Taking an intention or instruction that you had been handed and executing it.

Like, that's it.

Indictionaries and context and debates and pamphletering and poems.

That's how they talk about executive power.

Hi and welcome back to Amicus Slates Podcast about the Courts and the Law and the Constitution

and the Spring Court.

I'm Dahlia Lathwick and I cover those things for Slate.

This show is part of our Summertime series introducing you to all sorts of people in the

world of the law and the courts who are doing and writing interesting things that maybe

haven't crossed your trance on yet.

And this week we wanted to continue what started as a little boom lit at the end of last

spring of exploring presidential powers.

We've talked a little bit on various shows this year about Article 2, specifically the

Take Care Clause and then the Faithful Execution Clause and it's all by way of thinking about

whether anything in the founding documents demands any kind of behaviors or compliance

by the president.

I think we all agree that presidential powers keep growing and expanding whether that was

the Bush administration, wiretapping and irrigation claims or the Obama-era policies

on drone strikes.

And we probably also all agree that Donald Trump has taken these arguments to the next

level with really sweeping claims about a border emergency or executive privilege.

So our guest today comes with a pretty radical new reading of those executive powers and

...