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美国国家公共电台 NPR 'A Lot Of Gray Area': A Legal Expert Explains 'How To Read The Constitution'

时间:2019-07-03 02:39来源:互联网 提供网友:nan   字体: [ ]
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'A Lot Of Gray Area': A Legal Expert Explains 'How To Read The Constitution'

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

What is the president allowed to do under the U.S. Constitution? This is a question that comes up from time to time on this program. And when it does, we've turned to experts like Kim Wehle. Now she's written a book taking that question head on. It's called "How To Read The Constitution - And Why." In it, she writes, reading the Constitution is a lot like reading a poem.

KIM WEHLE: Yeah. I have a poem in the book. And we break down the poem and talk about different ways of interpreting the poem and how your point of view, what you're trying to achieve in reading the poem, might affect how you read the poem. And I suggest the Constitution is the same way. Every time we see a Supreme1 Court nominee2 come on board or even in a presidential election, we hear calls for strict reading of the Constitution, judges that aren't going to color outside the lines.

And the point - one of the many takeaways from the book is that the Constitution is rarely black and white. There are underlying3 themes, one of which is accountability. Nobody's above the law. Nobody's the boss of all the bosses in our government. But other than that, rarely, rarely can we have a plain reading, obvious interpretation4 of the Constitution.

MARTIN: Which, we should just say, is unsettling to a lot of people, right? I mean, if you think about interpreting a poem as the same as interpreting the Constitution, that feels dangerously ambiguous for something so important.

WEHLE: I think it - and I get this with my students a lot. They want answers. You know, I teach law students. And I tell them, if you could Wikipedia the answer to the question, no one's going to pay you to do your job as a lawyer. It's a lot of gray area. These days, a lot of the questions that are being posed by this administration and the current Congress are not answered anywhere in the law. The Supreme Court hasn't addressed these at all.

And so we can hypothesize as to what the proper answer is. We can have debates about it. But there really isn't sort of a thumbs up or thumbs down on a lot of this stuff.

MARTIN: So is it fair to say that you wrote this because the Trump5 administration has provoked so many questions about the Constitution that just haven't been part of our public discourse6 in this way before?

WEHLE: That is why I actually started writing. I have a contract for a very academic book that - the audience are other academics. And I found myself writing for regular people. I think it's really important for people to be educated about not only their constitutional rights, which is one part of the Constitution, but the structure - the structure of our government. And if we allow the government to consolidate7 power in one branch, one man, one party, then our individual rights break down.

So it's that message that, I think, is often lost in the kind of day-to-day discourse about whatever the latest, you know, tree that's on fire in the forest. I like to focus on the forest.

MARTIN: All right. So to that end, let's get into some specifics. The president's role is defined in Article II of the Constitution. You write that the core function of the president, according to the Constitution, is to execute the laws. But there's a lot of flexibility8 in that, isn't there?

WEHLE: Yeah. So I think most people are surprised the Constitution doesn't say anything about separation of powers or checks and balances or even the separation of church and state. But the way it's broken down is there are three clauses - vesting clauses - of the Constitution. The legislative9 branch makes laws. The executive branch enforces those laws. That's what the Constitution says.

That being said, there's a lot of squishiness in the Constitution. And this is where we have to be quite vigilant10 to make sure that each branch doesn't step over - too far over the lines of what it's supposed to do and that that branch, when it does, gets checked by the other two branches and, ultimately, by the voting public.

MARTIN: How do you see that - the issue of enforcing laws as being germane11 to this particular political moment in this administration?

WEHLE: Well, we see it, I think, a lot with migrants at the border with Trump making the announcement there's going to be widespread enforcement of immigration laws. That is a determination, again, that individual prosecutors12, leading up to the president, get to make. And the American public can say, listen. That's not what - that's not what we want our government to do. And the response to that would be to, of course, vote a different person into office.

But I think the bigger issue these days has to do with Congress being feckless, really, in enforcing its own prerogative13 of oversight14 of the executive branch. We've seen not just under the Trump administration but for decades, a steady accumulation of power in the presidency15. So Congress has to, itself, be vigilant to ensure that it retains its authority through the public to make sure that we don't have a king in this country because, fundamentally, our founding fathers and mothers didn't fight and die in the Revolution to make sure there was more power in the presidency.

MARTIN: You talk about the fragility, in some ways, of the Constitution, that it becomes - certain transgressions16 in our society can become - like jaywalking. Like, people do it because they know they can't get caught because there's not a cop everywhere to hold them accountable.

WEHLE: Yeah. And, again, the framers of the Constitution understood this, that it's human nature to amass17 power and that that's why we have this three-headed monster of government. We don't have a single one because the idea is no one's above the law. If this president crosses a legal boundary, crosses a norm boundary - a historical norm of behavior - and there's not a consequence, all of a sudden - what I say in the book - that tool goes in the president's toolbox for utilization18 by a future president. It might be a Republican president. It might be a Democratic president. That president's going to have that much power.

So if you're on Team Trump or you're on anti-Team Trump, it's sort of irrelevant19. You have to say to yourself, how comfortable am I with my worst-case-scenario president having this amount of power in his or her toolbox? If that gives you concern, then I think you're one of the many people who should join me in this concern about the structure of our government sort of falling apart right now and moving - slipping into something that is certainly not consistent with how this country was founded, which is small government not big government.

Individual people have the power. Government power has to be constrained20. It's not a political thing. It's not blue and red. It's right and wrong at this point - and right and wrong in terms of protecting freedoms for our children and our grandchildren.

MARTIN: Kim Wehle - the book is called "How To Read The Constitution - And Why."

Thank you so much for talking with us.

WEHLE: Thank you, Rachel.

