How to Save the Supreme Court From Itself

The David Frum Show

The Atlantic

Politics, News, News Commentary

4.6 • 2.4K Ratings

🗓️ 3 June 2026

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this episode of The David Frum Show, The Atlantic’s David Frum opens with his thoughts on growing extremism in the Democratic Party. Frum compares this to the paranoia and conspiratorial thinking that cost the Republican Party dearly in the 2010s and cautions the Democrats against making the same mistakes. Then David is joined by Kate Shaw, a co-host of the “Strict Scrutiny” podcast and a professor of law at University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School. David and Kate discuss the current state of the Supreme Court, whether it can be reformed, and the potential dangers of radical changes to the Court. Finally, in honor of the class of 2026, David ends the episode with thoughts on the word “graduate” and how changes in the way we use that word reveal changes in our attitude toward individual accomplishment in American life. Sign up for David Frum’s newsletter alert. Get more from your favorite Atlantic voices when you subscribe. You’ll enjoy unlimited access to Pulitzer-winning journalism, from clear-eyed analysis and insight on breaking news to fascinating explorations of our world. Atlantic subscribers also get access to exclusive subscriber audio in Apple Podcasts. Subscribe today at TheAtlantic.com/Listener. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:28.6	Subscribe now at Bloomberg.com.
0:33.6	Music Hello, and welcome to the David Frum show.
0:47.4	I'm David Frum, a staff writer at The Atlantic.
0:50.5	My guest this week will be Professor Kate Shaw of the University of Pennsylvania Law School.
0:55.0	We'll be discussing the United States Supreme Court, what's wrong with it, and how to fix it.
0:59.9	My literary discussion this week will be not a book, but a single word.
1:03.3	In honor of the class of 26, that word is graduate, and how changes in the way we use that word
1:08.7	reveal changes in our attitude toward individual
1:11.2	accomplishment in American life. But before either the discussion or the dialogue, some opening
1:17.7	thoughts on some trends that have disturbed me toward radicalism and extremism in Democratic Party
1:23.8	primary context. Now, I spent most of my life as a Republican, and I began to be alienated
1:29.9	from my former party during the Tea Party years of the early 2010s, when I just saw gathering
1:35.6	around me all kinds of paranoia, extremism, outlandish accusations. And back in 2013, I wrote a little
1:42.8	short play, just a few lines, imagining a conversation
1:46.5	between myself and a Republican steeped in Tea Party paranoia.
	...

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