Zócalo Public Square

Virtually every U.S. President in the modern era has tried in some way to assert executive authority over Congress and the courts, the other two branches of government. But is the White House’s growing clout upsetting our system of checks and balances? This was the question at the heart of a lively Zócalo/UCLA event entitled “Does the Expansion of Presidential Power Threaten the Constitution?” before a packed house at the Museum of Contemporary Art in downtown Los Angeles. Moderator Ronald Brownstein, senior editor of The Atlantic and a CNN senior political analyst, was joined by John T. Woolley, a University of California at Santa Barbara political scientist and co-director of the American Presidency Project website, Joel Aberbach, director of UCLA’s Center for American Politics and Public Policy, UCLA political scientist Lynn Vavreck, and UCLA constitutional law scholar Adam Winkler, to discuss how and why recent presidents have done end-runs around other government branches.