Who Gets To Sue
How many of you have been personally victimized by President Trump’s tacky ballroom?
What Trump Can Teach Us About Con Law
Roman Mars hosts What Trump Can Teach Us About Con Law, a series that uses the unprecedented events of a single presidency as a live case study in American government. The core of the podcast comes from constitutional law professor Elizabeth Joh, who found her usual curriculum upended during those four years. Instead of relying solely on settled historical cases, she began scrambling to reconcile the latest presidential tweet or statement with centuries of judicial precedent minutes before walking into her classroom. Each episode digs into one of those real-time constitutional puzzles-questions about pardons, emoluments, executive orders, and presidential power that moved from theoretical to urgently practical. Listening feels like auditing a dynamic, topical seminar where complex legal concepts are unpacked through the lens of recent history. You’ll hear how the foundational document is stretched, tested, and interpreted not in the abstract, but through the actions of the 45th president. This isn’t about politics; it’s about the machinery of the constitution itself, examined at a moment when it was under extraordinary public scrutiny. The podcast makes the often-opaque world of constitutional law accessible and immediately relevant, showing how its principles are constantly being defined by the present.
Episodes
Do You Know How Your Phone Works?
A massive victory for privacy advocates in the Supreme Court hinged on what the justices say a user “reasonably expects” to be their own, personal data.
Constitutional Explosive Diarrhea
A Supreme Court decision about the administrative state went under the radar, but its implications have the potential to touch almost every aspect of modern life.
Shop Class and Sports Teams
In a decision filled with hypotheticals, the Supreme Court has ruled it is constitutional to bar transgender girls and women from playing on school sports teams that match their gender identity.
Who Gets To Be a Citizen?
The Supreme Court narrowly upheld birthright citizenship in the 5-4 decision of Trump v. Barbara. But the debate over who is granted citizenship — and who can be stripped of it — is far from over.
Cracking and Packing
Gerrymandering has long been part of American politics. But as the conservative majority on the Supreme Court has gutted the Voting Rights Act, states are getting more extreme with their redistricting.
What Is a War?
The Trump administration’s attacks on Venezuelan boats defy even the broadest interpretation of the president's war powers.
Smoot, Hawley, and Trump
A Senate fight over Lady Chatterley’s Lover paved the way for Trump’s sweeping tariffs. Now the Supreme Court will decide if presidents can use emergency powers to sidestep Congress on trade.
Bad Faith President
The United States generally does not allow a standing army to be used against civilians. But Trump has been exploiting an exception to keep troops in Los Angeles to protect ICE agents, with terrifying implications.
The Return of Con Law
Announcing The 99% Invisible Breakdown: The Constitution and the return of What Trump Can Teach Us About Con Law.
