Abortion in the United States Today

On January 17, NPR's Terry Gross aired an interview with Mary Ziegler, a law professor who has recently published a book, Roe: The History of a National Obsession. Ziegler speaks about the unprecedented uncertainty today in the United States when it comes to abortion since, after the Dobbs decision, the law covering abortion depends on the law in each state. She gives a very detailed description of the state of the law on abortion today. 44 min., almost perfect transcript available.

 Roe v. Wade Overturned?

NPR's legal affairs correspondent Nina Totenberg has been interviewed about the leaked draft opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson that, if handed down with an opinion that is similar to the draft, will overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court opinion that gave women the right to abortions at least in the first two trimesters of pregnancy. 4 min. 50 sec., transcript available.

The oral arguments made before the Court in December 2021 can be found here.

Available on YouTube (with subtitles), late night comedians Stephen Colbert and Trevor Noah have some good takes on the subject. More seriously, Stephen Colbert even interviewed Emily Bazelon of the New York Times Magazine, Yale University and Slate Political Gabfest.

More from NPR on the subject - a very good history of abortion laws in the U.S. can be found here. 3 min. 51 sec. 

Jonathan Sumption's 2019 Reith Lectures

Jonathan Sumption, formerly a UK Supreme Court Justice, before that a barrister and before that an academic historian, gave the 2019 BBC Reith Lectures. The titles of his five lectures were

• Law’s Expanding Empire 
• In Praise of Politics
• Human Rights and Wrongs
• Rights and the Ideal Constitution
• Shifting the Foundations

Each is about 40 minutes long. Transcripts are available.

Free Speech

Chicago’s local TV station has interviewed Goeffrey Stone, a professor of law at the University of Chicago, about a book just published that he co-authored, The Free Speech Century. 10 min, no transcript.

Free Speech, Hate Speech?

NPR’s Weekend Edition of August 26 has an interview with the executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union about its defense of the white nationalist rally at Emancipation Park in Charlottesville. 4 min 30 sec, transcript available.

Landmark Cases of the U.S. Supreme Court Explained

Heightened Scrutiny is a new podcast about the Supreme Court's landmark civil rights cases created by a self-described « attorney and professor who suffers from an incurable obsession with the Supreme Court and constitutional law. » The landmark cases featured so far are Roe v. Wade (abortion), Texas v. Johnson (flag burning and free speech), Loving v. Virginia (law forbidding marriage between blacks and whites), Kelo v. New London (eminent domain), Bowers v. Hardwick (anti-sodomy law), Lawrence v. Texas (anti-sodomy law), Employment Division v. Smith (peyote and religious freedom). 30 to 40 minutes, no transcript.

Free Speech in the U.S. and the National Anthem Protest

Law Professor Michael Dorf examines the words of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg criticizing the actions of football quarterback Colin Kaepernick who kneels during the playing of the national anthem to protest police brutality and racial oppression. A link to Professor Dorf’s reading of his column can be found  at the bottom of his article. 7 min 55 sec.

Birth Control and Hypotheticals at the U.S. Supreme Court

NPR's All Things Considered of March 25 has a report about the recent oral argument before the U.S. Supreme Court about a requirement in the Health Care Act that employers provide birth control. Two companies, Hobby Lobby and Conestoga Wood, contend that the Constitution's freedom of religion means that their insurance coverage for employees shouldn't have to provide something that is against their (the companies') religious principles. The story describes a series of hypothetical questions the justices asked the lawyers arguing the cases that are good examples of how legal questions are examined in U.S. law. 6 min 33 sec, transcript available.
More about this case — an interview with Amy Howe and Pete Williams who were in court for the oral arguments. 19 min, no transcript available.
You can find a full transcript of the oral arguments on the Supreme Court website here. The audio recording is now available here.
An analysis of the case by a constitutional law professor, Michael Dorf, can be found here. At the bottom of the page there is an audio link to Professor Dorf's reading of his article. 9 min 21 sec, transcript available.

New Egyptian Constitution

Tom Ginsburg, University of Chicago Law School professor and comparative constitutional expert, was interviewed January 22 on Worldview, a program on Chicago Public Radio, after returning from Egypt. 12 min, no transcript.

World Constitution Database

The Constitute Project, created jointly by the University of Chicago and Google, is a new database. Chicago Public Radio station WBEZ's program Worldview of October 17 interviewed Professor Tom Ginsburg who explained what the project contains (every constitution ever written since 1789) and how it works (you can browse by country or by topic for instance).  12 min, no transcript.

Constitutions as Products

The University of Chicago Law School's 2013 Coase Lecture was given on February 12 by Tom Ginsburg, professor of law and political science at that school. The subject of the lecture was "Constitutions as Products". Ginsburg questions the way constitutional law, with its emphasis on case law, is taught in the United States. His research, which he presents, looks at almost all constitutions in the world (excluding that of the U.K.), examining how are they produced, their contents (rights, provisions about amendment, etc.), how long they last, and what influences their longevity. Both video and audio versions of the lecture are available. 83 min, no transcript