Jacobin Radio: Harry Litman on Bush vs. Gore, Marc Cooper on US Election and Chilean Plebiscite

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🗓️ 2 November 2020

⏱️ 59 minutes

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Summary

Suzi talks to Harry Litman, former U.S. Attorney and Deputy Assistant Attorney General, about the grim possibility that Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s citing of Bush v Gore to support a recent Supreme Court decision could portend a replay of the Court’s notorious halting of the Florida recount to decide the 2000 election. Kavanaugh’s invoking of Justice Rehnquist’s widely derided opinion to justify the Court’s interfering in a state election -- in a case about extending the ballot deadline in Wisconsin -- signals that the high Court could once again, in 2020, swoop in and save the day for a Republican president. Harry Litman explains. Marc Cooper, journalist now writing the Coop Scoop Newsletter, gives his take on the election, looking at comparisons and possible parallels between the historic plebiscite a week ago in Chile on Pinochet’s constitution, and the US election, a referendum on Trump and his handling of the pandemic. Chileans voted by a huge majority to throw out the Pinochet Constitution and for a Constituent Assembly with gender parity to write a new one, without the participation of the politicians. It is a plebiscite with huge consequences – and Marc Cooper also thinks the US election is another consequential plebiscite, which he explains.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	The This is Jack up in radio. I'm Susie Wiseman. On today's program we begin with Harry Littman talking about the grim possibility that a phrase
0:26.8	written by Justice Kavanaugh in a concurrence recently citing Chief Justice Rancus in the Bush v Gore case from 2000 is a marker and
0:39.4	it's one that could signal that there could be or that they're preparing for a replay of Bush v Gore in this election
0:47.6	and we're going to get Harry Littman to explain all the reasons why.
0:52.3	And then we turn to our elections.
0:54.0	Mark Cooper is joining us and he's going to talk about the possible parallels
0:59.0	between the historic vote in Chile a week ago
1:02.0	to throw out the Pinochet Constitution, the Tyra... the
1:05.0	historic vote in Chile a week ago to throw out the Pinochet Constitution, and write a new one, one without the participation of the politicians
1:10.0	and with gender parity on the writing commission, Mark thinks that that plebiscite was
1:17.6	historic, but he also thinks that the U.S. election is another historic plebiscite with huge consequences and we'll get
1:25.2	him to explain why.
1:27.6	All this when our program returns in just a moment. This is Jack up in Radio. I'm Susie Wiseman. I'm really happy and we're fortunate to have Harry Littman with us again.
1:49.0	We're going to probe the possibilities and the rationale that this election might end up in the Supreme Court.
1:56.0	Harry Littman is a former U.S. attorney and deputy assistant attorney general.
2:00.7	He's currently the Legal Affairs columnistists for the L.A. Times Opinion page, and that's what spurred this conversation.
2:08.0	He's also a professor of constitutional law at UCLA and UCSD, and you can see him very often commenting on all kinds of issues on MS NBC,
2:18.1	CNN, and I guess Fox News, I haven't seen that, and he's a lawyer in private practice he does everything and on top of that he's the
2:26.0	creator and executive producer of the podcast now very popular talking feds. So welcome to Jack oven Radio.
2:34.6	Harry and let me just thank you. So in your op ed in Fridays Los Angeles time you
2:41.6	raise the possibility and I'm going to say the grim possibility that would on in which the Supreme Court swoops in to save the day for Trump and the Republicans
2:56.2	by interfering in a state presidential election.
	...

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