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.)
Show Notes:
Season 5, Episode 35 (Show 244): Blast Off!
September 17, 2025
Born Equal is published, and we mark the event – and Constitution Day – with a live event from Princeton University as Professor Amar proudly introduces some of the many themes from the book.
CLE Credit Available for this episode from podcast.njsba.com.
Happy Constitution Day! And Happy Born Equal Publishing Day! The book tour is underway, and we treat you to an event held live at Princeton University. Professor Amar speaks about the bridge from the last book to this one, and in doing so, the importance of the uniquely grand sweep of his project becomes apparent – as themes from The Words That Made Us merge crucially with the new revelations of Born Equal to shed light on some of the most important constitutional questions in American history. The audience gets involved, too, with questions that might well be your questions. And this is just the beginning, as some amazing events have already taken place that will fill our podcasts with debate and insight in the weeks and months to come.
(LAWYERS AND JUDGES ARE ELIGIBLE FOR CONTINUING LEGAL EDUCATION CREDIT by visiting podcast.njsba.com after listening.)
Show Notes:
Season 5, Episode 34 (Show 243): The Big Equal
September 10, 2025
Born Equal hits the shelves next week, and with it a new lens to look at birth equality and all it implies. We begin the project of explaining and exploring this grand vision.
CLE Credit Available for this episode from podcast.njsba.com.
With the imminent publication of Born Equal, we explore Lincoln’s grand vision of equality as it played out during and after his life. The new book goes further still, offering an expansive though still relentlessly originalist view of this constitutional vision. And now Professor Amar sees this vision through with even greater implications for the 160 years since his death and into the future. The new book introduces, and this podcast and those to follow explore, a new unifying thread that gives even greater coherence to the Constitution, as amended and as understood through this momentous scholarly effort.
(LAWYERS AND JUDGES ARE ELIGIBLE FOR CONTINUING LEGAL EDUCATION CREDIT by visiting podcast.njsba.com after listening.)
Show Notes:
Season 5, Episode 33 (Show 242): The 64 Percent Question
September 3, 2025
Courts are reacting to the many activities of the President – on tarrifs, on firing, on voting, and more. We discuss.
CLE Credit Available for this episode from podcast.njsba.com.
Trump is keeping the courts active; this week saw a ruling against many of the widespread tarrifs he has sought to impose, and the Fifth Circuit upheld his dismissal of an NLRB member. Meanwhile, a Fed governor was dismissed, supposedly for cause. And the social media announcements of supposedly impending executive orders imposing voting requirements such as voter ID kept coming. And there’s more. We try to keep it all straight for you, identify the constitutional issues, and look at what the Courts might do. Meanwhile, your fantastic response to the impending Born Equal release is noted, appreciated, and we respond to it.
(LAWYERS AND JUDGES ARE ELIGIBLE FOR CONTINUING LEGAL EDUCATION CREDIT by visiting podcast.njsba.com after listening.)
Show Notes:
Season 5, Episode 32 (Show 241): The Land of the Land
August 27, 2025
States are redrawing districts; military walk the streets of the nation’s Capital; the border is at least a rhetorical battlefield. Professor Amar shows where we can find guidance on these matters and more in the founding and in Lincoln’s day.
CLE Credit Available for this episode from podcast.njsba.com.
Gerrymandering, borders, the use of the military on US soil, and even the status of the District of Columbia. All these relate to geography, and the “more perfect union” our founders sought. The Constitution therefore speaks to all these issues, and originalism must be considered. We look at what the Constitution has to say, why it says these things, and what the underlying principles tell us. This has obvious implications for today’s questions, but without clarity on the historical background, confusion may reign, which aids those who might be in the wrong. It’s timely in another way, because the forthcoming Born Equal addresses many of these geographic questions – because Americans in the 19th Century, including Lincoln most prominently, thought about them prominently. Professor Amar brings it together for you.
(LAWYERS AND JUDGES ARE ELIGIBLE FOR CONTINUING LEGAL EDUCATION CREDIT by visiting podcast.njsba.com after listening.)
Show Notes:
Season 5, Episode 31 (Show 240): The Good of the Country
August 21, 2025
The President is speaking in his all caps voice about elections, voting, and an imperial presidency that rules over such things. Does the Constitution agree?
CLE Credit Available for this episode from podcast.njsba.com.
President Trump has taken to social media, as usual. This time he asserts an authority to control elections through executive order. He claims that he is empowered to do this as the sole representative – nay, the sole decider – of the nation’s interest. We look to the constitution for a reply. He also echoes some election complaints, and election claims, from controversies past, and we have an answer there, as well. Meanwhile, the publication date of Born Equal, Professor Amar’s new book, draws near, and we have an enticing offer for our listeners.
(LAWYERS AND JUDGES ARE ELIGIBLE FOR CONTINUING LEGAL EDUCATION CREDIT by visiting podcast.njsba.com after listening.)