Featured Appearances
Watch interviews, presentations, and educational commentary that bring constitutional principles and the history of presidential power to life.
In the Courts — TV Interview
Katie Barlow, Fox 5 DC
Discussion of Supreme Court limits on presidential power
Aired: September 2025
Podcast Appearance — Politics with Paul
Conversation on historical checks on presidential power
Released: November 2025
Aired: September 2025
James Madison’s Montpelier
Grand Salon discussion of presidential power and constitutional limits
Released: March 2026
League of Women Voters
Presidential Power Under the Constitution: History, Limits, and the Rule of Law
Examining the constitutional structure and limits of presidential power
March 10, 2026 [click here]
Podcast — Consider the Constitution
Conversation about presidential power at James Madison’s Montpelier
Released: March 2026
Short-Form Video Series
Beginning January 26, 2026, I launched a multi-week initiative to bring clear, plain-English explanations of the Constitution and presidential power to a wider public audience.
Each weekday, I post a new 60-90 second video on TikTok, Instagram Reels, YouTube, and LinkedIn.
These videos cover landmark Supreme Court cases on presidential power, myths and misunderstandings about presidential authority, historical constitutional crises, emergency powers, the limits on the executive branch and the president, how presidents challenge the Court, and how the Court checks presidents.
This page serves as an archive of the full series.
Week 1 — January 26-31
Video 1: “A Republic — If You Can Keep It”
Video 2: Separation of Powers Prevents Abuse of Power
Video 3: The Presidency - A Powerful Office Bound by Law
Why Benjamin Franklin’s famous statement is relevant today
Why the separation of law-making powers is so important
Why the Framers constrained the powers of the presidency
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Video 4: The Judiciary’s Constitutional Role
Video 5: Judging Power — Not Personalities
Video 6: Arresting Journalists and the Constitution
Why the judiciary is essential to the preservation of liberty
Why presidential power is about the law, not personalities
What the arrest of Don Lemon says about presidential power
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Week 2 — February 2-6
Video 7: Presidential Power and Immigration Enforcement
Video 8: Presidential Speech Is Not Presidential Power
Video 9: Can a President Suspend the Constitution?
When a president can use ICE under the Constitution
Why a president’s words alone do not exercise power
When emergencies reveal the strength of constitutional commitment
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Video 10: Can a President Cancel Congressional Elections?
Video 11: Why America Needed George Washington First
The Constitution’s definitive answer
The nation’s first president chose restraint over power
Week 3 — February 9-13
Video 12: When Congress Stops Checking the President
Video 13: Why Martial Law Is Not a Presidential Switch
Video 14: Why Founders Limited the Presidency
The danger of one-party control of government
It’s not a button a president can simply hit
How the Founders carefully engineered the executive office
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Video 15: Can a President Declare Control Over a Country?
Video 16: Can Troops Patrol U.S. Cities?
Presidential authority depends on legal authorization
The constitutional tradition has been very restrictive
Week 4 — February 16-20
Video 17: Can a President Rename National Symbols?
Video 18: What “Faithfully Execute the Law” Means
Video 19: Is a President Above the Law?
Such symbols are not matters of personal presidential discretion
A president is the executor of the law, not its author or editor
The rule of law applies at the highest levels of government
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Video 20: Disagreement Built the Constitution
Video 21: A President’s Use of Lethal Force
But the Founders agreed on what mattered most
The authority to use lethal force does not arise out of office alone
Week 5 — February 23-27
Video 22: Tariffs — A President Reined In
Video 23: Understanding Presidential Power
Video 24: Can a President Defy the Supreme Court?
A textbook example of how our constitutional system works
What the Constitution actually says about such power
What has been the history of this for nearly 240 years?
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Video 25: When Presidents Overreach on Imprisonment
Video 26: Why the Founders Chose One President
Presidents do not have unchecked power to imprison people
History shows plural executives do not work
Week 6 — March 2-6
Video 27: Why Majority Rule Isn’t Enough
Video 28: War Powers and the Constitution
Video 29: Term Limits for Federal Judges?
Why majorities can be just as tyrannical as kings
Who has the authority to take the nation to war?
Can Congress do this with ordinary legislation?
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Video 30: Is America on the Verge of Collapse?
Video 31: What Courts Can — and Cannot — Do
No guarantees - but history would suggest otherwise
The judiciary does not sit as a super-legislature
Week 7 — March 9-13
Video 32: Why Congress Rarely Declares War
Video 33: Why Presidents Aren’t Kings
Video 34: The Supreme Court and Presidential Power
The Framers expected Congress to play the central role
The Framers did not create a national ruler
My book on that very subject
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Video 35: Presidential Power Abroad — And Its Limits
Video 36: The Character of a Nation
Deference, yes — but not unlimited authority
Political institutions reflect the people they govern
Week 8 — March 16-20
Video 37: When Can a President Be Impeached?
