The Supreme Court's Trump Dilemma
Consider This from NPR
NPR
4.1 • 5.3K Ratings
🗓️ 24 May 2025
⏱️ 15 minutes
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Summary
Few reporters are as prepared as NPR's Nina Totenberg to report on this unique moment.
Over the last fifty years, Totenberg established herself as the preeminent Supreme Court reporter in America. She's broken countless stories – including allegations of sexual harassment by Clarence Thomas during the justice's 1991 confirmation hearings.
For this week's Reporter's Notebook host Scott Detrow speaks with Totenberg about this crucial moment in the court's history and consequential cases she has covered over the years.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This time of the year is always busy at the U.S. Supreme Court, and nobody knows that better than Nina Totenberg. |
| 0:06.5 | Hey, Nina. |
| 0:07.1 | Hey, it's, I would say fun to be here, but it's a little stressful, too. |
| 0:12.4 | So June's usually pretty stressful for you, I imagine. |
| 0:14.4 | This is Nina and me about a decade ago on Facebook Live in front of the Supreme Court. |
| 0:20.0 | It was June 2016. We were ticking through |
| 0:22.7 | a flood of decisions coming out at the end of the term and vying for space on the plaza |
| 0:27.4 | with tourists and court watchers. Again, we've got a lot of stuff going on behind us, so just don't |
| 0:32.4 | just ignore it. We talked about an immigration case, an abortion case, and an affirmative action |
| 0:37.0 | case out of Texas. |
| 0:38.3 | In a Texas school, you get admitted. But 25 percent, hey guys, quiet. |
| 0:46.9 | Sorry, folks, this is real life. |
| 0:49.3 | And real deadlines. Nina had to file for all things considered, so once we wrapped, we got in her car and |
| 0:54.3 | drove back to NPR. It isn't that far of a drive, but Nina had stuff to do, so she booked it, |
| 1:00.0 | weaving through traffic, honking, yelling at other drivers, gunning it through yellow lights, |
| 1:05.0 | all what classical music played in her car. This was my professional initiation into the world of Nina Totenberg, juggling multiple Supreme |
| 1:15.0 | Court decisions, commanding a crowd to ensure good audio quality, and careening back to |
| 1:20.3 | headquarters to make it on the air on time. |
| 1:22.8 | Nina's been doing some version of this for five decades, but even she has never seen the court as busy as it is |
| 1:28.8 | right now. I've never lived through a period like this. The government is filing motions almost |
| 1:35.6 | daily. Consider this. The Supreme Court has become the focal point of the legal battle over |
| 1:41.3 | President Donald Trump's executive authority and presidential power |
... |
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