Reforming the Supreme Court: Challenges and Imperatives

Sean Illing talks with Harvard Law professor Nikolas Bowie about the U.S. Supreme Court's recently-concluded term, which produced landmark opinions restricting the power of the EPA, expanding gun rights, and overturning Roe v. Wade. They discuss how the conservative court's arguments are structured and why they are in fact quite radical, what "legal liberalism" is and whether it has just been decisively repudiated, and whether there are any reforms that could stop the conservative majority from reshaping American jurisprudence.

Host: Sean Illing (@seanilling), Interviews Writer, Vox

Guest: Nikolas Bowie (@nikobowie), Louis D. Brandeis Professor of Law, Harvard Law School

References: 

• Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court, Public Meeting, Panel 1 (C-SPAN; June 30)
• "How the Supreme Court dominates our democracy" by Niko Bowie (Washington Post; July 16, 2021)
• A Twitter thread on the repudiation of legal liberalism, by @nikobowie
• Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health (SCOTUS; June 24)
• 42 U.S. Code §1983 - Civil action for deprivation of rights
• 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution (1868)
• New York State Rifle & Pistol Association Inc. v. Bruen (SCOTUS; June 23)
• Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey (SCOTUS; June 29, 1992)
• Private Government: How Employers Rule Our Lives (and Why We Don't Talk about It) by Elizabeth Anderson (Princeton; 2017)
• "A new Supreme Court case is the biggest threat to US democracy since January 6" by Ian Millhiser (Vox; June 30)

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This episode was made by: 

• Producer: Erikk Geannikis
• Editor: Amy Drozdowska
• Engineer: Patrick Boyd
• Deputy Editorial Director, Vox Talk: Amber Hall

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