Experts

Saikrishna Prakash

Fast Facts

Areas Of Expertise

  • Foreign Affairs
  • Domestic Affairs
  • Law and Justice
  • Governance
  • Political Parties and Movements
  • Politics
  • The Presidency
  • Supreme Court

Saikrishna Prakash, faculty senior fellow, is the James Monroe Distinguished Professor of Law and Albert Clark Tate, Jr., Professor of Law at the University of Virginia Law School. His scholarship focuses on separation of powers, particularly executive powers. He teaches constitutional law, foreign relations Law and presidential powers at the University of Virginia Law School.

Prakash majored in economics and political science at Stanford University. At Yale Law School, he served as senior editor of the Yale Law Journal and received the John M. Olin Fellowship in Law, Economics and Public Policy. After law school, he clerked for Judge Laurence H. Silberman of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and for Justice Clarence Thomas of the U.S. Supreme Court. After practicing in New York for two years, he served as a visiting professor at the University of Illinois College of Law and as an associate professor at Boston University School of Law. He then spent several years at the University of San Diego School of Law as the Herzog Research Professor of Law. Prakash has been a visiting professor at the Northwestern University School of Law and the University of Chicago Law School. He also has served as a James Madison Fellow at Princeton University and Visiting Research Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.

Among Prakash's articles are "50 States, 50 Attorneys General and 50 Approaches to the Duty to Defend," published in the Yale Law Journal; "The Imbecilic Executive," published in the Virginia Law Review; and "The Sweeping Domestic War Powers of Congress," published in the Michigan Law Review. He is the author of The Living Presidency: An Originalist Argument against Its Ever-Expanding Powers and Imperial from the Beginning: The Constitution of the Original Executive.

Saikrishna Prakash News Feed

Legal experts said Concord’s apparent attempt to challenge Mueller’s charges could be a way for documents and details about the special counsel’s investigation to be released in discovery. Russia could potentially glean information about how the U.S. gathers intelligence and even about its sources, Saikrishna Bangalore Prakash, a professor of law and Miller Center Senior Fellow at the University of Virginia, told Newsweek.
Saikrishna Prakash Newsweek
Firing Mr. Mueller would be a grave political mistake — “suicide” as a Republican senator, Charles Grassley, rightly put it — yet protecting the independent counsel with a new statute would prescribe a cure far worse than the disease. Instead, President Trump should seize the initiative. He should retain Mr. Mueller in exchange for a fixed deadline for the investigation.
Saikrishna Prakash The New York Times
As investigations continue into alleged Russian election meddling, potential witnesses are clamming up. Former White House aide Steve Bannon this week refused to answer questions from the House Intelligence Committee. President Trump has flip-flopped on whether he will talk to special counsel Robert Mueller. Confidants may have urged Mr. Trump to invoke executive privilege—the president’s constitutional right to keep conversations and documents secret—to frustrate both congressional and criminal investigations. While this privilege protects deliberations about national security and diplomacy, it cannot shield Mr. Trump from criminal probes. Ultimately, he would lose any conflict with Mr. Mueller over secrecy.
Saikrishna Prakash The Wall Street Journal
Our 18th century Constitution causes confusion in the 21st by granting the president great power but also demanding great accountability. Donald Trump’s defenders believe his authority forges an impenetrable shield that deflects criminal charges. His critics find wrongdoing in every presidential action, order or tweet, especially on law enforcement. Both camps are mistaken.
Saikrishna Prakash Los Angeles Times
If the president has impeded a valid investigation, Congress should turn to impeachment, write the Miller Center's Saikrishna Prakash and UC Berkeley's John Yoo 
Saikrishna Prakash
Trump has the rare opportunity to restore unity and decision to the executive branch, strike a blow against administrative bloat and overregulation, and resurrect the Founders’ designs for the presidency.
Saikrishna Prakash Philadelphia Inquirer