Ruth Bader Ginsburg

The extraordinary U.S. Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has died. For a glimpse of what made her so extraordinary, PBS has this video. 7 min. 4 sec. 

For some audio on this news, NPR's Nina Totenberg has this report on the consequences for the Court. 5 min. 7 sec. transcript available.

NPR also has reports - about what this will mean for the presidential election here. 4 min. 31 sec. transcript available. 

For Ginsburg's impact on the U.S. legal system, law professor Jeffrey Rosen can be heard here. 4 min. 9 sec. transcript available. Rosen is head of the National Constitution Center which awarded its 2020 Liberty Medal just this week to Ginsburg. Available on the center's website is the video tribute it prepared for the justice which includes not only interviews with her friends and colleagues but also performances by opera singers because of Ginsburg's well-known love of the opera. 48 min. Subtitles available on YouTube.

Supreme Court Confirmation Hearings

The U.S. Senate is holding hearings before giving their "advice and consent" to President Trump's pick to fill a vacancy on the Supreme Court. The hearings this time are especially acrimonious. To put them in historical perspective, The New York Times has a video presentation, How Supreme Court Confirmations Became Partisan Spectacles. 4 min 44 sec, no transcript but you can turn on subtitles.

The "Ginsburg Rule" 

In the United States, Supreme Court justices are nominated by the president and must be approved by the Senate. NPR’s Nina Totenberg reports on the history of Supreme Court nominees’ hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee and what kinds of questions have been asked and answered there.
5 min. transcript available.

The End of The U.S. Supreme Court 2017 Term

Terry Gross, the host of NPR’s Fresh Air, interviews Adam Liptak, the Supreme Court reporter for the New York Times about the various ways the First Amendment has played a part in the cases decided this term and the effect of the resignation of Justice Anthony Kennedy. 42 min., transcript available. Another long review (47 min., no transcript) of the 2017 term can be found on NPR’s On Point — « Kennedy Retiring, Gerrymandering, Travel Ban And More ». Dahlia Lithwick's podcast, Amicus, on Slate has another long look at end of the Court's term. 47 min., no transcript.

The Role of the U.S. Senate in the Appointment of a Supreme Court Justice

C-Span has put online a « classroom deliberations » presentation about the role of the U.S. Senate during the Supreme Court confirmation process which you can find here. It has short videos, articles, a lesson plan, vocabulary preview, prepared questions, a note-taking chart and deliberation activities.
NPR yesterday had an update about the progress of the nomination including the possibility of a filibuster. 6 min 13 sec, transcript available.

Nomination of a U.S. Supreme Court Justice 

NPR’s Nina Totenberg's presentation of the nominee, Neil Gorsuch, and the Senate battle that is on the horizon can be found here. 3 min, 47 sec, transcript available

Geoffrey Stone on the U.S. Supreme Court

SCOTUSblog interviewed Geoffrey Stone, professor of law at the University of Chicago, on June 14 and presented the interview in several installments. In the first one, 18 minutes long, Stone talks about his year as a Supreme Court clerk and how he was asked to teach at the University of Chicago where he had finished his studies two years earlier. In the second Stone describes three modes of constitutional interpretation (originalism, judicial restaint, the "Carolene Products" approach of different levels of scrutiny). In the following parts Stone talks, among other things, about what an ideal Supreme Court Justice would be, how Justices are confirmed. At the end of part six he makes a few predictions about the cases that had not yet been decided by the Court and makes at least one mistake.