Is this you? As a journalist, you can create a free Muck Rack account to customize your profile, list your contact preferences, and upload a portfolio of your best work.
Claim your profile
Articles by Saikrishna B. Prakash
Mercy from on High
April 7, 2026 0:00 with Saikrishna Prakash, hosted by James M. Patterson Why do presidents have the power to pardon, and how is it typically used and abused? Sai Prakash and James Patterson discuss the pardon power’s origins in British law, its usefulness in ending rebellions, and the unfortunate tendency of more recent presidents to use the pardon power to reward friends and donors, protect underlings, or generate political support.
Opinion - The Supreme Court should liberate us from ‘liberation day’
In April, President Trump imposed tariffs on imports from every nation in the world, claiming an emergency warranted those new taxes. He called it “liberation day.” This week, the Supreme Court will decide whether the International Emergency Economic Powers Act authorizes the president to tax imports. That is how the administration has framed the two cases before the court. But to see the issue this way unduly minimizes what is at stake.
The Supreme Court should liberate us from ‘liberation day’
In April, President Trump imposed tariffs on imports from every nation in the world, claiming an emergency warranted those new taxes. He called it “liberation day.” This week, the Supreme Court will decide whether the International Emergency Economic Powers Act authorizes the president to tax imports. That is how the administration has framed the two cases before the court. But to see the issue this way unduly minimizes what is at stake.
Opinion - The Supreme Court should liberate us from ‘liberation day’
In April, President Trump imposed tariffs on imports from every nation in the world, claiming an emergency warranted those new taxes. He called it “liberation day.” This week, the Supreme Court will decide whether the International Emergency Economic Powers Act authorizes the president to tax imports. That is how the administration has framed the two cases before the court. But to see the issue this way unduly minimizes what is at stake.
Trump didn’t get a mandate, because no president ever does
President-elect Donald Trump has won a stunning victory. In the early morning hours after Election Day, he immediately claimed a mandate from the people. Trump crowed that “America has given us an unprecedented and powerful mandate.” His soon-to-be predecessor, President Joe Biden, said something less boastful in 2020, claiming a “mandate for action.” But the truth is, every such claim of a mandate is rubbish.
Opinion - Trump didn’t get a mandate, because no president ever does
President-elect Donald Trump has won a stunning victory. In the early morning hours after Election Day, he immediately claimed a mandate from the people. Trump crowed that “America has given us an unprecedented and powerful mandate.” His soon-to-be predecessor, President Joe Biden, said something less boastful in 2020, claiming a “mandate for action.” But the truth is, every such claim of a mandate is rubbish.
The Limits of Formalism in the Separation of Powers
In a largely overlooked passage in his concurrence in Zivotofsky v. Kerry, 576 U.S. 1 (2015), Justice Thomas made a concession. Thomas stated that how “the Constitution would resolve a conflict between the political branches, each acting pursuant to the powers granted them under the Constitution” is a “difficult separation-of-powers question” that “I need not opine on.” Id. at 55 (Thomas, J., concurring).1 Implicit in Justice Thomas’s statement is something remarkable.
Yes, the Fourteenth Amendment Covers the Presidency | Opinion
The Supreme Court has agreed to hear Trump v. Anderson and review the Colorado Supreme Court’s decision to disqualify former President Donald Trump from the Colorado primary ballot. The former president’s lawyers have argued consistently that Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment does not apply to the presidency because the president is not an officer of the United States and because he did not take an oath to support the Constitution.
Opinion | If Trump Is Disqualified, He Can Still Run
One problem for the Colorado court’s ruling is that the 14th Amendment never declares that voters can’t select presidential electors who are pledged to vote for nonqualified candidates. The 14th Amendment disqualifies certain people from holding federal and state office and doesn’t explicitly regulate ballot access. Nor does it expressly authorize state officials to judge the qualifications of candidates or electors.
Opinion | The ‘14th Amendment Option’ Is a Trap for Biden
The threat of a debt default is again in the air, with the possible dreadful effect of ruining the credit of the U.S. To stave off that default and embarrassment, President Biden is toying with the idea of asserting that the debt ceiling violates the 14th Amendment. Neither the Constitution nor the law nor common sense is on his side.
Why Biden's COVID-19 vaccine mandate is unconstitutional | American Enterprise Institute - AEI
President Joe Biden’s vaccine mandate seeks to supplant the primary role of the states in public health beyond all past precedent. Despite coming in the midst of a terrible pandemic, his order undermines the Constitution’s balance between Congress and the president and between Washington, D.C., and the states. Courts should quickly block Washington’s efforts to seize control over the pandemic response from the states.
Seila Law v. CFPB: Supreme Court Does Right, Could’ve Done Better Original
A member of Congress holds a copy of the Constitution in Washington, D.C., June 20, 2017. (Kevin Lamarque/Reuters) By making the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau accountable to the president, the Supreme Court has done right — but it could’ve done even better. Is the president the nation’s chief executive? That was the question that lay at the heart of Seila Law LLC. v. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), the decision issued by the Supreme Court yesterday.
Saikrishna Prakash column: Washington, Trump and pandemics
In the midst of our dread about the coronavirus, we are learning about social distancing and the physics of cough droplets. We also are discovering the limits of presidential power and witnessing how public expectations shape the presidency. But this hardly is the first time that a president has confronted a pandemic.
A pandemic power of the presidency
A president has once again claimed sweeping authority. “When somebody is the president of the United States, the authority is total,” Donald TrumpDonald John TrumpNew Mexico governor extends stay-at-home order: 'We're not ready to ease up' Coronavirus culture war over reopening economy hits Capitol Hill Challenge China and the WHO—but not while the pandemic rages MORE asserted this month. He was likely claiming constitutional power to handle pandemics. But was he correct?
The National Constitution Center
At the time of the Framing it was assumed that the most powerful branch of government was the legislature. That is one of the reasons why Congress was made bicameral while the executive was unitary—so that legislative power and executive power could be effectively balanced. Today, however, any notion that Congress is twice as powerful as the Presidency would be dismissed as fanciful. The Presidency is the most powerful branch.
Show More
loading
Actions
Is this you?
As a journalist, you can create a free Muck Rack account to customize your profile, list your contact preferences, and upload a portfolio of your best work.Get in touch with Saikrishna B.
Contact Saikrishna B., search articles and posts on X, monitor coverage, and track replies from one place.
Learn more about Muck Rack