Amarica's Constitution

A powerful and aggressive central government sends unwanted forces in huge numbers to a city where the residents oppose and resent this policy.  The undertrained forces unleash violence against the population in the form of an obviously wrongful death.  Minneapolis, yes - but also a seeming repeat of an important American historic event, that shaped a nation’s core beliefs, later reflected in the...

The military capture of the Venezuelan leader, Maduro, is an event with giant international strategic, moral, economic, political, and other considerations.  It also raises fascinating constitutional questions, and Professor Amar is ready to discuss some matters that probably did not come to your mind right away.  Much of this stems from the fact that Maduro will be tried in a U.S. civilian, not a...

Our listeners have a talent for inquiry; they follow Professor Amar’s arguments every week, and come up with their own.  This week, we end the year by fielding a wide range of questions, including some related to presidential oath-taking; juries, asked by a Judge; pardons and their abuse; and many related topics.  Akhil invokes Angela Bassett and Tina Turner, as we answer the questions first softl...

Presidential power is abridged, for a change, by the Supreme Court in its shadow docket ruling in Trump v. Illinois.  Rather than ruling in silence, however, this time the Court gives us 25 pages and 4 opinions to chew on.  We examine the history behind issues of deployment of the Army as well as the Guard/Militia on domestic soil, which leads us to discussions of Militia Acts, the Military Amendm...

One of the most promising new faces in the US Congress, Representative Maggie Goodlander, joins us for a wide-ranging discussion, including the recent video assuring our troops that they may not obey illegal orders, and the aftermath of that simple offer of support.  You may not know that this first-term congresswoman has served in our military for 11 years; has clerked for a Supreme Court Justice...

Oral arguments took place in the highly-anticipated unitary executive case, Trump v. Slaughter. The overruling of the case that seems to govern, Humphrey’s Executor, has been long expected, and indeed, the Chief Justice referred to the “dry husk” that was all that remained of that case after recent years of whittling by the current and recent Court.  However, faced with the extremity of possible c...

Secretary of Defense Hegseth is making use of his sights.  He is focusing at times on Senator Mark Kelly, seeking to wreak havoc upon him for his utterances which have angered Hegseth’s master.  Meanwhile, purported drug smugglers have found Davy Jones’ locker at the order of Hegseth, it has been reported, including those left helpless after initial lethal strikes.  Yale Professor and Bancroft Pri...

Events in the news once again intersect with Professor Amar’s past work, as a little-known aspect of a clause in the Constitution has surprising relevance to the President’s fire-breathing response to a video from Senators and Representatives reminding our military and other officers of their lawful obligations. We trace other constitutionally newsworthy developments, on the filibuster and on the...

We return to the tariff case and continue to hear from the justices and the advocates in their own voices from the oral argument.  This time, a 20 year old argument from Vik Amar takes center stage with apparent approval from several key justices, and several of the Court’s female justices join forces to make life difficult for the Solicitor General.  We also review some of the emerging implicatio...

The economy, trillions of dollars, and consequences unknown are on the line in the tarrifs case, Learning Resources v. Trump.  We present the justices and the advocates in their own voices from the oral argument, and Akhil reacts in real time as he hears the clips for the first time.  It’s a three hour argument, so this is the first of a two-parter.  The Court’s recent doctrines, including major q...

California.  Meanwhile, the tariff case is about to come before the Supreme Court for oral argument.  So it’s timely indeed that Vik Amar joins us with expertise on both topics.  In fact, Vik has submitted an amicus brief in the tariff case. The “brothers in law” take us deep into the gerrymandering world, the major questions doctrine, and we also pause to reflect on the career of former Vice Pres...

Our 250th episode has us looking back 250 years, and looking ahead to the next year of commemoration of those 250 year anniversaries.  Sure enough, there is much gold to mine in those momentous events; much to inform us on matters of current import.  We recall and examine a Declaration that is 250 years old - no, not that one.  To top it off, we have a special guest that joins us to tie it all tog...

