The Reconstruction Agenda

Listen to The Reconstruction Agenda from The UnPopulist in your favorite podcast app: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube Welcome to The Reconstruction Agenda . I’m Andy Craig. At the heart of our constitutional system is Congress, the first branch, Article I. We’ve spent a lot of time talking about the runaway presidency, the courts, executive overreach. But there’s a flip side to that story that...

Welcome to The Reconstruction Agenda , I’m Andy Craig. Since the murders of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, we have faced a largely unprecedented situation: lawless federal agencies, backed by the White House, coming into conflict with state laws. The same laws as apply to everyone else against murder, theft, assault, kidnapping. Under immense public pressure, state and local authoritie...

At the heart of our constitutional system is Congress. In thinking about how to repair our broken government, and in particular the runaway imperial presidency, the role of Congress is essential. So to discuss this, I’m happy to have one of the leading scholars of congressional power and the history of congressional reform. Josh Chafetz is a professor of law and politics at Georgetown, and the aut...

The Constitution’s text provides that the president “shall appoint by and with the advice and consent of the Senate” various officers, and allows Congress to exempt some inferior officers within the executive branch from that requirement. But the Constitution is silent on who can fire them—i.e., the removal power. So now we have a president whose catchphrase is, “you’re fired”—and he’s putting tha...