More about the U.S. Supreme Court Term

NPR's Ari Shapiro on All Things Considered hosted a discussion about what the Court ruled this term. Discussing were Nina Totenberg of NPR, Stephen Vladeck of Georgetown University Law Centre and Sarah Isgur of SCOTUSblog. 8 min. 13 sec., transcript available.

Birthright Citizenship in the U.S.

NPR's legal correspondent Nina Totenberg has this report about the state of the question of whether children, born in the U.S., of undocumented immigrants are U.S. citizens. 3 min. 12 sec., transcript available.

For a historical presentation of the question, NPR's Throughline has this hour-long episode, originally broadcast in 2022 under the heading By Accident of Birth. transcript available.

Immigration Law in the U.S. - History

PBS has just aired a ten-minute "deep dive" segment into the history of immigration law in the U.S. to put into context the sweeping changes in the law President Trump wishes to make. Transcript available.

Windrush Day

Windrush Day in Great Britain commemorates the day, June 22, 1948, when a ship, the Empire Windrush, arrived in London with the first group of people from countries in the Caribbean to live in the UK, following the Second World War.

This year a webinar entitled "THE BLACK MUST GO FREE” How a legal ruling on ‘Windrush Day’ in 1772, is as relevant as ever on Windrush Day 2021" explored a legal ruling from 1772 about the status of a Black slave who arrived in London from the Caribbean. The webinar was presented by Matthew Ryder, QC, of Matrix Chambers and Alexandra Wilson of 5 St Andrews Hill. 1 hour, 15 min., no transcript.

Prime Time at SCOTUS

It's June, prime time for the U.S. Supreme Court. So far this month, two very big decisions have been handed down, one about DACA and the other about LGBTQ rights.

DACA is the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, an Obama Executive Order protecting "Dreamers" or people who were brought to the United States illegally when they were young. The Trump administration sought to rescind this order, removing its protections, and was unsuccessful before the Court. Nina Totenberg presents the ruling here (4 min., 49 sec., transcript available). NPR has many personal stories about the effect of the ruling here.

The other big loss for the Trump administration was one involving the 1964 Civil Rights Act which, the Court held, protects gay, lesbian, and transgender employees from discrimination based on sex. Totenberg presents the legal questions involved here (6 min., 52 sec. transcript available) just before oral arguments in the case in October. She is interviewed after the Courts ruling in the two cases here.
Longer presentations of these two cases can be found here (38 min, transcript available).

In Dalhia Lithwick's Slate podcast, Amicus, she presents these two "blockbuster" cases. She is joined by Luis Cortes Romero, the attorney and DACA recipient who was part of the team that prevailed in this week’s DACA ruling and later by Professor Pam Karlan about this week’s landmark LGBTQ employment rights case which Karlan argued before the Court (1h, 43 min. no transcript).

Still to come before then end of the SCOTUS term -- important cases about abortion rights and Trump's tax returns and financial records.

October 2018 U.S. Supreme Court Term Opens

The Brett Kavanaugh nomination to fill the seat of departing Justice Kennedy on the Supreme Court is still pending, so the Court has begun its new year (or term) with only 8 justices. Nina Totenberg of NPR has this report about the first cases on the new docket. 3 min 58 sec, transcript available. The recording talks about a case involving the protection of an endangered species, the dusky gopher frog, but Totenberg’s article accompaning the recording also presents upcoming cases involving the death penalty, the rule of precedent, the power of administrative agencies and immigration.

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.

Presidential Power in the U.S.

NPR’s All Things Considered of May 16 look at the legal questions around President Trump’s use of executive power and its challenges in the courts can be found here. Various law professors give their views on the issue. 3 min 47 sec, transcript available.

Presidential Executive Order about Immigration

A video of the oral arguments that led to Judge Robart's ruling which temporarily restrained the enforcement of the Executive Order about immigrants from seven Muslim majority countries can be found here.

A Language Lesson about the U.S. Immigration Ban

BBC's Learning English -- News Review-- site has a language lesson about President Trump's sacking/firing of Sally Yates, acting attorney general, who refused to apply his immigration ban. The lesson examines the terms "sack" "fire" "defy" and "betrayal". 8 min.

