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

That's it.

In dictionaries, in context, and debates, and pamphleteering, and poems, that's how they talk about executive power.

Thank you. that's how they talk about executive power. Hi, and welcome back to Amicus, Slate's podcast about the courts and the law and the Constitution and the Supreme Court.

I'm Dahlia Lithufwick, 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 transom yet. And this week, we wanted to continue what started as a little

boomlet 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 clauses. 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 interrogation 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 the constraints on them.

And his Law Review article from earlier this year rocked a lot of people back on their heels with his pretty

radical claims about the meaning of three little words, possibly two little words,

the executive power and what the framers intended the words, the executive power, to mean.

Julian Davis Mortensen is a professor of law at the University of Michigan, where he specializes in constitutional and international law.

His research focuses on the process of establishing constitutional structure, usually from a historical perspective.

And his article that's called Article 2 vests executive power, not the royal prerogative, is in the Columbia Law Review this year. It was a years in the making enterprise and challenges the conventional wisdom on executive authority in really profound and big new ways. Julian Mortensen, welcome to Amicus.

I am thrilled to be here and have the chance to talk about this with you and share some of it with your audience.

As you know, I've admired your writing and work for a very long time, so it's an honor to be here.

Well, thank you.

...