Season 3, Episode 46 (Show 150): Moore, in Brief

November 8, 2023

We analyze and explain Professor Amar’s amicus brief (co-authored with Vikram Amar) in Moore v. US, with particular emphasis on the Hylton case (1796).

CLE Credit Available for this episode.

In our 150th episode, we present the amicus brief in Moore v. United States, authored by Professor Amar with his brother, Professor Vikram Amar.  The brief begins with the provocative statement that most other briefs in the case have missed the point?  What is the point that they missed?  We explain how their focus on the 16th amendment misses the basic constitutional questions which the Court answered back in 1796 in the Hylton v. US case. Who says so?  Some guys named Washington and Hamilton, to start. And this Lincoln fellow agreed later. But everyone seems to have missed this.  You won’t.

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

Season 3, Episode 45 (Show 149): Aisles, not Walls

November 1, 2023

There’s a new Speaker. Is there any prospect for bipartisanship? We look for places it does and can exist.

CLE Credit Available for this episode.

The follies in the House have ended, for now.  Many Americans looked upon the travesty with despair, wondering if our government might yet be up to the task of leading and reaching beyond party to find country and duty.  We take a good look and search for places where reaching across the aisle might still take place – and we try to do our part and go beyond demonizing those not in our own party.  Plus – the Amars’ amicus brief is up in Moore vs. US, and we open that door.

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

Season 3, Episode 44 (Show 148): Speakerless

October 25, 2023

We continue our analysis of the many issues that the absence of a Speaker of the House raises, and we look at how this relates to the crisis in the Middle East and the overall functioning and purpose of our constitutional system. CLE Credit Available for this episode.

Still no speaker.  Is it really the case that the House can’t do anything?  How might it work?  What about Section 3 of the 14th Amendment – does it play any role in the Speaker selection process?  Meanwhile, we turn towards the other Jordan and see the dangers of insecure borders that are inherently hard to defend.  Professor Amar explains how this simple fact led him to insights that resulted in a constitutional narrative quite different from those you may have been taught, and which makes certain predictions and conclusions.  Does it stand up?  We begin a process, which we will return to, of seeing where it leads us.  A sweeping episode.

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

Season 3, Episode 43 (Show 147): A Tale of Two Jordans

October 18, 2023

Another Speaker stalemate in the House raises constitutional issues galore, and we begin to explore connections with a far-away conflict in the Middle East.  CLE Credit Available for this episode.

The House is at it again, and there is no Speaker in the chair as of this recording.  So many implications – for Presidential succession, for democratic governance, for legislative stalemate.  Meanwhile violence escalates in the Middle East.  How are these connected?  We explore all these, and Akhil has some fascinating originalist analyses – of history you surely didn’t know; of structural reasons that the Speaker can’t be in the line of succession; and a new textual analysis.  Meanwhile – why can’t the House act?  Has this happened before?  (Hint: yes)

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

Season 3, Episode 42 (Show 146): Allen and Affirmative Action Again

October 11, 2023

Voting rights in Alabama, and affirmative action elsewhere, seemingly settled, rear their heads again.  Two issues, but Professor Amar finds the common constitutional concept. NOTE: Lawyers and Judges – Visit podcast.njsba.com for CLE credit after listening.

After the Court decided important voting rights and affirmative action cases last term, these issues are back either before the Court or apparently headed for it. Why? We look at Allen v. Milligan, and affirmative action in the service academies, and find that the bounce-back of what seem to be entirely unrelated cases in fact demonstrates important constitutional and indeed originalist principles.  And who is at the center of all this?  Justice Kavanaugh, once again.

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

Season 3, Episode 41 (Show 145): Eleven Presidents – Special Guest Bob Woodward

October 4, 2023

In an extraordinary 90 minutes, Bob Woodward offers a perspective on the Presidency, the Supreme Court, and the nation and its Constitution from a perch of experience and objectivity that we may never see again.  NOTE: Lawyers and Judges – Visit podcast.njsba.com for CLE credit after listening.

The career of America’s greatest investigative reporter has spanned more than 50 years, and Bob Woodward has told the stories of eleven presidents, the Supreme Court, the Intelligence Community, and indeed the American political system with a penetrating, persistent drive towards the truth. (LAWYERS AND JUDGES ARE ELIGIBLE FOR CONTINUING LEGAL EDUCATION CREDIT by visiting podcast.njsba.com after listening.) Today this titan spends 90 minutes with us, and the insights continue to pour out of him. One can’t help but see Nixon at one end and Trump near the other; Woodward certainly sees them, and even with his ever-present professional distance and restraint, it’s powerful to hear the most deeply informed perspective there has ever been on the Constitution’s most ambitious creation – the Presidency – and the extraordinarily aberrant occupants of that office.