We the People

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.”

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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.  

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

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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: 

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

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.   

Questions or comments about the show? Email us at [email protected].  

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. 

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.  

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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. 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 [email protected]. 

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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, 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: 

Questions or comments about the show? Email us at [email protected].  

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 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:  

Questions or comments about the show? Email us at [email protected].

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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 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:

Questions or comments about the show? Email us at [email protected].

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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, 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: 

Questions or comments about the show? Email us at [email protected].  

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.