What Next | Are Public Schools the Supreme Court's Next Target?

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4 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 28 April 2025

⏱️ 33 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The Supreme Court is hearing two cases this month regarding religion in public schools that seem to contradict each other—a public school in Maryland where parents claim books with LGBTQ characters or themes are indoctrination, and a Catholic charter school in Oklahoma arguing it has the right to state funding. Can the court’s religion-friendly majority give them both what they want without falling afoul of the First Amendment? Guest: Mark Joseph Stern, senior writer for Slate. Want more What Next? Join Slate Plus to unlock full, ad-free access to What Next and all your other favorite Slate podcasts. You can subscribe directly from the What Next show page on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Or, visit slate.com/whatnextplus to get access wherever you listen. Podcast production by Elena Schwartz, Paige Osburn, Anna Phillips, Madeline Ducharme, Ethan Oberman, Isabel Angell, and Rob Gunther. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Amazon offers term time working to their employees, like Anton,
0:05.0	who's home to look after his daughters during their holidays.
0:10.0	Hello!
0:11.0	To him, this is the best sound in the world.
0:13.0	Daddy!
0:14.0	Actually, maybe that's the best sound of all. that's term time working offered at amazon 10 weeks
0:25.8	off guaranteed per year mix of paid holiday and unpaid time off conditions apply ready to launch your
0:31.0	business get started with the commerce platform made for entrepreneurs Shopify is specially designed
0:36.4	to help you start run and grow your business
0:38.9	with easy customizable themes that let you build your brand, marketing tools that get your
0:43.7	products out there. Integrated shipping solutions that actually save you time, from startups to
0:48.6	scale ups, online, in person and on the go. Shopify is made for entrepreneurs like you.
0:58.7	Sign up for your $1 a month trial at Shopify.com slash setup.
1:13.9	I don't usually call Slate's Supreme Court reporter, Mark Joseph Stern, and to ask him to tell me the plot of a children's book.
1:17.2	But there's a first time for everything, right?
1:25.5	The book I wanted Mark to tell me about is called Uncle Bobby's Wedding.
1:31.4	Okay, Uncle Bobby's Wedding is about a little girl, Chloe, who has a favorite uncle, Bobby,
1:34.9	who is getting married to his longtime boyfriend, Jamie.
1:41.3	Chloe is initially distraught that Uncle Bobby is getting married,
1:48.0	not because he's getting married to a man, but because she is worried that he won't have as much free time to spend with her. So far, so fine, except last week,
1:57.5	this book wound up in the hands of Supreme Court Justice, Sam Alito.
2:04.9	Do you think it's fair to say that all that is done in Uncle Bobby's wedding is to expose children to the fact that there are men who marry other men?
	...

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