Law, Liberty, and Cass (Sunstein)

About this episode

Jay Nordlinger interviews Cass Sunstein about liberalism, law, and the separation of powers in the United States.

Introducing this Q&A , I say, … our guest today is Cass Sunstein, the law professor, the legal thinker, the writer. For many years, he taught at the University of Chicago, and for many years since, he has taught at Harvard. He has written a profusion of books, to go with countless articles—though maybe someone has counted them. His latest books, I believe, are On Liberalism: In Defense of Freedom and Separation of Powers: How to Preserve Liberty in Troubled Times . Professor Sunstein is also a Substacker. His Substack is called, straightforwardly enough, “ Cass’s Substack .” Truth in advertising. It is delightful and nutritious, time after time. Toward the top of our program, we spend some time on liberalism—beginning with what it is, what we mean by it. In his book on liberalism, Sunstein isn’t talking about the policy preferences of George McGovern or Barack Obama. He’s talking about the liberalism of the American founding, a liberalism that encompasses Barry Goldwater, Ronald Reagan, et al. The “holy trinity” of liberalism, says Sunstein, is “the rule of law, pluralism, and freedom.” Hey, what’s “the rule of law”? Sunstein gives a very clear explication of that as well. As…

People in this episode

Host: Jay Nordlinger

Guest: Cass Sunstein

Topics covered

• liberalism
• law
• separation of powers
• American founding
• political thought

Keywords

• Cass Sunstein
• liberalism
• rule of law
• separation of powers
• politics

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: University of Chicago, Harvard

Books & works: On Liberalism: In Defense of Freedom, Separation of Powers: How to Preserve Liberty in Troubled Times

More episodes of Q & A, Hosted by Jay Nordlinger

• Your Land, My Land, Our Land · June 10, 2026 · 46 min
• Golden Boy from Tennessee · May 28, 2026 · 39 min
• Professor Mansfield Is In · May 26, 2026 · 34 min
• The Rule of Law, a.k.a. the Ballgame · April 14, 2026 · 48 min
• Political Worlds, Old and New · April 9, 2026 · 47 min
• Freedom on Her Face · March 30, 2026 · 45 min