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Necessary & Proper is the official podcast of the Federalist Society's Article I Initiative. The Framers of the Constitution intended the legislature to be the most powerful branch of government....
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Necessary & Proper is the official podcast of the Federalist Society's Article I Initiative. The Framers of the Constitution intended the legislature to be the most powerful branch of government. In its present state, as the government operates on a day to day basis, it is not. Were the Founders simply wrong about the inherent powers of the legislative branch? Has the institution of Congress developed practices that are not compatible with the text of the Constitution? Why are current Congressional leaders unable or unwilling to act as an effective check on the presidency? Why is Congress unable to pass a budget? Why has Congress ceded much of its authority to the executive branch and to administrative agencies? What does it mean to serve productively as a member of the House or Senate? These and other important questions are the focus of the Article I Initiative. Periodic releases from Necessary & Proper will feature experts who can shed light on what the Framers envisioned for the legislative branch and how it can be restored to its proper place in the constitutional order.
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Episodes & Posts
Episodes
Posts
Transcribed
21 AUG 2025 · Congress is currently debating the Antisemitism Awareness Act. This proposed legislation aims to provide a clear definition of antisemitism for use in enforcing existing civil rights laws. Supporters argue that the bill is a crucial tool for combating rising antisemitism by filling a gap in current legal definitions. Opponents, however, contend that the bill could stifle free speech and limit criticism of Israel. Join the Federalist Society for a timely discussion on the legal and constitutional implications of this legislation, exploring the complexities of defining hate speech while upholding the principles of free expression.
Featuring:
William Creeley, Legal Director, Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE)
Prof. Eugene Kontorovich, Professor of Law and Director, Center for the Middle East and International Law, George Mason University Antonin Scalia Law School
(Moderator) Aharon Friedman, Special Counsel, Sullivan & Cromwell LLP
21 AUG 2025 · The recent dismissal of the Librarian of Congress and the Register of Copyrights by President Trump raises fundamental questions about the scope of the President’s removal authority and the constitutional status of these offices. Do these officials exercise executive power such that they must be removable at will? Or has Congress validly restricted removal in pursuit of independence?
This panel will examine the legal and historical foundations of both positions, tracing the development of the Library of Congress and the Copyright Office, their placement within the legislative branch, and the President’s authority to remove them—if any. The discussion will examine whether these offices lie within the President’s removal authority or whether Congress has validly constrained that power.
Our panel will consider the constitutional text, structural implications, and historical practice governing the removal of these unique officers.
Featuring:
Prof. Anne Joseph O'Connell, Adelbert H. Sweet Professor of Law, Stanford Law School
Zvi Rosen, Associate Professor, UNH Franklin Pierce School of Law
Devin Watkins, Attorney, Competitive Enterprise Institute
[Moderator] Robert Rando, Partner, Patrick Doerr
Transcribed
12 AUG 2025 · The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has traditionally regulated interstate and international communications and, as part of that, maintained a universal service fund that requires telecommunications carriers to contribute quarterly based on their revenues. In order to calculate these contribution amounts, the FCC contracts the help of the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC). The constitutionality of these delegations of power—to the FCC by Congress and to USAC by the FCC—were challenged in court by Consumers’ Research. On June 27, 2025, the Court ruled in favor of the FCC, rejecting the argument that the universal-service contribution scheme violates the nondelegation doctrine.
Join this FedSoc Forum to discuss this case, its decision, and what this means for the nondelegation doctrine going forward.
Featuring:
Sean Lev, Partner, HWG LLP
Moderator: Devin Watkins, Attorney, Competitive Enterprise Institute
Transcribed
12 AUG 2025 · On January 20th, 2025, President Trump established the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) by executive order. DOGE and its head, Elon Musk, hope to reduce the size and inefficiencies of the administrative state and return the federal bureaucracy to being accountable to the President and, ultimately, the people. While the scope and extent of this mission are still to be determined, one of DOGE’s early endeavors is to dramatically reduce the number of civil service employees determined to be unnecessary or wasteful. While many are vocal in their support of these actions, they are not without pushback, including several legal challenges.
What is DOGE, and are its structure and actions legal? Where does the power to remove civil servants rest? Are there limits to that power? What impacts will their removals have on the Executive Branch?
