We The People

Steven Hahn, author of Illiberal America: A History, and Manisha Sinha, author of The Rise and Fall of the Second American Republic: Reconstruction, 1860–1920, join Thomas Donnelly to explore the history of illiberalism in America and to assess illiberal threats facing our democracy today.    Resources:  Steven Hahn, Illiberal America: A History (2024)  Manisha Sinha, The Rise and Fall of the Second American Republic: Reconstruction, 1860-1920 (2024)  Abraham Lincoln, “ "Speech to the Young Men’s Lyceum of Springfield” (1838), Founders’ Library  13th Amendment, Interactive Constitution  Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, Founders’ Library  Steven Hahn, The Roots of Southern Populism: Yeoman Farmers and the Transformation of the Georgia Upcountry, 1850-1890 (1985)  Marcia Coyle, “The U.S. Supreme Court Cases Built on a ‘Rotten Foundation’,” Constitution Daily (May 2022)  Stay Connected and Learn More: Questions or comments about the show? Email us at podcast@constitutioncenter.org.   Continue today’s c

August 8, 2024, marks the 50th anniversary of Richard Nixon’s resignation as president of the United States. His resignation came after the House Judiciary Committee voted recommend Nixon’s impeachment for high crimes and misdemeanors— which would have been the first impeachment since that of Andrew Johnson in 1868. In this episode, historians Garrett Graff, author of Watergate: A New History (2022), and Robert Doar, president of AEI, join Jeffrey Rosen to discuss Nixon’s resignation and its enduring legal legacy.     Resources:  Garrett Graff, Watergate: A New History (2022)  Garrett Graff, “A Vice President’s Life Can Change in a Flash. Nothing is the Same After,” Washington Post (July 23, 2024)  Robert Doar, “Five Lessons from the Nixon Impeachment Inquiry,” AEI Blog (Oct. 3, 2019)  Robert Doar, Opening Remarks, “The Impeachment of Richard Nixon: Reflections on the 50th Anniversary,” AEI (July 25, 2024)  New York Times Co. v. United States (The Pentagon Papers Case) (1971)  United States v. Nixon

This week, President Joe Biden announced a three-fold plan to reform the Supreme Court. The proposal includes a constitutional amendment that no former president is immune from prosecution for crimes committed in office, 18-year Supreme Court term limits, and a binding code of conduct for Supreme Court Justices. In this episode, constitutional historians Keith Whittington of Yale Law School and Anthony Michael Kreis of Georgia State University and author of the new book Rot and Revival: The History of Constitutional Law in Political Development, join Jeffrey Rosen to discuss the mechanics and merits of President Biden’s proposed court reforms and delve into the relationship between politics and the judiciary from the founding until today. Resources: President Joe Biden, “My plan to reform the Supreme Court and ensure no president is above the law,” The Washington Post (July 29, 2024) Presidential Commission on SCOTUS Anthony Michael Kreis, Rot and Revival: The History of Constitutional Law in Political De

Georgetown Law Professor Randy Barnett is the author of A Life for Liberty: The Making of an American Originalist, a new memoir about his remarkable legal career. He joins Jeffrey Rosen to discuss his role in the evolution of originalism from a philosophy of judicial restraint to one of constitutional conservatism dedicated to restoring “the lost Constitution.” Resources: Randy Barnett, A Life for Liberty: The Making of an American Originalist (2024)  Randy Barnett, Restoring the Lost Constitution: The Presumption of Liberty (2014)  Randy Barnett, “Two Conceptions of the Ninth Amendment,” (1989)   Ronald Dworkin, Taking Rights Seriously (1978)  Antonin Scalia, “Originalism: The Lesser Evil,” (1989)   National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius (2012)  “Originalism: A Matter of Interpretation,” NCC America’s Town Hall Program (2022)  Stay Connected and Learn More: Questions or comments about the show? Email us at podcast@constitutioncenter.org.   Continue today’s conversation on Faceb

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.  

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

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.

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. 

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. 2

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.    

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 bestselling and 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 (200

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 Mon

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 Week

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:  Keith Whittington, You Can’t Teach That!: The Battle Over University Classrooms (2024)   Keith Whittington, Speak Freely: Why Universities Must Defend Free Speech (2019)   Keith Whittington, “Civil Disobedience Has Consequences,” The Daily Princetonian (May 10, 2024)  Keith Whittington, “What Can Professors Say in Public? Extramural Speech and the First Amendment,” Case Western L. Rev (2023)   University of Chicago, Kalven Committee: Report on the University’s Role in Political and Social Action   Univers

Richard Hasen, author of A Real Right to Vote, Sarah Isgur, senior editor of The Dispatch, and Lawrence Lessig, author of How to Steal a Presidential Election, join Jeffrey Rosen for a health check on the state of American democracy. They look ahead to potential areas of vulnerability in the run-up to the 2024 election, and identify ways to strengthen our democratic processes in response. This program was streamed live on March 21, 2024, as part of our America’s Town Hall series. Resources:  Richard L. Hasen, A Real Right to Vote: How a Constitutional Amendment Can Safeguard American Democracy (2024) Lawrence Lessig and Matthew Seligman, How to Steal a Presidential Election (2024) National Constitution Center’s We the People podcast, “The Supreme Court Says States Can’t Keep Trump Off the Ballot," (March 7, 2024) Sarah Isgur and David French, “Indictment Watch: The Supreme Court Decides Whether States Can Disqualify Trump,” Advisory Opinions, The Dispatch (March 5, 2024) Richard L. Hasen, “The Supreme C

