Constitutional Chats Presented By Constituting America Cathy Gillespie

Federally, we have 536 elected positions between Congress and the President.  We then have 2.8 million federal employees.  How do we limit the power among the unelected officials we have in our federal government?  To tackle this very important question, the Supreme Court introduced the Chevron Doctrine (also called the Chevron Deference) as a result of the 1984 Supreme Court case Chevron USA v Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc.  To help us understand the complexities of the Chevron Doctrine, how the powers of unelected officials have grown over the years and how current cases before the Supreme Court may affect these powers, we are happy to welcome to our discussion Jack Fitzhenry, Legal Fellow in the Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies at the Heritage Foundation.

Presidential immunity is in the news a lot lately.  It derives from a notion that all three branches of government retain powers to execute their duties under the constitution.  But there is also a tradition in our country that no one is above the law.  In a nation that follows established law, not following those laws can lead to anarchy or distrust in the government.  We have a lot to unpack with this very timely and relevant topic. To help us do so alongside our student panel, we are delighted to welcome fan-favorite guest Adam Carrington, associate professor of politics at Hillsdale College.

Did you know the United States Supreme Court has agreed to hear four cases pertaining to social media this term?  One of the major issues is whether or not an elected official has the authority to limit speech on social media accounts by blocking critical comments pertaining to their work in office.  We know government cannot prohibit your speech, but are elected officials required to permit all comments on their official pages, or can they censor them? What about their personal pages?  Can the government pressure social media companies to take down posts the government seems “misinformation”? There’s a lot to unpack with these various cases so we are delighted to welcome Michael Dimino, Professor of Law at Widener University’s Commonwealth Law School for this very timely discussion.

Who is the Speaker of the House and what are his duties?  How does a bill become law?  What are the three branches of government.  Let’s be honest, so many in our country are not fully educated on civics.    If we don’t understand how Congress works, we get frustrated with the whole process.  This leads to an overall sentiment that Congress is broken.  Our guest today likes to say “without public trust, you cannot govern.  Without governing, people get angry and hostile and walk away from the system.” Today, joining our student panel to discuss how we can begin to fix this, is our special guest Michael S. Johnson, author of “Fixing Congress: Restoring Power to the People.”

Winning a war was just the beginning for George Washington’s service to our new country.  After retiring to Mount Vernon post-war, Washington saw a weakness in our country under the Articles of Confederation.  He felt the future of republican democratic self-government globally was dependent on the American experiment.  If it were to fail in that perfect post-war moment, man was probably not destined to govern himself. Washington’s views on what the government should look like can seem to be contradictory in that he wanted a strong central government, as opposed to what the country had under the Articles of Confederation, but he also wanted the National government to be limited.  Rather than contradictory, this reveals a principled man.  To discuss Washington’s vision for the country with our student panel, we are delighted to welcome back Tony Williams, Senior Teaching Fellow with the Bill of Rights Institute for this historical conversation.

The relationship between the federal and state governments is not always clear.  These two governments exist simultaneously but at times have different goals and objectives.  The federal government can use its purse strings to coerce a state government to take an action and that state can simply refuse.  The Founders wanted states to solve major issues that were not under the federal purview to establish “laboratories of democracy.”  Joining our all-star student panel, we are happy to welcome Ken Cuccinelli, former Virginia state senator,  Virginia attorney general and Deputy Secretary, Department of Homeland Security, as we discuss this unique relationship.