Learning Con Law in interesting times

You have the (good?) fortune of studying Constitutional Law in interesting times. Below are some things of interest.

First, unsurprisingly, people on Twitter have some things to say about how the Supreme Court works and about how it is structured.

Second, Twitter aside, you are going to hear a lot of talk about two things in the coming weeks: 1) the constitutional validity of President Trump nominating and/or the Senate confirming RBG's successor prior to the election or between the election and inauguration (if the President loses reelection); and 2) the constitutional validity of expanding the size of the Supreme Court ("court-packing"), as FDR proposed, unsuccessfully in 1937. What constitutional (as opposed to statutory and political) limits, if any, are there on any such efforts?

Third, take 45 minutes when you have them to listen to this edition of the Lawfare Podcast. The guests are Bob Bauer (White House counsel under President Obama) and Jack Goldsmith (head of the Office of Legal Counsel, the executive branch's legal advisor, under President George W. Bush). They have co-written a book on government reform. The discussion touches on a lot of stuff we have been discussing the past few weeks. This includes appointments and removal, congressional oversight, and congressional delegation of power to the President. For example, there is discussion of President Trump's unilateral trade actions as to China, which he did under the same statutory authority that President Reagan used in Dames & Moore (the Iran sanctions case).