Episodes

  • Judges on Judicial Independence

    Judges on Judicial Independence
    Apr 3 2025
    National Constitution Center President and CEO Jeffrey Rosen leads a special panel discussion with Federal Judges Association President Judge J. Michelle Childs of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit; Judge M. Margaret McKeown of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and past president of the Federal Judges Association; Judge Beth Bloom of the U.S. District Court Southern District of Florida; and Judge Stephen R. Bough of the U.S. District Court Western District of Missouri. The judges explore threats to the judicial branch and the importance of judicial independence and civic education in maintaining the rule of law. This program was presented in partnership with the Federal Judges Association. Resources Michelle Childs, Justice Jackson Lecture: “The Republic is Safe as Long as the Courts Remain Open” (April 1, 2025) Code of Conduct for United States Judges John Roberts, 2024 Year End Report on the Federal Judiciary (December 2024) Federal Judges Association Civics Challenge Stay Connected and Learn More Questions or comments about the show? Email us at podcast@constitutioncenter.org Continue the conversation by following us on social media @ConstitutionCtr. Sign up to receive Constitution Weekly, our email roundup of constitutional news and debate. Follow, rate, and review wherever you listen. Join us for an upcoming live program or watch recordings on YouTube. Support our important work. Donate
    Show more Show less
    59 mins
  • Who Is Government?

    Who Is Government?
    Mar 27 2025
    Best-selling author Michael Lewis discusses his new book, Who Is Government?: The Untold Story of Public Service, with Jeffrey Rosen. As government programs face political headwinds, Lewis and his favorite writers examine the human stories of the heroic civil servants who make government work and why their contributions matter. This conversation was originally streamed live as part of the NCC’s America’s Town Hall series on March 26, 2025. Resources Michael Lewis, ed., Who Is Government? The Untold Story of Public Service (2025) Michael Lewis, “The free‑living bureaucrat,” The Washington Post (March 2025) Michael Lewis, “Directions to a journalistic gold mine,” The Washington Post (Nov. 2024) Michael Lewis, The Premonition: A Pandemic Story (2022) Michael Lewis, The Fifth Risk (2018) CURE ID Stay Connected and Learn More Questions or comments about the show? Email us at podcast@constitutioncenter.org Continue the conversation by following us on social media @ConstitutionCtr. Sign up to receive Constitution Weekly, our email roundup of constitutional news and debate. Follow, rate, and review wherever you listen. Join us for an upcoming live program or watch recordings on YouTube. Support our important work. Donate
    Show more Show less
    58 mins
  • Deportations and the Law

    Deportations and the Law
    Mar 21 2025
    Trump has invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, a wartime authority, to summarily deport suspected members of a Venezuelan gang. He also invoked a Cold War-era statute to deport a student activist at Columbia University. In this episode, Adam Cox of New York University and Ilya Somin of George Mason University join to discuss the scope of the president’s deportation power and to evaluate whether the administration violated the due process or speech rights of the deportees. Resources Adam Cox and Cristina Rodríguez, The President and Immigration Law (2020) Ilya Somin, Free to Move: Foot Voting, Migration, and Political Freedom (2021) Adam Cox and Ahilan Arulanantham, “Explainer on First Amendment and Due Process Issues in Deportation of Pro-Palestinian Student Activist(s),” Just Security (March 12, 2025) Ilya Somin, “The Case Against Deporting Immigrants for ‘Pro-Terrorist’ Speech,” Volokh Conspiracy (March 10, 2025) Ilya Somin, “What Just Happened: The “Invasion” Executive Order and Its Dangerous Implications” Just Security (January 28, 2025) Adam Cox, “The Invention of Immigration Exceptionalism,” Yale Law Review (November 2024) Bridges v. Wixon (1945) Harisiades v. Shaughnessy (1952) Stay Connected and Learn More Questions or comments about the show? Email us at podcast@constitutioncenter.org Continue the conversation by following us on social media @ConstitutionCtr. Sign up to receive Constitution Weekly, our email roundup of constitutional news and debate. Follow, rate, and review wherever you listen. Join us for an upcoming live program or watch recordings on YouTube. Support our important work. Donate
    Show more Show less
    1 hr and 8 mins
  • Is DOGE Breaking the Law?

