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…

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