The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for March 6, 2025

Brian is away today, so we’re rebroadcasting a report from last July, which is particularly apt for the shattering of the norms of the presidency we’ve witnessed in the first weeks of the Trump second term.

Anti-authoritarian feelings ran high in the years before and after the signing of the Declaration of Independence, as the Declaration’s litany of complaints against the King suggests.  So it’s unlikely the founding fathers would have supported expansion of Presidential powers, and absolute immunity for “official acts.”

The July 1st opinion from the so-called “originalist” members of the U.S. Supreme Court invokes Alexander Hamilton’s Federalist Papers vision for a “vigorous” and “energetic” Executive.  Without that, “the President would be chilled from taking the “bold and unhesitating action” required of an independent Executive.”   But that’s not the whole story.

Three other prominent framers of the U.S. Constitution, James Madison, Benjamin Franklin, and George Mason, feared the opposite, and pushed for a multiple-person executive council to decentralize power.  Ultimately they compromised,  stipulating that the President  seek “advice and consent” from the Senate for appointments and treaties. 

Constitutional Convention delegate James Wilson said during debates on the Constitution,  “Sir, we have a responsibility in the person of our President; he cannot act improperly, and hide either his negligence or inattention; he cannot roll upon any other person the weight of his criminality. He continued, “Far from being above the laws, he is amenable to them in his private character as a citizen, and in his public character by impeachment.” 

We’ve linked those documents and to the text of the Declaration of Independence  at AmericanDemocracyMinute.org.  I’m Brian Beihl.

Today’s Links

Articles & Resources:
National Archives – Declaration of Independence: A Transcription
U.S. Supreme Court – Trump v. United States
Library of Congress – Constitutional Convention Debate Transcripts – James Wilson
Newsweek – The Founding Fathers Didn’t Think Donald Trump Should Get Immunity Either | Opinion
University of Virginia Miller Center – IMPEACHMENT IN THE 1780S – Speech of James Iredell, North Carolina advocate for ratifying the U.S. Constitution
The Hill – Ty Cobb: Founding Fathers would be ‘weeping and stunned’ over Trump guilty verdict
Salon – Historian says Trump lawyer “deliberatively misleading” SCOTUS: Ben Franklin “would be horrified”
Washington Post – (2017) The president was never intended to be the most powerful part of government
Robert J. Reinstein, American University Law Review – (2017) The Limits of Executive Power

Groups Taking Action:
ACLU, Lawyer’s Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, International Refugee Assistance Project

Register or Check Your Voter Registration:

U.S. Election Assistance Commission – Register And Vote in Your State

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The post Would the Founding Fathers Have Embraced Having Unfettered Power for the Presidency?  Not Likely. appeared first on American Democracy Minute.