The retirement of Justice Anthony Kennedy, often considered the Supreme Court’s ideological center, could fundamentally change its direction.
Listens
Playlist of posts listened to, or scrobbled
🎧 ‘The Daily’: The Supreme Court Upholds Trump’s Travel Ban | New York Times
What does the Supreme Court’s endorsement of the travel ban say about the extent of the president’s power?
🎧 ‘The Daily’: The Rampant Problem of Pregnancy Discrimination | New York Times
A New York Times investigation finds that many pregnant women are systematically sidelined at work, passed over for promotions and fired when they complain.
🎧 ‘The Daily’: What Migrants Are Fleeing | New York Times
For large numbers of migrants making the journey to the U.S. from Central America, staying in their native countries is no longer an option.
🎧 ‘The Daily’: The World Cup’s Mysterious Path to Russia | New York Times
The 2018 World Cup is now underway in Russia. How it ended up there involves some names you might recognize: Comey, Mueller and Steele.
🎧 ‘The Daily’: Trump Ends His Child Separation Practice | New York Times
The president signed an executive order to keep immigrant parents and children together at the border. What happens now?
🎧 ‘The Daily’: 10 Years After the Financial Crisis | New York Times
A look at how the economic collapse exposed profound problems underlying the American dream.
What a great overview. So little has changed… I’m starting to think that our financial system is even more fragile than I had expected it might be.
🎧 ‘The Daily’: The Blasey-Kavanaugh Hearing | New York Times
In an extraordinary day of testimony, Christine Blasey Ford and Brett Kavanaugh came to embody a fractured nation.
🎧 ‘The Daily’: Today’s Hearing: Trial or Job Interview? | New York Times
Republicans and Democrats are expected to take very different approaches to the questioning of Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh and Dr. Christine Blasey Ford.
🎧 ‘The Daily’: Revisiting What Happened to Anita Hill | New York Times
The law professor testified against Judge Clarence Thomas during his confirmation hearings in 1991. What has changed since?
🎧 ‘The Daily’: The Conservative Divide Over Kavanaugh | New York Times
We look at three stances taken on the accusations against the Supreme Court nominee.
🎧 ‘The Daily’: Rod Rosenstein’s Insurrection | New York Times
In the eight days between the firing of James Comey and the appointment of Robert Mueller, the deputy attorney general faced a crisis.
🎧 An Obit, This Time For Real | On the Media | WNYC Studios
Remembering the veteran news media hoaxer Alan Abel.
This past week’s coverage of Hurricane Florence has had all the trappings of a terrible storm: the satellite images, the sandbags and empty grocery stores, the newscasters dressed in flood gear. One recurring side character we seem to have avoided this time around, though, is the doctored image of a shark swimming on a flooded highway.
It’s a preposterous hoax that succeeds, occasionally, on the merits of some kernel of truth; for instance, whole swathes of interstate highway in North Carolina are, as of this moment, covered with water. That kernel of truth is what hoaxers and jokers build their handiwork upon — as did the veteran hoaxer Alan Abel, who passed away late last week at the age of 94.
Abel made a name for himself inventing characters and causes and turning the joke on the media; in 1980 he staged his own death and got himself an obituary in the New York Times.
Brooke spoke to Abel — and his daughter, Jenny Abel, the director of the documentary, "Abel Raises Cain" — in 2008.
🎧 FEMA Time | On the Media | WNYC Studios
As Hurricane Florence bears down, we discover that FEMA has $10 million less in its budget. The money was siphoned off to pay for detention and removal of immigrants.On Wednesday, as Florence swirled ominously off the coast of the Carolinas, and states prepared for imminent disaster, Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR) thought it would be a good time to draw everyone’s attention to the shifting priorities of this administration. Specifically, he released a budget that showed the Department of Homeland Security had transferred nearly 10 million dollars from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to Immigration and Customs Enforcement to pay for detention and removal operations.
FEMA officials maintain that the smaller budget won’t hinder their operations, but as wildfires rage and hurricanes make landfall, they have a lot on their plate. We don't think about FEMA much, until that's all we think about. Historian Garrett Graff says the agency’s, quote, “under-the-radar nature” was originally a feature, not a bug. Graff wrote about "The Secret History of FEMA" for Wired last September and he spoke to Bob about the agency's Cold War origins as civil defense in the event of a nuclear attack and how it transitioned to "natural" disaster response. Plus, they discuss the limitations to FEMA's capabilities and why it has such a spotty record. Graff is also author of Raven Rock: The Story of the U.S. Government's Secret Plan to Save Itself -- While The Rest of Us Die.
🎧 O See, Can You Say | On the Media | WNYC Studios
The anonymous op-ed, the Kavanaugh hearings, decorum, civility, and the freedom to speak.
Between the Kavanaugh confirmation hearings on Capitol Hill and an anonymous op-ed from within the Trump White House, a wave of rule-bending and -breaking has crashed on Washington. This week, we explore how political decorum and popular dissent have evolved since the early days of our republic — and how the legal protections for those core freedoms could transform our future.
1. Brooke and Bob on how best to cover the anonymous op/ed written by a "senior official in the Trump administration." Listen.
2. Geoffrey Stone, professor of law at University of Chicago, on our evolving — and occasionally faulty — interpretations of the first amendment. And, Laura Weinrib, professor of law at University of Chicago, on how early-20th century labor struggles gave birth to our modern ideas about freedom of speech. Listen.
3. Tim Wu [@superwuster], professor of law at Columbia University, on how the first amendment could inform new regulations for Silicon Valley. Listen.