Welcome to the Libertarian.

I'm Charles C.W. Cook, the host.

I'm here with Richard Epstein.

This is a production of the Civitas Institute at the University of Texas at Austin.

Richard, welcome to your own show.

Oh, it's always nice to be here, especially with you, Charlie.

Thank you very much.

Well, we got a big court decision from U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer in response to Donald Trump's deployment of military troops in Los Angeles

a few weeks ago. This is at root, both the constitutional and the statutory question. It raises issues about federal

sovereignty and state sovereignty, also about the power of the federal government and the different

branches within it. So before we get to Charles Breyer's decision, I want you to tell me what the Constitution

says about the president's capacity to use troops within the United States, and then what any

laws that are binding say further to that?

Yes, well, I mean, these are very vexing topics, but to start with the beginning,

the President is in fact the commander-in-chief of the military forces inside the United States,

including the state militias, national guards, when they're called into active service pursuant to an act of Congress.

So there's no way to simply say that you can shut Trump out of the matter simply because

it's domestic within any particular given state. So he has some power, but this is a limited

government. And when in fact you have state sovereignty

on the other side, and the question is always to try to bite a balance as to when the president

can and not come in.

So to give the extreme case, which shows the power of the principle, suppose it turns out

...