#1230 Judgment
Listening to America
Listening to America
4.6 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 18 April 2017
⏱️ 59 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
"The constitution ... is a mere thing of wax in the hands of the judiciary, which they may twist, and shape into any form they please." — Thomas Jefferson to Spencer Roane, 1819
Thomas Jefferson had a unique and slightly odd view of the proper place of the judicial branch in America. He thought of judicial independence as both a strength and a weakness of our system: you want judges that are independent of popular factionalism but you want them to be accountable to the sovereign, to the American people. Jefferson, as portrayed by Clay S. Jenkinson, discusses his concept of judicial balance, his lifelong displeasure with the Supreme Court, and some of the changes that he thinks should be made. He said of life-tenured judges, 'Few die and none resign.'
Find this episode, along with further recommended reading, on the blog.
Read Clay's Jefferson Watch essay, "Good News for America".
Clay will be performing as Thomas Jefferson at the Ferguson Center for the Arts in Newport News, VA on April 19th. Find more info and buy tickets here.
Learn more about Odyssey Tours and the summer 2017 Lewis & Clark adventure on odytours.net.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Podcast, podcast, podcast, podcast. |
| 0:02.0 | Good day, podcast listeners, and thank you so much for listening, and we haven't |
| 0:06.8 | thanked our 1776 club supporters in a while, and we should never forget to do that. |
| 0:12.2 | They make our lives worth living. |
| 0:14.0 | They have done so much to make it possible for this program to grow and gain confidence. |
| 0:20.0 | Keeping Graham busy all the time and...'s doing an unbelievable job really I see things |
| 0:25.8 | posted he said what clay Jenkins and I think what he's transcribing things |
| 0:30.5 | he's he's fixing things really fun so it's so thanks Graham he's an amazing young man he is and |
| 0:36.8 | you're lucky to call him your son and he's my friend yeah but this week on the |
| 0:41.8 | Thomas Jefferson hour it's let's give Jefferson a migraine again and talk about the judiciary. |
| 0:48.0 | You worked him up into a passion today. |
| 0:50.0 | Well, you know, you said we needed to talk about the judiciary and I can't help but be honest about it |
| 0:56.2 | When I look at what's happening did you watch some of the hearings? Yes. So they say |
| 1:01.2 | Hi, I'm the senator from Connecticut. |
| 1:03.0 | I want you to tell me what you would do if Roe v. Wade came up in some form, and then they say, |
| 1:08.0 | I've never really thought about that, and I probably should not answer, |
| 1:11.0 | because I don't want to talk about any case that might or might not. |
| 1:14.0 | And so this goes on for days and you think, what have we learned here? |
| 1:17.0 | So they're going to ask inappropriate questions that he can't possibly answer. |
| 1:21.2 | He's going to avoid them. |
| 1:22.3 | They're going to know they showed this |
| 1:23.8 | clip on one of the talk shows of Clarence Thomas back in the 1980s answering |
... |
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