The Defiant Citizen

Episode 16: Judgment, Not Rule - When Did the Supreme Court Become the Final Word?

The Supreme Court is the highest court in America.

But is it the highest authority?

In this episode of The Defiant Citizen, Gary Mullins takes a plain-English look at the role the Founders actually intended for the federal judiciary, and the important difference between judicial review and judicial supremacy.

Why did the Founders make federal judges so independent? What did Alexander Hamilton mean when he said the courts possessed “neither FORCE nor WILL, but merely judgment”? And if the Supreme Court itself has overturned constitutional decisions it once treated as binding precedent, should we really treat every Court interpretation as though it were the Constitution itself?

We’ll look at the history behind Article III, including the English Star Chamber and colonial concerns about judges dependent on the Crown; the Supreme Court’s own history of reversing precedent; nationwide injunctions and Trump v. CASA; and several reforms aimed at preserving an independent judiciary without turning it into an unelected governing body.

This isn’t an argument for weak courts.

It’s an argument for courts strong enough to defend individual liberty, independent enough to stand against political pressure, and restrained enough to remember that they were given judgment, not rule.

The Supreme Court is the highest court in America. The Constitution is the supreme law.

Based on Restoration Paper No. 15: The Constitutional Judiciary — Judgment, Not Rule from The Publius Project.

Episode 15: The President Is Not a King—And Congress Is Not a Spectator

America does not need a weak president. We need one strong enough to enforce the law, defend the country, manage the executive branch, and act decisively when the moment demands it.

But the president was never meant to become the law.

In this episode of The Defiant Citizen, Gary Mullins examines how Congress slowly surrendered many of its own responsibilities—war powers, spending authority, emergency powers, regulation, and major policy decisions—and helped create the modern imperial presidency.

The episode also explores executive orders, agency power, presidential pardons, the Fifth Amendment, congressional oversight, and the simplest test for any presidential power:

Would you still support it if it were placed in the hands of the president you trust least?

Based on Restoration Paper No. 14: The Limited Executive, this episode argues for something America desperately needs:

A strong president.
A limited executive.
A Congress willing to do its job.

Read the full Restoration Paper and subscribe at PubliusProject.com.

Episode 14: Get the Hell Out of Washington

Congress was never supposed to be a lifetime career.

In this episode, Gary examines how temporary public service became permanent political power. From endless fundraising and party control to incumbency, lobbyists, and the growing divide between Washington and Everyday America, this is a blunt look at how Congress stopped being a citizen legislature.

The answer is not complicated:

Serve. Represent. Go home.

Episode 12: Why We Distrust Power

Most Americans can tell you there are three branches of government. Far fewer can tell you why they exist.

In this episode, we explore one of the most important—and least understood—ideas in the American constitutional system: the separation of powers.

The Founders did not divide government because they trusted politicians. They divided government because they didn't. Drawing on their experiences with monarchy, history's warnings about concentrated power, and their understanding of human nature, they built a system designed to make government compete with itself before it could act on the people.

We'll examine how the system was intended to work, a moment in American history when it worked exactly as designed, and what happens when constitutional safeguards begin to erode. Along the way, we'll explore why political gridlock may not be a flaw at all, but a feature—and why liberty often depends on government moving slower than we'd like.

If freedom survives because power is divided, what happens when those divisions begin to disappear?

That's the question.

Welcome to The Defiant Citizen.

Episode 11: Flawed Men, Enduring Ideas

Phase II of the Restoration Project begins here.

For generations, Americans have argued about what the Founders believed, what they meant, and which modern political movement they would support. But before we can understand the Constitution, we have to understand something even more important:

What assumptions were the Founders making about human nature when they built the American system?

In this episode, Gary Mullins explores the foundation beneath the Constitution—the belief that human beings are capable of both greatness and corruption, and that government must be designed accordingly.

You'll learn why the Founders intentionally built a slow and restrained system of government, why checks and balances exist, and why liberty requires constant vigilance. You'll also confront one of the most common objections raised against the Founders: their personal flaws and contradictions.

Can flawed people create enduring ideas?

From Washington and Jefferson to Lincoln, Roosevelt, and other influential figures throughout history, this episode examines why judging ideas solely by the imperfections of their creators may leave us with nothing worth preserving.

Topics Covered:

• The Founders' view of human nature
• Why the Constitution was built around restraint
• Separation of powers and checks and balances
• The danger of concentrated power
• Slavery and the Founders' contradictions
• Habeas corpus and civil liberties
• Why flawed people can still create lasting institutions

This episode serves as the gateway into Phase II: The Founders' Framework, where we'll begin examining the principles that shaped the American Republic and whether they still have something to teach us today.

The Defiant Citizen is the podcast companion to The Publius Project—a nonpartisan exploration of citizenship, constitutional government, and the restoration of the American Republic.

Episode 10: The Cost You Never See

What if the biggest cost of government isn’t what you pay… but what you stop trying to do?

Episode 10 explores the hidden “mental tax” of the modern managed state — the delays, approvals, paperwork, compliance systems, and endless hoops that slowly train ordinary Americans to hesitate instead of build.

Through real-world stories of permits, small businesses, contractors, denied applications, and everyday bureaucracy, this episode examines how a culture of citizens gradually becomes a culture of applicants. Not through force or dramatic crackdowns… but through friction. Quietly. Constantly. Until people begin regulating themselves before the system ever has to.

Building on Restoration Paper No. 9, The Cost of the Managed State, and the companion essay From Citizen to Applicant, this episode asks a difficult question:

What happens to a free society when people stop asking “What can I build?” and start asking “Am I allowed?”

