In February 2025, we explored how an expanding executive branch was stretching traditional boundaries. In this follow-up episode, we turn our attention to the primary institutional battleground of 2026: The Department of Justice (DOJ).
The long-standing post-Watergate norm that the DOJ should operate independently from presidential control has been explicitly rejected by the current administration. Asserting total constitutional authority over all executive branch agencies under Article II, the administration argues that an independent DOJ is a constitutional myth.
To break down the structural reality behind the headlines—including the rapid dismissal of indictments against political allies, the targeting of opponents, and mass civil service purges—we sit down with historian Alex Lovit, host of The Context (a sister podcast in The Democracy Group network). Together, we place the crisis of 2026 into historical perspective, tracing the design flaws and structural vulnerabilities of the DOJ from its founding in 1870 to the present day.
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