Is That Even Constitutional?
It's never been a better time to understand the U.S. Constitution: what it allows, what it prohibits, and what is in the grey area. Join host Sadena Thevarajah and constitutional scholar Ken Thomas in conversation as they scrutinize recent federal administration actions, to help us better see our country's founding document for the living document that it is.
Episodes
17 episodes
Project 2026: Term Limits for Justices
Supreme Court Justices are appointed for life, making the Supreme Court one of the least democratic institutions in the world. Even worse, the Court now plays a political role unforeseen by the Founding Fathers. No other country has this proble...
•
Season 2
•
Episode 5
•
18:23
Project 2026: Make Election Day a Holiday
The American people are frustrated with the American election system. As a result, the United States ranks 138 out of 172 nations in voter turnout. One of the biggest reasons that working adults don’t vote is that they are too busy. Standing in...
•
Season 2
•
Episode 4
•
12:27
Project 2026: End Political Gerrymandering
Gerrymandering is widely regarded as a distortion of the democratic process. Gerrymandering refers to any deliberate manipulation of electoral boundaries to favor one political party or group. These methods can dramatically skew election outcom...
•
Season 2
•
Episode 3
•
20:16
Project 2026: End the Modern Filibuster
Democracies around the world only require a simple majority (above 50%) to pass legislation. The filibuster, which requires approval by 60% of the Senate, makes that chamber the most anti-democratic in the world. If Senators supporting a filibu...
•
Season 2
•
Episode 2
•
22:49
Project 2026: Take Back the Constitution
For the upcoming 2026 mid-term elections, serious congressional candidates need to consider a change of approach. Rather than struggling to resolve divisive ideological issues, candidates need to pick common governing themes that are not only b...
•
Season 2
•
Episode 1
•
18:40
Can the Constitution Survive President Trump?
On Truth Social, President Trump’s social media outlet, Trump posted a picture of himself in a crown saying “Long live the king.” Trump, however, will have a hard time subverting the Constitution. The key to consolidating power in authori...
•
Season 1
•
Episode 12
•
27:55
Can President Trump Steal the Power of the Purse?
In 2016, Donald Trump said "I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn't lose any voters" In 2025, Donald Trump illegally took billions of dollars of research grants away from Harvard University. I guess ...
•
Season 1
•
Episode 11
•
34:10
Can President Trump Fire Federal Workers?
In this podcast, we interview Elizabeth Aniskevich, a litigator and a former federal employee at the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau. Earlier this year, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau terminated all probationary employees. When ...
•
Season 1
•
Episode 7
•
34:25
Can President Trump Fire the Fed Chair?
Can President Trump fire Jerome Powell, the Chair of the Federal Reserve Board? When bankers run central banks, economies are stable. When politicians run central banks, economies blow up. The Federal Reserve is an independent agency, and...
•
Season 1
•
Episode 9
•
37:25
Fast Take: The Supreme Court and Firing Federal Workers
On July 8, the Supreme Court lifted a district court order which barred the Trump administration from eliminating thousands of jobs across the federal government. Though an important case, this isn’t the end of litigation over those firings. Ho...
•
Season 1
•
Episode 6
•
7:32
Presidential Power and the Unitary Executive Theory
First raised in the 1980s, the Unitary Executive Theory argues that the President should be allowed to fire the officials of all agencies, even if the positions are protected by Congress. President Trump’s administration has extended this theor...
•
Season 1
•
Episode 5
•
36:13
Fast Take: What’s Going on With Birthright Citizenship and Universal Injunctions??
In Trump v. Casa, the Supreme Court held that injunctions cannot be used to prohibit the Executive Branch from taking legal actions against persons or states not before the Court. In this case, that meant that persons in the 38 states ...
•
Season 1
•
Episode 6
•
12:49
How the Supreme Court Interprets the Constitution
The Supreme Court will be an important factor in determining how much of the Trump agenda will be implemented. But how does the Supreme Court decide difficult cases? There are many theories of constitutional interpretation, some of which are mo...
•
Season 1
•
Episode 4
•
35:50
Fast Take: Were the Iran Strikes Constitutional?
On June 22, 2025, President Trump initiated the most significant U.S. military strike on Iranian soil since 1979, hitting nuclear sites in support of Israeli military operations. Democrats protested that this attack was unconstituti...
•
Season 1
•
Episode 4
•
7:19
Can DEI Be Saved?
DEI is many things to many people. So, when President Trump issued Executive Orders targeting the practice, it's implementation was chaotic, unpredictable, and ripe for legal challenge. This podcast explores the history of DEI and the Trump adm...
•
Season 1
•
Episode 3
•
41:08
Are We in a Constitutional Crisis?
Today we are talking about the Venezuelan immigrants that the President sent to prison in El Salvador in early March. The court order that was supposted tp stop them didn't. So today we will be discussing what happened there, a little bit about...
•
Season 1
•
Episode 2
•
45:28