Louis Michael Seidman on the Constitution

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4.7 • 4.4K Ratings

🗓️ 4 February 2013

⏱️ 62 minutes

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Summary

Louis Michael Seidman of Georgetown University talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the United States Constitution. Seidman argues that the we should ignore the Constitution in designing public policy, relying instead on the merits of policy regardless of their constitutionality. Seidman defends his position by citing examples in the past where constitutionality has been ignored and says it would be better to recognize our disdain for the Constitution in a transparent way. In this lively conversation, Roberts pushes back against these ideas, citing the limits of reason and the dangers of using popular sentiment to determine policy.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Econ Talk, part of the Library of Economics and Liberty.
0:06.4	I'm your host, Russ Roberts of Stanford University's Hoover Institution.
0:11.0	Our website is econtalk.org where you can subscribe, comment on this podcast, and find links
0:16.3	and other information related to today's conversation.
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0:23.3	back to 2006.
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0:33.4	Today is January 23rd, 2013, and before introducing today's guest, I want to thank everyone who
0:40.0	emailed me your three favorite episodes of 2012.
0:43.8	I appreciated knowing what you liked, and I'm happy to announce that virtually every episode
0:48.3	was someone's favorite.
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0:59.0	It was very inspiring, and it makes me want to make 2013 bigger and better, so please
1:03.6	keep listening, please keep sharing the program with your friends and family.
1:07.9	And here are the top 10 episodes as voted by you, and they're actually 11, because there
1:12.3	was a three-way tie for 9th.
1:15.2	So going from 11, well, the 11 episodes 9th was the three-way tie going from 9 down.
1:22.7	They were, as follows, Zingali's on crony capitalism, Yong on science, Borovsky on bailouts,
1:29.2	those were tied for 9th.
1:31.6	The 8th was favorited, was otter on disability, the 7th Cochran on health care, 6th turner
1:38.0	on organic farming, the 5th Anderson on manufacturing, and the 4th Davidson on manufacturing.
	...

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