    Is DOGE Breaking the Law?
    Mar 13 2025
    Kate Huddleston, senior legal counsel of litigation at the Campaign Legal Center, and Michael McConnell, Richard and Frances Mallery Professor and director of the Constitutional Law Center at Stanford Law School, join Jeffrey Rosen to debate whether the newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has acted lawfully in firing federal workers and freezing federal spending. Resources Campaign Legal Center, Complaint for Declaratory and Injunctive Relief, U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia (March 3, 2025) Michael McConnell and Laurence Tribe, “Is Musk’s DOGE Dodging the Law?,” Open to Debate (March 7, 2025) Stay Connected and Learn More Questions or comments about the show? Email us at podcast@constitutioncenter.org Continue the conversation by following us on social media @ConstitutionCtr. Sign up to receive Constitution Weekly, our email roundup of constitutional news and debate. Follow, rate, and review wherever you listen. Join us for an upcoming live program or watch recordings on YouTube. Support our important work. Donate
    Show more Show less
    1 hr and 2 mins
  • The State of Partisanship

    The State of Partisanship
    Mar 6 2025
    Jonathan Rauch, author of Cross Purposes: Christianity’s Broken Bargain with Democracy, and Julian Zelizer, author of In Defense of Partisanship, join Jeffrey Rosen for a wide-ranging discussion on their new books and the rise of partisanship in America. This conversation was originally streamed live as part of the NCC’s America’s Town Hall program series on March 3, 2025. Resources Julian E. Zelizer, In Defense of Partisanship (2025) Jonathan Rauch, Cross Purposes: Christianity's Broken Bargain with Democracy (2025) Julian E. Zelizer, Abraham Joshua Heschel: A Life of Radical Amazement (2021) Jonathan Rauch, “Christian Renewal and the Future of American Democracy,” Brigham Young University Wheatley Institute (Jan. 24, 2025) Jeffrey Rosen, The Pursuit of Happiness: How Classical Writers on Virtue Inspired the Lives of the Founders and Defined America (2024) Stay Connected and Learn More Questions or comments about the show? Email us at podcast@constitutioncenter.org Continue the conversation by following us on social media @ConstitutionCtr. Sign up to receive Constitution Weekly, our email roundup of constitutional news and debate. Follow, rate, and review wherever you listen. Join us for an upcoming live program or watch recordings on YouTube. Support our important work. Donate
    Show more Show less
    58 mins
  • The Supreme Court and the Trump Administration

    The Supreme Court and the Trump Administration
    Feb 27 2025
    Jamelle Bouie and David French of The New York Times, Sarah Isgur of The Dispatch, and Melissa Murray of NYU School of Law join Jeffrey Rosen to discuss the relationship between the Roberts Court and the Trump administration. They discuss how the Supreme Court might resolve open legal questions—including impoundment and the unitary executive theory—and debate the Court’s role in maintaining the separation of powers. This conversation was originally recorded on February 22, 2025, as part of the NCC’s President’s Council Retreat in Miami, Florida. Resources Melissa Murray (with Leah Litman and Kate Shaw), “Yes, We’re in a Constitutional Crisis” Strict Scrutiny podcast (Feb. 17, 2025) Jamelle Bouie, Michelle Cottle, David French, and Carlos Lozada, “Opinion: Don’t be Fooled, ‘Trump is a Weak President’” The New York Times (Feb. 14, 2025) David French, “The Trump Crisis Deepens,” The New York Times (Feb. 6, 2025) Sarah Isgur and David French, “Lawless or Unwise?” Advisory Opinions podcast (Feb. 14, 2025) Stay Connected and Learn More Questions or comments about the show? Email us at podcast@constitutioncenter.org Continue the conversation by following us on social media @ConstitutionCtr. Sign up to receive Constitution Weekly, our email roundup of constitutional news and debate. Subscribe, rate, and review wherever you listen. Join us for an upcoming live program or watch recordings on YouTube. Support our important work. Donate
    Show more Show less
    47 mins
  • How Powerful is the President?

