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Civics 101

Can the Supreme Court save us from ourselves?

Civics 101

NHPR

History, Government, Society & Culture

4.22.6K Ratings

🗓️ 12 March 2024

⏱️ 24 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

When the Supreme Court says something is or isn't constitutional, what does that really mean? What are the effects, or lack thereof, of their decisions? And what do we do if we don't agree with what they say? Today Linda Monk, author of The Bill of Rights: A User's Guide, walks us through four times in US History that the Supreme Court was not the be-all-end-all decision maker. Here are some links to shows we reference in the episode: Dred Scott v Sandford Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka CLICK HERE: Visit our website to see all of our episodes, donate to the podcast, sign up for our newsletter, get free educational materials, and more! To see Civics 101 in book form, check out A User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

All right. Here we go. Check check check check.

0:04.0

All right. Let's do it.

0:07.0

The Supreme Court has reached a decision on the landmark Roe v. Wade case.

0:17.0

The ruling is on a case called Dobbs versus Jackson Women's Health

0:21.3

Health Agency.

0:22.3

The Supreme Court decision,

0:23.3

legalizing same-sex marriage across the land.

0:25.5

The court's conservative majority ruled today

0:27.6

that a public high school football coach in Washington

0:30.0

State has the right to prey on the 50 yard line. The nine Supreme Court justices ruled racial segregation in

0:36.8

publicly supported schools to be unconstitutional,

0:40.7

declaring that it denied equal opportunity.

0:44.0

Right hand, let me ask you this.

0:48.0

In our six years of making this show,

0:51.0

how many episodes do you think we have done that center on the Supreme Court?

0:56.0

Wow, a lot. A whole lot of episodes, at least two dozen on landmark Supreme Court cases and of We did the shadow docket, right? And not to mention a whole bunch of shows on just how

1:16.2

stuff works on the court. Yeah, we give them a lot of air time and of course we do, right?

1:21.1

Of course we do. They are the ones who interpret the Constitution.

1:25.2

And we care deeply about what they say.

1:27.9

We track their calendar.

1:29.8

We refresh websites on days they hand down decisions.

1:33.0

As an example, right now, this first week of March 2024,

...

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