Season 5, Episode 41 (Show 250): 250 Episodes, 250 Years – with a Surprise Guest!
October 29, 2025
Our 250th episode looks back 250 years and finds treasures that matter today – as usual. And a very special guest helps us celebrate in the most appropriate way!
CLE Credit Available for this episode from podcast.njsba.com.
Our 250th episode has us looking back 250 years, and looking ahead to the next year of commemoration of those 250 year anniversaries. Sure enough, there is much gold to mine in those momentous events; much to inform us on matters of current import. We recall and examine a Declaration that is 250 years old – no, not that one. To top it off, we have a special guest that joins us to tie it all together as only he can. Tune in and join the celebration!
(LAWYERS AND JUDGES ARE ELIGIBLE FOR CONTINUING LEGAL EDUCATION CREDIT by visiting podcast.njsba.com after listening.)
Show Notes:
Season 5, Episode 40 (Show 249): The Threads of Liberty – Special Guest Jeffrey Rosen
October 22, 2025
Jeffrey Rosen, President and CEO of the National Constitution Center, joins us for a wide-ranging conversation on his new book, The Pursuit of Liberty.
CLE Credit Available for this episode from podcast.njsba.com.
The President and CEO of the National Constitution Center, Jeffrey Rosen, joins us for a timely discussion of his new book, The Pursuit of Liberty. The relevance to today’s dilemmas is matched only by the fascination of the deep historical analysis and amazing characters the book unearths. In the differences that separated Hamilton and Jefferson, Professor Rosen finds the genesis of a divide that he maintains has informed most if not all of American constitutional history. Centralized power versus states’ rights; industrial centers vs rural life; a robust protest culture vs governmental support, and more. We are honored to celebrate publication (today!) of this important book with its distinguished author.
(LAWYERS AND JUDGES ARE ELIGIBLE FOR CONTINUING LEGAL EDUCATION CREDIT by visiting podcast.njsba.com after listening.)
Show Notes:
Season 5, Episode 39 (Show 248): Opinions on Opinions
October 15, 2025
A “bombshell” article on the unitary executive and presidential firings? We examine.
CLE Credit Available for this episode from podcast.njsba.com.
As we continue to wade into the Supreme Court term, developments are taking place in several cases we are following. Professor Amar’s students are making constitutional news all over the place, it seems; several of them have converged on the tariff case once again, as well as now the unitary executive issues. A new article made a splash, and it prompts us to harken back to an old one – a 1996 article by Professor Amar, in fact, which has new and possibly crucial relevance. We begin to address some of these matters as this broad landscape takes us on legal travels that we can only begin to traverse.
(LAWYERS AND JUDGES ARE ELIGIBLE FOR CONTINUING LEGAL EDUCATION CREDIT by visiting podcast.njsba.com after listening.)
Show Notes:
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:
Season 5, Episode 37 (Show 246): A Tale of Three Cities
October 1, 2025
Professor Amar’s travels take him to the cities of our current constitutional angst, including Portland and Salt Lake City, and this is discussed at a live podcast taping at the Yale Club of NYC.
CLE Credit Available for this episode from podcast.njsba.com.
Professor Amar visits cities that are in the constitutional news these days: Portland, where the military pays an uninvited visit; Salt Lake City, where gunfire continues this year’s alarming litany of political assassination also seen in Minnesota and elsewhere. Akhil’s epic trilogy, with Born Equal now taking its place as the second volume, speaks to how our history shows us the constitutional principles at work – or not at work – in these and other happenings in our nation. And he speaks of New Haven, where work has been and is still done that enables these lessons to be told. All this takes place during a live podcast taping at the Yale Club of New York City, with a live and lively audience that treats us, and you, to their questions and comments.
(LAWYERS AND JUDGES ARE ELIGIBLE FOR CONTINUING LEGAL EDUCATION CREDIT by visiting podcast.njsba.com after listening.)
Show Notes:
Season 5, Episode 36 (Show 245): Out in the World
September 24, 2025
Now that Born Equal is available, readers and scholars are having at it. We present a symposium with Professors Kate Shaw and Kermit Roosevelt weighing in on the book, having read advance copies, and Professor Amar’s responses.
CLE Credit Available for this episode from podcast.njsba.com.
Born Equal is being read – by academics, pundits, historians, and citizens. Reaction has begun to pour in, and discussion has begun. In this episode, we bring you some of the very best flavor of such discussion – an academic symposium held at Penn Carey Law School on the book. Professors Kate Shaw and Kermit Roosevelt each read the work with great care and deliver extensive remarks on the book, pointing out themes and insights – and raising questions. Oh, so many questions. Professor Amar then responds in the moment, and students in the audience pose their own queries. The constitutional conversation continues, and is never complete. But this one in particular will go on, as there were so many important questions raised that they could never be answered in this short interval. But you will thrill to deep engagement and fascinating perspectives from this all-star panel of great thinkers.
(LAWYERS AND JUDGES ARE ELIGIBLE FOR CONTINUING LEGAL EDUCATION CREDIT by visiting podcast.njsba.com after listening.)