The Naked Constitution

Hosted by Adam Freedman

The Naked Constitution

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Welcome to The Naked Constitution podcast – the audio companion to our own Adam Freedman’s forthcoming book by the same name.  In each episode, Adam gathers distinguished experts to explain the original meaning of the Founders’ words – and to demolish the “Living Constitution” theory that empowers judges and politicians to expand government power and shrink individual liberty.   Along the way, we’ll have some fun with the preposterous theories that liberals use to make the Constitution stand for things that it clearly does not.

We recommend subscribing, either in iTunes or the podcast catcher of your choice, to get each new episode as soon as it's released. If you use iTunes, simply click on the image at the right.  iTunes will open and ask you for a user name and password.  Please enter the same email and password you use to log on to Ricochet.

If you use another podcast catcher, copy this address: http://ricochet.com/podcast/feed/naked-constitution and paste it into your podcast software.  Your podcast software must support HTTP authentication to access the feed.

Or, just play the individual podcast episodes below.
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Questions? Comments? Please contact us at podcast@ricochet.com.

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January 11, 2013
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The Naked Constitution is back from Christmas Break!  This week Adam talks about the constitution’s safeguards for property and economic rights with a man who fights to uphold those rights: Robert McNamara of the Institute for Justice. Although many liberals will insist that the Constitution has little to say about property (“life, liberty, and … whatever”), we beg to differ.  We discuss the Founders’ deep respect for property rights, and how those rights should inform an originalist interpretation. In particular, we try to resurrect the sadly-neglected “privileges or immunities” clause, which originally protected the right to earn an honest living and other economic freedoms.  Finally, Richard Epstein is with us in spirit, as we discuss the Fifth Amendment’s takings clause, and why theKelodecision ranks right up there with the Supreme Court’s worst rulings.   

Adam's book, The Naked Constitution is now available! Order it here.

You can subscribe to this podcast by following the instructions here. Direct link fans, click here.

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December 5, 2012
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This week, we look at the Second Amendment.  The good news is that the Supreme Court has upheld an individual right to bear arms, but the bad news is that most lower courts haven’t gotten the message.  Which part of "out of my cold, dead hands" don't they understand?  To help us out, we’ve brought in the heavy guns: George Mason Law Professor Nelson Lund, the Patrick Henry Professor of Constitutional Law and the Second Amendment, and Professor Eugene Volokh of UCLA Law School makes a return visit to Ricochet.  We discuss the original understanding of the Second Amendment, as well as the Supreme Court’s landmark decision in DC v. Heller – and where Justice Scalia may have opened the door to lower court mischief.

Adam's book, The Naked Constitution is now available! Order it here.

You can subscribe to this podcast by following the instructions here. Direct link fans, click here.

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November 20, 2012
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Update: The correct episode is now available. Use the player above or click here to get it. If you use iTunes, delete the current episode and re-load the feed. 

This week, we go to the barricades to defend religious freedom.  We’re joined by Piero Tozzi from the Alliance Defending Freedom (formerly the Alliance Defense Fund), an organization on the front lines of the battle.  We explore the original understanding of the Establishment Clause as a federalism provision and not – as it has become – a requirement of radical secularism.  We also talk about the Free Exercise clause, and how “progressives” have cast it aside.  Finally, Piero treats us to a lively discussion of the culture of death, and why the preservation of religion is so important.  It’s everything you wanted to know about sects, but were afraid to ask!

Adam's book, The Naked Constitution is now available! Order it here.

You can subscribe to this podcast by following the instructions here. Direct link fans, click here. 

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October 30, 2012
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At last we arrive at a Constitutional provision that everyone can feel good about: the First Amendment’s guarantee of freedom of speech. Even our liberal friends agree with unfettered free speech (well, except for corporations, abortion protestors, and climate change “deniers”). From UCLA Law School, Professor Eugene Volokh (founder of the invaluable Volokh Conspiracy blog) helps to illustrate the somewhat amorphous scope of free speech, but argues that “symbolic speech” and judicial balancing tests are consistent with original meaning. From the Institute for Justice, merry litigator Paul Sherman talks about the threat posed by government regulations that seek to control who can speak about certain topics. We don’t always agree with each others’ points, but we will defend to the death our right to make them.

