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Woodrow Wilson’s tenure as U.S. President (1913–1921) significantly weakened the constitutional republic designed by the Founders. As a Princeton professor and political scientist, Wilson openly rejected the Founders’ system of separated powers, limited government, and federalism. He viewed the Constitution as outdated and inefficient for the modern age, preferring rule by expert administrators in a powerful central state.

In office he advanced this vision through:

• The Federal Reserve Act (1913) – centralizing monetary power
• The 16th Amendment income tax – funding vast federal expansion
• Espionage and Sedition Acts – suppressing free speech
• Racial segregation of the federal workforce
• Aggressive push for the League of Nations, undermining American sovereignty

These changes shifted power from Congress and the states to the executive branch and unelected bureaucracy, creating the foundations of today’s administrative state. Wilson’s academic background made this outcome predictable: college progressives of his era distrusted “inefficient” constitutional restraints and placed faith in enlightened elites. His presidency proved that such intellectual contempt for the Founders’ republic inevitably leads to concentrated power and eroded liberties.

Furthermore, Wilson was an enthusiastic “eugenicist” supporting compulsory sterilization legislation aimed at preventing reproduction of people considered to be genetically inferior; including African-Americans whom he discouraged entering Princeton.  Ironically, President Barack Obama was one of Wilson’s intellectual disciples — promoting activist federal government, expert-led reform, internationalism and the elevation of race into all public discourse.

University of Chicago Law School Lecturer: 1992-2004
President of the United States: 2009 – 2017