UNRESOLVED: The Future of the Supreme Court

Open to Debate

Education, Society & Culture, News, Government, Politics

4.5 • 2.1K Ratings

🗓️ 7 February 2025

⏱️ 52 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In recent years, multiple proposals have been made to change how the U.S. Supreme Court operates in its current form. Would these reforms help – or hurt? What is the future of the highest court in the land? In partnership with Johns Hopkins University as part of our inaugural “Hopkins Forum”, our featured guests will discuss term limits, expanding the Supreme Court, and whether external ethics codes should be applied. Our Guests: Ambassador Jeff Flake, Former Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee Jamal Greene, Dwight Professor of Law at Columbia Law School; Supreme Court Commentator Cristina Rodríguez, Former Co-Chair of the Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court of the United States; Professor at Yale Law School The Honorable Jeff Sessions, Former U.S. Attorney General and Senator Emmy award-winning journalist John Donvan moderates Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:32.6	Hello everybody. Welcome to Open to Debate. I'm John Donvan, and this debate is part of a new
0:37.0	series, The Hopkins Forum live from the Hopkins Bloomberg Center in Washington, D.C.
0:41.3	This episode centers on the Supreme Court of the United States, whose home is less than a mile from where we are gathered,
0:47.3	and whose reputation is not quite what it was only 25 years ago when Gallup told us that
0:53.3	62% of Americans approved of how the
0:56.1	justices collectively were doing their job. That, by the way, was an historical high point,
1:01.6	and it has been downhill from there, presently, to the low 40s. I'm sure we agree that public
1:07.9	trust in and respect for the court is critical. This debate will look at three
1:12.2	proposed reforms for achieving that outcome and whether those reforms make sense or whether they
1:17.3	would cause more harm. We have four debaters. They will take on these three ideas as yes,
1:22.3	no questions, one at a time. Let's get started. Let's welcome our four debaters to the stage.
1:30.2	So I want to introduce you one by one nearest to me. I want to welcome back to our program open to
1:35.2	debate, Jeff Flake, a former senator. Until recently, the U.S. ambassador to Turkey.
1:41.1	On the Senate, you were a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which had a lot to do with who gets to be on the Supreme Court. But really, interestingly, you were made a knight of the kingdom of Sweden. Just curious, if you're in Sweden, does it come with any privileges? I don't know if there's a palace involved, but I hope there's a discounted IKEA, at least.
2:02.6	We'll see. All right, well, it's a lovely honor, so congratulations to you. Up next, I want to welcome
2:07.6	Christina Rodriguez. Christina, you are former co-chair of the Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court of the United States. You're a professor now at Yale Law School. You clerked for Justice Sender Day O'Connor.
2:18.0	So you were a part of history in that sense.
	...

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