Over the past year, the Supreme Court has taken a far more active role in reviewing cases reflecting fringe arguments supported by federal district court judges and appellate circuits. The Western and Northern Districts of Texas have become the destination of choice for "judge-shopping" to receive the benefits of far-right conservative judicial ide…

Nisha Anand, the Chief Executive Officer of Dream.org, joins SideBar to discuss how she builds bridges across political divides to find real solutions. Nisha employs the “radical act of finding common ground” with unlikely allies while still staying true to her progressive values. She provides a hopeful message that collaboration can achieve change…

What’s the difference between how Americans communicated about politics and policies 20 or 30 years ago and how we do it today?What are the most effective ways to combat disinformation in elections and otherwise?Are the platforms and the rest of us ready for election-related threats in 2024?On the season finale of Season 5 of the ELB Podcast, we sp…

Senior CNN Legal Analyst Elie Honig challenges whether the rule of law is under attack when powerful people square off against judges and juries. As author of Untouchable: How Powerful People Get Away with It and a former federal and state prosecutor, he served on air as a CNN Senior Legal Analyst throughout the first criminal trial and conviction …

Kathy Spillar, Executive Director of Feminist Majority Foundation and Executive Editor of MS Magazine joins SideBar to discuss why ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) is an essential legal tool to guarantee women's rights. Ratification of the ERA would constitutionally prohibit sex discrimination, recognize systemic inequities across d…

Madiba K. Dennie is an attorney, columnist, author, and professor whose work focuses on fostering an equitable multiracial democracy. Dennie is the author of The Originalism Trap: How Extremists Stole the Constitution and How We the People Can Take It Back. She currently serves as Deputy Editor and Senior Contributor at the critical legal commentar…

Since the Dobbs Supreme Court case was decided, we have gained a heightened awareness of the criminal laws surrounding pregnancies, including the decision to terminate one. But the criminalization of abortion isn’t a new post-Dobbs phenomenon. Women, especially women of color, have frequently faced punitive state laws regulating reproductive health…

How should we understand the Supreme Court’s questions in the Trump immunity case?Will the Court let Donald Trump go to trial for 2020 election interference based just on his acts as a candidate and not as President?Are the legal theories advanced in Donald Trump’s hush money case in New York legally sound?On Season 5, Episode 7 of the ELB Podcast,…

Law Professor Mary Sarah Bilder discusses the amazing story of Eliza Harriot, a rare female public lecturer who delivered a University of Pennsylvania program attended by George Washington as he met in Philadelphia with delegates to draft the US Constitution. Harriot’s performance likely inspired the gender-neutral language of the Constitution and …

Law Professors Joy Milligan and Bertrall Ross discuss how we should interpret a Constitution that was not written for or drafted by “We the People”. The original constitution excluded women and racial minorities. The drafters and the commentators of the period were exclusively white men. Many of the subsequent amendments were adopted under "undemoc…

Since the mid to late 1980s, an increasingly conservative federal bench has made it more difficult to defend Indian rights under existing treaties and federal law. John Echohawk is an attorney and Executive Director of the Native American Rights Fund (NARF) defending Native American tribes, organizations, and individuals. He joins SideBar to discus…

The federal constitution neither explicitly nor implicitly includes the right to vote. Instead, the framers allowed the States to determine the “Time, Places, and Manner of holding Elections.” Rick Hasen, author of A Real Right to Vote: How a Constitutional Amendment Can Safeguard American Democracy, believes that needs to change. He asserts that a…

Federal judges have lifetime tenure with little to no oversight. Despite employing thousands of new law school graduates as law clerks, they aren’t subject to anti-discrimination or other workplace laws. How is it possible that federal courts do not have to follow the same federal labor laws they enforce? In this episode, Aliza Shatzman, founder of…

Why doesn’t the U.S. Constitution contain an affirmative right to vote?Can constitutional reform promote political equality, defuse the voting wars, and thwart election subversion?How can we get a constitutional right to vote, if we can’t even get normal voting rights legislation passed in Congress?On Season 5, Episode 6 of the ELB Podcast, I am in…

Access to an ethically based justice system not only protects free and fair elections, but also impacts the rights that affect our everyday lives. In this episode of SideBar, Professor and Author Renee Knake Jefferson calls for lawyers and judges, including the US Supreme Court, to further commit to ethical access to justice.…

Appellate courts decide what our laws mean and how they affect all aspects of our personal lives: our ability to vote, how we are policed, our religious freedom, the quality of our education, our workplaces, healthcare, immigration protections, and much more. Yet people of color remain greatly underrepresented as both appellate attorneys and judges…

What are the costs for democracy when the Supreme Court decides cases on the “shadow docket?”Is the Purcell Principle a license for states to act illegally in running elections?What is going to happen with the Trump disqualification case at the Supreme Court?On Season 5, Episode 5 of the ELB Podcast, we speak with Steve Vladeck, author of the book,…

