Season 5, Episode 38 (Show 247): Dereliction of Duties

October 8, 2025

As the legality of Trump’s immense tarrifs approaches its imminent reckoning at the Supreme Court, Professor Amar presents an argument from history, precedent, structure, and text.

CLE Credit Available for this episode from podcast.njsba.com.

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 advocate might.  Listen to a possible amicus brief in the making; a possible opening argument in outline and in any case, arm yourself with an understanding of the issues in this potentially momentous case.  

(LAWYERS AND JUDGES ARE ELIGIBLE FOR CONTINUING LEGAL EDUCATION CREDIT by visiting podcast.njsba.com after listening.)

Show Notes:

How to get Continuing Legal Education Credit for listening!

Virtually all lawyers and judges admitted to practice anywhere in the USA can obtain CLE (Continuing Legal Education) credit after listening to this episode by visiting podcast.njsba.com.  You do not have to be a New Jersey lawyer or resident or admitted to the NJ Bar; essentially every state has reciprocity arrangements with New Jersey.  When you visit the site you fill out a form and provide the code Andy read during the episode, pay a small fee, and within two weeks you will receive the certificate from New Jersey.  It couldn’t be easier.  Thanks to the New Jersey Bar Association for making this possible!  Note, too, that other podcast episodes from our “back catalog” now qualify for this credit as well.

Click to go to the website for CLE credit

Youngstown Sheet & Tube v Sawyer (1952)

Justice Robert Jackson pens a memorable opinion in the landmark Youngstown case, one which current Justice Kavanaugh has written and spoken on in important ways.

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Schechter Poultry v US (1935)

The first of two cases cited by Professor Amar wherein the Court strikes down a delegation of power from the Congress to President Franklin Roosevelt.

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Panama Refining v Ryan (1935)

Once again the Court strikes down expanded Presidential power for President Franklin Roosevelt in a companion 1935 case, also cited by Professor Amar.

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Excerpt from The Words That Made Us - Akhil Reed Amar

Professor Amar discusses the colonists’ special concern with taxation, particularly the illegitimacy of the actions of a body in which the colonists are not represented when they impose increasingly despised taxes, in this brief excerpt from The Words That Made Us.

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