Which branch of government, executive, legislative, or judicial, is empowered to interpret the Constitution?

Before you answer, let me give you option D, all of the above.

From KERA in Dallas, this is think. I'm Chris Boyd. All three branches of government

have the right and the responsibility to determine what the Constitution means. For a long

stretch of our history, the Supreme Court would step in occasionally to settle disputes over

constitutional interpretations, but to judiciary asserting something like the exclusive right to say

what kinds of laws are allowed? That's pretty new. And my guest is convinced it is a big part of

the reason the legislature can hardly get anything done. Duncan Hosey is a fellow at Stanford Law

School and author of the Atlantic essay, How the Supreme Court Broke Congress. Duncan, welcome to think.

Thank you so much, Chris, for having me. It's great to be here.

To start with the basics, give us some examples of the ways Congress has historically

assumed its own right to determine what kinds of actions the Constitution allowed it to take.

Traditionally, we're conditioned to believe that constitutional meaning is something that the

court articulates, but throughout Congress's history, it's always played a vital role in shaping

what the Constitution means. It does through this by many ways. The first is bypassing legislation.

Legislation embodies different congressional judgments about how we fulfill the various

commands and demands of the Constitution. Congress also does this through creating dialogues with

the people. When people vote for Congress, they're sending a message about what they want the

Constitution to mean in many cases.

And so there's a way in which we think of constitutional meaning exclusively coming from the Supreme Court.

But Congress has always been a very important player in this long-going conversation.

This is really interesting.

...