“Our living presidency subverts the idea of an executive subject to the Constitution and to the laws,” writes Saikrishna Prakash in his new book, The Living Presidency, from Harvard University Press. “If presidents can unilaterally alter the Constitution, they can circumvent the document that spells out and limits their authority. The president’s express obligation to ‘preserve, protect and defend the Constitution’ becomes irrelevant in the face of a practical power to alter, undermine, and subvert the Constitution.”
Prakash, a UVA Law professor and Miller Center senior fellow, discusses his pointed and strikingly relevant critique of the modern presidency in a discussion hosted by Miller Center Director William Antholis.
