Stephen Vladeck

Stephen Vladeck is a professor of law at Georgetown University Law Center, CNN Supreme Court analyst, author of The Shadow Docket, and writer of the One First newsletter, focusing on federal courts, the Supreme Court, national security law, and judicial power.

American Checks Still Exist, but the Branches Have Stopped Using Them

In an Aspen Ideas Festival panel, Maya Kornberg, Jack Goldsmith and Stephen Vladeck argue that American democracy’s formal checks remain on paper but are failing in practice because Congress, the presidency and the Supreme Court are no longer performing their constitutional roles. Kornberg points to a weakened, under-capacitated Congress; Goldsmith to the long expansion of executive power, intensified under Donald Trump; and Vladeck to a Supreme Court that he says has become insufficiently accountable and too willing to enable presidential power. Their shared problem is that repairing the system depends on the same institutions that have helped unbalance it.

The Aspen InstituteJul 2, 202620 min read