By Marilyn Odendahl
The Indiana Citizen
September 18, 2025
To mark the 238th anniversary of the signing of the U.S. Constitution, Linda Greenhouse, an awarding-winning journalist, visited Purdue University and delivered a warning about the American system of government.
“You don’t need me to tell you that this is a system under stress,” Greenhouse said at Wednesday’s lecture. “That’s not a partisan statement, that’s a fact and it’s obvious to all that one core aspect of American government that is buckling under the stress is the separation of powers.”
Greenhouse, a former New York Times correspondent who covered the U.S. Supreme Court from 1978 to 2008, winning a Pulitzer Prize in 1998, was the keynote speaker at the third annual Purdue Constitution Day Lecture Endowed by Ann & Bill Moreau in Honor of Birch Bayh at Purdue University. Bill and Ann Moreau are the founders of the Indiana Citizen Education Foundation, parent of The Indiana Citizen.
Greenhouse delivered her speech, “Preserving or Disrupting: The Supreme Court and the Balance of Power Today,” in Deans Auditorium in Pfendler Hall on the West Lafayette campus. Students, faculty, alumni and state lawmakers filled the space with several people standing along the walls.
“What a turnout,” Jesse Crosson, associate professor of political science at Purdue, said at the beginning of the event. “This is far and away the best crowd we’ve had. I’m so excited that everyone wants to celebrate the U.S. Constitution with us today.”
Crosson estimated about 170 people attended the lecture. Greeters at the entrance of the auditorium ran out of the pocket-sized, softcover books that they had been giving to the attendees. The books contained the U.S. Constitution, Declaration of Independence and Articles of Confederation along with information about the Founding Fathers and the U.S. Supreme Court.
Constitution Day commemorates the signing of the U.S. Constitution on Sept. 17, 1787. Events marking the special day varied across the state.
The Benjamin Harrison Presidential Site in Indianapolis placed roses on the U.S. Constitution, permanently displayed in an Indiana limestone case at the historic home’s Sarah Evans Barker Citizen Plaza. Harrison, the country’s 23rd president, was the great-grandson of Benjamin Harrison of Virginia, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independent. Also, in anticipation of women receiving the right to vote, he wrote a popular series of articles on the Constitution for The Ladies’ Home Journal magazine.
Also, 61 judicial officers, including trial court judges and Indiana Chief Justice Loretta Rush, went into elementary, middle and high schools to share their knowledge of the Constitution. The jurists were scheduled to meet with an estimated 4,500 students in 64 schools and members of civic groups as part of the 2025 Constitution Day.
Greenhouse noted that although the separation of powers is a foundational principle of American democracy, the phrase does not appear anywhere in the Constitution. Still, separation of powers was a common description for the three branches of government – executive, legislative and judicial – that the framers of the Constitution established.
Explaining how the doctrine is woven into American democracy, Greenhouse pointed to James Madison, one of the authors of not only the Constitution but also the Federalist Papers, a collection of 85 essays written by Madison, Alexander Hamilton and John Jay written and published in 1787 and 1788 to rally support for ratification of the Constitution. In Federalist Paper No. 47, Madison addressed the separation of powers, asserting that the “very definition of tyranny” is the concentration of power from the executive, legislative and judicial branches in the same hands.
The framers did not intend a complete separation, Greenhouse said, but rather a “dynamic equilibrium.” That equilibrium responds to the politics of the time as well as to the strengths and weaknesses of the president, the nature of the congressional leadership and the U.S. Supreme Court’s view of its role.
Today, Greenhouse said, the description that Congress is no longer a co-equal branch of government is “common and well-justified.” Capitol Hill has little ability to react or exercise its power, in part, because of a series of rulings from the Supreme Court which are said to be based on the Constitution.
“One lesson to draw from history is that a healthy separation of powers requires each branch to take an active role in defending its own prerogatives while respecting the boundaries that two centuries of experience have established as norms,” Greenhouse said.
As an example of how the separation of powers doctrine is decaying, Greenhouse pointed to the Supreme Court’s 2019 ruling in Trump v. Sierra Club from the first Trump administration. President Donald Trump had requested $5.7 billion for the border wall, but when Congress only appropriated $1.37 billion, the White House declared an emergency and tried to scoop $2.5 billion more from coffers in the U.S. Department of Defense. Trump claimed he had the authority to take the money under the Defense Department Appropriations Act.
Greenhouse said while the law does authorize some transfers, it sets conditions. In particular, the money can be transferred only in response to an unforeseen military requirement. Also, the transfer is prohibited when Congress has already denied the funding.
The Sierra Club then sued to stop construction of the wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, arguing that it would have endangered the fragile landscape along the southern terrain that Congress had sought to protect. The U.S. District Court in Northern California ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, stopping the project, and the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals refused the administration’s request for a stay of the lower court’s order so construction could continue while the case moved through the justice system.
Then the Trump administration asked the Supreme Court for a stay. The U.S. House of Representatives filed a brief opposing the administration by arguing the “power of the purse is an essential element of the checks and balances built into the Constitution.”
Using the so-called shadow docket, the Supreme Court issued a 5-to-4 decision, giving the administration the stay it had requested so construction could proceed.
“I think it’s such a clear example of what happens when the separation of powers breaks down and when the Supreme Court becomes the breakdowns’ enabler,” Greenhouse said. She then summed up the case in “three little dramatic lines”:
Congress: You may not
President: Well, I will anyway
Supreme Court: Oh, OK.
