Asha Rangappa
American lawyer and former FBI special agent; senior lecturer at Yale's Jackson School of Global Affairs, editor at Just Security and author of the Substack The Freedom Academy.
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Their wordsAnd yet, our current structure in the U.S. is simply not sustainable.
↗We Need a Fourth Branchasharangappa.substack.com 1st of 3 in this piece
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Their wordsthe “unitary executive” is, quite simply, incompatible with a theory of checks and balances. A President who is 1) above the law; 2) can hire and fire everyone under him at will; and 3) decide to withhold or spend appropriated funds as he sees fit with no real way to stop him other than impeachment is no longer a “coequal” branch.
↗We Need a Fourth Branchasharangappa.substack.com 2nd of 3 in this piece
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Their wordsSo what would a fourth branch look like? Well, since my McGill talk, and particularly since Trump 2.0 and the Supreme Court’s expansive embrace of the unitary executive theory, I think a fourth branch would need to include more than just the Justice Department. It would also need to include any institution that must remain independent in order for the republic to continue existing.
↗We Need a Fourth Branchasharangappa.substack.com 3rd of 3 in this piece
- 2 weeks earlier
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Their wordsIn this regard, AI is not so much the cause of the breakdown of the Honor Code as it is an accelerant of a culture shift that was already underway.
↗The End of Honorasharangappa.substack.com 1st of 3 in this piece
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Our reading
When social norms break down, they have to be replaced with more rules, oversight and enforcement.
Their wordsAs I have written before, when “warm trust” — social norms — breaks down, you have to replace it with “cool trust” — more rules, more oversight, more enforcement. Basically, you need to add more refs to the game.
↗The End of Honorasharangappa.substack.com 2nd of 3 in this piece
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Their wordsThe erosion of honor as an internal moral constraint isn’t just a Princeton problem, it’s an America problem.
↗The End of Honorasharangappa.substack.com 3rd of 3 in this piece
- 3 weeks earlier
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Their wordsSo listening to the pod now actually makes me reflect on important differences between America 2026 (and even later in 2025) and Germany 1933 which I think has made us more resilient.
↗History Doesn't Repeat (Unless We Let It)asharangappa.substack.com