The People Own the Constitution, Not the Court

WASHINGTON, DC - FEBRUARY 24: (L-R) U.S. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justices Elena Kagan, Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett look on before President Donald Trump's State of the Union address during a joi... WASHINGTON, DC - FEBRUARY 24: (L-R) U.S. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justices Elena Kagan, Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett look on before President Donald Trump's State of the Union address during a joint session of Congress at the Capitol on February 24, 2026 in Washington, DC. Trump delivered his address days after the Supreme Court struck down the administration's tariff strategy, and amid a U.S. military buildup in the Persian Gulf threatening Iran. (Photo by Kenny Holston-Pool/Getty Images) MORE LESS

I wanted to direct your attention to this podcast episode from Slate. It’s actually the first episode of a series Slate is doing on popular constitutionalism. (The page linked above is paywalled. But, I’m told, the ‘By the People’ pod series itself is not. So you should be able to find it on podcast platforms.) It brings together in a engaging and coherent way a number of themes we’ve been discussing over the last couple years about the problem of and the corruption of the U.S. Supreme Court. And it frames the question around a 20-year-old book on popular constitutionalism by Larry Kramer (The People Themselves: Popular Constitutionalism and Judicial Review).

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Josh Marshall is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of TPM.

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