SideBar cohosts and law deans Jackie Gardina and Mitch Winick look back over the 29 episodes and 25 guests featured in SideBar's incredibly successful first season. If you have been a listener, this episode will highlight key moments from our discussions with expert guests, authors, lawyers, and judges on critical issues facing democracy, the legal…

David Pepper, author of Saving Democracy: A User’s Manual for Every American, returns to SideBar to sound the alarm that democracy remains under attack. Although there were shocking lowlights in 2023, David reminds us that there are also signs of hope. Our final SideBar episode of Season One is a reminder that we all have a critical role to play in…

Has the United States done enough to minimize the risk of election subversion in 2024?How might problems in Congress affect a fair tallying of electoral college votes on January 6, 2025?How much danger of authoritarian rule does the U.S. face going forward?On Season 5, Episode 4 of the ELB Podcast, we speak with Ian Bassin and Jess Marsden of Prote…

Disinformation and deepfakes, accelerated by AI, pose an existential threat to our democracy and elections, and as a country, we are simply not ready says The California Institute for Technology and Democracy (CITED). Drew Liebert and Jonathan Mehta Stein believe that what is needed is an impartial source for policymakers, the press, and the public…

Before killing George Floyd, Officer Devin Chauvin had at least 18 misconduct complaints lodged against him. Despite this history, Chauvin was elevated to training new officers. How could this happen? UCLA Law Professor Joanna Schwartz, author of Shielded: How the Police Became Untouchable, explains how courts have constructed multiple legal barrie…

The COVID pandemic exposed weaknesses in our public health system and exposed the lack of trust in science and government. The change in the Supreme Court’s interpretation of public health law has been equally startling . . . overturning 100+ years of public protection by granting religious ideology priority over science. Northeastern University La…

Do gag orders against presidential candidate Donald Trump in his civil or criminal trials violate the First Amendment?What should we make of Trump’s claims that his actions to overturn the results of the 2020 elections are protected free speech?How should we assess the dangers of government “jawboning” of social media platforms to remove objectiona…

Is the Roberts Court shifting on its protection of voting rights?How has the addition of three Trump-appointed Justices changed the nature of the Supreme Court?Should we expect a new ethics code for Supreme Court Justices?On Season 5, Episode 2 of the ELB Podcast, we speak with Joan Biskupic, CNN’s senior supreme court analyst and author of the new…

Professor Jeff Kosseff, author of "Liar in a Crowded Theater: Freedom of Speech in a World of Misinformation" examines and defends constitutional protection for false speech. "It's the listener and the reader who gets to choose, not the Government!" says Jeff. His warning is that "Once we give away our freedom of speech, we are unlikely to get it b…

I first met Dan Perry in Romania 1990. He was the AP Bureau Chief, and I was freelancing for the summer. There’s no one I’ve met who better understands collectively Israel, the Middle East, and the U.S. So after the Hamas attack and Israel’s declaration of war, I knew whom to call. Dan was awoken on Oct. 7 “by rocket fire over central Tel Aviv, wit…

Nationally recognized immigration law expert, Professor Cesar García Hernández of The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law talks about the intersection of criminal and immigration law, including the rights of migrants in the criminal justice system, immigration imprisonment, and race-based immigration policing.…

Professor and Dean Emerita Lisa Kloppenberg, author of The Best Beloved Thing is Justice: The Life of Dorothy Wright Nelson, discusses her mentor, colleague, and friend. Judge Nelson was a true trailblazer for women in the legal profession. She was one of only two women in her class at the UCLA School of Law and one of the first 14 female tenure-tr…

Will the multiple indictments and expected trials of former President Donald Trump lead to violence or unrest?Are the risks of political violence in the U.S. increasing or decreasing?What can the United States learn from other countries that reversed democratic backsliding?On Season 5, Episode 1 of the ELB podcast, we have a roundtable with Ben Gin…

Supreme Court Correspondent Nina Totenberg discusses her fifty-year career as a reporter covering some of the most important Supreme Court decisions of our time. As a front-row witness to history, with unique access to Supreme Court Justices and Washington D.C. policymakers, Nina joins SideBar cohosts Jackie Gardina and Mitch Winick to discuss the …

Professor Stephen Vladeck author of the New York Times bestselling book, The Shadow Docket: How the Supreme Court Uses Stealth Rulings to Amass Power and Undermine the Republic, discusses how the Supreme Court has dramatically expanded the use of the little-known - and poorly understood - "Shadow Docket" to approve unconstitutional voting processes…

Professor Julie Suk, author of After Misogyny: How the Law Fails Women and What to Do About It, discusses the legal and economic framework in the United States that fails to fairly recognize and value women's work. Unfortunately, the U.S. remains a leader in unequal pay, no pay, inadequate support for childcare, healthcare, and social services, and…

