Hi, I'm Jeff Sickengut, Executive Director of the Ashbrook Center,

and this is the American Idea, where we discuss the ideas, people, and events, that have made America what it is today.

We believe that by understanding our history and our principles, we can better live up to the

promise of the American founding and preserve our ongoing experiment in self-government.

Welcome to the American Idea.

Well, I want to welcome everyone to this episode of the American Idea.

Well, I want to welcome everyone to this episode of the American Idea.

Today we're going to be talking about an idea principle that is central to American government,

has played an important critical role in American, a course in development of American history.

And it's one maybe that a lot of us as Americans are familiar with, but definitely do not understand well enough. And I am talking about the idea of separation of powers. We're going to be

talking about this topic today. What is it? Why is it so important? And what is the state of the health of separation of powers today with our old friend, David Alvis. Many of you know Davis, our listeners, you know him from his work with Ashbrook and our graduate program, our Master of Arts in American History and Government.

David teaches teaching American history seminars for us and has now edited, along with Joe Postel, a wonderful volume, separation of powers, a core documents.

And that's one of many in our core documents collection. I can tell you from

having it, from looking at it, it's absolutely terrific. I attribute that mostly to Joe Postel,

but a little bit. David, those you don't know, of course, teaches politics at Wofford College, where he has been for a number of years now.

And as I say, he has been an active contributor to Ashbrook's educational outreach to students, teachers, and citizens.

And has also co-authored a terrific book called The Contested Removal Power, which is about the ability

of presidents, the authority of presidents, to remove people from various parts and branches,

of course, their own in the federal government.

As he understands it, and we'll talk about today, that's another power that needs to be understood

in light of the idea of separation of powers. What authorities do presidents have to remove people?

One of the questions we'll get into today with David Albus. David, thanks for taking the time

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