Last week, Representative Kevin McCarthy of California became the Speaker of the House, after 15 rounds of voting. It was the first time that a Speaker was not elected on the first ballot since 1923. In this episode, we are joined by scholars Matthew Green, author of The Speaker of the House: A Study of Leadership, and Josh Chafetz, author of Congress’s Constitution: Legislative Authority and the Separation of Powers, to discuss the role and the history of this powerful constitutional office. They also discuss some of the most notable Speakers throughout history, from Henry Clay to Joe Cannon to Nancy Pelosi, and how their legacies helped shaped the House and Congress as we know it. Host Jeffrey Rosen moderates.
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Today’s show was produced by Lana Ulrich and Bill Pollock. It was engineered by Bill Pollock and Kevin Kilbourne. Research was provided by Liam Kerr, Emily Campbell, Sophia Gardell, Sam Desai, and Lana Ulrich.
Participants
Matthew Green is professor and chair of the politics department at Catholic University. He is the author of The Speaker of the House: A Study of Leadership, and his most recent book is Newt Gingrich: The Rise and Fall of a Party Entrepreneur.
Josh Chafetz is a professor of law at Georgetown University Law Center. He is the author of Congress’s Constitution: Legislative Authority and the Separation of Powers.
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
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Matthew Green, The Speaker of the House: A Study of Leadership
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Josh Chafetz, Congress’s Constitution: Legislative Authority and the Separation of Powers
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Scott Bomboy, The Speaker of the House and the Constitution, Constitution Daily (Jan. 5, 2023)
TRANSCRIPT
This transcript may not be in its final form, accuracy may vary, and it may be updated or revised in the future.
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