CSCO Speaker: Saikrishna Prakash

Saikrishna Prakash teaches Constitutional Law, Foreign Relations Law and Presidential Powers at the Law School.

Prakash’s most recent book is “The Presidential Pardon: The Short Clause with the Long, Troubled History,” from Harvard University Press (2026). He is also the author of “The Living Presidency: An Originalist Argument Against Its Ever-Expanding Powers,” from Harvard Belknap Press (2020) and “Imperial from the Beginning: The Constitution of the Original Executive” from Yale University Press (2015). “The Living Presidency” focuses on the modern presidency, while “Imperial From the Beginning” considers the presidency of the Founders.

Prakash has authored over 80 law review articles. Among them are “The Inconvenience Doctrine” in the Stanford Law Review, “Of Synchronicity and Supreme Law” in the Harvard Law Review, and “Deciphering the Commander-in-Chief Clause” in the Yale Law Journal.

USD School of Law Center for the Study of Constitutional Originalism

Originalism is the view that the Constitution should be interpreted in accordance with its original meaning—that is, the meaning it had at the time of its enactment. The Center for the Study of Constitutional Originalism at the University of San Diego School of Law has as its mission the study of all aspects of originalism. In particular, the center studies arguments for and against the originalist theory of interpretation, the variety of specific originalist interpretive methods, and the original meaning of particular constitutional provisions.