Featuring:
Ms. Kristine I. Simmons, Founder and Principal, Rose Communication & Coaching LLC
Prof. David A. Super, Carmack Waterhouse Professor of Law and Economics, Georgetown University Law Center
Mr. Manuel Valle, Senior Managing Associate, Sidley Austin LLP
Mr. Hans A. von Spakovsky, Senior Legal Fellow, The Heritage Foundation
(Moderator) Hon. Ryan T. Holte, Judge, United States Court of Federal Claims; Jurist-In-Residence Professor of Law, The University of Akron School of Law
Transcribed
12 AUG 2025 · Among the points emphasized by the second Trump administration has been a major push for deregulation. President Trump has directed that there must be ten deregulatory actions for every one regulatory one, and put forward Presidential Memoranda and Executive Orders to that end. As some have noted, however, such deregulation can take significant time due to factors like the requirements for notice and comment under the Administrative Procedure Act.
Interestingly, an April Presidential Memorandum seems to contemplate that potential hurdle for executive actions directing repeal of regulations contrary to ten specific recent Supreme Court decisions, including without notice and comment “where appropriate.”
This panel will seek to discuss the potential impact of this presidential memorandum, when deregulation may happen, incurring a need for notice & comment, and what the Judicial Branch might ultimately determine about the Executive Branch’s efforts to enforce their precedents in this manner.
Featuring:
John Lewis, Deputy Legal Director, Governing for Impact
Jonathan Wolfson, Chief Legal Officer and Policy Director, Cicero Institute
(Moderator) Craig E. Leen, Partner, K&L Gates, and Former OFCCP Director
Transcribed
12 AUG 2025 · Since taking office on January 20, 2025, President Trump has emphasized deregulation. Deregulatory efforts have focused both on undoing Biden-era policies in areas of interest (environmental regulation, SOGI issues, immigration, etc.) and on a broader effort to limit the scope of administrative power more broadly. In light of these strong changes, this panel will discuss the history of deregulation efforts in the Executive Branch, how those compare to the deregulatory efforts of the Trump Administration, and what these changes may mean both practically and more institutionally for the future of the Administrative State.
Featuring:
Prof. Bridget C.E. Dooling, Assistant Professor of Law, Moritz College of Law, The Ohio State University
Prof. Susan E. Dudley, Distinguished Professor, Regulatory Studies Center, George Washington University
Mr. William C. Hughes, Senior Counsel, Consensys Software
Prof. Richard J. Pierce Jr., Lyle T. Alverson Professor of Law, George Washington University Law School
(Moderator) Mr. Adam White, Senior Fellow, American Enterprise Institute; Co-Director, C. Boyden Gray Center for the Study of the Administrative State, Antonin Scalia Law School
Transcribed
12 AUG 2025 · Does the President control independent agencies? This panel will examine the Trump administration’s efforts to reassert presidential control over independent federal agencies, considering the constitutional, legal, and practical implications of such actions. Central to the discussion will be Humphrey’s Executor v. United States, which upheld the independence of certain regulatory bodies by limiting the President’s removal power, and the perspectives raised by legal cases such as Hampton Dellinger’s, which questioned the administration’s authority over the removal of agency officials. Proponents argue that increased presidential oversight enhances accountability, ensuring agencies align with elected leadership’s policies, while critics warn that such changes could erode agency independence and introduce political influence into regulatory decisions. The discussion will consider whether these changes promote efficient governance or threaten the integrity of federal oversight.
Featuring:
Prof. Jed Shugerman, Professor, Boston University School of Law
Prof. Ilan Wurman, Julius E. Davis Professor of Law, University of Minnesota Law School
(Moderator) Prof. Aram Gavoor, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, The George Washington University Law School
Transcribed
12 AUG 2025 · Presidents have used executive orders to direct the executive branch since the founding, but over the years the modern Presidency has drastically expanded its use of executive orders. Executive Orders have always been an important means of moving the Executive Branch into alignment with the President’s interpretation of the law consistent with his duty of faithful execution and a primary way President’s exercise their executive discretion under law. Yet all power is subject to expansion and abuse. In January 2014, for example, then-President Obama announced his “pen and phone” strategy: “I’ve got a pen to take executive actions where Congress won’t, and I’ve got a telephone to rally folks around the country on this mission.”
