The Tensions of Constitutional Interpretation

This week, President Joe Biden announced a three-fold plan to reform the Supreme Court. The proposal includes a constitutional amendment that no former president is immune from prosecution for crimes committed in office, 18-year Supreme Court term limits, and a binding code of conduct for Supreme Court Justices. In this episode, constitutional historians Keith Whittington of Yale Law School and Anthony Michael Kreis of Georgia State University and author of the new book Rot and Revival: The History of Constitutional Law in Political Development, join Jeffrey Rosen to discuss the mechanics and merits of President Biden’s proposed court reforms and delve into the relationship between politics and the judiciary from the founding until today.

Resources:

• President Joe Biden, “My plan to reform the Supreme Court and ensure no president is above the law,” The Washington Post (July 29, 2024)
• Presidential Commission on SCOTUS
• Anthony Michael Kreis, Rot and Revival: The History of Constitutional Law in Political Development (2024)
• Keith Whittington, Repugnant Laws: Judicial Review of Acts of Congress from the Founding to the Present (2019)
• Keith Whittington, Political Foundations of Judicial Supremacy: The Presidency, the Supreme Court, and Constitutional Leadership in U.S. History (2007)
• “Can Congress enact Supreme Court term limits without a constitutional amendment?,” Constitution Daily (July 2024)

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