As the Supreme Court approaches the home stretch of the 2020-2021 term, it’s released some opinions with unanimous decisions and others with split votes composed of unusual alignments of justices. Supreme Court experts Kate Shaw, cohost of the podcast Strict Scrutiny and professor at Cardozo Law, and Jonathan Adler, contributing editor of National Review and professor at Case Western Reserve University School of Law, join host Jeffrey Rosen to recap those decisions and detail why they’re important, as well as what to look out for in the rest of the outstanding cases still left in this term, and new cases in the next.
Some terms that will be helpful to know this week:
- Textualism: a method of interpreting laws and/or the Constitution whereby the plain text is used to determine the meaning, and/or a set of techniques used by judges and justices to determine the application of a statute through close consideration of its text.
- Stare decisis: Latin for “to stand by things decided.” The doctrine of adhering to precedent i.e. cases previously decided.
FULL PODCAST
This episode was produced by Jackie McDermott and engineered by David Stotz. Research was provided by Jackie McDermott, Anna Salvatore, and Lana Ulrich.
TRANSCRIPT
DOWNLOAD THE TRANSCRIPT HERE.
This transcript may not be in its final form, accuracy may vary, and it may be updated or revised in the future.
PARTICIPANTS
Kate Shaw is Professor of Law and the Co-Director of the Floersheimer Center for Constitutional Democracy at Cardozo School of Law. She is also a contributor with ABC News and a co-host of the Supreme Court podcast Strict Scrutiny.
Jonathan H. Adler is the inaugural Johan Verheij Memorial Professor of Law and Director of the Coleman P. Burke Center for Environmental Law at the Case Western Reserve University School of Law, where he also teaches courses in constitutional law. He is a contributing editor to National Review and a contributor to the blog The Volokh Conspiracy.
Jeffrey Rosen is the president and CEO of the National Constitution Center, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization devoted to educating the public about the U.S. Constitution. Rosen is also professor of law at The George Washington University Law School and a contributing editor of The Atlantic.
RESOURCES
Split decisions:
Unanimous decisions:
Cases the Supreme Court refused to hear:
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