Amarica's Constitution

This past week, the Supreme Court issued stays of injunctions which lower courts had issued, those injunctions blocking the firings of officials on statutorily independent agencies.  In doing so, the Court may have pointed to an imminent overruling of Humphrey’s Executor, possibly removing existing limitations on the u

The Trump executive order on birthright citizenship has been banging around the lower federal courts for months now, with court after court opining on its unconstitutionality and issuing injunctions against it that span the nation.  The Supreme Court took cert on the question of whether such national injunctions are ap

With the passing of Justice David Souter, the legal establishment has lost one of its most honored members.  In this and our next episode, we pay tribute to the man and his work with the help of an amazing roster of his former clerks, friends, and colleagues.  We begin with Judge Kevin Newsom from the US Court of Appea

Law firms are threatened with draconian penalties, with scarcely disguised vengeful and politically destructive motive.  Universities are dragged on the carpet, with demands that they forfeit their academic freedom, choice in hiring, and internal mission priorities.  What’s going on here?  What is likely to happen in C

Deportations, the administration’s preferred tactic du jour, appear to many as extreme, inadvisable, and often cruel.  Are they unconstitutional?  What framework can we use to determine the rights of citizens versus aliens, even if legal, even if permanent resident?  What kind of process is “due” for the various groups

Markets are crashing; freedom seems under siege; the international order is threatened.  One man’s whim seems to be decisive.  Where are the guardrails of our republic?  We see some glimmers through the darkness, as some of the feedback mechanisms start to kick in.  The constitutional order may be slow but it may not b