After 200 years of racial and ethnic struggle, including the Civil War, Reconstruction, the Civil Rights Era, and Black Lives Matter, where are we now in the effort to achieve the promise of a multi-racial democracy? Dr. Peniel Joseph helps us to understand this struggle and describes our current political environment in a historical context. He ho…

Damon T. Hewitt, President and Executive Director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under the Law, discusses Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. University of North Carolina and the Supreme Court’s direction on affirmative action. Hewitt explains what Brown v. Board of Education got wrong, exposes the logical fallacy behind the idea that…

What are the implications of the Supreme Court’s decision in Moore v. Harper for American democracy?What will the case mean for 2024 election challenges?Does the decision shut down attempts to submit slates of fake electors and subvert presidential elections?On the Season 4 finale of the ELB podcast, a voting rights roundtable with Derek Muller, Ca…

Why did two conservative justices on the Supreme Court join the Court’s liberals to save section 2 of the Voting Rights Act in Allen v. Milligan?Will voting rights plaintiffs see more success in Section 2 cases in other states including Louisiana, Georgia, and Texas?What are the political implications of the Court siding with minority plaintiffs in…

Dr. Thaddeus Johnson, former police officer, Senior Fellow at the Council on Criminal Justice, and Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice and Criminology at Georgia State University, discusses his research and unique insights on empowering citizens to create safer communities. Public safety requires more than police reform, it requires community r…

Professors Morgan Hazelton and Rachael Hinkle have published a fascinating book on one of the mysteries behind Supreme Court decision-making. "Persuading the Supreme Court: The Significance of Briefs in Judicial Decision-Making" combines research of more than 25,000 party and amicus briefs filed between 1984 and 2015 and interviews with former Supr…

To what extent have abortion politics been the driver of campaign finance fights in the courts?How much of a force has anti-abortion lawyer Jim Bopp been in the campaign finance cases?Are new efforts to make it harder to pass abortion initiatives going to change voters’ access to direct democracy?On Season 4, Episode 8 of the ELB Podcast, we speak …

Nicole Clark, lawyer, entrepreneur, and CEO of Trellis, discusses how the award-winning technology start-up she founded is democratizing access to the law by making state trial court records more accessible and bringing transparency to the judicial system. Nicole describes her vision, reveals the challenges for women entrepreneurs to obtain venture…

The indomitable, outspoken, brilliant, and thoughtful Elie Mystal, author, columnist, and commentator, joins cohosts Jackie Gardina and Mitch Winick to discuss his book Allow Me to Retort: A Black Guy's Guide to the Constitution. In this wide-ranging conversation, Elie challenges our thinking about how judges should be selected, the myth of judicia…

Judge Margaret McKeown discusses her new book Citizen Justice: The Environmental Legacy of William O. Douglas and her research on the Supreme Court Justice's controversial approach to advocacy both on and off the bench. During his 36 years on the bench, Justice Douglas was threatened with impeachment twice, including concerns about private payments…

How do Republican voters think about Donald Trump’s false claims of a stolen 2020 election?What are voters’ attitudes towards authoritarianism and the rule of law?How will election denialism play out in the 2024 Republican presidential primary?On Season 4, Episode 7 of the ELB podcast, we speak with GOP pollster and publisher of The Bulwark, Sarah …

Law Professor Nomi Stolzenberg discusses the US Supreme Court’s consideration of Conservative Christian ideology as a new protected class under the First Amendment. Seven of the nine members of the Supreme Court are Catholic or raised Catholic. How does this potentially affect the decisions being handed down by the Supreme Court?…

Professor Charles Geyh, an expert in judicial conduct, discusses the ethical obligations of judges and the options available (or not) when judges break the rules - including the U.S. Supreme Court justices. He also weighs the pros and cons of electing vs. appointing judges.By Legal Talk Network

Professor Joel Rogers describes the rise of American Legislative Council (ALEC), the organization responsible drafting model bills introduced across the country with devastating impacts upon public education, voting rights, and environmental protections, to name a few. He also outlines a strategy for reversing these efforts and provides a message o…

In this SideBar episode, California Assemblymember, Buffy Wicks discusses the power of state legislatures to protect fundamental constitutional rights and the importance of diverse representation.By Legal Talk Network

Does our decentralized system of government create conditions to strengthen or weaken democratic institutions?Why have red and blue states adopted different sets of election rules, with some Republican states adopting restrictive registration and voting laws?Would more a more national election process in the United States protect against the risk o…

In this episode of SideBar, Suzanne Nossel, the Chief Executive Officer of PenAmerica, discusses the dangers of book bans and educational gag orders to our core democratic values. She places these laws within a historical context, explains why they matter, and provides a way forward.By Legal Talk Network