The Federalist: The Courts and the Bill of Rights
The Hillsdale College Online Courses Podcast
Hillsdale College
4.6 • 621 Ratings
🗓️ 20 August 2025
⏱️ 34 minutes
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Summary
On this episode of The Hillsdale College Online Courses Podcast, Jeremiah and Juan discuss the role that the judiciary plays in our republic before introducing Dr. Ronald J. Pestritto.
In a republic, every citizen has a duty to understand their government. The Federalist is the greatest exposition of representative government and the institutional structure of the Constitution. It explains how the Constitution established a government strong enough to secure the rights of citizens and safe enough to wield that power. This course will examine how Publius understood human nature and good government, and why he argued that the only true safeguard of liberty lies in the vigilance of the American people.
The courts must be independent to decide particular cases without undue influence. The separation of powers is a safeguard against tyranny, but the security of a republic lies in the vigilance of the people.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the Hillsdale College Online Courses podcast. I am Jeremiah Regan, and I'm Juan Davalos. We are back with the Federalist. The last lecture today, Lecture 10, The Courts and the Bill of Rights. In this interesting lecture, Dr. Pastrito makes the point |
| 0:21.4 | that the courts have a specific job, and that is to make decisions about supposed violations |
| 0:27.5 | of the law. They're supposed to look at what the law says, what the person is accused of doing, |
| 0:33.1 | and apply the law properly to their case. That's their main job, and really their whole job. In the course |
| 0:39.2 | of that duty, they may discover that Congress or a state government has passed a law that contradicts |
| 0:44.2 | the text of the Constitution, and in which case they need to point that out so the legislature can |
| 0:49.4 | pass a new law that complies with the statutes and the spirit of the Constitution. |
| 0:54.1 | It's interesting that the founders thought with the statutes and the spirit of the Constitution. |
| 0:59.5 | It's interesting that the founders thought that the courts were actually the weakest of all the branches and the one that they were, for lack of a better word, the one that they were least worried |
| 1:04.3 | about taking over power from the other branches. Congress controls the purse and authorizes |
| 1:10.1 | the sword. The executive carries the sword. So the |
| 1:12.7 | legislature has will, the executive has force, but the courts only have judgment. Yeah. And so this is an |
| 1:19.1 | interesting lesson for us today in which the courts have sort of taken a role that is a bigger role |
| 1:24.2 | than they were intended to have. That's right. They like to play legislator and |
| 1:28.1 | they like to play executive. And I think what we're seeing a little bit in America, and maybe I'm |
| 1:32.7 | being too hopeful, but is a return to their role as judges and sticking to that sphere of authority. |
| 1:39.9 | Yeah, one can only hope. But we also talk about the Bill of Rights in this lecture, which is, |
| 1:45.7 | you know, that's one of the great victories from the anti-federalists, which we covered early on |
| 1:50.8 | in the course. But the Bill of Rights was not originally planned as part of the Constitution. |
| 1:55.5 | Obviously, there are amendments that come after the Constitution was ratified. But in many |
| 2:00.6 | senses, it is what people today, you know, |
| 2:04.1 | the average man on the street knows most about the Constitution. And Dr. Pastrido brings this point |
... |
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