What did the founding fathers intend the powers of the chief executive to be? How has judicial review added or subtracted from these powers? How has the President’s relationship with Congress evolved?

At Mount Vernon, students and educators joined host Julie Silverbrook, executive director of The Constitutional Sources Project, and historians Joseph Ellis and Carol Berkin for an exploration of executive powers. Professor Ellis has written biographies of John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and George Washington. His book Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation won a Pulitzer Prize in 1997. Professor Berkin is an expert on women in colonial America and the United States Constitution. Her best-known books are A Brilliant Solution: Inventing the American Constitution and Revolutionary Mothers: Women in the Struggle for America's Independence.

This program was recorded at the Fourth Annual Capitol City Constitution Day Education Summit in recognition of the 225th anniversary of the signing of the U.S. Constitution.