Video 38: Can a President Forgive Federal Crimes?
Video 39: Why No President Has Unlimited Power
The constitutional mechanism for serious abuses of authority
And are any limits placed on such a power?
The separation of powers is designed to prevent such power
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Video 40: Why Presidents Don’t Appoint Justices Alone
Video 41: Why Is a President’s Term Four Years?
How the answer reflects a central principle of the Constitution
The Framers were trying to balance two competing concerns
Week 9 — March 23-27
Video 42: Three Things a President Cannot Do
Video 43: Can a President Pardon Himself?
Video 44: Can the Military Say No to the President?
The presidency is powerful — but not unlimited
The Constitution does not answer every question
The answer lies in a deeply rooted principle in U.S. law
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Video 45: Can a President Refuse to Leave Office?
Video 46: Can a President Seize Ballots with the Military?
In our system, authority follows the office — not the person
The division of election authority was not accidental
Week 10 — March 30-April 3
Video 47: Why Does a President Take an Oath?
Video 48: Why Don’t Americans Vote Directly for President?
Video 49: Can a President Decide Who Is an American?
The answer goes to the heart of the Constitution
The Framers saw the Electoral College as the solution
Presidential judgment is not a constitutional demand
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Video 50: Why Must a President Be 35?
Video 51: Why Judicial Independence Matters
This minimum requirement is not arbitrary
And why it’s not tied to any one decision or moment
Week 11 — April 6-10
Video 52: Why Does the President Have a Veto?
Video 53: Can a President Tear Down the White House?
Video 54: Who Wins: The President or the Courts?
Why give that kind of power to one person?
The answer highlights an important constitutional principle
The Constitution anticipates this contest
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Week 12 — April 13-17
Video 55: Can a President Pressure the Pope?
Video 56: Can a President Start a War Alone?
Video 57: Can the President Control College Sports?
Such an action can be a warning sign
The Framers’ intentional division of that power
The answer raises a deep question about presidential power
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Week 13 — April 20-24
Video 58: What If a President Can’t Do the Job?
Video 59: Can a President Launch a Nuclear Strike?
Video 60: Has a President Ever Been Removed from Office?
In moments of uncertainty, the rule of law still governs
And what if the order to launch is unlawful?
The bar is high because the constitutional stakes are high
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Week 14 — April 27-May 1
Video 61: Have US Presidents Ever Been Assassinated?
Video 62: Has a President Ever Resigned?
Video 63: Is Presidential Power the Same as Personal Power?
The answer reveals an important feature of governance
How the rule of law is supposed to work
What’s at stake is not just one presidency or person
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Week 15 — May 4-8
Video 64: The Voting Rights Act and Presidential Power
Video 65: Can a President Target Political Rivals?
Video 66: What Is the Supreme Court’s “Shadow Docket”?
Defining what a President can and cannot do
And use the Justice Department to do so?
The practice isn’t new — see what has changed
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Week 16 — May 11-15
Video 67: Should Supreme Court Justices Have Term Limits?
Video 68: Why Presidents Care About Gerrymandering
Video 69: What If Congress Stops Checking a President?
Judicial independence v. democratic accountability
It’s not simply about drawing up congressional districts
The Framers did not expect a President to police himself
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Week 17 — May 18-22
Video 70: Can a President Define Gender?
Video 71: Should a President Be Limited to Just One Term?
Video 72: Is the President Really All Powerful?
The issue is not just about gender
Would a single longer term better serve the country?
The Constitution did not create an unchecked ruler
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Week 18 — May 25-29
Video 73: Can a President Create a “Weaponization” Fund?
Video 74: Should the Electoral College Be Replaced?
Video 75: How Did Human Nature Shape the Presidency?
The debate goes to the heart of the separation of powers
A debated feature of our constitutional government.
The Framers assumed human nature does not change
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Week 19 — June 1-5
Video 76: What Is a President’s “Bully Pulpit?”
Video 77: Can Presidents Preserve Democratic Stability?
Video 78: The “Weaponization” Fund: Checks and Balances Working?
The presidency is a uniquely powerful platform
The answer is more than many people realize
Congress and the judiciary collectively checking the president
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Week 20 — June 8-12
Video 79: Can a President Profit from the Presidency?
Video 80: Who Really Controls AI: Congress or the President?
Video 81: Can Congress Stop a President’s War
A president’s personal interest vs. the public interest
It’s not only about technology — it’s about the Constitution
The Framers anticipated this sort of conflict
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Week 21 — June 15-19
Video 82: Can a President Rule by Executive Order?
Video 83: America’s 250th: Why We Don’t Have Kings
Video 84: Is the Country Bigger than Just One President?
Can such orders be used to rewrite the Constitution?
The profound connection between the Declaration and the presidency
The Framers had a definite answer to this question
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Video 85: Why Must Presidents Peacefully Transfer Power?
And why such transfers should not be taken for granted