As Meta—the parent company of Facebook and Instagram—surpassed 2 billion users in 2019, the company created an independent oversight board to review appeals of the company’s decisions involving content moderation. In this episode, members of Meta’s Oversight Board, Michael McConnell of Stanford Law School and Kenji Yoshino of New York University School of Law, join Jeffrey Rosen to discuss the board’s structure, its key decisions, and its efforts to ensure free and fair elections in advance of the 2024 presidential election. This program was streamed live on April 29, 2024, as part of our America’s Town Hall series.    Resources:  Meta Oversight Board  Former President Trump's suspension, Meta Oversight Board decision (2021)  Meet the Board  Brazilian general's speech, Meta Oversight Board decision (2023)  Altered Video of President Biden, Meta Oversight Board decision (2023)  Oversight Board Announces New Cases on Israel-Hamas Conflict for Expedited Review (Dec. 2023)  United States posts discu

This week the Supreme Court hears oral arguments in Trump v. United States, a case that asks whether the former president is immune from criminal prosecution for conduct that occurred during his tenure in office. In this episode, Professor John Yoo of Berkeley Law School and Smita Ghosh of the Constitutional Accountability Center join Jeffrey Rosen to preview the arguments in the case, review the founders’ views on executive immunity, and discuss how the Court might decide this crucial case.    Resources:  Trump v. United States (oral argument via C-SPAN; transcript) Constitutional Accountability Center, Smita Ghosh, et al, Brief of Scholars of Constitutional Law in Support of Respondents, Trump v. United States  Smita Ghosh, “The Founding Fathers Didn’t Think Trump Should Get Immunity Either,” Newsweek, Feb 8, 2024   John Yoo, “The Trump Immunity Case is Weak—But He Doesn’t Need it to Prevail,” Newsweek, Mar 6, 2024   Nixon v. Fitzgerald (1982)  Blassingame v. Trump (D.C. Cir. 2023)    Questions or

Michael Gerhardt, author of the new book FDR’s Mentors: Navigating the Path to Greatness, and Andrew Busch, author of Reagan's Victory: The Presidential Election of 1980 and the Rise of the Right, join Jeffrey Rosen to explore the pivotal elections of 1932 and 1980. They compare the transformative presidencies of Franklin D. Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan, and trace how founding-era debates between Hamilton and Jefferson over the scope of federal and executive power re-emerged during the New Deal and Reagan Revolution. This program originally streamed live on April 16, 2024.    Resources:  Michael J. Gerhardt, FDR’s Mentors: Navigating the Path to Greatness (2024)  Andrew E. Busch, Ronald Reagan and the Politics of Freedom (2001)  Andrew E. Busch, Reagan's Victory: The Presidential Election of 1980 and the Rise of the Right (2005)  Andrew E. Busch, The Constitution on the Campaign Trail: The Surprising Political Career of America’s Founding Document (2007)  Friedrich Hayek, “The Road to Serfdom,” Teaching

In this episode of We the People, Jeffrey Rosen has a special one-on-one conversation with the historian Allen Guelzo on his new book Our Ancient Faith: Lincoln, Democracy, and the American Experiment. They discuss Lincoln’s powerful vision of democracy, revisit his approach to tackling slavery and preserving the Union, and explain how Lincoln remains relevant as a political thinker today.  Resources Allen Guelzo, Our Ancient Faith: Lincoln, Democracy, and the American Experiment (2024)   “Lincoln’s Speeches and the Refounding of America,” NCC America’s Town Hall program (Nov. 2021)  William H. Herndon, Herndon on Lincoln: Letters (2016)  Abraham Lincoln, “Speech to the Young Men’s Lyceum of Springfield,” (1838)     Questions or comments about the show? Email us at podcast@constitutioncenter.org.   Continue today’s conversation on social media @ConstitutionCtr and #WeThePeoplePodcast. Sign up to receive Constitution Weekly, our email roundup of constitutional news and debate, at bit.ly/constitutionweek

On November 7, 2023, historians Carol Berkin, author of A Sovereign People: The Crises of the 1790s and the Birth of American Nationalism, and H.W. Brands, author of Founding Partisans: Hamilton, Jefferson, Madison, Adams, and the Brawling Birth of American Politics, joined Jeffrey Rosen for a conversation on political partisanship and nationalism in early America, and how, despite the founders’ fear of factionalism, deep partisan divisions emerged almost immediately after the Revolution. They discuss the election of 1800, the first hotly contested partisan election in American history, and trace the history of American partisanship to the present day.     Resources:  H.W. Brands, Founding Partisans: Hamilton, Madison, Jefferson, Adams and the Brawling Birth of American Politics (2023)  Carol Berkin, A Sovereign People: The Crises of the 1790s and the Birth of American Nationalism (2017)  “Genet Affair,” Mount Vernon   The Alien and Sedition Acts, NCC Founders’ Library  Virginia Resolutions, NCC Foun