Forgotten Founders II
America at 250: Due Diligence
The story of America’s founding is usually told through the same handful of names: Washington, Jefferson, Adams, Madison, Hamilton and Franklin. But the creation of the United States involved a much larger cast—and some of the men who helped shape the country have nearly disappeared from popular memory. In the second installment of our “Forgotten Founders” series, America at 250: Due Diligence examines the lives and legacies of James Wilson and Roger Sherman, two enormously influential founders whose contributions remain far less familiar than those of their more celebrated...
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I Plead the Fifth
America at 250: Due Diligence
“I plead the Fifth.” It’s one of the most recognizable phrases in American law — and one of the most misunderstood. In this episode of America at 250: Due Diligence, Bill Bernardoni and Steve Herman look at how the Fifth Amendment’s protection against self-incrimination became intertwined with guilt in the American imagination. Brandeis University professor Thomas Doherty takes us back to the 1947 Hollywood hearings, when the Hollywood Ten refused to answer questions from the House Un-American Activities Committee and ultimately went to prison for contempt of Congress. From there,...
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Forgotten Founders
America at 250: Due Diligence
Everyone knows Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Hamilton and Franklin. But some of the people who played crucial roles in creating the United States have almost disappeared from the story. In this episode of America at 250: Due Diligence, Steve Herman and Bill Bernardoni look at two of the most consequential—and most overlooked—figures of the founding generation: John Dickinson and Gouverneur Morris. Historian Dr. Jane Calvert, director and chief editor of the John Dickinson Writings Project and author of Penman of the Founding, explains how Dickinson became one of the most famous Americans...
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Whose Religion?
America at 250: Due Diligence
The fight over church and state is back in the classroom. Texas requires the Ten Commandments to be displayed in public schools. Similar laws have emerged in Louisiana and Arkansas, while states are also considering Bible-based curriculum and school chaplain programs. Supporters argue these policies recognize America's history and religious heritage. Opponents say they cross a constitutional line by putting government behind a particular faith. In this episode of America at 250: Due Diligence, Bill Bernardoni and Steve Herman examine how an argument that began before the Constitution was...
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Faith Without Force
America at 250: Due Diligence
Who should decide what Americans believe—and what happens when government takes a side? The First Amendment prohibits the establishment of religion while protecting its free exercise. But the phrase most closely associated with that principle—a “wall of separation between church and state”—does not appear in the Constitution. It comes from an 1802 letter written by President Thomas Jefferson to a group of Baptists in Danbury, Connecticut. In this episode of America at 250: Due Diligence, Bill Bernardoni and Steve Herman trace the origins of religious liberty from the persecution of...
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The Free Press On Trial
America at 250: Due Diligence
America at 250: Due Diligence goes live from the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., for a special hour recorded in the Club's First Amendment Room. As the country marks its 250th year, hosts Bill Bernardoni and Steve Herman convene a conversation on the state of a free press, introduced by National Press Club president Mark Schoeff Jr. of CQ Roll Call. The episode opens with a statement from Catherine Herridge, the Emmy Award-winning investigative correspondent who has covered national security and intelligence for ABC, Fox, and CBS. Herridge was held in civil contempt in February 2024...
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Making Friends: Benjamin Franklin and America’s First Public Diplomacy Campaign
America at 250: Due Diligence
Before the United States could win its independence, it had to convince the world that the American experiment was worth supporting. The thirteen colonies had no navy, no national treasury, and little credibility among Europe’s great powers. Defeating the British Empire would require more than success on the battlefield. The revolutionaries needed weapons, loans, trade, diplomatic recognition, and powerful foreign allies. They also had to persuade European leaders and ordinary citizens that a collection of rebellious colonies could become a stable and successful nation. In this episode of...
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The Power of War
America at 250: Due Diligence
Who decides when the United States goes to war? The Constitution divides that responsibility between Congress and the president. Congress possesses the power to declare and fund war, while the president serves as commander in chief. But from the earliest years of the republic, the boundary between those powers has been tested, stretched, and frequently blurred. In this episode of America at 250: Due Diligence, Bill Bernardoni and Steve Herman trace the evolution of American war powers from Thomas Jefferson’s campaign against the Barbary powers to Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, and...
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One Toke Over the Line: Prohibition, Marijuana, and the Limits of Federal Power
America at 250: Due Diligence
Alcohol prohibition required the Constitution twice—once to impose it and once to repeal it. Marijuana prohibition took a different path, imposed through federal law even as a growing number of states have chosen legalization. In this episode of America at 250: Due Diligence, Steve Herman and Bill Bernardoni examine how national prohibition takes hold, what happens when Americans refuse to comply, and how conflicts between federal and state power can reshape the law. Historian Richard Hamm explains how nearly a century of temperance organizing, religious activism, women’s groups, and...
