Video: Eric Posner and Jack Balkin, "The Politics of Emergency"

Last week, Kirkland and Ellis Professor of Law Eric Posner recorded a conversation with Yale's Jack Balkin on the Bloggingheads.tv site on "The Politics of Emergency." Among the topics covered were: executive power in a time of emergency, whether the president can change reality, secrecy in the Obama administration, and imagining an executive branch 2.0. The video is embedded below, or can be watched on the Bloggingheads site.

Comments

[Dave Hucker]

I listened to this debate about a week ago. Throughout the Bush Presidency, I heard the political left shouting about the purported 'heavy handed' tactics the administration was employing. Now with the Obama administration employing many (and I do mean "MANY")executive orders in a very short time, I hear many on the right of the political spectrum similarly railing about President Obama's 'power grab' (related specifically to regulating banks and big businesses/the economic crisis). I believe that both sides doth protest too much, usually revealed in the pure partisan-ness of their arguments. Should some day however, a truly overbearing regime rise in America, I have no doubt whatsoever the American people would hesitate to rise up and do what is right to preserve our God given freedoms.