Episode 7: Succession Inquisition
February 24, 2021
How America screwed up Presidential succession, then fixed it (sort of), then screwed it up again. And how to fix it, Amar style, of course.
How does Akhil dislike the Presidential Succession Act? Andy tries to count the ways. This Constitutional disaster-in-waiting is definitively dissected. We could have had President Pelosi being sued by would-be President Pompeo, with your 401k turning into a 201F. Show notes on the website include the three incarnations of the Act since the Founding, and some tips on counting from the experts.
Show Notes:
Trying to keep track of all the screw-ups in the Presidential Succession Act proves too much for Andy and Akhil. They seem to have learned their counting skills from these intrepid mathematicians of the past:
Episode 6: Snap – You’re in Lisbon
February 17, 2021
The perils of the “lame duck,” and some proposed solutions. Probably the only time Akhil suggests we become “more British.”
The many dangers of the lame duck that gave rise to our “Bullets Dodged” series raise the question – do we really need a lame duck period at all? Akhil and Andy recall the “secession winters” of the past and how 2020 shared aspects of all of them; and of course, we have suggestions for how to solve it. As for Lisbon, this is not the first episode of ours that references “Casablanca…”
Show Notes:
For those unfamiliar with the classic, here is an explanation of the Casablanca references from the podcast:
Episode 5: Menus Without Eating – Special Guest Prof. Philip Bobbitt
February 12, 2021
Special Guest Professor Philip Bobbitt, engages Akhil in spirited debate on the constitutionality of Trump’s impeachment trial.
Philip Bobbitt is a top academic expert on Impeachment. He has led the lonely chorus of those who have maintained that Trump’s second impeachment trial is unconstitutional, since it takes place when he is no longer President. Akhil and Professor Bobbitt debate this and other points crucial to the trial – with surprising results. News flash: opinions change, and consensus is nearer. One can only wish the Senate had similarly open minds.
Show Notes:
Episode 4: Ex-Pres Ex-perts
February 10, 2021
Donald Trump is on trial; Akhil and Andy make sure you are armed and ready.
The impeachment trial has begun. We depart from our leisurely time-independent pace to go nearly live and address the most important issues. Can you try an ex-president? Is this really about “insurrection?” What are “high crimes and misdemeanors?” How can Presidents Obama, Bush, et all help? Akhil and Andy also discuss their recent op-ed from the NY Daily News earlier this week.
Show Notes:
Episode 3: Bullets (Not) Dodged, Part 3 – Shocked, Shocked!
February 3, 2021
The Presidency – the great and the not-so-great; the person or the platform: the voter’s choice, and the country’s consequences.
The quadrennial choice Americans make was particularly fateful in 2016, and Akhil asserts that itself this was a bullet not dodged. The unique nature of the American Presidency places enormous burdens on the office’s holders, but so, too, does it ask much of the American people as they exercise the franchise. What makes a good president? What should Americans consider, and how can they frame the choice? Akhil and Andy find lessons in the early republic, and the early Akhil, for that matter. And of course, a few words about the recent occupant of the office. Should we have known what we were in for?
Show Notes:
Episode 2: Bullets Dodged, Part 2 – The Faithless and the Feckless
January 27, 2021
More constitutional minefields on the road from Election to Inauguration. Faithless electors; SCOTUS follies; Ministers and ministerial duties; The West Wing, again.
Continuing our discussion of the various disasters that might have befallen America during the election period, this time exploring the period after the election and before the Electoral College, and then as Congress prepared to meet and certify the vote. The toxic mixture of the Greeley precedent and Faithless Electors was rendered a veritable Chernobyl by a 2020 Supreme Court decision that Akhil finds, shall we say, imperfect. Life imitates art (The West Wing, again)? Actually, it’s more frightening than that.