Adam's book, The Naked Constitution is now available!  Order it here.

You can subscribe to this podcast by following the instructions here. Direct linkers, click here. 

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October 16, 2012
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We have no fear this week – after all, we’re discussing “the least dangerous branch.” And yet, we find ourselves wondering how the federal judiciary has oh-so-meekly taken over the duties of the other two branches of government. Cato Scholar and veteran court-watcher Walter Olson explains the perils of judicial activism by unelected judges. But Clark Neilly of the Institute for Justice warns that “judicial abdication” can be just as bad – with examples of (ouch!) forced sterilization laws. Throw in some background about the Founders’ fear of judges “construing” the Constitution and you get a cracking good discussion of the real meaning of Article III.

Adam's book, The Naked Constitution, is now available! Order it here.

You can subscribe to this podcast by following the instructions here. Direct link fans, click here.

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October 8, 2012
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After last week's big debate, what else can we discuss?  This episode is all about the presidency -- or what's left of it.  Host Adam Freedman welcomes two of our most esteemed contributors:  Law Talk's Professor John Yoo (and Berkeley Law) and Professor Victor Davis Hanson of the Hoover Institution.  The president still matters, of course, but maybe not as much as the Framers intended.  We ask where does "the buck stop" now that Congress has dispersed executive powers among dozens of beloved “independent administrative agencies." We explain why the “unitary executive” is not a crazy theory conjured up by Dick Cheney, but is actually the originalist answer to administrative tyranny.  And finally, we cross swords on presidential war powers, with Professor Yoo presenting his robust defense of executive initiative – sending Adam into retreat.  

Adam's book, The Naked Constitution goes on sale Tuesday, October 9.  Order it here.

You can subscribe to this podcast by following the instructions here. Direct link fans, click here.

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October 2, 2012
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This week, The Naked Constitution podcast lays bare the powers of Congress. Adam is joined by Professor Randy Barnett of Georgetown Law School (one of the principal architects of the legal challenge to ObamaCare), as well as our own Dr. Paul Rahe, Distinguished Professor of History at Hillsdale College.

In this episode – recorded before the ObamaCare decision was handed down – Professor Barnett previews the successful argument that the individual mandate is not within Congress’s Commerce Clause jurisdiction (the Court agreed – but little did we know that the Chief Justice would buy the administration’s argument that the mandate sometimes is and sometimes isn’t a tax). In a whirlwind history lesson, Dr. Rahe explains why the Framers vested Congress with limited powers, and Professor Barnett explains how the Supreme Court came to rewrite Article One – without the mess and inconvenience of actual amendments.

Pre-order Adam's book, The Naked Constitution here. 

You can subscribe to this podcast by following the instructions here. Direct link fans, click here.

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September 24, 2012
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We're back!  This week we discuss the Framers' use of the term "people" (as in, "we the") and "person." I'm joined by contributor Joe Escalante, who, in addition to being a rock star and a matador, is a temporary judge on the Los Angeles Superior Court, as well as member Doug Lee, a leading force in the anti-Obamacare litigation and Mississippi's personhood initiative.  Together we hash out the radical theory  that "the people" referred to citizens (not Gitmo detainees), question the legal basis for birthright citizenship (risking the wrath of Harry Reid), and wonder why liberals consider the Constitution to be a living creature while a fetus is just a clump of cells. 

You can subscribe to this podcast by following the instructions here. Direct link fans, click here.

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September 18, 2012

We discuss The Living Constitution vs. The Naked Constitution. Adam is joined by Ed Whelan, the president of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, and host of NRO's Bench Memos Blog, and by our own James Poulos: historian, lawyer, producer at HuffPost Live and a contributor to Forbes and Vice. In this wide-ranging discussion, the danger of the Living Constitution is exposed with references to Napoleon Bonaparte, flogging, and the "metaphysical aromatherapy" of Planned Parenthood v. Casey.

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