The Next Phase of the Fight
Brennan Center LIVE
Challenges to democracy intensified over the summer. The National Guard deployed in California. The Supreme Court ruled on presidential power using the shadow docket. In Texas, an egregious gerrymander has set off a partisan war nationally. Now the fall will mark the next phase of the fight for the Constitution. Will the rule of law hold? How will the 2026 election unfold? Brennan Center experts discuss some of the biggest news stories of the past three months and explore what will come next in the struggle to uphold democratic values. Speakers: , Vice President for Washington, DC ,...
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The Past, Present, and Future of the Voting Rights Act
Brennan Center LIVE
In 1965, a nonviolent voting rights march in Alabama culminated in a brutal televised brutal attack by state police. The public outrage that followed prompted Congress to pass the Voting Rights Act, a law meant to dismantle racially discriminatory barriers to voting. Since then, this landmark civil rights law has faced continued attacks. The Supreme Court has weakened its protections, most notably in the 2013 case Shelby County v. Holder. And just this summer, a lower court ruling in Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians v. Howe blocked voters in seven states from using the Voting Rights...
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The Rise of the Imperial Presidency
Brennan Center LIVE
The executive branch has amassed tremendous power, challenging the constitutional balance among branches of government. This year alone, the president has ignored the laws passed by Congress to fire leaders of independent agencies without cause, freeze the spending of appropriated funds, and deploy the military as a domestic police force. Supporters of vast presidential power have a name for this: the unitary executive. It’s the idea that the Constitution gives the president full personal control over the executive branch and wide latitude to act unilaterally. While legal scholars debate its...
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The Trouble Between Trump and the States on Education Policy
Brennan Center LIVE
President Trump has ordered cuts to the Department of Education and federal education funding. The brunt of these cuts will likely fall on low-income communities. The president is also demanding changes to school services and curricula, including the elimination of diversity, equity, and inclusion programs. State courts and constitutions stand in the president’s way. States are required by their constitutions to provide a public education, and many must meet certain standards, teach certain curricula, and provide student services. In cases where these state obligations conflict...
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The Constitutional Obligation to Justice
Brennan Center LIVE
The end of the 20th century saw the rise of mass incarceration as well as originalism, the idea that judges must interpret the Constitution according to its supposed original intent. In a new book, Justice Abandoned: How the Supreme Court Ignored the Constitution and Enabled Mass Incarceration, legal scholar Rachel Barkow highlights the conflict between the two. Using six Supreme Court cases, she shows how mass incarceration is at odds with the Constitution’s text and original meaning. In this event, Barkow and former U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, who spent eight years overseeing...
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The Supreme Court Term In Review
Brennan Center LIVE
This term, the Supreme Court addressed some of the biggest challenges in its history, with a president determined to break through the constitutional limits of executive power and the Court’s own public approval near all-time lows. Did the justices stand up for the Constitution on the biggest issue facing the country, the extraordinary executive power grab? Against this backdrop, the justices handed down rulings in key cases affecting millions of people’s lives, including access to health care, education, and political representation and the power of federal courts to issue...
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The Guarantee of Birthright Citizenship
Brennan Center LIVE
On the first day of his second term, President Trump issued an executive order purporting to strip U.S. citizenship from the children of undocumented immigrants. The order directly conflicts with the plain language of the 14th Amendment, which states that “all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.” And it defies more than a century of case law. The executive order was met with a wave of court rulings blocking its enforcement, and the Supreme Court has already...
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Presidential Power in the First 100 Days
Brennan Center LIVE
In the first 100 days of his second term, President Trump issued more than 100 executive orders aimed at changing policy through executive authority alone. But has this flurry of orders led to meaningful change? Despite Trump’s sweeping executive actions — ranging from imposing global tariffs and targeting major law firms to declaring an emergency at the southern border and attempting to end birthright citizenship — judges appointed from both parties are pushing back. Already, 46 challenges to executive orders are pending in court, with no clear victories for the administration in...
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The Risks of Government by AI
Brennan Center LIVE
On the day President Trump took office, he revoked the Biden administration’s executive order that imposed guardrails on the development and use of artificial intelligence technology. Since then, Vice President JD Vance and DOGE have pushed to integrate AI into critical government functions. But government use of AI raises important questions about data privacy and democratic integrity. Will the adoption of AI truly benefit Americans? How can we trust this process given the unprecedented role of tech billionaires in the new administration? And what might come next? ...
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Presidents Don’t Control Our Elections
Brennan Center LIVE
President Trump’s new executive order could disenfranchise millions of American citizens, undermine data security, and decertify voting systems across the country. It would give DOGE access to voter records in every state and decertify every voting machine in the United States, costing states hundreds of millions of dollars. Coupled with the SAVE Act, a voter suppression bill that would require every American to provide a document like a passport or birth certificate to register or re-register to vote, these measures could block millions of eligible American citizens from voting and...
info_outlineThe executive branch has amassed tremendous power, challenging the constitutional balance among branches of government. This year alone, the president has ignored the laws passed by Congress to fire leaders of independent agencies without cause, freeze the spending of appropriated funds, and deploy the military as a domestic police force.
Supporters of vast presidential power have a name for this: the unitary executive. It’s the idea that the Constitution gives the president full personal control over the executive branch and wide latitude to act unilaterally. While legal scholars debate its scope, the theory in its most expansive form envisions a king-like president largely unconstrained by Congress or the courts. An embrace of this theory by the executive branch and Supreme Court could carry far-reaching consequences for American democracy.
This conversation among experts examines the modern presidency, the origins of the unitary executive theory, and its implications for the future of checks and balances.
Speakers:
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Samuel Breidbart, Counsel, Brennan Center Democracy Program
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Jane Manners, Associate Professor of Law, Fordham University School of Law
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Julian Davis Mortenson, James G. Phillipp Professor of Law, University of Michigan Law School
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Cristina Rodríguez, Deputy Dean and Leighton Homer Surbeck Professor of Law, Yale Law School
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Moderator: Wilfred U. Codrington III, Walter Floersheimer Professor of Constitutional Law, Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law
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Recorded on August 5, 2025, and produced in partnership with State Court Report.
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