The Constitution: That Delicate Balance
The Constitution: That Delicate Balance is a television series broadcast originally broadcast in the USA in 1984 on The Learning Channel. Produced by Columbia University as part of its Media & Society Seminars program, the series was filmed in Congress Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1982-83 as a series of seminars with a group of around 15-20 politicians, journalists, educators and others, including the former President Gerald Ford and the former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart, who also participated in related discussion with the series host Fred Friendly.
Others participants included :
- Judge Arlin Adams
- Laurence Barrett
- Judge Robert Bork
- David Broder
- Philip Buchen
- Prof. Archibald Cox
- Lloyd Cutler
- Senator Christopher Dodd
- US Rep Barney Frank
- Senator Orrin Hatch
- Justice Irving Kaufman, US Court of Appeals
- Jim Lehrer
- Ann Lewis
- Anthony Lewis
- US Rep Barbara Mikulski
- Bill Moyers
- Former Senator Edmund Muskie
- US Rep Charles B. Rangel
- Lt General Brent Scowcroft
- Gerry Spence
- James D. St. Clair
- Jack Valenti
- Judge Patricia Wald
- Judge J. Clifford Wallace
- Ben Wattenberg
- Tom Wicker
Episodes
- 01 "Can the President Make a Decision of National Importance Without Consulting the Congress?" ; moderated by Benno C. Schmidt, Jr., Dean of Columbia Law School
- 02 "Can the President Commit American Troops Without Permission From Congress?" ; moderated by Benno C. Schmidt, Jr.
- 03 "Is the Way We Elect a President a Disaster Waiting to Happen?" ; moderated by Prof. Arthur R. Miller
- 04 "The Rights of Criminal Defendants versus Safety on Our Streets" ; moderated by Prof. Charles Nesson
- 05 "Does the Insanity Defense Serve to Shield the Guilty Or Does It Work to Protect the Mentally Ill?" ; moderated by Prof. Charles Nesson
- 06 "Who Goes to Prison, For How Long and Under What Conditions?" ; moderated by Prof. Charles Nesson
- 07 "Does the Cost of Campaigning Corrupt the System?" ; moderated by Tyrone Brown, a Washington attorney
- 08 "National Security versus Freedom of the Press"; moderated by Benno Schmidt
- 09 "School Prayer, Gun Control & the Right of Extremist Groups to Assemble: Who Decides?"; moderated by Prof. Arthur R. Miller
- 10 "The Sovereign Self: The Right To Live, The Right to Die"; moderated by Prof. Arthur R. Miller
- 11 "Can This Nation of Immigrants Deny Opportunity to the Latest New-Comers: How Many Aliens Can We Absorb?" ; moderated by Benno C. Schmidt, Jr.
- 12 "Affirmative Action vs Reverse Discrimination"; moderated by Tyrone Brown
- 13 "Can the States, Which Created the Federal Government, Be Forced to Accept Federal Standards for Education?" ; moderated by Prof. Lewis Kaden