Trump's Second Term - The Constitutional Challenges
4/9/2020 6:30 PM - 9:00 PM
Event Description
It is argued that President Trump’s approach to executive leadership raises broad issues as to its efficacy and its compliance with constitutional norms. The Trump administration extols the virtue of nearly unlimited power vested in the Presidency through an expansive interpretation of the Constitution. Some argue that these powers include the remaking of judiciary, the reestablishment of party loyalty within the civil service, an emphasis on personal gain in the conduct of international affairs, and the vilification of opponents. Will such expressions of party control over the institutions and personnel of government continue to challenge the Constitution in Trump’s second term?
Other questions that may guide the discussion during the SALON include:
Is there a need for an executive branch grounded in party loyalists invested with broad powers to confront its political opposition and counter media that represent alternative views? Is there evidence for this assessment? Are there precedents in the American presidency for this kind of executive? If so, has such an executive been effective, compliant with the Constitution and the public’s civil rights?
Did the constitutional framers anticipate the growth in power of the executive branch so that it can wield significant influence through executive authority and the “administrative state” to accomplish its aims?
What accounts for the apparent appeal of the executive presidency? Is it a due to a changed political dynamic – populism, identity politics, etc. – or are there structural flaws in the Constitution or its interpretation such that it fails to address present conflicts regarding Presidential/executive-branch power?
Garrett Epps covers the Supreme Court for The Atlantic Online and teaches at the University of Baltimore as a professor of constitutional law. His weekly essays can be found here. He started his career as a professional writer and novelist, working on staff for The Richmond Mercury, The Richmond Afro-American, The Virginia Churchman, The (Fredericksburg, VA) Free Lance-Star, and, ultimately, The Washington Post.
He is the author of two novels, The Shad Treatment (1977) and The Floating Island: A Tale of Washington (1985); and has written five books of legal non-fiction, including To an Unknown God: Religious Freedom on Trial; Democracy Reborn: The Fourteenth Amendment and the Fight for Equal Rights in Post-Civil War America; and American Epic: Reading the U.S Constitution. His journalism has appeared in The New York Times, The New York Review of Books, The New Republic, The Nation, and The American Prospect.
In 1988, he entered Duke Law School. After graduation, he returned to Richmond to clerk for the late Judge John D. Butzner, Jr. of the Fourth Circuit, before moving to Eugene, Oregon, where he lived for 16 years engaged as a professor of Constitutional Law and was faculty adviser to the Medical Marijuana Law Reporter. Since 2008, he has lived in Washington, D.C.
He has two children and five grandchildren. His wife, Kathy Bader, is a medieval historian and consultant helping major universities adapt their information systems to the cloud.
