Season 6, Episode 19 (Show 281): Rosen on Liberty; Gorsuch on Gorsuch – with Jeffrey Rosen and Justice Neil Gorsuch

June 4, 2026

We have the special privilege of presenting the inaugural episode of Jeffrey Rosen’s new podcast, The Blessings of Liberty – and Justice Neil Gorsuch is along to help launch it, as he and Prof. Rosen engage in a spirited discussion.

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

It is an honor to introduce the initial episode of our new sister podcast: The Blessings of Liberty, hosted by Jeffrey Rosen, president emeritus of the National Constitution Center and Professor of Law at GW.  Prof. Rosen begins with a bang, as he holds a discussion with US Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch, including two books newly authored or contributed to by Justice Gorsuch.  We precede this with our own interview of Jeff Rosen, discussing the mission of his new podcast and his special passion for history, the Constitution, and the American idea.  Meanwhile, listen, too, for a special EverScholar opportunity for our loyal podcast audience.

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

Season 6, Episode 18 (Show 280): Unrehearsed Answers

May 27, 2026

Your questions are answered, and what’s on your mind is on many people’s minds, so listen in!

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

It’s time for listener questions, and no surprise that current events are on everyone’s mind.  We range from the supposed weaponization slush fund, to pardons;  illegal military orders; simultaneous office holding; and lots of converse-1983 discussion.  And Professor Amar looks at a possible error in one of his books.  Great questions from a great audience, and Akhil answers them without prep, on the spot.

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

Season 6, Episode 17 (Show 279): Scrip for Scripture on the National Mall

May 20, 2026

The Trump Administration holds – and pays for – a national prayer marathon on the National Mall, presenting an opportunity to put our religious constitutionalism lessons to work.

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

After weeks of tracing the background history and constitutional principles at work on religious establishment, free exercise, and equality issues, the Administration on cue sponsors, holds, staffs, and headlines a “Rededication 250: A National Jubilee Of Prayer, Praise & Thanksgiving,” complete with a virtually all-Christian (one Jew) speaker roster, a White House website, money from Congress’ apportionment of funds for the 250th anniversary of the Declaration commemorations, and a drumbeat of emphasis of supposedly American Christian traditions.  We take it slowly and look at how it fits into the constitutional rubrics that we have examined.  Meanwhile, it’s the Yale Commencement, and Akhil has commentary on the main speaker.  And a number of news developments harken back to our podcasts past – how did we do?

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

Season 6, Episode 16 (Show 278): JFK’s Wall

May 13, 2026

The 20th century saw wild swings in the politics and constitutionalism of religion in America, and we place it in perspective.

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

Our journey through the centuries of religious practice, attitudes, and constitutionalism has reached the 20th century, when several presidential elections set mileposts for the American religious debate.  The first major party Catholic candidate, Al Smith, met the worst sort of vitriol and prejudice, and was destroyed by it.  This cast a shadow over the later campaign of John F. Kennedy, and he answered it in a speech that we analyze and place in context, even as we thrill to the great man’s voice one more time.  We then trace a line from that speech, through several Supreme Court memberships, to the American cultural and constitutional religious landscape as the 21st century dawns.  Fittingly, perhaps, one of the jurists who has been prominent on this issue, Justice Thomas, celebrates a milestone on the Court.

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

Season 6, Episode 16 (Show 277): Fourteen Colonies, Ten Commandments

May 6, 2026

We continue our millenia-spanning survey of constitutional and religious history, now in North America at the American founding through Reconstruction.

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

As the 10 commandments case makes its way towards the Supreme Court, we add another chapter to our study of the historical events and factors that went into the American constitutional tradition when it comes to religious freedom, religious establishment, and the relationship of government and religion as a whole.  We begin this episode where The Words That Made Us began – in 1760.  We take it forward through the revolutionary period, into the Articles and the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, and then wind up with the Civil War and Reconstruction, leaving us poised at last to take a serious look at what the Fifth Circuit thought it was doing, and what it actually was doing, when it allowed a law to stand that mandates posting of the Ten Commandments in every classroom.  

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

Season 6, Episode 15 (Show 276): Remember the Alamo Heights

April 29, 2026

More on the origins of the American constitutional view of religious liberty, religious establishment, and church-state relations – culminating in a current case (Alamo Heights).  And Sarah Isgur is back once again.

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

We continue to trace the historical origins of the constitution’s approach to religion in American government and American life.  We take you on a tour around Europe at the time of the Reformation and for centuries beyond, all the way to American migration.  All this is remarkably relevant to recent events, as the Alamo Heights/Ten Commandments case comes to a head. Meanwhile, Sarah Isgur returns for a third helping – or is it grilling? – as we continue to discuss her recent book and it finds its way onto the best-seller list.  Individual justices are discussed along with much more.  

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