PRESENTED IN PARTNERSHIP WITH PRAIRIE LIGHTS BOOKS

 

David Driesen analyzes the chief executive's role in the democratic decline of Hungary, Poland, and Turkey and argues that an insufficiently constrained presidency is one of the most important systemic threats to democracy. Driesen urges the U.S. to learn from the mistakes of democratic decline in these countries. Their experiences suggest that the Court must eschew its reliance on and expansion of the "unitary executive theory" and apply a less deferential approach to presidential invocation of authority to protect national security and combat emergencies, than it has in recent years.

 

Ultimately, concern about loss of democracy should play a major role in the Court's jurisprudence because loss of democracy can prove irreversible. As autocracy spreads throughout the world, maintaining our democracy has become an urgent matter.

​

Professor David M. Driesen, University Professor at the College of Law, focuses on constitutional law, law and economics, and environmental law. Professor Driesen is the author of The Specter of Dictatorship: Judicial Enabling of Presidential Power (Stanford University Press, 2021). Driesen engages in public service defending democracy, environmental law’s constitutionality and efforts to combat the climate crisis. He has written numerous amicus briefs in Supreme Court cases and has represented Senators Hillary Clinton and others in Clean Air Act litigation in the DC Circuit.

 

Driesen is a member scholar with the Center for Progressive Reform (CPR), and blogs often on climate disruption issues for CPR and for RegBlog. He has worked as a consultant for American rivers and other environmental groups on Clean Water Act issues and has testified before Congress on implementation of the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments. Driesen joined the College of Law faculty in 1995. He was the Distinguished Summer Scholar in 2008 at Vermont Law School and a Visiting Professor at the University of Michigan Law School in 2006. Driesen holds a J.D. from the Yale Law School, a Master of Music from the Yale School of Music, and a Bachelor of Music from the Oberlin Conservatory. Currently, Professor Driesen performs with the Excelsior Cornet Band and the Syracuse University Brass Ensemble.

How Does Too Much Presidential Power Endanger Democracy?

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2025
7:00 pM - 8:00 PM
OLD CAPITAL SENATE CHAMBERS

Hosted by ICFRC Board Member Thais Winkleblack