Greenhouse compared the border-wall dispute to the attempt by the Truman administration to seize the country’s steel mills during the Korean War. In the early 1950s, the steelworkers were threatening to strike, which would have likely halted production of weapons and other war materials.
When Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer arrived at the U.S. Supreme Court, all nine of the justices had been appointed by either President Harry Truman or his predecessor, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Greenhouse said. However, in a 6-to-3 decision, the majority ruled the seizure was constitutional.
Greenhouse highlighted the concurring opinion written by Justice Robert Jackson, considered the best writer to ever sit on the Supreme Court. He defined the separation of powers that still guides lawyers and courts today.
“With all its defects, delays and inconveniences, men have discovered no technique for long preserving free government except that the Executive be under the law, and that the law be made by parliamentary deliberations,” Jackson wrote. “Such institutions may be destined to pass away. But it is the duty of the Court to be last, not first, to give them up.”
Greenhouse also contrasted Jackson’s “eloquent words” with the “nearly complete silence in the face of challenges in profound and historic dimension” from today’s Supreme Court. She said the president had requested a stay of adverse decisions about two dozen times this past summer and a majority of the justices had granted the request without explanation.
“In most of these cases, it’s been the dissenters who chose to speak, when the majority remained silent,” Greenhouse said.
Currently another case involving the separation of powers is pending before the Supreme Court, Greenhouse said. This one arises from Trump’s firing of Shira Perlmutter, the register of copyrights and director of the U.S. Copyright Office in May 2025. Apparently, the president disagreed with the reform she had prepared for Congress on the copyright aspects of artificial intelligence. Congress has pushed back, but Greenhouse said the case is playing out much like the border-wall dispute:
Congress: Mr. President, this official is not yours to fire.
President: Well, I did it anyway.
Greenhouse said what is not yet known is whether the Supreme Court will acquiesce to the president as it has been doing or seek to impose some limits on the Trump administration.
Reviewing the separation of powers cases that are filling the Supreme Court’s docket, Greenhouse posed the question of whether the principle means the same today at it meant to the framers in September 1787 and to Justice Jackson in 1952.
“Does it mean something quite different today, unbounded presidential authority with very little balance?” Greenhouse asked. “If so, on Constitution Day 2025, what are the implications for American democracy?”
Indiana judges are using Constitution Day to help instill an appreciation and understanding of the founding document and democracy in the younger generations of Hoosiers. They go into their local schools on the anniversary of the signing and enlist a variety of methods to teach and excite the students about the Constitution.
Elkhart County Superior Court Judge Elizabeth Bellin was scheduled to mark the commemoration a day early on Sept. 16 by visiting students in the second, third and fifth grades at Wakarusa Elementary School. She planned to take the stuffed Alexander Hamilton doll that sits atop a copy of the Federalist Papers in her judicial chambers to help her give the children a “nice little peek” into the Bill of Rights and the three branches of government.
Bellin also takes her gavel – “The kids love the gavel,” she said – and concludes her presentation by quizzing the students on what they have learned.
“We’ve got a lot of judges that participate in this, so it’s a really great program,” Bellin said, adding that each judge contacts the schools and schedules the Constitution Day events. “We set this up on our own. This is all dedication from judges from all over the state.”
Marion County Superior Court Judge Kurt Eisgruber has been visiting classrooms to celebrate Constitution Day for more than 10 years. This year, he will be meeting with students at Bishop Chatard High School in Indianapolis on Sept. 24.
Going primarily to high schools, he said he talks to students about the three branches of government and then digs into the Bill of Rights, especially the Fourth (protecting against unreasonable search and seizure, and against arrest without probable cause), Fifth (rights in a criminal case) and Sixth (right to a fair trial) Amendments.
Eisgruber keeps the teenagers interested in the constitutional primer by leading the discussion on how those rights would apply if law enforcement wants to access their cell phones.
“I think the more we can spread the word of the Constitution, the better off we are, the more civic minded we are,” Eisgruber said. “I think so many people view the Constitution as an abstract document and in the court, we practice the Constitution on a daily basis. … It’s not at all an abstract document in that sense. So that’s what I enjoy conveying to the students.”
Clark County Superior Court Judge Lisa Reger was scheduled to visit third and fourth graders at Franklin Square Elementary School in Clark County before making the trip to New Albany to visit students in the fifth through eighth grades at Our Lady of Perpetual Help.
With the younger students, Reger said she will read the book, “What Does the U.S Constitution Say?” Also, she will talk to them about the judiciary’s role in state government and let them sample being a judge by trying on some mini judges’ robes and banging a gavel.
She said she will play a game of Constitution trivia with the older students, which will teach them the basic framework of the founding document as well as unique facts such as the oldest signer of the Constitution and the “glaring spelling error” in the Constitution.
“I’ve been visiting various schools and libraries to talk about the Constitution for the past five years,” Reger said in an email. “It’s a powerful way to inspire civic engagement and deepen students’ understanding of our nation’s foundational principles. By connecting with young people directly, judges foster a sense of responsibility and empower the next generation to uphold the rule of law.”
Dwight Adams, an editor and writer based in Indianapolis, edited this article. He is a former content editor, copy editor and digital producer at The Indianapolis Star and IndyStar.com, and worked as a planner for other newspapers, including the Louisville Courier Journal.
The Indiana Citizen is a nonpartisan, nonprofit platform dedicated to increasing the number of informed and engaged Hoosier citizens. We are operated by the Indiana Citizen Education Foundation, Inc., a 501(c)(3) public charity. For questions about the story, contact Marilyn Odendahl at marilyn.odendahl@indianacitizen.org.
