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PODCAST

The Briefing with Michael Waldman

Brennan Center for Justice

Every week, Brennan Center president Michael Waldman interviews the leaders, thinkers, and activists who are changing American democracy.

news politics

All Episodes

00:27:21

An Emergency in Venezuela

The Briefing with Michael Waldman ·

2026/01/06

Over the weekend, the Trump administration launched a military operation in Venezuela to capture President Nicolas Maduro. Such an aggressive use of war powers without congressional consent is alarming and in many ways unprecedented. Trump is declaring victory. Critics are decrying a breach of checks and balances. What are the implications of this unilateral abuse of military force, and what could happen next?Listen as leading experts from the Brennan Center discuss what happened, break down the

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01:05:59

2025: Year in Review

The Briefing with Michael Waldman ·

2025/12/23

This year we saw extraordinary threats to American democracy: an executive power grab, attacks on the freedom to vote, and more. Yet we also saw a growing response, from court rulings to citizen alarm. What happened? And what can we expect next?Speakers:Sean Morales-Doyle, Director, Voting Rights and Elections ProgramWendy Weiser, Vice President, Democracy ProgramDaniel I. Weiner, Director, Elections and Government ProgramKatherine Yon Ebright, Counsel, Liberty and National Security

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01:13:17

Bush v. Gore and the State of U.S. Elections

The Briefing with Michael Waldman ·

2025/12/16

For a generation, presidential races were blowouts. Every winner between 1980 and 1996 won by at least 37 Electoral College votes. These landslides relegated conspiracy theories about contested elections to the political fringes.Then came 2000. The last polls showed a dead heat. On election night, the networks called it for Al Gore, then retracted their calls, then called it for George W. Bush, and retracted again.Ultimately, five Supreme Court justices, all appointed by Republican presidents, put

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00:37:25

How Congress Must Respond to Trump's Boat Strikes...

The Briefing with Michael Waldman ·

2025/12/05

Over the past several months, the Trump administration has undertaken a congressionally unauthorized military campaign against supposed “narco-terrorists” in international waters. One of the administration’s attacks in particular has roiled Washington — according to recent reporting, military officials ordered a follow-up strike that killed survivors of an attack on an alleged drug boat. Since the revelation, Trump officials have scrambled to explain the legal justification and who was ultimately

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00:51:05

Does the Constitution Still Work?

The Briefing with Michael Waldman ·

2025/12/02

U.S. politics today can be defined by extreme dysfunction and polarization. But the founders accounted for a fractured society, and designed our government specifically to handle moments like these. Listen as conservative scholar Yuval Levin discusses his book, American Covenant: How the Constitution Unified Our Nation―and Could Again, which argues that the U.S. constitutional system is designed to compel us to find common ground and act together — and that the key is for Congress to play its

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01:00:44

Troops in American Cities

The Briefing with Michael Waldman ·

2025/11/17

Our military is trained to defeat enemies, not to police American citizens. President Trump’s troop deployments in Los Angeles, DC, Chicago, Portland, Memphis, and potentially other cities pose real threats to civil liberties and the rule of law. During the Constitutional Convention, James Madison warned, “The means of defense against foreign danger have been always the instruments of tyranny at home.” Experts discuss the legality of Trump’s actions, the ongoing lawsuits to stop them, and ways to

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00:36:23

Keeping a Democracy (with Joyce Vance)

The Briefing with Michael Waldman ·

2025/11/07

From everyday instances of corruption to an administration intent on undermining the Constitution, it can feel as though American democracy is in decline. Yet amid the attacks on the rule of law and strains on our system of checks and balances, there are ways that we can engage, participate, and work together to defend and uphold our democratic institutions. Listen as legal expert and former U.S. attorney Joyce Vance discusses her new book, Giving Up is Unforgivable: A Manual for Keeping a

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01:00:53

The Power of the Purse

The Briefing with Michael Waldman ·

2025/11/03

Congress has the power of the purse, not the president. The Constitution gives Congress the authority to decide how much the federal government spends and for what purposes. While presidents and Congress have always engaged in a push-and-pull over funding, President Trump has taken unprecedented steps to ignore this constitutional framework and impose his own spending priorities. Experts break down these efforts, the lawsuits challenging them, and the impact of these actions on Americans’ daily

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00:42:36

Justice Weaponized

The Briefing with Michael Waldman ·

2025/10/28

President Trump has done away with the Justice Department’s historic independence, firing career prosecutors and using the department to pursue his political enemies. Former DOJ leaders under Republican and Democratic administrations break down what is happening inside the department and what can be done about its weaponization.Speakers:Peter Keisler, Former Acting Attorney General Vanita Gupta, Former Associate Attorney General Host: Michael Waldman, President, Brennan CenterRecorded on October 24,

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00:59:46

Paying for Power

The Briefing with Michael Waldman ·

2025/10/16

We are living in a new era of corruption, one that combines personal self-dealing and vast funds pouring into the political process. Whether it’s the crypto industry dominating Congress, the world’s wealthiest man bankrolling the winning presidential campaign, regulatory decisions used to pressure businesses, or the government quashing the bribery investigation of a top official, public power and private gain are fusing into one. Experts lay out a plan to end the culture of

