Live at the National Constitution Center

George F. Will and Sai Prakash on the Presidency

June 02, 2020

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Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist George F. Will joins Saikrishna Prakash, professor of law at the University of Virginia, for a conversation on Prakash's new book, The Living Presidency: An Originalist Argument Against Its Ever-Expanding Powers. They explore the expansion of presidential power from the founding era to today; provide their take on what, if any, constraints there may be on executive power; and whether originalism can provide a solution. National Constitution Center President and CEO Jeffrey Rosen moderates.

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PARTICIPANTS

George F. Will writes a twice-weekly column on politics and domestic and foreign affairs for The Washington Post. He began his column with The Post in 1974, and he received the Pulitzer Prize for commentary in 1977. He is also a regular contributor to MSNBC and NBC News. His books include, The Conservative Sensibility; One Man’s America: The Pleasures and Provocations of Our Singular Nation; Restoration: Congress, Term Limits and the Recovery of Deliberative Democracy; among others.

Saikrishna Prakash is James Monroe Distinguished Professor of Law; Paul G. Mahoney Research Professor of Law; and Miller Center Senior Fellow at the University of Virginia. He is the author of the book The Living Presidency: An Originalist Argument Against Its Ever-Expanding Powers and Imperial from the Beginning: The Constitution of the Original Executive among many other works.

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. Rosen is also professor of law at The George Washington University Law School and a contributing editor of The Atlantic.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

This episode was engineered by David Stotz, Kevin Kilbourne, and Greg Scheckler and produced by Jackie McDermott and Tanaya Tauber.

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