Category: Other

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Constitutional Conservatism and the Electoral College

Greg Weiner

At The New York Times, J. Michael Luttig, formerly a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, makes a compelling conservative case for clarifying the Electoral Count Act. Self-described constitutional conservatives like Senators Ted Cruz of Texas and Josh Hawley of Missouri exploited the Act’s ambiguity to attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election last January 6, adding oxygen to the fire that Donald Trump had lit and fanned with weeks of falsehoods. Luttig’s conservative case for the Electoral College is firmly rooted in federalism and equally firmly opposed to centralization. He writes: “It should be … Continue reading Constitutional Conservatism and the Electoral College

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Trump v. Thompson and the Meaning of Executive Privilege Today

Gary J. Schmitt and Jeffrey K. Tulis

Gary J. Schmitt is a senior fellow in Social, Cultural, and Constitutional Studies at the American Enterprise Institute.  Jeffrey K. Tulis is Professor of Government and Professor of Law at The University of Texas at Austin. On January 19, in Trump … Continue reading Trump v. Thompson and the Meaning of Executive Privilege Today

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Trump ’24: On Running for President from Prison-He Wouldn’t be the First

Michael A. Genovese

Michael A. Genovese serves as the President of the Global Policy Institute at Loyola Marymount University and is the author of over fifty books including the forthcoming THE MODERN PRESIDENCY (Columbia University Press).  There is a joke making the rounds … Continue reading Trump ’24: On Running for President from Prison-He Wouldn’t be the First

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More on January 6

Jeffrey K. Tulis

After his superb speech, President Biden was asked questions by reporters in the hallway of the Capitol. Some had questions born of Ben Kleinerman’s perspective. Ben praised the end of the speech where Biden called for unity and healing. A reporter asked whether that was inconsistent with the bulk of the speech. How can you ask people to heal and unify after you had skewered the former President? Biden’s response was that before one can heal one has to face up to the wound. The January 6 investigation in Congress, the Vice President’s speech, the President’s speech, the Attorney General’s … Continue reading More on January 6

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Not Right, Adam White

Jeffrey K. Tulis

I know Adam White, admire some of his work, and like him personally. So I was very surprised to see his statement against reforms of the Supreme Court contained in a Report that had been submitted to the White House and released to the public. The Commission’s Report was approved unanimously by the Commission and released by the White House. The Report does not advocate positions but instead attempts to fairly present the array of views on each side of the reform issues and proposals. Some citizens have criticized the Report and the White House for avoiding hard political choices. … Continue reading Not Right, Adam White

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Sounding the Alarm

Jeffrey K. Tulis

This morning The New Republic and The Bulwark simultaneously published an Open Letter (linked here to each publication). This effort, organized by Todd Gitlin, Jeffrey Isaac and Bill Kristol, brings together an array of writers from the left to the right, from Noam Chomsky to Mona Charen, from Michael Walzer to Max Boot, from Dahlia Lithwick to Damon Linker. I am honored to be among them and joined by fellow contributors here, Laura Field and George Thomas. This is a moment of democratic crisis and the reasons to call attention to it this way are well described in the letter … Continue reading Sounding the Alarm

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Claremont Institute Dissembles 

George Thomas

I agree entirely with Greg Weiner’s post on The Claremont Institute. To follow the Clue analogy, the evidence suggests, contrary to the Claremont Institute’s dissembling statement, that Eastman was doing far more than offering legal advice.  Here’s the memo itself. Maybe it could be read as only offering advice to Vice President Pence on his authority under the 12th Amendment.  But here’s Eastman on Jan 6, where he “demands” that Vice President Pence exercise his constitutional “authority” to pause the counting of the state certified EC votes: https://www.c-span.org/video/?c4933578/user-clip-rudy-giuliani-professor-john-eastman Continue reading Claremont Institute Dissembles 

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Claremont Plays the Victim Card

Greg Weiner

The Claremont Institute released a statement this morning defending John Eastman against charges that he tried to subvert the 2020 election by giving Vice President Pence a road map for impeding the Electoral College. It lodges two complaints. The first amounts to a claim that the media has misrepresented the precise manner in which Eastman advised Pence to subvert the voters’ constitutional will. This is like a player of the game Clue saying that Colonel Mustard was a good dinner guest because he actually committed the murder in the conservatory with the lead pipe rather than in the conservatory with … Continue reading Claremont Plays the Victim Card

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Thunder on the Mountain

Jeffrey K. Tulis

For reasons I don’t quite understand myself, the current controversy at the American Political Science Association brought to mind this Bob Dylan song. The APSA meets this week in Seattle with many members attending remotely online. Among the panels on the preliminary schedule are some sponsored by outside organizations given affiliated status. For many years the Claremont Institute has been among these groups. This year Claremont advertised a panel that included the insurrectionist and vile minor league law professor John Eastman. As readers of The Constitutionalist will know, Eastman delivered an incendiary speech at Trump’s insurrection rally, and had planned … Continue reading Thunder on the Mountain