We the People

Apr 10 2025 560 ep. 56 mins 21.2k

We the People Podcast artwork

A weekly show of constitutional debate hosted by National Constitution Center President and CEO Jeffrey Rosen where listeners can hear the best arguments on all sides of the constitutional issues at the center of American life.

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Do the Trump Tariffs Violate the Constitution?

Apr 10 2025 56 mins

Steven Calabresi of Northwestern University and Samuel Estreicher of New York University join Jeffrey Rosen to discuss the statutory authority for President Trump’s tariffs and whether they violate federal law or the Constitution. Resources Samuel Estreicher & Andrew Babbitt, “Are Tariffs an Emergency Power?,” Lawfare Blog (April 3, 2025) Steven Calabresi, “President Tr

Judges on Judicial Independence

Apr 03 2025 58 mins

National Constitution Center President and CEO Jeffrey Rosen leads a special panel discussion with Federal Judges Association President Judge J. Michelle Childs of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit; Judge M. Margaret McKeown of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and past president of the Federal Judges Association; Judge Beth Bloom of the U

Who Is Government?

Mar 27 2025 57 mins

Best-selling author Michael Lewis discusses his new book, Who Is Government?: The Untold Story of Public Service, with Jeffrey Rosen. As government programs face political headwinds, Lewis and his favorite writers examine the human stories of the heroic civil servants who make government work and why their contributions matter. This conversation was originally streamed live

Deportations and the Law

Mar 20 2025 67 mins

Trump has invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, a wartime authority, to summarily deport suspected members of a Venezuelan gang. He also invoked a Cold War-era statute to deport a student activist at Columbia University. In this episode, Adam Cox of New York University and Ilya Somin of George Mason University join to discuss the scope of the president’s deportation power and to

Is DOGE Breaking the Law?

Mar 13 2025 62 mins

Kate Huddleston, senior legal counsel of litigation at the Campaign Legal Center, and Michael McConnell, Richard and Frances Mallery Professor and director of the Constitutional Law Center at Stanford Law School, join Jeffrey Rosen to debate whether the newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has acted lawfully in firing federal workers and freezing federal spendin

The State of Partisanship

Mar 06 2025 58 mins

Jonathan Rauch, author of Cross Purposes: Christianity’s Broken Bargain with Democracy, and Julian Zelizer, author of In Defense of Partisanship, join Jeffrey Rosen for a wide-ranging discussion on their new books and the rise of partisanship in America. This conversation was originally streamed live as part of the NCC’s America’s Town Hall program series on March 3, 2

The Supreme Court and the Trump Administration

Feb 27 2025 47 mins

Jamelle Bouie and David French of The New York Times, Sarah Isgur of The Dispatch, and Melissa Murray of NYU School of Law join Jeffrey Rosen to discuss the relationship between the Roberts Court and the Trump administration. They discuss how the Supreme Court might resolve open legal questions—including impoundment and the unitary executive theory—and debate the Court’s role

How Powerful is the President?

Feb 20 2025 48 mins

President Trump’s far-reaching executive actions have given rise to a debate about whether the president is acting within the tradition of presidential power—or whether recent events represent a departure from the constitutional order and precedent. Melody Barnes of the University of Virginia Karsh Institute for Democracy, Charles Cooke of National Review, Joanne Freeman of Yal

The 14th Amendment and the History of Reconstruction

Feb 13 2025 62 mins

Jeffrey Rosen discusses the 14th Amendment with Sherrilyn Ifill, the head of the 14th Amendment Center for Law & Democracy at Howard Law School and the former president of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, Pamela Brandwein, author of Rethinking the Judicial Settlement of Reconstruction, and Ilan Wurman, author of The Second Founding: An Introduction to the Fourteenth Amendment. They di

President Trump’s Executive Orders

Feb 06 2025 55 mins

Since January 20, 2025, President Trump has issued dozens of executive orders, several of which have attracted legal challenges. Steve Vladeck of Georgetown University Law Center and Gary Schmitt of the American Enterprise Institute join Jeffrey Rosen to parse the flurry of executive orders and preview the lawsuits they face. Resources White House Presidential Actions “Litig