Supreme Threats (with Melissa Murray)

The Oath and The Office

Corey Brettschneider

Government, News, Politics

4.9 • 591 Ratings

🗓️ 21 May 2025

⏱️ 70 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

NYU Law Professor and renowned constitutional expert Melissa Murray joins Corey Brettschneider and John Fugelsang on The Oath and The Office for a vital discussion on abortion rights, the Supreme Court, and the health of democracy. Melissa exposes the dangerous myths behind the Supreme Court’s claim that the Dobbs decision simply returns abortion to the states. She warns about the potential for a nationwide abortion ban. Offering powerful insight, she argues persuasively why democracy and the 14th Amendment demand robust protection for reproductive rights. Melissa also shares optimism about the profound constitutional promises that remain—even amidst the current threats. But first, Corey and John unpack recent disturbing attacks on democratic norms:

Politicized Justice: Recent criminal charges against a sitting member of Congress raise urgent questions about the weaponization of justice.
Venezuelan Deportations: The Supreme Court has temporarily halted controversial mass deportations under the Alien Enemies Act, highlighting serious concerns about due process and executive overreach.
Silencing Dissent via Tax Policy: A troubling House bill threatens nonprofits and universities critical of the administration, stripping nonprofit status and imposing punitive endowment taxes designed to stifle opposition.

Join Corey, John, and Melissa Murray as they deliver essential constitutional analysis and fearless commentary on threats facing American democracy today.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome once again to another edition of The Oath and the Office starring the Professor of all Professors, the man with the PhD in Politics from Princeton, the law degree from Stanford, and fights for the
0:21.8	minds of students in the Polyside Department at Brown. Of course, I'm talking about the author of The Oath in
0:26.5	the Office, a guide to the Constitution for future presidents, Professor Corey Brechtner.
0:31.6	I'm John Fuglesang. Corey, good to see you. Thanks so much, John, and these intros are
0:36.1	very welcome. I'm so glad to have launched this
0:38.9	podcast with you, the oath in the office. I would have wished that a podcast about holding a
0:44.1	president to the oath to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution as Article 2 requires
0:49.3	that it would have been a sort of unnecessary thing that Trump would have figured out after a few
0:54.0	weeks that what the job was and that we'd be in fine shape and there would be it would have been a sort of unnecessary thing that Trump would have figured out after a few weeks
0:54.3	that what the job was and that we'd be in fine shape and there would be no constitutional crisis.
0:59.8	But of course, that's not where we are. Things have just gotten worse and really frightening.
1:04.7	And we'll talk about that. But we'll also talk about some of the hope and we'll be guided
1:09.0	today. I'm so excited by Professor Melissa
1:13.2	Murray, who you know, I'm sure listeners know from MSNBC. She's often a guest host and often
1:19.2	appearing and commentating. She's, as I'll mention in my introduction, the author two of a number
1:24.3	one book about the prosecutions and crimes of Donald Trump.
1:29.1	And let me just add about Melissa Murray. She's somebody I've long admired, and I'm going to
1:34.4	build her up. And I know that although I'm going to hype her up, that listeners will be so
1:38.9	excited because she's going to even surpass my hyperbole, she's not only a brilliant scholar, but she's somebody who
1:46.3	really has been profound in her ability to call out the threats to democracy, both in
1:51.7	regard to reproductive freedoms, which we're going to focus on, but also in her book and in her
1:57.6	work, in her commentary about the threat to democracy that is Donald Trump.
	...

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