Every other Tuesday, the team behind Civics 101 joins NHPR’s All Things Considered Host Julia Furukawa to talk about how our democratic institutions actually work.
You may have heard the phrase "constitutional crisis" recently. But what does it actually mean?
This week, Civics 101 host Nick Capodice spoke with Julia about what a constitutional crisis is and whether the U.S. is in the midst of one.
Transcript
When we say "constitutional crisis," what are we really talking about, Nick? And when does this phrase typically pop up?
This is a term that follows on the heels of political actions, and it often is coming from a politician. It's also worth noting it's quite often parroted by the media. For instance, you and I are here, right now, asking whether we're in the midst of a constitutional crisis.
The first thing you have to remember is that that expression does not have a legal definition. You ask six different lawyers what it means, and you get six different answers. It is an expression bound up with politics. It might mean something genuinely troubling is going on or it might mean, ‘I'm a senator and I don't like what the president is doing,’ or both.
What words or phrases should we use instead of ‘constitutional crisis’?
We called up a law professor who's pretty good at avoiding the sensational, and he preferred to use terms like strain or breakdown. Basically, the Constitution establishes a government and guardrails for that government. When people avoid or just completely ignore those guardrails, that is when we're looking at strain.
Nick, have these so-called constitutional crises, or rather strain or breakdown, happened before?
Governmental actors have bucked the Constitution in the past. But to revisit it, what does that actually mean? So take one really important guardrail: the separation of powers. We have three branches of government. No one branch is supposed to do it all. These branches are supposed to listen to each other. This is the framing that the Constitution established. So for an example, if we go back a little bit, Andrew Jackson famously ignored a Supreme Court ruling. The court had ruled in favor of tribal rights on their own land, and Jackson forcibly removed people of the Cherokee Nation from their land in Georgia, leading to what we now refer to as the Trail of Tears. Jackson and his executive branch had enforcement power because of the Constitution.
The Supreme Court has the power to tell us what the law is. The Constitution gives power, but it comes with responsibility. It also comes with deference to other branches. So if someone behaves unilaterally, exercising power without exercising deference, that is a strain on the rule of law.
How do we ensure the people who are supposed to be upholding the Constitution are doing their job?
We say it so often on the show, it may have lost meaning to any listeners. But we do live in a nation with an electoral system and the constitutional right to petition the people we vote for. We the people are a crucial part of upholding the Constitution.
First off, know what the Constitution says and what it means. You might not like what the government or a politician is doing. That doesn't necessarily mean they're ignoring the Constitution. If you know what the Constitution says, you can know when they are ignoring the rule of law.
If you don't tell them you see them straining the Constitution, if you don't use your constitutional power to appeal to them and vote for or against them, you are not doing your part to uphold the Constitution. And that is one of the most powerful tools you have in terms of making sure that other people do.
