Are We in a Constitutional Crisis?
President Jonathan Holloway and Jeffrey Rosen of the National Constitution Center tackle the question at a Rutgers Democracy Lab event
America is polarized, and President Trump is pushing the boundaries of his executive power, but the country is not in a constitutional crisis – yet.
That was the assessment offered Wednesday by Jeffrey Rosen, president and CEO of the National Constitution Center, during Rutgers Democracy Lab’s inaugural event, part of a new fireside chat series.
“In America, we don’t have a king,” Rosen said during the conversation moderated by President Jonathan Holloway. “The point of the [American] Revolution was to overthrow the king so that no one is above the law and has all the power.”
Holloway, a scholar of American history, and Rosen, considered one of the country’s preeminent nonpartisan constitutional experts, addressed the topic, “What is a constitutional crisis and are we in one?’’ during an hour-long conversation before a gathering of 25 Rutgers-New Brunswick students at the Eagleton Institute of Politics that was livestreamed for the public.
Rosen defined a constitutional crisis as: “The president ignoring an unambiguous order of the U.S. Supreme Court.”
“So, by this broadly accepted definition of liberal and conservative historians,” he said, “the answer is no. We are not yet in a constitutional crisis. Because the president hasn't defied an explicit order of the U.S. Supreme Court.”
The pair said everyone can play a role in protecting the Constitution, from individual citizens to institutions, including universities. Holloway noted this constitutional conversation comes on the heels of Sen. Cory Booker’s (D-NJ) record-setting speech to the U.S. Senate on Tuesday, during which he urged Americans to engage in civil dialogue in this moment of “moral urgency.”
“Regardless of one’s own personal and political views, we need to be talking – all of us need to be talking,” Holloway said. “The [Booker’s] act itself was a declaration of the way the U.S. government is set up. The separation of powers, this is the thing that makes the Constitution so special.”
Launched in November 2024, Rutgers Democracy Lab (RDL) is a long-term initiative to support civic education and create broad civic engagement opportunities with a strong emphasis on student involvement and solution-focused dialogue and action. The new RDL at the Eagleton Institute of Politics aims to promote a civic-minded community informed by research and analysis of citizenship, political participation and civil discourse. "What is a Constitutional Crisis, and Are We in One?" is the first in a series of planned fireside chats.
The overarching purpose of RDL and these conversations with national experts is to model for students how to identify and grapple with different points of view, said Eagleton Director Elizabeth C. Matto, who introduced Holloway and Rosen before their discussion.
“It’s not genetic. We are not born knowing what it means to be a democratic citizen – lowercase d. It needs to be taught,” Matto said. “That is the role of a university and the role we embrace here at Eagleton.”
Seated in the drawing room of Eagleton’s Wood Lawn Mansion before the glow of a faux fire, the pair spent the hour-long event exploring the complex factors leading many to question the health of our democracy. Holloway, a self-described “constitutional nerd,” guided the conversation, posing questions to Rosen and providing historical context for the student audience, many of whom took his Byrne Seminar “Citizenship, Institutions, and the Public” last fall.
First-year political science student Manvi Tripathi, who was in the audience and took Holloway’s course, said the chat emphasized the importance of historical context when considering the current political climate.
“Although this looks like a very critical moment in U.S. history, it important to remember this isn’t the first time a president has overreached,” Tripathi said, “and we should use it as a warning instead of taking it day by day.”
Before wrapping up their dialogue, Holloway reminded the audience that the preamble of the Constitution begins with “We the people” and asked Rosen whether he believes our country’s power still resides with the people.
“The question is, are we the people exercising our power? Unless we as individuals take the time to educate ourselves, to read deeply, to listen to differing points of view – if we don't do that, we'll descend into factions, mobs, and be guided more by political partisan loyalty than by thinking for ourselves and being guided by reason rather than passion,” Rosen said.
To push himself on that front, Rosen shared with the audience a habit he has adopted of reading – from a book or article – every morning before scrolling social media.
That suggestion resonated with first-year business student Josh Perr, who said those raised on social media can be lured into silos.
“It’s so easy to see what you want to see and have all these quick little memes saying what you want to hear and bashing on the other side,” he said. “It’s important we educate young minds to see the importance of reading both sides and hearing sources based in the truth and not opinion.”
Expanding on that premise, Holloway asked Rosen what role higher education should play now and if we cross the threshold into a constitutional crisis.
“To bring together people of differing points of view, just as you're doing so well here. To host civil dialogues, to be beacons of reason and pluralism and diversity, not to take sides in the debates that are dividing the country, but to host the most thoughtful discussions about them,” said Rosen. “That's what the Constitution Center tries to do. I know that's what you're doing here at Rutgers, and that's the purpose of a university.”
Holloway encouraged the audience to embrace the words of the preamble in responding to these times.
“We are in a particularly challenging moment in U.S. history … and to invoke the words of that founding document, it's up to us, the 'we the people' to find our way through it,” he said.