How Does an Immigration Lawyer Work in the U.S.? 

Slate’s podcast called Working of November 29 interviews a young lawyer who is the director of the Detained Children’s Program for the Capital Area Immigrants’ Rights Coalition, a nonprofit organisation that provides legal services and other resources for children facing deportation. 40 min, no transcript.

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.

Michael Sandel - Global Philosopher

Harvard professor Michael Sandel has started a new series on BBC Radio 4 - The Global Philosopher. He examines the question of the treatment of refugees and immigrants with a group of people from many countries. You can find « Should Borders Matter? » here. 30 min, no transcript. There should be more to come.

Law in Action Is Back

BBC Radio 4's Law in Action, with Joshua Rozenberg, began an new series of programmes on 19 February. The first is "Whistleblowing, forgotten children and the legal future of Wales"; the second "Drones, street art and more immigration law". The third will be about the U.K. Supreme Court, with an interview with its President Lord Neuberger.

Michael Sandel on Immigration and Welfare

The BBC's series, The Public Philosopher, staring Michael Sandel, a Harvard political philosopher, has begun a new series. The series examines two questions in the runup to the American presidential election: immigration and welfare. The programme about immigration was recorded at the University of Dallas and first broadcast 23 October. 41 min, no transcript. The discussion about welfare benefits was held in Boston and will be broadcast 30 October.

U.S. Supreme Court Oral Announcements

The Court has released recordings of its opinion announcements for the 2011 term. The Oyez site has already made available four major cases from last term. The cases are The Affordable Care Act Cases, United States v. Alvarez (Stolen Valor Act of 2005), Arizona v. United States (Arizona law about immigration), Miller v. Alabama (life without the possibility of parole for minors). Transcripts available.

Employment of non E.U. nationals in France

Deutsche Welle World has a story about the plight of non-E.U. nationals wanting to work in France after a change in French immigration rules. 3 min. streaming and downloadable .mp3, no transcript

Stephen Breyer

Stephen Breyer, an Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, has written a book, Making Our Democracy Work: A Judge’s View, which has just come out in paperback. The Court year is about to begin (traditionally on the first Monday in October), and so, before things get too busy at his day job, he's been promoting his book and the ideas it contains. You can hear him interviewed September 21st by Tom Ashbrook on NPR's OnPoint, talking, among other things, about how it's not really politics but personal background that accounts for differences in opinion on the Court. 47 min., no transcript — streaming or downloadable .mp3
On Sept. 12, Justice Breyer was in Chicago to speak at IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law. You can find recordings of this on YouTube here (13 min.) and here (14 min.). Questions and answers are here and include a long answer about the role for foreign law in Supreme Court decisions. That evening he was on a Chicago television program. The video is in three parts, here (23 min.), here (10 min.) and here (6 min.). no transcript
Justice Breyer can also be heard on another radio program, The Takeaway of September 28.
The Supreme Court year (or term, as it's called) begins on Monday, October 3rd, so commentators are talking about what the new term will hold. NPR's Talk of the Nation on Sept. 29 interviewed David Savage, Supreme Court reporter for the Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune, and former U.S. Solicitor General Neal Katyal who talked about cases concerning health care, immigration and privacy. 33 min. transcript available.

Short films by Yale law students

Yale Visual Law Project is a student-created project at Yale Law School that explores the intersection between law and film. This year it produced two documentaries:

• Alienation, on the effect of an immigration raid (a lot of Spanish with subtitles) 17:34 min
• Stigma,  about racial profiling by the police 13:38 min.

The page for each short film has links to "scholarship" (articles) about the subject and links to advocacy groups (groups dedicated to doing something about the problem described in the film). No transcripts.

Indefinite detention in the U.K./Prenups

The Guardian Focus podcast of 25 February examined the case of hundreds of foreign prisoners who are being held indefinitely after they have served their criminal sentences.
A podcast earlier this month (9 February) spoke of prenuptial agreements and more generally divorce and the role of lawyers in this area.
± 30 min. no transcript