Legal scholars Gillian Metzger of Columbia Law School and Saikrishna Prakash of the University of Virginia School of Law examine the founders’ vision for the presidency, how presidential power has changed over time, and the key constitutional debates that have shaped the modern presidency. The discussion will also explore how the Trump presidency fits within this historical context and what it means for the future of presidential power. Jeffrey Rosen, president and CEO of the National Constitution Center, moderates.
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Participants
Gillian Metzger is the Harlan Fiske Stone Professor of Constitutional Law at Columbia Law School, where she also serves as faculty director of the Center for Constitutional Governance. She has co-authored and filed numerous amicus briefs in major constitutional and administrative law challenges before the Supreme Court and other courts, and previously served as acting assistant attorney general and deputy assistant attorney general in the Office of Legal Counsel at the Department of Justice.
Saikrishna Prakash is the James Monroe Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of Virginia School of Law. He is the author of The Living Presidency: An Originalist Argument Against Its Ever-Expanding Powers and Imperial from the Beginning: The Constitution of the Original Executive. He has testified before Congress on matters of presidential removal, the Mueller Report, how Congress might better check the presidency, and the nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court.
Jeffrey Rosen is the president and CEO of the National Constitution Center, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization devoted to educating the public about the U.S. Constitution. Rosen is also professor of law at The George Washington University Law School and a contributing editor of The Atlantic.
Additional Resources
- Federalist No. 70
- Meyers v. United States (1926)
- Trump v. United States (2024)
- Saikrishna Prakash, The Living Presidency: An Originalist Argument Against Its Ever-Expanding Powers, (2020)
- Saikrishna Prakash, Imperial from the Beginning: The Constitution of the Original Executive, (2015)
- Gillian Metzger, “Disqualification, Immunity, and the Presidency,” Harvard Law Review, Vol. 138 (April 1, 2025)
- Michel Martin, “Political scientists alarmed by Trump's disregard for checks on the executive branch,” NPR (Feb. 3, 2025)
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