We the People

Jeffrey Rosen leads a discussion about the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh, Justice Gorsuch’s first year on the Supreme Court, and what the future of the Court might look like. Brianne Gorod is the Constitutional Accountability Center’s chief counsel. She previously served as CAC’s Appellate Counsel.Elizabeth Slattery is a legal fellow and appellate advocacy program manager at the Meese Center for Legal and Judicial Studies and Institute for Constitutional Government at the Heritage Foundation. 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. 

Leading Civil War and Reconstruction scholars discuss the history and meaning of the 14th Amendment in celebration of its 150th anniversary.Allen Guelzo is the Henry R. Luce Professor of the Civil War Era, and Director of Civil War Era Studies at Gettysburg College.Martha Jones is Society of Black Alumni Presidential Professor and Professor of History at Johns Hopkins University.Kurt Lash is E. Claiborne Robins Distinguished Chair in Law and Founder and director of the Richmond Program on the American Constitution at Richmond School of Law.Darrell A.H. Miller is Melvin G. Shimm Professor of Law at Duke Law School.The host is Jeffrey Rosen. Sherrilyn Ifill, the seventh President and Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund and Trustee of the National Constitution Center, provides introductory remarks.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.

John Elwood, Leah Litman, and Christopher Yoo, three of Anthony Kennedy’s former clerks, join We The People to discuss the Justice’s Supreme Court legacy.John Elwood is a partner at Vinson & Elkins law firm, teaches at the University of Virginia School of Law’s Supreme Court litigation clinic, and is a contributor to SCOTUSblog. He clerked for Justice Kennedy from 1996–1997.Leah Litman is assistant professor of law at the University of California, Irvine Law School. She is a guest host of the First Mondays Supreme Court podcast and blogs at the Take Care blog. She clerked for Justice Kennedy from 2011-2012.Christopher Yoo is John H. Chestnut Professor of Law, Communication, and Computer & Information Science; director, Center for Technology, Innovation & Competition at Penn Law School. He clerked for Justice Kennedy from 1997-1998.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. 

Jeffrey Rosen, host of “We the People,” moderates a panel discussion at the Aspen Institute’s Ideas Festival about the Supreme Court’s momentous recent term. From same-sex wedding cakes to voting rights to gerrymandering to public unions, the latest term was full of news-making decisions, even when the Justices decided not to decide. Note: This event was held several hours before Justice Anthony Kennedy announced his retirement from the Court. Next week on "We the People," former Kennedy clerks will be joining us to discuss Justice Kennedy's legacy and the ways in which he shaped the Court.Emily Bazelon is a Lecturer in Law and Senior Research Scholar in Law at Yale Law School. She is also a staff writer at the New York Times MagazineJudge Nancy Gertner is a senior lecturer at Harvard Law School. In September of 2011, Judge Gertner retired from the federal bench.  Mimi Marziani is President of the Texas Civil Rights Project and she teaches at the University of Texas School of Law.  Ramesh Ponnuru is senior editor at National Review, visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and contributor to CBS News.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. 

Erin E. Murphy of New York University Law School and Andrea Roth of University of California Berkeley School of Law discuss the Golden State killer case and the future of genetic privacy with host Jeffrey Rosen.This past April, California police announced they had a suspect for the “Golden State Killer” – 72-year-old Joseph James DeAngelo. Using genetic data from old crime scene samples, police uploaded his information into a genealogy website, GEDmatch, enabling them to identify DeAngelo’s relatives, and eventually narrow the pool down to find DeAngelo.This case – along with others that have followed - has raised privacy concerns, leading many to wonder what the future for genetic privacy is under the Fourth Amendment.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. 

In this episode, We the People host Jeff Rosen answers constitutional questions that you, our listeners, have been asking. We’ve been collecting your questions over the past few months from social media, our weekly newsletter, Constitution Weekly, and email. Among the topics: the limits of presidential pardons, james Madison’s views about political factions, and new Court guidance about automobile searches. 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.

Michael Dorf from the Cornell University Law School and Ilya Shapiro from the Cato Institute join Jeffrey Rosen to discuss some major cases already decided in the Supreme Court's current term and others expected from the Justices in the next few weeks.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. 

Today we are joined by Ken Burns, renowned American filmmaker and documentarian, to discuss the history of the Civil War, Reconstruction, and the legacy of the 14th Amendment.  Ken Burns is prolific: His widely known documentary series include The Civil War (1990), Baseball (1994), Jazz (2001), The War (2007), The National Parks: America's Best Idea (2009), Prohibition (2011), The Roosevelts (2014), and The Vietnam War (2017). He’s won 15 Emmy Awards, been nominated for two Academy Awards, and has been featured on PBS numerous times. His 11-hour magnum opus, The Civil War, has won over 40 major awards. This year being the 150th Anniversary of the 14th Amendment, there is no better figure to speak to on its enduring legacy than Ken. 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. 

This week, during a symposium held at the National Constitution Center, We the People host Jeffrey Rosen sat down with George Will, Pulitzer-prize winning columnist for The Washington Post, to discuss federalism, the 17th Amendment, and the state of American politics today. This America’s Town Hall program was made possible through the generosity of John Agliolaro.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 May 8, President Trump announced that the United States would withdraw from the Iranian nuclear deal, calling the deal “horrible,” “one-sided” and “the worst deal ever.” The president said he planned to institute sanctions against Iran, and that the U.S. would also sanction any other nation that helps it pursue nuclear weapons, as well as U.S. and foreign companies and banks that continue to do business with Iran. The Iran Deal was one of President Obama’s major foreign policy achievements, which had re-opened diplomatic negotiations between the two countries; yet the deal also had its critics, both of its merits and its constitutionality. Joining us to discuss the complex history of Iran-U.S. relations, President Trump’s withdrawal from the Iran Deal, and any constitutional issues implicated as a result are two leading national security and constitutional experts.  Jamil Jaffer is the founder of National Security Institute and an Adjunct Professor of Law and Director of the National Security Law & Policy Program at the Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University. Jake Sullivan is a Martin R. Flug Visiting Lecturer in Law at Yale Law School. He served in the Obama administration as a national security and served as the key architect of the Iran Nuclear Deal. Questions or comments? We would love to hear from you. Contact the We the People team at podcast@constitutioncenter.orgThe Constitution Center is offering CLE credits for select America’s Town Hall programs! Get more information at constitutioncenter.org/CLE.