This is an episode about initiative, responsibility, self-government, and the invisible cost of living inside systems that slowly discourage action itself.

If you’ve ever looked at an idea and thought, “Yeah… probably not worth it,” this episode is for you.

Episode 9: It's a Great Big Club..And We Ain't In it!

You don’t have representation.

You have the illusion of it.

In this episode, we pull back the curtain on how the system actually works—and why your vote doesn’t carry the weight you think it does.

From the “Wealth Primary” that decides who gets to run…
to the donor networks that shape decisions behind the scenes…
to the closed loop that protects the people inside it…

this isn’t a broken system.

It’s a system that’s doing exactly what it was built to do.

The question is—

who was it built for?

Episode 8: Who Governs?

During COVID, businesses closed, movement was restricted, and millions complied.

But here’s the question no one asked:

Who actually had the authority to do it?

In this episode, I examine how “experts” moved from advising decisions to making them - and what that means for a system that was designed to be governed by citizens.

This isn’t about left vs. right.

It’s about whether the American people still control the system - or if we’ve handed it over without realizing it.

Episode 7: A Nation of Citizens...Or a System of Clients?

There was no vote.
No announcement.
No single moment when Americans chose to become dependent.

It happened slowly, through a thousand small, reasonable decisions that traded responsibility for stability.

In this episode of The Defiant Citizen, we move beyond structure and into identity.

From Social Security and Medicare to Medicaid, SNAP, housing assistance, and disability programs, we examine how a system designed to provide support has grown into something much larger, one that doesn’t just help people… but shapes behavior.

This isn’t about blaming individuals.
If a system exists, people will rationally navigate it.

The real question is deeper:

What kind of person does that system produce?

Because over time, the shift isn’t just in policy…
It’s in posture.

From citizen… to client.

If you’ve ever found yourself asking, “What do I qualify for?” instead of “What can I build?”

This episode will help you understand why.

Because a republic survives only when its citizens refuse to become subjects.

Episode 6: The Permission Society – When Everything Requires Approval

At what point did everyday life start requiring permission?

In this episode of The Defiant Citizen, we examine the next phase of the shift—from a system that manages…to a culture that conditions.

What begins as regulation gradually becomes expectation.
What starts as oversight becomes dependency.

And over time, a subtle transformation takes place:

A society of citizens becomes a society of permission-seekers.

From business and property to speech and daily decision-making, we explore how the need for approval has quietly expanded—and what that means for individual agency in a modern system.

If you’ve ever hesitated…not because something was wrong, but because you weren’t sure if you were allowed to act—this episode is for you.

Because a republic survives only when its citizens refuse to become subjects.

Episode 5: The System Behind the System

You can see the rules.

But can you see the system that created them?

In this episode, we break down the rise of the administrative state—how power moved from elected representatives to a system that writes, enforces, and interprets its own authority.

From Wilson’s vision of expert administration… to the expansion of agencies during crisis… to the legal framework that sustained it for decades, this is the story of how governance quietly gave way to management.

Once you understand it…you start seeing it everywhere.

Episode 4: The System You Can’t Vote Against

You can vote for your representatives. But what about the system that actually runs your life?

In this episode, we apply Restoration Paper No. 3 to the real world and examine the rise of a system where rules are written, enforced, and interpreted by people you will never vote for—and may never even know exist.

From everyday regulations to crisis-level directives, this is the story of how governance quietly gave way to management.

And once you see it…you start seeing it everywhere.

Episode 3: The Great Displacement — From Governance to Management

We’ve been taught that we live in a republic where elected representatives write our laws. But look closely at the rules that shape your daily life—and you may find something very different.

In this episode, we explore the quiet shift from constitutional governance to administrative management. Over time, authority has moved away from elected officials and into a vast system of agencies, regulations, and “expert” rulemaking.

This isn’t a story about politics. It’s a story about structure.

Where does authority reside? Who writes the rules? And what happens to a republic when consent is replaced by compliance?

This episode corresponds to Restoration Paper No. 3 of The Publius Project.

Episode 2: Survival Without the State

When Washington shuts down, what actually happens to the country?

In October 2025, a federal funding lapse brought the machinery of government in Washington to a standstill. News headlines warned of crisis, chaos, and national disruption. But something surprising happened across the country: most communities kept functioning.

Trash was still collected. Local police still patrolled neighborhoods. Food banks, churches, and neighbors stepped in where federal programs stalled.

In this episode of The Defiant Citizen, we apply the principle behind Restoration Paper #2: The Baseline We Forgot to a real-world event. The shutdown exposed something the founders assumed about a free republic—that citizens and local communities would be capable of solving problems without waiting for permission from a distant central authority.

The result wasn’t a collapse of society. It was a reminder of a forgotten truth: the real foundation of American governance isn’t a federal building in Washington. It’s the local relationships, institutions, and responsibilities that exist in every community.

What happens when we stop acting like clients of a central system and start acting like citizens again?

Because a republic survives only when its citizens refuse to become subjects.

New episodes of The Defiant Citizen explore the principles of American self-government and apply them to the events shaping our country today.

Episode 1: When Did Americans Stop Acting Like Citizens?

The American system of government was never meant to run on autopilot. It was designed to operate alongside a citizenry that understood how it worked and accepted responsibility for preserving it.

In this first episode of The Defiant Citizen, we introduce the Publius Project and explore the principle behind Restoration Paper No. 2: The Baseline We Forgot — the founding assumption about citizenship that once sustained the American republic.

#citizenship #republic #constitution #selfgovernment #civicresponsibility

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