Deepfakes and Lying Liars

Deepfakes and Lying Liars

Author: Roman Mars September 24, 2024 Duration: 31:58
Election deepfakes have the potential to change people's opinions about a presidential election in ways that can be harmful to democracy and the truth itself. But what does the Constitution say about regulating these manipulated images? One place to look: Hustler Magazine.

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.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 93

What Trump Can Teach Us About Con Law
Podcast Episodes
War Powers [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 13:54
What does the Constitution say about the president’s ability to wage war and what is the role of Congress?
Impeachment [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 19:06
Impeachment is talked about a lot, but it is extremely rare. Impeachment is the constitutional emergency measure written into the constitution itself. We talk about the procedure impeachment and why it's so hard.
Commerce Clause [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 18:13
The federal government can't pass any law it wants to. It's limited by Article 1 Section 8 of the Constitution, but the executive branch can choose how to enforce those laws. Under Trump, there are indications that drug…
The Takings Clause [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 19:13
To build a wall, Trump is going to need to seize private land. The Constitution has something to say about that and it’s known as the Takings Clause.
Recess Appointment Power [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 16:57
The Constitution says that the president can appoint important executive positions with the advice and consent of the Senate. But what if the Senate is out on recess? Does the president have to wait until the Senate come…
The Emoluments Clauses [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 18:08
The Constitution says that a “person holding any office of profit or trust” cannot accept gifts from any foreign state. In Article II, it also says the president specifically cannot accept gifts from “United States, or a…
Presidential Immunity [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 19:04
There have already been a few high profile lawsuits against President Trump and the first defense against such a lawsuit is to claim that the president cannot be sued in civil court. But it turns out, the Supreme Court h…
The Spending Clause [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 13:59
In an executive order, Trump threatened to withhold federal money from any place acting as a “sanctuary city.” Supreme Court rulings over the 20th century have ruled in different ways on how federal money can be used to…
Pardon Power [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 13:40
There are reports that the Trump administration is being investigated for obstruction of justice. This has led a lot of people to wonder if the Constitution’s presidential pardon power could be used to absolve members of…
The Appointments Clause and Removal Power [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 16:50
The US Constitution has a clause that describes how the president can hire certain political appointees with the advice and consent of the Senate. It doesn’t say when the president can fire someone. We take a look at rec…