Chris Edelson Assistant Professor SPA | Government

Additional Positions at AU: Fellow, Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies
Degrees: JD, Harvard Law School

BA, Brandeis University
Favorite Spot on Campus: A tie between the library, the gym, and Kerwin 101.
Book Currently Reading: From Fascism to Populism in History
Bio: Chris Edelson is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Government. His teaching and research interests focus on presidential national security power under the U.S. Constitution. His first book, Emergency Presidential Power: From the Drafting of the Constitution to the War on Terror, was published by the University of Wisconsin Press in fall 2013. His second book, Power Without Constraint: The Post 9/11 Presidency and National Security was published in spring 2016.

Twitter Profile

See Also: SPA Department of Government; SPA Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies
For the Media: To request an interview for a news story, call AU Communications at 202-885-5950 or submit a request. Explore all AU Faculty Experts in our media guide.

Teaching

How to Keep the Republic (Before It's Too Late): Why a New Constitution is Necessary to Strengthen Liberal Democracy in the United States (book chapter, 2020)
Sounding the Alarm: Trump's Emergency Declaration at the Southern Border and Constitutional Failure (2020)
Power Without Constraint: The Post-9/11 Presidency and National Security (University of Wisconsin Press 2016)
Emergency Presidential Power: From the Drafting of the Constitution to the War on Terror (University of Wisconsin Press 2013)
Judging in a Vacuum, Or Once More Without Feeling: How Justice Scalia’s Jurisprudential Approach Repeats Errors Made in Plessy v. Ferguson (Akron Law Review 2012)

“The Constitution in Wartime: Discussion for Constitution Day”, Virginia Military Institute

(Lexington, VA), September 18, 2023
“The Unaccountable Presidency: How the US Response to the Coronavirus Pandemic Reveals A Breakdown in the Constitutional System”, Southern Political Science Association, January 8, 2021 (online)
“Trump, Presidential Power and the Constitution” (discussant), American Political Science

Association, September 12, 2020. (online)
“Power without Constraint: the post-9/11 Presidency and National Security”, Lafayette (LA)

Public Library, May 1, 2019 (online)
“How to Keep the Republic (Before It’s Too Late): Why a New Constitution is Necessary to

Strengthen Liberal Democracy in the United States,” American Political Science Association,

August 31, 2018. (Boston).
“The Trump Administration’s Challenge to Constitutional Democracy,” Conference on Cultural

Diplomacy in the UN, American University, February 26, 2018.
“The Trump Administration’s Challenge to Constitutional Democracy,” North Carolina Central

University, February 15, 2018 (Durham, North Carolina).
“Trump is (Un)doing More Than You Think,” American University, November 29, 2017.
“The Trump Administration’s Challenge to Constitutional Democracy,” George Mason University, October 12, 2017 (Fairfax, Virginia).
“Trump’s Challenge to Constitutional Democracy,” American University, January 18, 2017.