Mar 05 2025 1 mins 1
Brian is away today, so we’re rebroadcasting a report from last July, which is particularly apt for the shattering of the norms of the presidency we’ve witnessed in the first weeks of the Trump second term.
The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for March 6, 2025
Would the Founding Fathers Have Embraced Having Unfettered Power for the Presidency? Not Likely.
Anti-authoritarian feelings ran high in the years before and after the signing of the Declaration of Independence, as the Declaration’s litany of complaints against the King suggests. So it’s unlikely the founding fathers would have supported expansion of Presidential powers, and absolute immunity for “official acts.”
Today’s Links
Articles & Resources:
National Archives - Declaration of Independence: A Transcription
U.S. Supreme Court - Trump v. United States
Library of Congress - Constitutional Convention Debate Transcripts - James Wilson
Newsweek - The Founding Fathers Didn't Think Donald Trump Should Get Immunity Either | Opinion
University of Virginia Miller Center - IMPEACHMENT IN THE 1780S - Speech of James Iredell, North Carolina advocate for ratifying the U.S. Constitution
The Hill - Ty Cobb: Founding Fathers would be ‘weeping and stunned’ over Trump guilty verdict
Salon - Historian says Trump lawyer "deliberatively misleading" SCOTUS: Ben Franklin "would be horrified"
Washington Post - (2017) The president was never intended to be the most powerful part of government
Robert J. Reinstein, American University Law Review - (2017) The Limits of Executive Power
Groups Taking Action:
ACLU, Lawyer's Committee for Civil Rights Under Law
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#Democracy #DemocracyNews #Unconstitutional #FoundingFathers #IndependenceDay #PresidentialPowers
