The Most Perfect Album: Episode 2

More Perfect

WNYC Studios

Wnyc, Scotus, Perfect, History, Court, More, Documentary, Courses, Supreme, Education, Society & Culture

4.8 • 14.7K Ratings

🗓️ 25 September 2018

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This season, More Perfect is taking its camera lens off the Supreme Court and zooming in on the words of the people: the 27 amendments that We The People have made to our Constitution. We're taking on these 27 amendments both in song and in story. This episode is best listened to alongside 27: The Most Perfect Album, an entire album (an ALBUM!) and digital experience of original music and art inspired by the 27 Amendments. Think of these episodes as the audio liner notes.

The Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh and Eighth Amendments enshrine some of our most important civil liberties. They tell us about the rights we have when the government knocks on our door, including protections from "unreasonable searches and seizures," self-incrimination, "cruel and unusual punishments," and the right to "a speedy and public trial"-- among others.

Episode Two looks at these amendments through the story of one man, Christopher Scott, who finds himself face-to-face with Dallas police officers as they investigate a violent crime. The role that these amendments play—and fail to play— in Christopher’s encounter tells a profound story about the presence of the Constitution in our everyday lives.

And when you're done with the episode, listen to the songs by Briana Marela, Torres, Sons of an Illustrious Father, Adia Victoria, Nana Grizol, and High Waisted inspired by Amendments 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 on 27: The Most Perfect Album.

Special thanks to Gloria Browne-Marshall and David Gray.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, my name is Brianna Morelland and when I first heard about this project I was hanging
0:16.5	out with my mom in Seattle and I started talking to her about how I would approach the idea
0:24.7	of writing a song about a constitutional amendment.
0:28.5	We started talking about some different amendments and then started focusing on the Fourth Amendment.
0:35.5	I started doing some research and I ended up finding a legal term associated with the Fourth Amendment
0:45.6	called Freedom of the Poisonous Tree.
0:48.6	I named my song after it. It means that evidence found by being searched illegally is deemed
1:09.1	tainted evidence and cannot be used against someone in court.
1:15.0	I had a realization that the Fourth Amendment is basically about having consent in the way
1:19.0	you are treated by the government and so my song references that by way of romantic consent
1:25.8	as a parallel.
1:45.0	I gave my heart safe from guaranteed that if we would start something to prove, I have used
1:57.0	it to believe you're hiding something privacy security.
2:06.0	The first lyrics I wrote for the song were when you take what you took for me.
2:12.0	When you take what you took for me.
2:38.0	That was Brianna Morella with her song Fruit of the Poisonous Tree inspired by the Fourth Amendment.
2:45.0	This is more perfect season 3. This season we decided not just to make some podcasts.
2:52.0	We decided to put together an album of songs inspired by the amendments to the US Constitution.
2:58.0	There are 27 amendments. These amendments outline our rights as Americans.
3:04.0	They show a country that is constantly evolving and changing. We reached out to a bunch of musicians
3:11.0	and asked them to create a song inspired by one of these amendments. 35 different musicians responded.
3:17.0	Some amendments ended up with multiple songs.
	...

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