    How Powerful is the President?
    Feb 21 2025
    President Trump’s far-reaching executive actions have given rise to a debate about whether the president is acting within the tradition of presidential power—or whether recent events represent a departure from the constitutional order and precedent. Melody Barnes of the University of Virginia Karsh Institute for Democracy, Charles Cooke of National Review, Joanne Freeman of Yale University, and Yuval Levin of the American Enterprise Institute join Jeffrey Rosen to discuss the American tradition of presidential power and evaluate analogues to our constitutional moment from across U.S. history. This conversation was originally recorded on February 20, 2025, as part of the NCC’s President’s Council Retreat in Miami, Fla. Resources Yuval Levin, “A Rule of Thumb for the Executive Power Debates,” National Review Online (February 5, 2025) Melody Barnes et al., Karsh Institute of Democracy Statement of Principles Melody Barnes, Corey D. B. Walker and Thad M. Williamson, “Introduction: Can We Make American Democracy Work?,” in Community Wealth Building and the Reconstruction of American Democracy (2020) Charles Cooke, The Conservatarian Manifesto: Libertarians, Conservatives, and the Fight for the Right’s Future (2015) Charles Cooke, “The American System Works, and It Will Work If Trump Wins Again,” National Review (Dec. 15, 2023) Stay Connected and Learn More Questions or comments about the show? Email us at podcast@constitutioncenter.org Continue the conversation by following us on social media @ConstitutionCtr. Sign up to receive Constitution Weekly, our email roundup of constitutional news and debate. Subscribe, rate, and review wherever you listen. Join us for an upcoming live program or watch recordings on YouTube. Support our important work. Donate
    Show more Show less
    48 mins
  • The 14th Amendment and the History of Reconstruction

    The 14th Amendment and the History of Reconstruction
    Feb 14 2025
    Jeffrey Rosen discusses the 14th Amendment with Sherrilyn Ifill, the head of the 14th Amendment Center for Law & Democracy at Howard Law School and the former president of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, Pamela Brandwein, author of Rethinking the Judicial Settlement of Reconstruction, and Ilan Wurman, author of The Second Founding: An Introduction to the Fourteenth Amendment. They discuss the historical events that gave rise to the 14th Amendment and debate its original meaning. This conversation was originally streamed live as part of the NCC’s America’s Town Hall program series on February 10, 2025, in partnership with the Federal Judicial Center. Resources Ilan Wurman, The Second Founding: An Introduction to the Fourteenth Amendment (2020) Pamela Brandwein, Rethinking the Judicial Settlement of Reconstruction (2011) Sherrilyn Ifill, “Why are U.S. courts afraid of the 14th Amendment? Because it’s radical,” The Washington Post (Nov. 23, 2023) Sherrilyn Ifill, “Yes, this is America: Why I’m Creating the 14th Amendment Center for Law and Democracy,” Substack (July 7, 2023) 14th Amendment Title VI, Civil Rights Act of 1964 The Civil Rights Act of 1866 The Reconstruction Amendments Brown v. Board of Education Stay Connected and Learn More Questions or comments about the show? Email us at podcast@constitutioncenter.org Continue the conversation by following us on social media @ConstitutionCtr. Sign up to receive Constitution Weekly, our email roundup of constitutional news and debate. Subscribe, rate, and review wherever you listen. Join us for an upcoming live program or watch recordings on YouTube. Support our important work. Donate
    Show more Show less
    1 hr and 3 mins