Interpreting Government Practices, Part 2 (LAW-CONST2)
This lecture explores how practice and majority rule define constitutional elements like the size of the House and Court, and voting procedures. It analyzes FDR's court-packing plan, the filibuster's constitutional option, and case studies including the legislative veto, independent counsel, Saxby fix, and independent agencies.
The text never fixes the size of the House or the Court, or spells out how each body votes. Akhil Reed Amar shows how practice and an unstated default of majority rule fill that space.
This lecture traces the House settling at 435, Congress's power over the Court's size (and FDR's failed court-packing plan), and why majority rule is the Constitution's baseline, with a close look at the filibuster and the constitutional option. Amar closes with four case studies: the legislative veto and the independent counsel, which broke the text and failed, and the Saxby fix and independent agencies, which fit it and survived.
Interpreting Government Practices, Part 1 (LAW-CONST2)
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