Lawfare Archive: 'The President Who Would Not Be King'

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4.7 • 6.2K Ratings

🗓️ 20 April 2025

⏱️ 56 minutes

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Summary

From January 26, 2021: Jack Goldsmith sat down with Michael McConnell, the Richard and Frances Mallery Professor and director of the Constitutional Law Center at Stanford Law School, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and the author of the new book, "The President Who Would Not Be King: Executive Power Under the Constitution." They discussed McConnell's textual historical approach to interpreting presidential power under Article II of the U.S. Constitution, the many novel elements of executive power embodied in Article II and the proper understanding of Article II's Vesting Clause. They also talked about contemporary implications of Michael's reading of Article II for war powers, the unitary executive and late impeachments.

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0:00.0	The following podcast contains advertising.
0:04.4	To access an ad-free version of the Lawfare podcast, become a material supporter of Lawfare at
0:11.5	patreon.com slash lawfare. That's patreon.com slash lawfare.
0:18.2	Also, check out Lawfare's other podcast offerings, Rational Security, Chatter,
0:25.2	Lawfare No Bull, and The Aftermath.
0:46.3	I'm Carolyn Kornna in Turnout Lawfare, with an episode from The Lawfare Archive for April 20th, 2025. In the first months of his second term, President Donald Trump has tested the limits of executive power.
0:52.3	Trump has claimed authority to remove heads of
0:55.1	independent agencies, impound federal funds, ignore court orders he views as infringing on his
1:00.8	prerogative to conduct foreign affairs, and more. For today's archive episode, I selected an episode
1:06.4	from January 26, 2021, in which Jack Goldsmith sat down with Michael McConnell to discuss his book,
1:13.6	the president who would not be king, executive power under the Constitution.
1:17.6	They talked about McConnell's approach to interpreting presidential power under Article 2,
1:22.6	the proper understanding of Article 2's vest and clause,
1:26.6	contemporary implications of Michael's reading of Article 2, and more.
1:35.7	I'm Jack Goldsmith, and this is the Lawfare podcast, January 26, 2021.
1:48.1	I sat down with Michael McConnell, Richard and Francis Mallory professor, and director of the Constitutional Law Center at Sanford Law School, a senior
1:53.2	fellow at the Hoover Institution, and the author of the new book, The President Who
1:57.4	Who Would Not Be King, Executive Power Under the Constitution. We discussed McConnell's textual historical approach to interpreting presidential power under Article 2,
2:06.6	the many novel elements of executive power embodied in Article 2, and the proper understanding of Article 2's vesting clause.
2:14.6	We also talked about contemporary implications of his reading of Article 2 for war
2:19.3	powers, the unitary executive, and late impeachments. It's the Lawfare podcast, January 26th,
2:26.8	the president who would not be king. Michael, there's so much written about Article 2 of the Constitution, about the nature of the American presidency and of executive power vested by Article 2.
	...

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