2019: A Constitutional Year in Review

We the People

National Constitution Center

News, News Commentary, History

4.6 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 26 December 2019

⏱️ 64 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

2019 saw the impeachment of a president for just the third time in American history, the release of the Mueller report, and court battles over DACA, reproductive rights, and the Affordable Care Act. David French, TIME columnist and senior editor at The Dispatch, and Kate Shaw, Cardozo Law professor and ABC Legal Analyst, join host Jeffrey Rosen to review this year in constitutional debate. They give their takes on the possible long-term constitutional implications of the ongoing impeachment, Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation in retrospect, and how the “Kavanaugh Court” is likely to rule in a key upcoming abortion case, the battle over rescinding DACA, and the question of whether President Trump must release his financial records. Questions or comments about the show? Email us at podcast@constitutioncenter.org.

Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm Jeffrey Rosen, president and CEO of the National Constitution Center, and welcome
0:08.0	to We The People, a weekly show of constitutional debate.
0:11.8	The National Constitution Center is a nonpartisan nonprofit chartered by Congress to increase
0:17.5	awareness and understanding of the Constitution among the American people.
0:23.1	And what a year of constitutional awareness and understanding it has been.
0:28.1	Dear we the people listeners, we have learned together and reasoned together as we explored a series of constitutional
0:34.9	debates in the news from the recent impeachment of the president to the
0:41.3	release of the Mueller report to key cases involving
0:45.2	reproductive rights, free speech, and more. And today we're joined by two great
0:50.5	friends of the We The People Podcast and two great
0:53.1	constitutional thinkers to review this year in constitutional debate.
0:59.5	David French is a senior editor for the Dispatch, a columnist at Time, and a former senior writer at National Review.
1:07.0	He's also a best-selling author, an attorney, and the past president of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education.
1:14.4	David, happy holidays and thank you so much for joining.
1:17.6	Thank you so much for having me, I appreciate it.
1:20.2	And Kate Shaw is professor of law and co-director of the Florsheimer Center for Constitutional Democracy at Cardozo Law.
1:27.0	She is an ABC News legal analyst and host of the great podcast, Strict Scrutiny. Kate previously worked in the White House
1:34.8	Council's office under President Obama. Kate happy holidays and it is wonderful to
1:39.4	have you back on the show. Thanks so much for having me Jeff. All right well let's begin with the Constitution and impeachment.
1:47.7	The House has just voted as we record to impeach President Trump and it has done so along party lines with not a single Republican
1:57.2	crossing over to vote in favor of impeachment and just the smallest number of Democrats crossing the aisle.
2:07.0	Given the fact that this is the most polarized impeachment in constitutional history, the impeachments of Andrew Johnson, Clinton, and the near impeachment
	...

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