Subsequent administrations have similarly relied on presidential authority to govern by way of Executive Orders, leading to significant litigation challenging the breadth of such authority. This panel will examine the use of executive orders and the “pen and phone” strategy throughout our nation’s history, especially from a separation of powers perspective. This broad power is not expressly identified in either the Constitution or statute, but it has long been accepted as inherent to presidential power over the federal government, federal agencies, foreign affairs, and our military. This panel will discuss the impact of executive orders, what precedent they set for future administrations in the robust exercise of executive authority, and how the “unitary executive” theory plays into that analysis.
This webinar will be the first of four webinars previewing the Thirteenth Annual Executive Branch Review Conference on the topic of Theories of Presidential Power.
Featuring:
John G. Malcolm, Vice President, Institute for Constitutional Government; Director of the Meese Center for Legal & Judicial Studies and Senior Legal Fellow, The Heritage Foundation
Prof. Richard J. Pierce, Jr., Lyle T. Alverson Professor of Law, George Washington University Law School
Prof. Ilan Wurman, Julius E. Davis Professor of Law, University of Minnesota Law School
Moderator: Beth Williams, Board Member, U.S. Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board
Transcribed
12 AUG 2025 · After the U.S. Supreme Court in Morrison v. Olson (1988) and U.S. v. Lopez (1995) held two federal statutes were unconstitutional as those statutes were beyond the power of Congress to enact, some claimed it was the dawn of a new federalism revolution. However, such challenges to federal power did not seem to continue.
Now, a new case McNutt v. DOJ, once again directly challenges whether a federal statute is beyond Congress’s power to enact. This time, the challenge is to the federal ban on at-home distilling. This case raises substantial issues concerning the scope of Congress’s power and how much decision-making authority the Constitution left for states to decide.
This FedSoc Forum will provide an update on what has occurred so far and discuss the important issues raised by this case.
Featuring:
Thomas Berry, Director, Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies, Cato Institute
Michael Pepson, Regulatory Counsel, Americans for Prosperity Foundation
Eric J. Segall, Ashe Family Chair Professor of Law, Georgia State University College of Law
Moderator: Theodore Cooperstein, Appellate Counsel, Theodore Cooperstein PLLC
Transcribed
12 AUG 2025 · In 2025, antitrust and consumer protection remain hot topics in the legal world as a new Congress and Administration begin. Join this FedSoc Forum as we discuss possible antitrust and Federal Trade Commission reforms in the 119th Congress.
Featuring:
Adam Cella, Chief Counsel for the Administrative State, Regulatory Reform, and Antitrust, House Committee on the Judiciary
Thomas DeMatteo, Chief Counsel, Senate Judiciary Committee
Daniel Flores, Senior Counsel, Committee on Oversight and Reform, U.S. House of Representatives
Lynda Garcia, Chief Counsel to Senator Cory A. Booker, U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee at United States Senate
Moderator: Svetlana Gans, Partner, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher
Necessary & Proper is the official podcast of the Federalist Society's Article I Initiative. The Framers of the Constitution intended the legislature to be the most powerful branch of government....
show more
Necessary & Proper is the official podcast of the Federalist Society's Article I Initiative. The Framers of the Constitution intended the legislature to be the most powerful branch of government. In its present state, as the government operates on a day to day basis, it is not. Were the Founders simply wrong about the inherent powers of the legislative branch? Has the institution of Congress developed practices that are not compatible with the text of the Constitution? Why are current Congressional leaders unable or unwilling to act as an effective check on the presidency? Why is Congress unable to pass a budget? Why has Congress ceded much of its authority to the executive branch and to administrative agencies? What does it mean to serve productively as a member of the House or Senate? These and other important questions are the focus of the Article I Initiative. Periodic releases from Necessary & Proper will feature experts who can shed light on what the Framers envisioned for the legislative branch and how it can be restored to its proper place in the constitutional order.
show less
Information
| Author | The Federalist Society |
| Organization | The Federalist Society |
| Categories | Politics |
| Website | fedsoc.org |
| articlei@fedsoc.org |
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