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Power Struggle: Energy, Climate, and the Future
America at 250: Due Diligence
In April 1977, Jimmy Carter told the country that solving its energy crisis would take sacrifice — that the alternative might be, in his words, a national catastrophe. Nearly fifty years later, the crisis looks different. The gas lines are gone. In their place: climate change, an aging power grid, and data centers that are starting to draw more electricity than entire cities. But the underlying argument hasn't moved an inch. Who decides what America builds? Who pays for it? And who has the authority to make that call — Washington, the states, or nobody at all? The Constitution says almost...
info_outlineAmerica at 250: Due Diligence goes live from the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., for a special hour recorded in the Club's First Amendment Room. As the country marks its 250th year, hosts Bill Bernardoni and Steve Herman convene a conversation on the state of a free press, introduced by National Press Club president Mark Schoeff Jr. of CQ Roll Call.
The episode opens with a statement from Catherine Herridge, the Emmy Award-winning investigative correspondent who has covered national security and intelligence for ABC, Fox, and CBS. Herridge was held in civil contempt in February 2024 for refusing to disclose the confidential sources behind a 2017 series of national security reports for Fox News. The case arises from a Privacy Act lawsuit brought against four federal agencies by Yanping Chen — not a defamation claim against Herridge's reporting — and key evidence in it remains under seal. On July 2, the Supreme Court denied Herridge's request to halt an $800-a-day contempt fine; she describes making her first payment, the toll on her family, and her legal team's plans to petition the Supreme Court for review later this summer.
A panel of journalists and First Amendment lawyers then takes up her case and its wider implications. Toni Locy, who spent 25 years reporting for outlets including the Washington Post, USA Today, and the Associated Press before joining the Washington and Lee University journalism faculty, was herself held in contempt in 2008 for refusing to name sources behind her USA Today reporting on the FBI's flawed investigation of the 2001 anthrax attacks — and describes fighting escalating fines without ever naming a source or spending a day in jail. Laura Handman, a Davis Wright Tremaine partner with four decades representing publishers and broadcasters in First Amendment litigation, and Eric Hageman, a Clare Locke LLP partner who represented Dominion Voting Systems in its case against Fox News, bring opposing vantage points — media defense and plaintiff-side defamation — to the conversation.
In this episode:
- The FBI's pre-dawn search of Washington Post reporter Hannah Natanson's home and seizure of her devices, and the Privacy Protection Act questions it raised
- Justice Department subpoenas served on New York Times reporters, including phone records tied to coverage of the president's return flight from Qatar
- Prospects for a federal shield law (the PRESS Act) and Rep. Jamie Raskin's efforts to revive it
- State anti-SLAPP laws and how they discourage lawsuits designed to shake down news organizations
- Whether the Supreme Court should reconsider New York Times v. Sullivan and the "actual malice" standard
- The Dominion v. Fox News settlement and its influence on defamation doctrine
- Lawsuits brought by President Trump against news organizations, including settlements with ABC and CBS, weighed against Teddy Roosevelt's own defamation suit against a newspaper
- Legal fights over editorial independence at Voice of America and Stars and Stripes
- Audience questions on shield-law prospects, leak investigations, and public trust in the media
Guests
Catherine Herridge — Emmy Award-winning investigative correspondent; formerly with ABC, Fox, and CBS; reported from Afghanistan, Iraq, Qatar, Israel, Northern Ireland, Russia, and the former Yugoslavia; graduate of Harvard and the Columbia Journalism School, where she founded a national security reporting scholarship; now an independent journalist on X, YouTube, and via her newsletter.
Toni Locy — Journalism faculty, Washington and Lee University; 25-year reporting career at the Pittsburgh Press, Philadelphia Daily News, Boston Globe, Washington Post, U.S. News & World Report, USA Today, and the Associated Press; holds a master's in law studies from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law.
Laura Handman — Partner, Davis Wright Tremaine; executive committee, Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press; four decades of First Amendment litigation for U.S. and foreign publishers and broadcasters.
Eric Hageman — Partner, Clare Locke LLP; represents individuals, corporations, nonprofits, and religious institutions in defamation litigation; author of merits and amicus briefs before the U.S. Supreme Court and federal courts of appeals.
Credits
Hosted by Steve Herman and Bill Bernardoni. Executive Producers: Steve Herman and Bill Bernardoni. Audio production by Bill Bernardoni of Bernardoni Media & Marketing. Recorded live at the National Press Club, Washington, D.C., July 21, 2026; portions recorded at WUMS Radio, Oxford, Mississippi. Support for the program comes from the Radio Free America™ Project and the Jordan Center for Journalism, Advocacy and Innovation at the University of Mississippi School of Journalism and New Media.
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