Stephen Breyer should retire

Explain It to Me

Vox Media Podcast Network

Education, Politics, News, Society & Culture

4.4 • 7.9K Ratings

🗓️ 28 May 2021

⏱️ 63 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Matt is joined by author and Harvard Kennedy School professor Maya Sen to talk about the state of the American judiciary. They discuss Breyer's unwillingness to retire, the pervasive influence of prestige on the "legal elite," the cult of RBG, the influence and role of The Federalist Society, and the inherent biases in the elite legal system that have led to an "affirmative action"-like feeder program for conservative judges. Resources: The Judicial Tug of War: How Lawyers, Politicians, and Ideological Incentives Shape the American Judiciary by Adam Bonica and Maya Sen (Cambridge University Press, 2020) "The Endgame of Court-Packing" by Adam Chilton, Daniel Epps, Kyle Rozema, and Maya Sen (May 17) Ideas with Consequences: The Federalist Society and the Conservative Counterrevolution by Amanda Hollis-Brusky (Oxford University Press, 2015) The Rise of the Conservative Legal Movement: The Battle for Control of the Law by Steven M. Teles (Princeton, 2008) "Legal Scholar's Anti-Sotomayor Letter Leaks, Causing Awkward Fallout" by Heather Horn (The Atlantic, Nov. 5, 2010) "The Case Against Sotomayor" by Jeffrey Rosen (The New Republic, May 4, 2009) Guest: Maya Sen (@maya_sen), professor, Harvard Kennedy School Host: Matt Yglesias (@mattyglesias), Slowboring.com Credits: Erikk Geannikis, Editor and Producer As the Biden administration gears up, we'll help you understand this unprecedented burst of policymaking. Sign up for The Weeds newsletter each Friday: vox.com/weeds-newsletter. The Weeds is a Vox Media Podcast Network production. Want to support The Weeds? Please consider making a contribution to Vox: bit.ly/givepodcasts About Vox Vox is a news network that helps you cut through the noise and understand what's really driving the events in the headlines. Follow Us: Vox.com Facebook group: The Weeds Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	And I guess today, Maya Sen is a professor of public policy at the Kennedy School of Government
0:05.1	at Harvard.
0:06.1	She's also the author with adabonica of a new book, The Judicial Tug of War, How Lawyers,
0:10.5	Politicians, and Ideological Incentives, Shape the American Judiciary.
0:14.2	Importantly, I mean, she's a political scientist and a public policy scholar, not a lawyer
0:19.2	and an illegal academic.
0:20.8	And I think Maya and I got into a sort of, you know, a political realist perspective on
0:27.3	the Supreme Court and what's happened over the past few years on some of the, I think,
0:31.5	unfortunate decision making by Ruth Bader Ginsburg and potentially unfortunate decision making
0:36.5	by Justice Breyer that we are witnessing right now.
0:39.6	It is really interesting, I think.
0:41.1	I mean, I think we think we know the Supreme Court, but coverage of it is so dominated
0:46.9	by a lawyer perspective that is really refreshing and I think really enlightening to hear
0:51.3	what she has to say.
1:00.6	Hello, welcome to another episode of The Weeds on the Bucks Media Podcast Network.
1:04.2	I'm Matthew Iglesias.
1:05.2	My guest today, Maya Sen, is a professor at the Harvard Kennedy School up in Massachusetts.
1:11.7	She is the author of a new book called The Judicial Tug of War.
1:15.3	I want to talk about that book and we want to talk about The Judiciary and many things
1:20.9	that are happening there.
1:21.9	Maya, welcome to the show.
1:23.4	Thanks for having me.
	...

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