In this episode, Thomas Berry of the Cato Institute and Jed Shugerman of the Boston University School of Law join the recap the oral arguments from Trump v. Slaughter and debate whether the statutory removal protections for members of the Federal Trade Commission violate the separation of powers. Jeffrey Rosen, president and CEO of the National Constitution Center, moderates.
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Today’s episode was produced by Bill Pollock and Griffin Richie. It was engineered by Sedona LaMarre and Bill Pollock. Research was provided by Griffin Richie, Anna Salvatore, Trey Sullivan, and Tristan Worsham.
Participants
Thomas Berry is the director of the Cato Institute’s Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies and editor in chief of the Cato Supreme Court Review. Before joining Cato, he was an attorney at the Pacific Legal Foundation.
Jed Shugerman is Professor, Joseph Lipsitt Scholar, and Henry Elwood Warren Scholar at Boston University School of Law. The author of several law review articles about the original public meaning of Article II, he is currently working on two books about the history of executive power and prosecution in America.
Jeffrey Rosen is the president and CEO of the National Constitution Center, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization devoted to educating the public about the U.S. Constitution. He is also professor of law at the George Washington University Law School and a contributing editor of The Atlantic. His new book is Pursuit of Liberty: How Hamilton vs. Jefferson Ignited the Lasting Battle over Power in America.
Additional Resources
- Thomas Berry, Brief of the Cato Institute as Amicus Curiae in Support of Petitioners (10/17/2025)
- Jed Shugerman, Brief Amicus Curiae of Professor Jed Handelsman Shugerman in Support of Respondents (11/14/2025)
- Jed Shugerman, “The Indecisions of 1789: Inconstant Originalism and Strategic Ambiguity” (2023)
- Jane Manners and Lev Menand, “The Three Permissions: Presidential Removal and the Statutory Limits of Agency Independence” (2021)
- Marbury v. Madison (1803)
- Myers v. United States (1926)
- Humphrey’s Executor v. United States (1935)
- Morrison v. Olson (1988)
- Seila Law LLC v. CFPB (2020)
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