We the People

This episode, recorded live in New York City at the Federal Bar Association’s 2018 annual convention, features a debate of the following question: “Should Chevron Be Overturned?” The 1984 Supreme Court decision Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council established a judicial doctrine of deference to certain administrative agency actions commonly known as “Chevron deference.” As wonky as it may sound, Chevron is implicated in important constitutional debates surrounding the modern administrative state and separation of powers. Columbia Law School professors Philip Hamburger and Gillian Metzger explain just what Chevron deference is, why it matters, and whether or not it should be overturned. Lana Ulrich guest hosts.

Nina Totenberg and Neal Katyal join host Jeffrey Rosen to unpack Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearings and evaluate his testimony. Totenberg and Katyal recap what we learned about Kavanaugh’s judicial philosophy and his views on everything from the role of precedent to presidential power, and forecast how Kavanaugh, if confirmed, might shape the Supreme Court in years to come. 

In the midst of the contentious confirmation hearings of Judge Brett Kavanaugh, we explore the history of Supreme Court confirmation hearings and consider their constitutional implications. How did the Framers envision the Senate’s role in providing “advice and consent,” and how has it evolved over time?Guests: Lori Ringhand – professor at the University of Georgia School of Law and Adam J. White – research fellow at the Hoover Institution.This is the first episode in a two-part series covering the confirmation process. Join us next week for a post-hearing wrap-up.

Last week’s guilty plea from Michael Cohen and the conviction of Paul Manafort prompted widespread debate over whether the president was implicated in criminal acts and if he should be impeached. Alan Dershowitz and Joshua Matz join host Jeffrey Rosen for a spirited debate on when and how the Framers intended for the impeachment power to be used.A transcript of the podcast is linked here. This text may not be in its final form and accuracy may vary, and it may be updated or revised in the future.

In the midst of the Civil War, Robert Smalls overtook a Confederate boat filled with 17 other enslaved people and steered it to freedom. This extraordinary act was the first of many, as Smalls went on to a groundbreaking career of activism and became one of the first African American men elected to Congress. We examine his remarkable life on this final episode of our special Stories of the Civil War and Reconstruction series.Guests: Kate Masur, associate professor of history at Northwestern University, and Michael B. Moore, CEO and president of the forthcoming International African American Museum in Charleston, South Carolina. Moore is the great-great-grandson of Robert Smalls.

This week, we uncover the life of Harriet Scott, the wife and co-plaintiff of Dred Scott in the infamous case Dred Scott v. Sanford. Although much is known about the case itself – in which the Supreme Court held that African Americans were not citizens of the United States – little attention has been devoted to the people who brought the case before the Court and lived with the devastating consequences. Guests: Martha S. Jones – author and professor at Johns Hopkins University, and Lea VanderVelde – professor at Iowa College of Law and author of the definitive biography on Harriet Scott. Guest hosted by Lana Ulrich.

This episode delves into the extraordinary life of reparations advocate Callie House, who tirelessly traveled the country organizing newly freed African Americans in the quest to right the wrongs of slavery. Despite her status as a former slave, a woman, and a widower with five children, House defied societal conventions and led one of the largest grassroots movements in African American history. Guests: Mary Frances Berry – professor at the University of Pennsylvania and author of the definitive biography on House, and Tiffany Patterson – professor at Vanderbilt University. Hosted by Lana Ulrich.

John Bingham was one of the most influential but least known visionaries of the post-Civil War Constitution. Dubbed “the James Madison of the 14th Amendment” by Justice Hugo Black, Bingham drafted a constitutional provision that changed the course of American history by ensuring that states were duty-bound to uphold their citizens’ constitutional rights. A moderate Republican and dedicated supporter of abolition before the Civil War, Bingham spearheaded the Reconstruction-era efforts to guarantee citizenship to all people born in the United States, regardless of race, and to extend the Constitution’s promise of equality to all American citizens.Gerard Magliocca is the Samuel R. Rosen Professor at the Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law and the author of the definitive biography of Bingham.Kurt Lash is the E. Claiborne Robins Distinguished Chair in Law at the University of Richmond School of Law and the author of the book The Fourteenth Amendment and the Privileges or Immunities of American Citizenship.Questions or comments? We would love to hear from you. Contact the We the People team at podcast@constitutioncenter.orgThe National Constitution Center is offering CLE credits for select America’s Town Hall programs! Get more information at constitutioncenter.org/CLE. 

On this debut episode of our special Stories of the Civil War and Reconstruction Series, we examine the life of one of America’s most influential abolitionists, orators, writers, and statesmen – Frederick Douglass. Growing up as an enslaved person in Maryland, Douglass set himself apart by learning to read and write at an early age. After escaping from slavery, Douglass moved to Massachusetts where he became involved with local anti-slavery groups and newspapers. Ardently advocating for abolition, Douglass toured the country with William Lloyd Garrison and spoke extensively about the relationship between the Constitution and slavery in America. David Blight is Class of 1954 Professor of American History at Yale University. An expert scholar on Frederick Douglass, Blight has written extensively on him. Blight’s newest book, Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom, will be released on October 2. Blight also serves as Director of the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition at Yale and previously taught at Amherst College for 13 years.Noelle Trent is director of interpretation, collections and education at the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, Tennessee. Trent earned her doctorate in American history at Howard University, where she also served as a lecturer for 4 years. Her dissertation, “Frederick Douglass and the Making of American Exceptionalism,” is currently being expanded into a book. Questions or comments? We would love to hear from you. Contact the We the People team at podcast@constitutioncenter.orgThe National Constitution Center is offering CLE credits for select America’s Town Hall programs! Get more information at constitutioncenter.org/CLE.

After his recent meeting with Russian president Vladimir Putin and comments about Russian interference in the 2016 elections, President Donald Trump has sparked a new controversy relating to the constitutional definition of treason, and to what extent actions taken in support of a foreign nation might constitute treason. Jeffrey Rosen leads a discussion about  the Treason Clause of the Constitution, what it means, and how it has been interpreted.  Paul Crane is an assistant professor of law at the University of Richmond Law School. Previously, he served as a Bigelow Fellow at the University of Chicago Law School. He has also worked as an Assistant United States Attorney in the District of Columbia, as a Bristow Fellow for the Office of the Solicitor General of the United States, and clerked for Chief Justice Roberts on the U.S. Supreme Court.Deborah Pearlstein is a professor of law at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University. Previously, she served in the White House from 1993 to 1995 as a Senior Editor and Speechwriter for President Clinton, and served as the founding director of the Law and Security Program at Human Rights First, where she worked on military commission trials at Gitmo. Pearlstein also clerked for Justice John Paul Stevens of the U.S. Supreme Court.Questions or comments? We would love to hear from you. Contact the We the People team at podcast@constitutioncenter.orgThe National Constitution Center is offering CLE credits for select America’s Town Hall programs! Get more information at constitutioncenter.org/CLE.