Civics 101

New Hampshire Public Radio began a podcast last January called Civics 101 - a refresher course on some of the basics of American democracy. You can find the list of topics (52 so far) here. Episodes include U.S. voting systems, federal grand juries, presidential pardons, church and state, how a bill becomes a law, gerrymandering About 12 min, no transcripts.
The site also has something called « extra credit » with supplementary information about the topics in the podcasts and even quizzes about the topics covered.

2015 at the U.S. Supreme Court — Jury Selection

NPR's legal affairs correspondent Nina Totenberg's look at what the U.S. Supreme Court might do in 2015, especially concerning the Affordable Care Act and same sex marriage can be found here. 5 min 41 sec, transcript available.

Another NPR story, this time about how jurors are selected, can be found here. 3 min 29 sec, transcript available.

Judges and Judging in the U.S.

The Goldfarb Center at Colby College in conjunction with the State-Federal Judicial Council for Maine and the Maine Council on Social Studies has produced a video which contains interviews with many state and federal judges and a detailed (29 page) study guide. The judges talk about how they became interested in the law ("all judges had lives before they became judges..."), their experiences in law school and in their first jobs as lawyers, why they decided to become judges, how they were chosen (election or appointment), examples of prejudice against women. The video goes on to describe the working of the judiciary (state and federal) at the trial and appellate levels.
54 min. no transcript, quicktime
Interesting and useful, but it's best not to watch too closely or you will probably be distracted by the lack of syncronization of lips and sound.

American Juries

The former governor of the state of Illinois, Rod Blagojevich, was convicted of only one count (out of 24) in the criminal case concerning his attempt to "sell" the Senate seat left vacant by Barack Obama. The jury deliberated for two weeks before reporting that they were deadlocked and couldn't reach unanimity on the other 23 counts. The prosecution is planning on re-trying the governor on the other charges. You can find out more about the case and hear jury consultant Karen Fleming-Ginn explain her job here on Talk of the Nation. 16 min 33 sec, transcript available.

Juries in U.S. State Courts The Yale Law Journal publishes an online companion to the journal - "The Pocket Part". The latest issue (March 18) is the first of two dedicated to state courts. Some of the articles have an audio version. For instance, Randall T. Shepard, Chief Justice of the Indiana Supreme Court, reads his contribution - "State Court Reform of the American Jury". (9m24, .mp3, transcript)

Recently on the Leonard Lopate Show (New York Public Radio) Please Explain: Jury Duty examines the history of juries, and explores the ins and outs of how they work - with Paula Hannaford Agor, Director of the Center for Jury Studies, and Valerie Hans, a Professor at Cornell Law School and one of the nation's leading authorities on the jury system. (Feb. 23, 2007) 30 min. Listen with Realplayer here or download an .mp3 version here. Please Explain: Wills Vincent J. Russo, an expert in Elder Law with Vincent J. Russo and Associates, and Beverly Goodman, who writes about tax, retirement and estate planning for Smart Money Magazine, answer questions about wills. (Jan. 5, 2007) Listen with Realplayer here or download an .mp3 version here Evolution and Education Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Edward Humes examines the controversy that erupted when intelligent design was added to the high school curriculum in Dover, Pennsylvania. (Feb. 14, 2007) 36 min. Listen with Realplayer here or download an .mp3 version here You can find an April 2006 interview with Jennifer Miller, a high school biology teacher from Dover, talking about her fight to keep intelligent design out of her classroom here.

The American Jury NPR (National Public Radio) has a "web extra" - a series of audio recordings and links examining the state of the American jury. To start, click here.