Sound Stories. Sound Voices.
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
You are on the KUOW archive site. Click here to go to our current site.

How much power will President Trump have? This new UW law course can tell you

President Donald Trump
Flickr Photo/Gage Skidmore (CC BY SA 2.0)/https://flic.kr/p/9hKraP
President-elect Donald Trump

University of Washington law students will keep a close watch on President-elect Donald Trump during his first months in office.

The law school is offering a brand-new course on presidential power.

Law professor Kathryn Watts and another professor will lead the class, which they say students requested after the November election.

They will start by looking at Trump's first week in office.

Watts said they will then study the president's power on topics like health care and climate change.

Watts: "Really grounding that discussion in the law so that students understand what a president can do, what a president can't do, and where the president needs to involve other actors in order to achieve his policy goals, and where there's opportunities by other actors to be checking actions the president takes."

The class will discuss policy questions like whether Trump can deport millions of undocumented immigrants, as he's pledged.

Several UW law professors will give lectures in their areas of expertise.

There was a wait list for the class a day after it was announced, even though it was added late.

Produced for the Web by Paige Browning.