The President and CEO of the National Constitution Center, Jeffrey Rosen, joins us for a timely discussion of his new book, The Pursuit of Liberty. The relevance to today’s dilemmas is matched only by the fascination of the deep historical analysis and amazing characters the book unearths.  In the differences that separated Hamilton and Jefferson, Professor Rosen finds the genesis of a divide that...

As we continue to wade into the Supreme Court term, developments are taking place in several cases we are following. Professor Amar’s students are making constitutional news all over the place, it seems; several of them have converged on the tariff case once again, as well as now the unitary executive issues.  A new article made a splash, and it prompts us to harken back to an old one - a 1996 art...

Tarrifs may be Trump’s favorite word, but it remains to be seen if he has the authority he claims to employ them.  The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in November, and ahead of this, Professor Amar takes you inside the argument.  He offers the history and takes us through an originalist approach, a textual approach, a structural approach, a precedential approach, and presents the case as an...

Professor Amar visits cities that are in the constitutional news these days:  Portland, where the military pays an uninvited visit; Salt Lake City, where gunfire continues this year’s alarming litany of political assassination also seen in Minnesota and elsewhere.  Akhil’s epic trilogy, with Born Equal now taking its place as the second volume, speaks to how our history shows us the constitutional...

Born Equal is being read - by academics, pundits, historians, and citizens.  Reaction has begun to pour in, and discussion has begun.  In this episode, we bring you some of the very best flavor of such discussion - an academic symposium held at Penn Carey Law School on the book.  Professors Kate Shaw and Kermit Roosevelt each read the work with great care and deliver extensive remarks on the book,...

Happy Constitution Day!  And Happy Born Equal Publishing Day!  The book tour is underway, and we treat you to an event held live at Princeton University.  Professor Amar speaks about the bridge from the last book to this one, and in doing so, the importance of the uniquely grand sweep of his project becomes apparent - as themes from The Words That Made Us merge crucially with the new revelations o...

With the imminent publication of Born Equal, we explore Lincoln’s grand vision of equality as it played out during and after his life.  The new book goes further still, offering an expansive though still relentlessly originalist view of this constitutional vision.  And now Professor Amar sees this vision through with even greater implications for the 160 years since his death and into the future. ...

Trump is keeping the courts active; this week saw a ruling against many of the widespread tarrifs he has sought to impose, and the Fifth Circuit upheld his dismissal of an NLRB member.  Meanwhile, a Fed governor was dismissed, supposedly for cause.  And the social media announcements of supposedly impending executive orders imposing voting requirements such as voter ID kept coming.  And there’s mo...

Gerrymandering, borders, the use of the military on US soil, and even the status of the District of Columbia.  All these relate to geography, and the "more perfect union" our founders sought.  The Constitution therefore speaks to all these issues, and originalism must be considered.  We look at what the Constitution has to say, why it says these things, and what the underlying principles tell us....

President Trump has taken to social media, as usual.  This time he asserts an authority to control elections through executive order.  He claims that he is empowered to do this as the sole representative - nay, the sole decider - of the nation’s interest.  We look to the constitution for a reply. He also echoes some election complaints, and election claims, from controversies past, and we have an...

With all our recent discussion on Skrmetti, and questions of scrutiny as applied to gender dysphoric individuals, the question of where women’s rights stand in this morass deserves new attention.  Professor Jill Hasday has written an important book, We the Men, which is deeply relevant to these discussions.  To what extent does inequality persist in the law?  When Courts seek to answer this questi...

We continue our discussion of the deep issues raised in the case of US v. Skrmetti.  Last time we observed the Court wrestling with questions of whether the Tennessee law banning gender dysphoria treatments in minors was a form of sex discrimination.  Later in the argument the Court addressed the question of whether transgender individuals, or some related group, constituted a so-called “suspect c...

The Supreme Court’s term is long since complete, but we turn back the clock and take a deep dive into one of the major cases of the term, United States v. Skrmetti.  This case addressed questions of gender dysphoria treatment and transgender rights, but fundamentally, it was a case about the law of equality, say the brothers Amar.  Yes, Vik Amar is back as a guest, and our two experts go back and...