Remaking the Federal Courts
The Political Scene | The New Yorker
The New Yorker
4.3 • 3.9K Ratings
🗓️ 2 November 2020
⏱️ 14 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Donald Trump has changed the ideological cast of our entire federal court system, appointing the most appellate-court judges in a single term since Jimmie Carter, as well as three conservative Justices to the Supreme Court. Jeannie Suk Gersen, a contributing writer and a professor at Harvard Law School, unpacks the complicated question of court-packing. Joe Biden’s cautious engagement with the strategy, she thinks, is smart politics. The Supreme Court’s members “do not want to see Congress mess with the number of Justices on the Court or the terms,” she tells David Remnick. “So they now also understand . . . that they’re being watched with an idea that the institution can change without their being able to control it.”
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| 0:48.1 | I'm Dorothy Wickendon. On today's Politics and More podcast, David Remnick talks with New Yorker contributor Jeannie Sook Gerson. |
| 0:56.6 | They'll discuss how the Trump administration has fundamentally reshaped America's courts over the last four years. |
| 1:05.5 | As we look back at four years of Donald Trump's administration, you could point to the beautiful wall that didn't get built. |
| 1:13.0 | The Affordable Care Act that didn't get replaced were the promises of an infrastructure bill |
| 1:17.7 | that dissipated like a summer mist. |
| 1:20.7 | But there's no dispute that Donald Trump's presidency has been one of the most consequential of our times. |
| 1:26.0 | In one term, he's managed to reshape our politics and our |
| 1:29.6 | culture in the most profound ways. We're going to spend this hour looking at Trump's impact |
| 1:34.3 | on the immigration system, the climate emergency, and the politics of race and identity. |
| 1:40.4 | On this October evening, and it is so beautiful, the First Lady and I welcome you to the White House to bear witness to history. |
| 1:49.0 | In a few moments, we will proudly swear in the newest member of the United States. |
| 1:56.0 | Well, let's start with the courts. |
| 1:58.0 | My fellow Americans, even though we judges don't face elections, we still work for you. |
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