Checks and Balance: Supreme authority

Checks and Balance from The Economist

The Economist

Politics, News & Politics, News, Us Politics

4.6 • 1.7K Ratings

🗓️ 1 July 2022

⏱️ 46 minutes

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Summary

As gridlock plagues the Capitol, across First Street the Supreme Court is transforming America. In this term alone, it has overturned the right to an abortion, loosened gun laws, eroded the separation of church and state and limited the federal government’s ability to combat climate change. Public confidence in the institution is at a record low. How is the Supreme Court changing America and, as it does so, is it undermining itself?

John Prideaux hosts with Charlotte Howard and our Supreme Court correspondent, Steven Mazie. They talk to Leah Litman, a professor at the University of Michigan and cohost of the Strict Scrutiny podcast, about how the justices have radically tipped the scales this term. We revisit another era in which the court tested the limits of its powers and transformed America. And Steve Vladeck, a professor at the University of Texas and author of “The Shadow Docket”, explains how the court’s under-the-radar decision-making is damaging its authority.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	In the spring of 1788, the framers of America's infant constitution were desperately trying
0:09.2	to get the states to ratify their draft.
0:12.2	One of the reasons for skepticism was a new system of federal courts, something that had
0:17.1	been missing from the old articles of Confederation.
0:21.6	Writing in the Federalist Papers, number 78, to be precise, Alexander Hamilton did his
0:26.3	best to reassure his readers.
0:29.0	The courts in the new constitutional system would have little capacity to annoy or injure
0:34.4	Americans' rights, as they hold neither the sword nor the purse.
0:39.2	The judiciary will be the least dangerous branch of government.
0:43.9	But today's Supreme Court is a far cry from Hamilton's harmless third wheel.
0:49.2	The nine justices get final say on all questions under federal statutes and the constitution,
0:54.8	and they clearly have an endless capacity to injure and annoy millions of Americans, even
0:59.7	as they please others.
1:03.2	I'm John Prado, and this is Chex and Balance from the Economist.
1:07.8	Each week, we take one big theme, shaping American politics, and explore it in depth.
1:24.2	Today, where is the Supreme Court taking America?
1:37.9	As gridlock plagues lawmakers in the capital, across 1st Street, the Supreme Court is busy
1:43.2	transforming America.
1:45.2	In this time alone, its overturned rights were an abortion, which has been settled
1:49.2	law for nearly half a century.
1:51.5	Lucent gun laws, just as Congress moved to tighten them, eroded the separation of church
1:56.7	and state and limited the federal government's ability to regulate carbon emissions.
	...

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