Article III of the US Constitution vests “the judicial power” in the Supreme Court and the lower federal courts. How that power should be exercised — and when it has been exercised throughout our country’s history — are questions still fiercely debated today. May courts legitimately exercise “judicial review,” the power to say conclusively what the law is? Or is this notion actually foreign to what the framers of the Constitution had in mind for the judiciary?

Keith Whittington of Princeton University, author of “Repugnant Laws,” a recent book on the surprisingly misunderstood history of judicial review, joins the show to explain what “the Judicial power” has meant to Americans from the founding to the present. He and Adam then venture far afield in legal nerdery while Tal sits in the corner and quietly grits his teeth, remembering the subpar grade Whittington gave his senior thesis.