Supreme Court Plots to End ‘One Person, One Vote’ & the Hidden Hand of Big Oil
The Socialist Program with Brian Becker
The Socialist Program
4.7 • 587 Ratings
🗓️ 4 November 2022
⏱️ 42 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The right-wing loves yelling, “We’re a republic, not a democracy!” Now they have a Supreme Court that agrees with them. The Court is about to hear Moore v. Harper, a gerrymandering case that will also take up the Electors Clause of the Constitution. The Republican legal argument, made famous by Trump’s 2020 legal team, is that state legislatures can send their own choice of electors to the Electoral College, rather than abiding by the vote of the people. The implications of this are huge — the end of ‘one person, one vote.’
Brian is joined by Steven Donziger, an advocate, writer and public speaker on human rights and corporate accountability. His most recent piece is The most terrifying case of all is about to be heard by the US Supreme Court. He also filed a class-action lawsuit with others against Chevron for environmental damage – including dumping 17 million gallons of crude oil in the Ecuadorian rainforest – and won a historic $9.5 billion judgment. Chevon then fled Ecuador and launched a campaign against Donziger that resulted in him being disbarred, serving 45 days behind bars, and under home confinement for 993 days. For more on his story, watch his interview on The Freedom Side and Rania Khalek Dispatches here on BreakThrough.
Please make an urgently-needed contribution to The Socialist Program by joining our Patreon community at patreon.com/thesocialistprogram. We rely on the generous support of our listeners to keep bringing you consistent, high-quality shows. All Patreon donors of $5 a month or more are invited to join the monthly Q&A seminar with Brian.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | The very right-wing U.S. Supreme Court is about to rule on a case that could end the U.S. |
| 0:07.7 | political system based on one person, one vote. |
| 0:11.6 | Yes, you heard me right. |
| 0:14.3 | We need a new system. |
| 0:16.0 | We need a new society. |
| 0:17.9 | We need to demand that which may have sounded impossible even a few weeks ago, |
| 0:22.6 | but is not only realizable, but an imperative necessity. Welcome to this week's episode of the Socialist Program. I'm your host, Brian Becker. |
| 0:53.3 | Today we're talking with |
| 0:55.4 | Stephen Donziger. Mr. Donziger is an advocate of writer, a public speaker on human rights and |
| 1:01.1 | corporate accountability. He also filed a class action lawsuit against Chevron for dumping 17.5 |
| 1:08.3 | million gallons of crude oil in the Ecuadorian rainforest. They won that case. |
| 1:13.6 | It was a historic judgment, $9.5 billion judgment against Chevron. But then Chevron went |
| 1:20.3 | on a crusade against Mr. Donziger, resulting in his being disbarred as a lawyer, being arrested, |
| 1:27.0 | serving time in jail, and finally serving more |
| 1:29.8 | than two years of home confinement. Stephen Donziger, welcome to the program. |
| 1:35.2 | Thanks for having me. Stephen, we reached out to you and wanted to talk with you because you |
| 1:40.8 | wrote an important article in the Guardian newspaper, the UK newspaper. You're a |
| 1:46.6 | columnist with that paper. The title of the article was, the most terrifying case of all is about to be |
| 1:55.0 | heard by the U.S. Supreme Court. We think that's an apt headline. We think it summarizes actually what's at stake |
| 2:03.3 | with a case that's coming before the Supreme Court. We've been talking about this for the past |
| 2:09.0 | few months, but I would have to say it's one of the most underreported stories about such a big |
| 2:15.7 | issue in the U.S. mainstream media. I want to talk to you about why |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Socialist Program, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of The Socialist Program and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.