Lectures on Tap - Making an American Monarch: Emergency Powers Explained

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🧠 Lecture: "Making an American Monarch: Emergency Powers Explained"

🎤 Speaker: Professor Chris Edelson

Join us for a thought-provoking evening as Professor Chris Edelson unpacks the origins and evolution of emergency presidential power in the United States. Drawing on constitutional design and key statutes like the Insurrection Act and the National Emergencies Act, this lecture will explore how presidents have historically used—and sometimes abused—emergency authority, and how Congress and the courts have responded or failed to respond.

As we approach the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, Donald Trump’s claims of emergency authority for mass deportations, domestic military deployment, and the use of force abroad raise pressing questions about whether the presidency is drifting toward the kind of unchecked power the framers associated with monarchs and tyrants.

Professor Edelson, a lecturer in the political science department at UMass Amherst, previously taught for 16 years in the department of government at American University and has also taught at BU School of Law. He is the author of three books on presidential power, with a new volume forthcoming in March 2026. Edelson holds degrees from Harvard Law School and Brandeis University.

Get a drink, connect, and learn at Lectures on Tap! 🙌

Agenda

6:30 PM – Doors open: find a seat (open seating!), order food & drinks, and expect a bar line—arriving early is key.

6:55 PM – Host introduction

7:00 PM – Lecture begins

7:45 PM – Audience Q&A

8:00 PM – Have 1:1 time with the speaker, mingle with fellow guests, and order another round

8:30 PM – Wrap up.

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