Lawfare Archive: Congressional Overspeech with Josh Chafetz
The Lawfare Podcast
The Lawfare Institute
4.7 • 6.4K Ratings
🗓️ 2 January 2023
⏱️ 36 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
From June 9, 2020: High profile congressional hearings, like the 2015 Benghazi hearings, the 2019 Mueller Report hearings and most recently, the Ukraine impeachment proceedings are often described in derogatory terms like "political theater," "spectacle" or "circus." But do these exaggerated performances on Capitol Hill actually serve a constitutional purpose? Margaret Taylor sat down with Josh Chafetz, a law professor and author of the book "Congress's Constitution: Legislative Authority and the Separation of Powers." They talked about his most recent article, in which he argues that congressional overspeech, like congressional oversight, is actually an important tool of constitutional politics, even if it doesn't automatically produce good outcomes.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The following podcast contains advertising. |
| 0:04.0 | To access an ad-free version of the LawFair podcast, |
| 0:08.0 | become a material supporter of LawFair at patreon.com slash law fair. |
| 0:14.0 | That's patreon.com slash law fair. |
| 0:18.0 | Also, check out LawFair's other podcast offerings, |
| 0:22.0 | rational security, chatter, law fair no bull, and the aftermath. |
| 0:29.0 | I'm Will Appleton with an episode from the LawFair Archive for January 2nd, 2023. |
| 0:46.0 | With the two-year anniversary of the January 6th attack on the US Capitol approaching, |
| 0:51.0 | the House Select Committee to investigate the January 6th attack wrapped up its work last month after several hearings. |
| 0:57.0 | To put into context the hearings of the January 6th Committee, I chose an episode from June 2020. |
| 1:04.0 | In the episode, Margaret Taylor sat down with Josh Sheffetz to discuss congressional over-speech, |
| 1:09.0 | how it serves as an important tool of constitutional politics, |
| 1:13.0 | and why it's important even if it doesn't immediately produce good outcomes. |
| 1:17.0 | I'm Margaret Taylor and this is the LawFair podcast, June 9th, 2020. |
| 1:30.0 | High-profile congressional hearings, like the 2015 Benghazi hearings, |
| 1:35.0 | the 2019 Mueller report hearings, and most recently the Ukraine impeachment proceedings, |
| 1:41.0 | were often described in derogatory terms like political theater, spectacle, circus. |
| 1:48.0 | But do these exaggerated performances on Capitol Hill actually serve a constitutional purpose? |
| 1:54.0 | I sat down with Josh Sheffetz, a law professor and author of the book, |
| 1:59.0 | Congress's Constitution, legislative authority, and the separation of powers. |
| 2:04.0 | We talked about his most recent article in which he argues the congressional over-speech, |
| 2:09.0 | congressional oversight, is actually an important tool of constitutional politics, |
... |
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