Knox Professor Thomas Bell's New Book Discusses Supreme Court and the Separation of Powers

Knox College Associate Professor of Political Science Thomas Bell celebrated the publication of his first book, The Constitution of Conflict: How the Supreme Court Undermines the Separation of Powers, University of Kansas Press, a project that began as his doctoral dissertation in graduate school.

“I think the first graduate seminar I took on the separation of powers called Constitutional Conflict was really where the book emerged,” Bell said. “I wrote a term paper on recess appointments and the Noel Canning case that became both my first publication in Presidential Studies Quarterly and eventually a chapter in the book; from the time I wrote that first paper I was moving on towards a larger project with case studies that covered a lot of ground, including executive agreements, delegation of powers and the legislative veto, and congressional oversight and impeachment.

While Bell began work on the book over a decade ago, he emphasizes that its central argument—that the separation of powers is properly understood as a political architecture rather than a legal doctrine—remains highly relevant to both current events and broader questions about the stability and future of American democracy.

“People often remark ‘oh, your book is really relevant or timely,’ and part of my response is that the separation of powers is the central design feature of our government, so it’s always important to study and think about,” Bell said. 

Bell explains that during his time at Knox, research and reflection led him to clarify the book’s theoretical framework in the first chapter, and to write the final case study chapter on oversight and impeachment. That final case study also closely examines both impeachments of Senate trials of President Trump and his subsequent criminal indictments. The book’s concluding chapter focuses on how extreme partisanship undermines Congress's ability to fulfill its constitutional functions, and proposes potential solutions based on his articulation of Madisonian political science. 

“It looks like the summer and the December break is time off, but that time provides crucial opportunities to dig back into the work and write,” he said. “It’s the main way the College supports research. The job has open-ended time flexibility, and the junior research leave is primarily structured to give us time to push some projects out.”

Bell applies his passion for and knowledge of the Constitution not only to his book but also to the classes he teaches at Knox, blending scholarship and teaching.

“Teaching and research go hand in hand; this book is a product of how I think about American politics. I teach American politics the way I think and write about it.”

In addition to his classroom instruction, Bell noted that Knox's schedule provided him the necessary time and space to conduct research and focus on writing the book.

Now that the book is published and with the December break underway, Bell turns his attention to new academic projects.

“I’m working on a paper on the removal power, which is the highly contested power of the president to have direct control over members of the executive branch and independent agencies,” he said. “These are live issues before the Court. I think the Constitution affords wide latitude to Congress to structure agencies and independent regulatory commissions to accomplish its governing objectives in response to new problems, but the Court seems poised to embrace a narrowly formalistic conception of the separation of powers. I’m going to a conference at Baylor in February to present the paper. I also have a paper on constitutional hypocrisy in the journal Polity forthcoming.”