transcripts for each episode on the podcast pages in our Media Library. 

The Trump Verdict and the Rule of Law Jun 06, 2024

Show notes

On May 30, former President Donald Trump was convicted of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to conceal hush money payments made during the 2016 election, making him the first U.S. president to be convicted of a crime. In this episode, two leading historians of the presidency—Stephen Knott of the United States Naval War College, and bestsellingand author and attorney David O. Stewart—join Jeffrey Rosen to explore presidential attacks on the judicial system and rule of law throughout American history. They also discuss what this history can teach us in the wake of the Trump criminal verdict.

Resources:

“The Trump Manhattan Criminal Verdict, Count By Count,” The New York Times (May 30, 2024)
The Indictment of Former President Trump,NCC’s We the People podcast (April 6, 2023)
History of Impeachment from Andrew Johnson to Today, NCC’s We the People podcast (February 1, 2018)
David O. Stewart, Impeached: The Trial of President Andrew Johnson and the Fight for Lincoln's Legacy (2009)
David O. Stewart, American Emperor: Aaron Burr’s Challenge to Jefferson’s America (2011)
Stephen Knott, The Lost Soul of the American Presidency: The Decline into Demagoguery and the Prospects for Renewal (2019)
Myers v. United States (1926)
United States v. Cruikshank (1875)

Questions or comments about the show? Email us at podcast@constitutioncenter.org.

Continue today’s conversation on Facebook and Twitter using @ConstitutionCtr.

Sign up to receive Constitution Weekly, our email roundup of constitutional news and debate, at bit.ly/constitutionweekly.

You can find transcripts for each episode on the podcast pages in our Media Library.

The Supreme Court Upholds South Carolina’s Voting Map May 31, 2024

Show notes

On May 23, the Supreme Court issued its opinion upholding a South Carolina congressional map against a challenge from the NAACP. In Alexander v South Carolina State Conference of the NAACP, the Court found that the South Carolina legislature had conducted a partisan gerrymander, permissible under the Court’s precedents, and not an unconstitutional racial gerrymander. In this episode, two leading election and voting rights scholars, Joshua Douglas of the University of Kentucky College of Law, and Derek Muller of the University of Notre Dame Law School, join Jeffrey Rosento discuss the Alexander v. NAACP majority opinion,as well as the concurrence and dissent, and review what this decision means for the future of racial gerrymandering cases.

Resources:

Alexander v. South Carolina State Conference of the NAACP(2024)
Joshua Douglas, The Court v. The Voters: The Troubling Story of How the Supreme Court Has Undermined Voting Rights (2024)
Joshua Douglas, “Today’s Supreme Court is Anti-Voter,” Washington Monthly (May 28, 2024)
Derek Muller, “The Long Shadow of the Elections Clause,” Election Law Blog (May 29, 2024)
Derek Muller, “Faith in Elections,” 36 Notre Dame J.L. Ethics & Pub. Pol’y 641 (2022)

Questions or comments about the show? Email us at podcast@constitutioncenter.org.

Continue today’s conversation on Facebook and Twitter using @ConstitutionCtr.

Sign up to receive Constitution Weekly, our email roundup of constitutional news and debate, at bit.ly/constitutionweekly.

You can find transcripts for each episode on the podcast pages in our Media Library.

Lincoln’s Lessons: Then and Now May 23, 2024

Show notes

In this episode, two acclaimed Lincoln historians—Sidney Blumenthal, author of the three-volume The Political Life of Abraham Lincoln, and Harold Holzer, author of the new book Brought Forth on This Continent: Abraham Lincoln and American Immigration, join Jeffrey Rosen to assess Lincoln’s life and legacy to explore similarities between the 19th century and today.This program was streamed live on March 27, 2024, as part of our America’s Town Hall series.

Resources:

Harold Holzer, Brought Forth on This Continent: Abraham Lincoln and American Immigration
Sidney Blumenthal, Wrestling With His Angel: The Political Life of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. II, 1849-1856
Abraham Lincoln, Cooper Union Address (February 27, 1860)
Harold Holzer, Lincoln at Cooper Union: The Speech That Made Abraham Lincoln President

Questions or comments about the show? Email us at podcast@constitutioncenter.org. 

Continue today’s conversation on Facebook and Twitter using @ConstitutionCtr. 

Sign up to receive Constitution Weekly, our email roundup of constitutional news and debate, at bit.ly/constitutionweekly. 

You can find transcripts for each episode on the podcast pages in our Media Library. 

The Battle Over Free Speech on Campus May 16, 2024

Show notes

Over the past few weeks, protests on college campuses over the war in Gaza have sparked debate about the extent and limits of student and faculty free speech rights. In this episode, two leading First Amendment scholars, Keith Whittington of Princeton University and Geoffrey Stone of the University of Chicago, join Jeffrey Rosen to discuss the current debates over free speech on campus. They also discuss Whittington’s new book, You Can’t Teach That!: The Battle Over University Classrooms.

Resources: