Your Questions Answered: Trump vs. the Rule of Law

The Political Scene | The New Yorker

WNYC Studios and The New Yorker

Politics, Obama, News, Wnyc, Washington, Barack, President, Lizza, Wickenden

4.2 • 3.3K Ratings

🗓️ 11 August 2025

⏱️ 38 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

From the attempt to end birthright citizenship to the gutting of congressionally authorized agencies, the Trump Administration has created an enormous number of legal controversies. The Radio Hour asked for listeners’ questions about President Trump and the courts. To answer them, David Remnick speaks with two regular contributors: Ruth Marcus, who writes about legal issues and the Supreme Court, and Jeannie Suk Gersen, who teaches constitutional law at Harvard Law School. While the writers disagree on some significant questions—such as the Supreme Court’s recent ruling in Trump v. CASA, which struck down the use of nationwide injunctions—both acknowledge the unprecedented nature of some of the questions from listeners. “They never taught you these things in law school, because he’s pushing on areas of the law that are not normally pushed on,” Marcus tells Remnick.

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Transcript

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1:00.1	You're listening to The Political Scene. I'm David Remnick.
1:05.6	Early each week, we bring you a conversation from our episode of The New Yorker Radio Hour.
1:13.6	This is The New Yorker Radio Hour, a co-production of WNYC Studios and The New Yorker. Welcome to The New Yorker Radio Hour. I'm David Remnick.
1:18.6	Let's get you up to speed now. So the first case to come down was a birthright citizenship case.
1:24.6	The U.S. Supreme Court has paved the way for President Trump on one of his biggest
1:29.3	campaign promises. He wants to ultimately close the Department of Education.
1:34.3	This is a five alarm fire, okay? What we are watching right now is potentially the dismantling
1:40.3	of the remaining portions of the Federal Voting Rights Act.
1:45.0	Many outlets in this room have been fearmongering the American people into believing there is a constitutional crisis taking place here at the White House.
1:54.0	But in fact, the real constitutional crisis is taking place within our judicial branch.
1:59.0	Trump is betting nothing will stop him.
	...

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