Checks & Balances

Who should control your data—and what happens when that power is abused? Gregg Nunziata talks with former DHS Chief Privacy Officer Nuala O’Connor about government overreach, digital privacy, and why AI companies must play by the same rules as everyone else. Also: What does it mean to protect liberty and the rule of law in an increasingly connected world? Listen to Checks & Balances , a podcast of...

Former FEC Chairman Trevor Potter joins Gregg Nunziata to explain how America’s election safeguards have weakened—and why the Trump administration’s efforts to expand federal control over elections deserve close scrutiny. They discuss the collapse of meaningful FEC enforcement, potential voter-roll purges, federal involvement at polling places, threats to the certification process, and the legal p...

What happens when winning elections becomes more important than the principles a movement claims to defend? Gregg Nunziata talks with Reason senior editor Stephanie Slade about her new book, “ Fusionism: Liberty, Virtue, and the Future of the American Right ,” and whether conservatism can reclaim its commitment to freedom, faith, and the rule of law. Get full access to Checks & Balances at chkbal....

Historian Timothy Ryback joins Gregg Nunziata on Checks & Balances to discuss his book, 53 Days , and the decisions that helped Hitler dismantle Germany’s democracy in 1933. They examine the journalists and lawyers who resisted, the politicians who recognized the danger but voted to give Hitler power, and what this history can—and cannot—tell us about America today. Get full access to Checks & Bal...

Checks & Balances is a podcast of the Society for the Rule of Law Institute. Federal judges are facing an unprecedented wave of threats. Amrit Singh, Professor of Practice and the founding director of NYU Law’s Rule of Law Lab, and Jeremy Fogel, a former district judge in California and the Executive Director of the Berkeley Judicial Institute, join Gregg Nunziata on Checks & Balances . Professor...

Checks & Balances is a podcast of the Society for the Rule of Law Institute. William Baude , the Harry Kalven, Jr. Professor of Law and the Faculty Director of the Constitutional Law Institute at the University of Chicago Law School, joins Gregg Nunziata , the Executive Director of the Society for the Rule of Law Institute, for a conversation about the postal service executive order, the White Hou...

Checks & Balances is a podcast of the Society for the Rule of Law Institute. Yuval Levin, the director of Social, Cultural, and Constitutional Studies at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), joins Gregg Nunziata on Checks & Balances for a discussion about our constitutional system—and how it’s holding up today. Levin explains why institutions matter, why Congress’s core work is negotiation, an...

Checks & Balances is a podcast of the Society for the Rule of Law Institute. Justice Clint Bolick of the Arizona Supreme Court joins Gregg Nunziata on Checks & Balances to discuss the power of state constitutional law. Justice Bolick explains why state courts often have the final word on protecting individual rights, discusses four key principles necessary to safeguard the rule of law, and offers...

Checks & Balances is a podcast of the Society for the Rule of Law Institute. Stephen Richer, the former Recorder of Maricopa County, AZ, joins Gregg Nunziata on Checks & Balances to discuss how elections actually work in the United States of America. Stephen walks Gregg through the mechanics of election administration across the country, explains why our decentralized election system enhances secu...

Checks & Balances is a podcast of the Society for the Rule of Law Institute. John Malcolm—the Vice President of the Edwin Meese III Institute for the Rule of Law at Advancing American Freedom—joins Gregg Nunziata on Checks & Balances to discuss the conservative legal movement, the most recent Supreme Court term, and the arguments now dividing the right. Plus: what he learned debating at the Oxford...

Checks & Balances is a podcast of the Society for the Rule of Law Institute. Greg Jacob—counsel to Vice President Mike Pence during January 6th and a veteran of the Office of Legal Counsel—joins Gregg Nunziata on Checks & Balances to make the case that exercising restraint is at the heart of the rule of law. They discuss life in public service, the state of legal academia today, and the law journa...

Checks & Balances is a podcast of the Society for the Rule of Law Institute. Donald Ayer—Deputy Attorney General under George H.W. Bush and a founder of the Society for the Rule of Law—joins Gregg Nunziata on Checks & Balances to make the conservative case against a conservative Court. They discuss the catastrophes the Court avoided this term, the threats it quietly advanced, and why genuine conse...

Checks & Balances is a podcast of the Society for the Rule of Law Institute. The presidential historian and executive director of the George Washington Presidential Library at Mount Vernon, Dr. Lindsay Chervinsky , joins Gregg Nunziata on Checks & Balances for a discussion about the fragility of republics, the norms Washington invented from scratch, why every 50-year anniversary seems to land in a...

Gregg Nunziata talks with Richard Bernstein , former law clerk to Justice Antonin Scalia, about the Supreme Court’s blockbuster term—election law, tariffs, the National Guard, and birthright citizenship—and whether the Court would stop a president who tried to seize ballots in the 2026 election. Get full access to Checks & Balances at chkbal.substack.com/subscribe

Checks & Balances is a podcast of the Society for the Rule of Law Institute. Dr. Edward Larson , a Pulitzer Prize winning author, historian, and legal scholar, joins Gregg Nunziata on the Checks & Balances podcast. Dr. Larson argues that the real story of 1776 isn’t the Declaration of Independence—it’s the wave of new state constitutions that first established popular sovereignty and rule of law....

Checks & Balances is a podcast of the Society for the Rule of Law Institute. The former Acting Attorney General and former US Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Division, Stuart Gerson , joins Gregg Nunziata on the Checks & Balances podcast for a discussion about the erosion of DOJ independence, why he believes the damage today is worse than Watergate, and what it will take to restore the ru...

Checks & Balances is a podcast of the Society for the Rule of Law Institute. The former White House "Ethics Czar," U.S. Ambassador to the Czech Republic, and co-founder and Executive Director of the Democracy Defenders Fund, Norm Eisen, joins Gregg Nunziata on the Checks & Balances podcast for a discussion about corruption, what real reform would require, how the courts are holding up, and finding...

Checks & Balances is a podcast of the Society for the Rule of Law Institute. The New York Times opinion writer and co-host of the legal podcast Advisory Opinions , David French , joins Gregg Nunziata on the Checks & Balances podcast for a discussion about the conservative legal movement, executive power, why the judiciary is the last branch standing, and America’s 250th anniversary. Follow along n...

Judge J. Michael Luttig joins Gregg Nunziata, Executive Director of the Society for the Rule of Law Institute, for the inaugural episode of the Checks & Balances podcast. They discuss why judicial independence is the fundamental cornerstone of democracy, the rule of retired judges, and the unprecedented rule-of-law challenges facing the country today. Get full access to Checks & Balances at chkbal...