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00:43:09

Supreme Court Preview

The Briefing with Michael Waldman ·

2025/10/07

This year’s Supreme Court term will be a historic one for the future of presidential power and our system of checks and balances. The Court has steadily chipped away at protections designed to make American democracy fairer, more inclusive, and more representative. In the 2025–26 term, the justices will hear a set of cases that could accelerate that troublesome trend and produce landmark decisions. One case implicates how the Voting Rights Act ensures fair representation in state legislatures. Yet

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00:52:30

The Campaign to Undermine the Midterms

The Briefing with Michael Waldman ·

2025/09/25

The Constitution gives states and Congress the power to run elections, and the president has virtually no role in the process. Yet President Trump ignored this fact and issued an executive order in March that aims to overhaul the nation’s election systems. His administration is dismantling a federal agency responsible for protecting election security. And it has targeted and threatened election officials and others who keep elections free and fair, while supporting those who undermine elections,

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00:47:13

The Next Phase of the Fight

The Briefing with Michael Waldman ·

2025/09/09

Challenges to democracy intensified over the summer. The National Guard deployed in California. The Supreme Court ruled on presidential power using the shadow docket. In Texas, an egregious gerrymander has set off a partisan war nationally. Now the fall will mark the next phase of the fight for the Constitution. Will the rule of law hold? How will the 2026 election unfold?Brennan Center experts discuss some of the biggest news stories of the past three months and explore what will come next in the

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00:33:39

The Past, Present, and Future of the Voting Rights Act

The Briefing with Michael Waldman ·

2025/08/26

In 1965, a nonviolent voting rights march in Alabama culminated in a brutal televised brutal attack by state police. The public outrage that followed prompted Congress to pass the Voting Rights Act, a law meant to dismantle racially discriminatory barriers to voting. Since then, this landmark civil rights law has faced continued attacks. The Supreme Court has weakened its protections, most notably in the 2013 case Shelby County v. Holder. And just this summer, a lower court ruling in Turtle Mountain

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00:34:34

Outbreak Behind Bars

The Briefing with Michael Waldman ·

2025/08/20

In his new book Outbreak Behind Bars: Spider Bites, Human Rights, and the Unseen Danger to Public Health, physician and epidemiologist Dr. Homer Venters reveals the grave reality of how infections and diseases spread in correctional facilities, which are often overcrowded and unsanitary. Detailing first-hand accounts of the spread of tuberculosis, MRSA, and other infections, he shines a light on the critical need to improve health care behind bars. Venters was the chief medical officer of the New

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00:54:34

The Rise of the Imperial Presidency

The Briefing with Michael Waldman ·

2025/08/12

The executive branch has amassed tremendous power, challenging the constitutional balance among branches of government. This year alone, the president has ignored the laws passed by Congress to fire leaders of independent agencies without cause, freeze the spending of appropriated funds, and deploy the military as a domestic police force.Supporters of vast presidential power have a name for this: the unitary executive. It’s the idea that the Constitution gives the president full personal control

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00:47:32

The Trouble Between Trump and the States on Education...

The Briefing with Michael Waldman ·

2025/07/29

President Trump has ordered cuts to the Department of Education and federal education funding. The brunt of these cuts will likely fall on low-income communities. The president is also demanding changes to school services and curricula, including the elimination of diversity, equity, and inclusion programs. State courts and constitutions stand in the president’s way. States are required by their constitutions to provide a public education, and many must meet certain standards, teach certain

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00:50:45

The Constitutional Obligation to Justice

The Briefing with Michael Waldman ·

2025/07/22

The end of the 20th century saw the rise of mass incarceration as well as originalism, the idea that judges must interpret the Constitution according to its supposed original intent. In a new book, Justice Abandoned: How the Supreme Court Ignored the Constitution and Enabled Mass Incarceration, legal scholar Rachel Barkow highlights the conflict between the two. Using six Supreme Court cases, she shows how mass incarceration is at odds with the Constitution’s text and original meaning. In this

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00:53:08

The Supreme Court Term In Review

The Briefing with Michael Waldman ·

2025/07/15

This term, the Supreme Court addressed some of the biggest challenges in its history, with a president determined to break through the constitutional limits of executive power and the Court’s own public approval near all-time lows. Did the justices stand up for the Constitution on the biggest issue facing the country, the extraordinary executive power grab? Against this backdrop, the justices handed down rulings in key cases affecting millions of people’s lives, including access to health care,

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00:53:48

The Guarantee of Birthright Citizenship

The Briefing with Michael Waldman ·

2025/06/18

On the first day of his second term, President Trump issued an executive order purporting to strip U.S. citizenship from the children of undocumented immigrants. The order directly conflicts with the plain language of the 14th Amendment, which states that “all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.” And it defies more than a century of case law. The executive order was met with

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