Pushkin.

It's hard to read the news these days without asking yourself, how did we get here?

Fiasco is a history podcast for the co-creators of Slow Burn.

In our first season, Bush v. Gore, we examine an unmistakable turning point in American politics, the 2000 election, which resulted in a high-stakes stalemate, ended with one of the most controversial rulings in Supreme Court history.

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From Pushkin Industries, this is Deep Background, the show where we explore the stories behind the stories in the news.

I'm Noah Feldman. Until Monday of this week, it was lawful in more than half of the U.S. states to fire an

employee for being gay, bisexual, or transgender. That is no longer true.

The Supreme Court has now ruled the Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which prohibits employment discrimination

because of sex, protects such workers.

To discuss this landmark case, we're joined by Professor Bill Eskridge.

Bill is quite literally the perfect guest to discuss these topics.

He's a professor at Yale Law School.

He's a pioneer in the study and the teaching of gay rights law. And he spent much of his career

focusing on the interpretation of statutes. He's also the author of a forthcoming book,

Marriage Equality, From Outlaws to In-Laws.

Bill, thank you so much for being here this morning. It's very rare for there to be an

exactly ideal guest in response to an important news story. But in the wake of the

Supreme Court's landmark decision on anti-discrimination law for gay and transgender people.

I knew you were the exact guest because not only are you a pioneer in the law of gay rights,

you're also one of our leading experts in statutory interpretation. So literally the two topics

of the moment are both squarely within the domain of your expertise. So I guess I want to start

...