U.S. Supreme Court Ends Its Term

The U.S. Supreme Court ended its 2022-2023 term on Friday. Three "blockbuster" decisions involving affirmative action, student loan relief and services to same-sex couples were handed down in the final days of the term. NPR reports on these developments. The longest report, 12+ minutes, presents the affirmative action case.

It has two separate pieces about the same-sex wedding website case, a general presentation (5 min. 41 sec.) of the ruling and another concentrating on Justice Sonia Sotomayor's blistering dissent (4 min. 35 sec.)

Student loan relief problems might be hard for non-Americans to understand, but over 40 million Americans carry student loans. NPR has a piece about what this decision means for borrowers (4 min. 57 sec.). NPR's legal affairs correspondent Nina Totenberg's analysis of the legal arguments, with no audio, can be found here.

Other important decisions were also handed down this week. Totenberg explains one involving who has the last word on organising federal elections (5 min. 17 sec.).

More from NPR on SCOTUS here (11 min. 48 sec., transcript available).

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.

Immigration and Federalism in the U.S.

PRI (Public Radio International), on their program The Takeaway, has a piece about a case before the U.S. Supreme Court, United States v. Texas, which examines whether the president can issue executive orders concerning the rights of illegal immigrants, here an order shielding from deportation  parents of children who are citizens or people who were brought to the U.S. as children, in spite of immigration legislation passed by Congress. 11 min 43 sec, no transcript.
NPR’s All Things Considered has a report by Nina Totenberg about the oral arguments in the case. 4 min 39 sec, transcript available.
More about the case with two videos on C-Span can be found here with transcripts available.

Landmark U.S. Supreme Court Cases

The American public service television channel, C-Span, has just completed a series entitled Landmark Cases in which 12 of the most important cases decided by the U.S. Supreme Court are presented - starting with Marbury v. Madison (1803) and ending with Roe v. Wade (1973). The each case is presented through a video (1h 30 min), and each web page has links to the decisions themselves, plus the recordings of oral arguments when available. No transcript but C-Span has produced a 120 page book to accompany the series.

Two U.S. States Sue Another Over Marijuana

On the site called Verdict, Professor Michael Dorf reads his presentation of an unusual case before the U.S. Supreme Court in which the states of Nebraska and Oklahoma have filed a complaint against the state of Colorado after it legalized the use of marijuana. Dorf explains original jurisdiction before the Supreme Court and the questions of federalism involved. 11 min, transcript available.

Genetically Engineered Food in Vermont

NPR's All Things Considered has a story about a recently passed Vermont law requiring producers to indicate if their products contain food that was genetically modified. The law is expected to face major legal challenges and the different grounds available to challengers are examples of what is hard to understand about the American legal system, especially federalism and free speech issues. The European Union situation is mentioned. 3 min 46 sec, transcript available.

More news about U.S. elections

In the recent elections, the states of Washington and Colorado held referendums about legalizing some use of marijuana (or "pot"). In Colorado, marijuana even got more votes than Obama. The success of marijuana in state elections presents a challenge to the Obama administration which must now decide whether to enforce federal legislation which makes the drug illegal. NPR's Morning Edition of Nov. 20 has a story about this example of legal problems caused in the U.S. by its federal system. 4 min 6 sec, transcript available