David Adler

Washington, D.C., United States

Chairman and Founder at BizBash

Co-Host at GatherGeeks by BizBash: The Event Industry Podcast

Chairman & Founder- BizBash; host Gathergeeks Podcast; author-"Harnessing Serendipity, Collaboration Artist, Conveners and Connectors"; speaker- events

Articles

Opinion: Modest origins of clause under a microscope

1 week ago | postregister.com | David Adler

The confluence of the 250th anniversary of the creation of the U.S. Army, President Donald Trump’s deployment of the California National Guard and the Marines to Los Angeles, and the possibility that he might plunge our nation headlong into the war between Israel and Iran, without the constitutionally required congressional authorization, compel a reconsideration of the Commander in Chief Clause, as conceived by the framers, particularly when, in the words of Justice Robert H.
Opinion: Scrambling constitutional arrangements

2 weeks ago | postregister.com | David Adler

Since his inauguration, President Donald Trump has engaged in a sustained program to scramble our constitutional arrangements and upend democratic principles. He exhibited disdain for “the Blue” when he pardoned the Jan. 6 rioters and insurrectionists who attacked U.S. Capitol Police as part of a plan to prevent congressional certification of the 2020 election, in which he was defeated by Joe Biden.
Opinion: Security for judges is essential

4 weeks ago | postregister.com | David Adler

Reporting from the Wall Street Journal over the Memorial Day weekend that a security committee at the federal Judicial Conference in March discussed a proposal to create an armed security force responsible for the safety of the judiciary, separate from the U.S. Marshal’s Service, reflects a sad reality: judges who have ruled against President Donald Trump have faced death threats and vicious personal attacks, amid other hostile acts designed to intimidate them.
Opinion: Emoluments clause means no plane without consent

1 month ago | postregister.com | David Adler

Few provisions of the Constitution speak with the clarity of the Emoluments Clause. If President Donald Trump had obeyed its commands, he would have obtained congressional authorization before accepting a $400 million luxury Boeing 747-8 plane from Qatar.
Opinion: Premise of judicial finality requires presidential compliance with judicial rulings

2 months ago | postregister.com | David Adler

President Trump’s continued defiance of a federal court order, embraced by the U.S. Supreme Court, to “facilitate” the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, in conjunction with the court’s 1 a.m. ruling on Saturday that instructed Trump to halt removal of Venezuelan migrants under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, “until further order from this Court,” raises anew the meaning of the framers’ conception of “judicial finality.” Did delegates to the Constitutional Convention vest federal courts with the...
Opinion: Revive Congress, checks and balances

2 months ago | postregister.com | David Adler

The overwhelming, mushrooming growth of presidential power in both foreign and domestic affairs, marked by executive aggrandizement and legislative abdication, leaves students of the Constitution begging for a spirited revival of checks and balances, of the sort envisioned by delegates to the constitutional convention.
Opinion: ‘Legal history still has its claims’

Mar 14, 2025 | postregister.com | David Adler

The Trump administration’s encirclement of the Constitution, laid bare in federal court findings that President Trump has usurped the congressional power of the purse, violated the Take Care Clause, the separation of powers and the Impoundment Act of 1974, in addition to executive orders that strike at the heart of freedom of the press, freedom of speech and due process, have led readers of this column, alarmed by changing tides, to ask how “constitutional balance can be restored.” The right...
Opinion: Origins of the legislative power of the purse

Mar 7, 2025 | postregister.com | David Adler

It took many centuries of advances, threats, retreats, and a Civil War before the English Constitution secured for Parliament the appropriations power — the power of the purse — what civics instructors teach as the fundamental right to spend taxpayer dollars.
The Colossal Impact of Jane's Addiction

May 10, 2024 | adlermusic.medium.com | David Adler

Author Sam Stephenson mentioned a Jane's Addiction project that he has on the back burner. It got me thinking about the band and how it impacted me. But first, some music nerdery. Jane's Addiction employed the tension between minor and major in ways that still strike me as unique. "Three Days," from Ritual de lo Habitual, begins clear as could be in B minor. For the first bit, Perry Farrell is singing, also clear as could be, in B major over B minor.
Early Readers to Ignite Imaginations | Read Woke

Mar 28, 2024 | slj.com | David Adler |Ava Yun Lin |Kelly Lyons |Cicely Lewis

When I was a young girl, the early readers we were given in elementary school were a step above picture books but fell short of the captivating narratives in chapter books. Their plots were rudimentary, serving only to encourage reading proficiency. While they were undoubtedly helpful in that regard, I now realize they missed a golden opportunity to celebrate diversity and engage young minds in meaningful ways. Surveying early readers today, I am heartened to see a shift.