(SOUNDBITE OF TESS ROBY'S "BALLAD 5 (INSTRUMENTAL)")


点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 supreme PHqzc     
adj.极度的,最重要的;至高的,最高的
参考例句:
  • It was the supreme moment in his life.那是他一生中最重要的时刻。
  • He handed up the indictment to the supreme court.他把起诉书送交最高法院。
2 nominee FHLxv     
n.被提名者;被任命者;被推荐者
参考例句:
  • His nominee for vice president was elected only after a second ballot.他提名的副总统在两轮投票后才当选。
  • Mr.Francisco is standing as the official nominee for the post of District Secretary.弗朗西斯科先生是行政书记职位的正式提名人。
3 underlying 5fyz8c     
adj.在下面的,含蓄的,潜在的
参考例句:
  • The underlying theme of the novel is very serious.小说隐含的主题是十分严肃的。
  • This word has its underlying meaning.这个单词有它潜在的含义。
4 interpretation P5jxQ     
n.解释,说明,描述;艺术处理
参考例句:
  • His statement admits of one interpretation only.他的话只有一种解释。
  • Analysis and interpretation is a very personal thing.分析与说明是个很主观的事情。
5 trump LU1zK     
n.王牌,法宝;v.打出王牌,吹喇叭
参考例句:
  • He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
  • The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手,作为他的王牌。
6 discourse 2lGz0     
n.论文,演说;谈话;话语;vi.讲述,著述
参考例句:
  • We'll discourse on the subject tonight.我们今晚要谈论这个问题。
  • He fell into discourse with the customers who were drinking at the counter.他和站在柜台旁的酒客谈了起来。
7 consolidate XYkyV     
v.使加固,使加强;(把...)联为一体,合并
参考例句:
  • The two banks will consolidate in July next year. 这两家银行明年7月将合并。
  • The government hoped to consolidate ten states to form three new ones.政府希望把十个州合并成三个新的州。
8 flexibility vjPxb     
n.柔韧性,弹性,(光的)折射性,灵活性
参考例句:
  • Her great strength lies in her flexibility.她的优势在于她灵活变通。
  • The flexibility of a man's muscles will lessen as he becomes old.人老了肌肉的柔韧性将降低。
9 legislative K9hzG     
n.立法机构,立法权;adj.立法的,有立法权的
参考例句:
  • Congress is the legislative branch of the U.S. government.国会是美国政府的立法部门。
  • Today's hearing was just the first step in the legislative process.今天的听证会只是展开立法程序的第一步。
10 vigilant ULez2     
adj.警觉的,警戒的,警惕的
参考例句:
  • He has to learn how to remain vigilant through these long nights.他得学会如何在这漫长的黑夜里保持警觉。
  • The dog kept a vigilant guard over the house.这只狗警醒地守护着这所房屋。
11 germane dgHx3     
adj.关系密切的,恰当的
参考例句:
  • He asks questions that are germane and central to the issue.他问了一些与论点有密切关系的重要问题。
  • Fenton was a good listener,and his questions were germane.芬顿听得聚精会神,提问也切中要害。
12 prosecutors a638e6811c029cb82f180298861e21e9     
检举人( prosecutor的名词复数 ); 告发人; 起诉人; 公诉人
参考例句:
  • In some places,public prosecutors are elected rather than appointed. 在有些地方,检察官是经选举而非任命产生的。 来自口语例句
  • You've been summoned to the Prosecutors' Office, 2 days later. 你在两天以后被宣到了检察官的办公室。
13 prerogative 810z1     
n.特权
参考例句:
  • It is within his prerogative to do so.他是有权这样做的。
  • Making such decisions is not the sole prerogative of managers.作这类决定并不是管理者的专有特权。
14 oversight WvgyJ     
n.勘漏,失察,疏忽
参考例句:
  • I consider this a gross oversight on your part.我把这件事看作是你的一大疏忽。
  • Your essay was not marked through an oversight on my part.由于我的疏忽你的文章没有打分。
15 presidency J1HzD     
n.总统(校长,总经理)的职位(任期)
参考例句:
  • Roosevelt was elected four times to the presidency of the United States.罗斯福连续当选四届美国总统。
  • Two candidates are emerging as contestants for the presidency.两位候选人最终成为总统职位竞争者。
16 transgressions f7112817f127579f99e58d6443eb2871     
n.违反,违法,罪过( transgression的名词复数 )
参考例句:
  • Many marine transgressions occur across coastal plains. 许多海运是横越滨海平原。 来自辞典例句
  • For I know my transgressions, and my sin always before me. 因为我知道我的过犯,我的罪常在我面前。 来自互联网
17 amass tL5ya     
vt.积累,积聚
参考例句:
  • How had he amassed his fortune?他是如何积累财富的呢?
  • The capitalists amass great wealth by exploiting workers.资本家剥削工人而积累了巨额财富。
18 utilization Of0zMC     
n.利用,效用
参考例句:
  • Computer has found an increasingly wide utilization in all fields.电子计算机已越来越广泛地在各个领域得到应用。
  • Modern forms of agricultural utilization,have completely refuted this assumption.现代农业利用形式,完全驳倒了这种想象。
19 irrelevant ZkGy6     
adj.不恰当的,无关系的,不相干的
参考例句:
  • That is completely irrelevant to the subject under discussion.这跟讨论的主题完全不相关。
  • A question about arithmetic is irrelevant in a music lesson.在音乐课上,一个数学的问题是风马牛不相及的。
20 constrained YvbzqU     
adj.束缚的,节制的
参考例句:
  • The evidence was so compelling that he felt constrained to accept it. 证据是那样的令人折服,他觉得不得不接受。
  • I feel constrained to write and ask for your forgiveness. 我不得不写信请你原谅。
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TAG标签:   NPR  美国国家电台  英语听力
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