Everyone's talkin' 'bout the removal power this week! And there's no mystery why: on Monday, the Supreme Court held arguments in a case called Trump v. Slaughter, about whether the president can fire an FTC commissioner at will. From the tenor of the oral
Hello and welcome back to Constitutional Perspectives! Finally, finally, our story is going to reach the breaking of the Constitution that became the American Civil War of 1861-65. I initially thought that both of the last two lessons would have covered this entire period, but it turns out there'
Welcome back to Constitutional Perspectives! Last time, we covered the sordid history of American slavery, up though the Philadelphia Convention of 1787. I talked about all the ways – some pretty apparent, some more subtle – in which the "peculiar institution" of slavery shaped the U.S. Constitution. Today I&
Welcome back to Constitutional Perspectives! We left off last time on an ominous note. There's something missing from my discussion of the Constitution so far, something lurking in the shadows. You can see the same thing, the same shadowy presence, in the Constitution itself. Scattered throughout the document
Hello and welcome back to Constitutional Perspectives! We're in the home stretch of Level One now. Last time, I canvassed federalism and the federal Union. That concluded the discussion, for Level One purposes, of the structure of government. But there is, of course, another side to our constitutional
Welcome back to Constitutional Perspectives! Today I'm continuing my discussion of federalism, one of the great defining structural features of the American constitutional system. Last time, I gave you a brief primer on what these things called "states" are, exactly. Today, therefore, I'll be
Welcome back to Constitutional Perspectives! Over the last few installments, I covered the three branches of the federal government – legislative, executive, and judicial – as well as the overall dynamic between those branches. That just about wraps up the structure of the federal government, at least for our purposes here in
Happy Constitution Day, y'all (if it is a happy Constitution Day, which I doubt...) and welcome to another installment of Constitutional Perspectives! Over the last few lessons, I've covered each branch of the federal government in sequence: Congress, the Presidency, and the judiciary. This is a
Welcome back to a special bonus edition of Constitutional Perspectives! The last installment covered the power, structure, and character of the federal judiciary. But I realized that I left something out. I told you all about the judges. But our country has another kind of judicial body as well: the
Welcome back to Constitutional Perspectives! Over the last few installments, I've (briefly) canvassed the structure and powers of the legislative and executive branches of the federal government. Today, then, it is time to tackle the third branch: the federal courts, also known as the judiciary. I suspect the
Welcome back to Constitutional Perspectives! This is the second of two lessons in Level One about the Presidency. Last time I covered the structure of the Presidency; today, I'll be discussing the powers of the office. At the outset it is helpful to observe that presidential powers fall
Hi all! This is a small housekeeping note accompanying today's Constitutional Perspectives lesson. When I published my two lessons on the structure and powers of Congress, their titles began with "Article I:" You might therefore have expected today's lesson to be titled "Article
Constitutional Perspectives
Welcome back to Constitutional Perspectives! Last time we talked about the powers of Congress. That means today it is time to discuss the executive branch and the presidency. As with Congress, this will be split into two lessons, the first of them covering the structure of the institution, the second
Constitutional Perspectives
Welcome back to Constitutional Perspectives! Last time, I canvassed the structure and composition of the United States Congress. Today I'll be looking instead at the powers of Congress. This will round out our examination of Article I, at least for the purposes of Level One. (There will, of
Constitutional Perspectives
Welcome back to Constitutional Perspectives! Last time, I gave a rough sketch of the entire structure of the constitutional scheme. The Constitution, as I outlined it, divides powers three ways: between the People and the government as a whole; between the states and the Union; and between the three branches
Constitutional Perspectives
Welcome back to Constitutional Perspectives! Last time, we wrapped up (for now) the story of where the Constitution came from. That means it's time to begin diving into matters of substance! Today I'll be laying out a quick sketch of basics of the entire constitutional scheme.
News
So, Trump just bombed Iran. Apparently. He said he did anyway, which technically does make it less likely to be true, but I think we have independent confirmation. There is about to be a big debate about whether this was legal for him to do. Congress did not pass any
Constitutional Perspectives
Welcome back to Constitutional Perspectives! Last time, I began to tell the Constitution's origin story – well, the Level One version of it, anyway. We left off in the mid-1780s, after the Treaty of Paris had ended the War for Independence. But the constitutional order of 1776, as formalized
This morning, in United States v. Skrmetti, the Supreme Court held that a Tennessee ban on treatment for gender dysphoria in minors does not offend the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Several of the Justices would have reached this conclusion on the grounds that the Fourteenth Amendment does
Level One
Welcome back to Level One of Constitutional Perspectives! Last time, I covered what the Constitution is: the kind of thing it is, the basic function it performs. Next, I want to canvass where it comes from: the history, briefly told, of how the Constitution came to be. In fact it
Constitutional Perspectives
Welcome to Level One of Constitutional Perspectives! In today's lesson we'll be covering a simple question: what is this "Constitution" thing, anyway? As I mentioned in the introduction to the series, Level One is geared for readers who have zero prior knowledge of American
Announcing a new project here at The Evening Constitutional! As I wrote shortly after last November's election, one of my ambitions for this site is to create a library of materials explaining American constitutional law, from the ground up. I am hereby announcing the start of that project,
If you listen to me talk about constitutional law for long enough, you are going to hear the name Charles Black. He is the single greatest influence on my thinking about law and political philosophy; he also happened to be my grandfather. I want, therefore, to write a short piece
(How's that for a clickbait title??) David Hackett Souter, former Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, died on Thursday. We learned this yesterday, and the encomia poured in. Everyone loved Justice Souter, well, everyone except the right-wingers convinced he'd betrayed them. He was, as everyone saw,