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.

U.S. Judge on Judging

New York Times columnist David French interviews Jeffrey Sutton, chief judge of the Sixth Cercuit Court of Appeals, asking Judge Sutton to explain what it is that a judge does, what his judicial philosophy is. 26 min., transcript available.

 Interview with U.S. Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan

The Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit recently released a video of a conversation with Justice Elena Kagan who answered questions for an hour about decisions and events in the Court over the last year. She spoke clearly and candidly. Interestingly, she revealed that she tries to avoid adjectives when writing dissents.

 U.S. Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan Interview

Justice Elena Kagan was interviewed September 19th at Salve Regina University (Rhone Island) - a college, not a law school, and spoke very directly about how the Court functions. Available here on C-Span.53 min. - not very perfect subtitles below the screen.

U.S. Supreme Court Nominee 

President Biden has announced the choice of Ketanji Brown Jackson to replace retiring Justice Stephen Breyer. NPR's Ailsa Chang speaks to Tomiko Brown-Nagin of Harvard Law School about the nomination. 5 min. 24 sec. transcript available.

Some History of the U.S. Supreme Court 

Throughline, a podcast from NPR, has an hour-long discussion with law professors of the history of the development of the power of the U.S. Supreme Court (Marbury v. Madison, Dred Scott, Roosevelt's court packing plan, enforcement of Brown v. Board of Education, Roe v. Wade...). No transcript.

 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.

Judges - Enemies of the People??

You can see Joshua Rozenberg (host of the BBC's Law in Action) talk about his latest book Enemies of the People? How Judges Shape Society with James Libson,  managing partner at the law firm Mischon de Reya, here . 15 min., transcript available.

UK's Judicial Office on YouTube

The UK’s Judicial Office has a YouTube site and has recently published a short (2 min 16 sec) video for young people Judiciary and the rule of law.
it has entitled

Other videos on the site include short interviews with judges explaining what they do. Beginning on Nov. 15 the site now includes live streaming of the Court of Appeal Civil Division.

California Judge is Removed by Voters

One of the curious features of United States state court judges is that in many states they are elected, or appointed and then have to stand for election after a period of time. A judge in California was just removed (or "recalled") because of indignation over a sentence he handed down that was perceived as being too lenient. NPR's Scott Simon interviews a public defender who is worried that this will lead to judges being influenced by what the public will think when sentencing offenders. Mistakes can be made because the public's information might not be accurate. 4 min 25 sec, transcript available.

Harvard Law School Celebrates Its 200 Years

Harvard Law School, founded in 1817, is celebrating its 200th birthday this year.  It organized an October summit for exploring big ideas, “HLS in the World” with videos of many of the events posted on YouTube. You can find them here. There are so many that it's hard to offer a selection on this blog, but one of the most popular is an interview with Harold Koh and Samantha Power about their careers as academics and government officials in the area of international law. Another one is a discussion with three federal appellate judges about how they work. Part of the celebration even included a re-argument of the landmark Supreme Court case of Marbury v. Madison. The videos posted are usually about 1h 30 min, no transcript, but often good subtitles.
The law school appears to be adding more videos in addition to the 30 already posted.

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.

Raising the Bar

Raising the Bar, on BBC Radio 5, has started a new series of programmes about the law.The first, available for another three weeks, has interviews with judges about their profession. The second, available later today for one month, talks about international law. The third, which will air August 7, is about terrorism law in the UK. 60 min, no transcript.

The U.S. Supreme Court Compared to Lower Courts

The U.S. Supreme Court is receiving a great deal of attention with the prospect of replacing Justice Antonin Scalia, but Legal Issues in the News commentator and law professor Verity Winship explains here the very significant differences between the work of the high court and that of lower courts. 3 min 25 sec, no transcript available.

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia Dies

NPR's Nina Totenberg, on All Things Considered, provides a history of Antonin Scalia's role on the Supreme Court in a report with many clips of Scalia's voice. 11 min 23 sec, transcript available. A video of President Obama's remarks can be found here.
Justice Scalia was known not only for his views on the Constitution but also for his remarkable prose style. Slate has posted an article "What Made Antonin Scalia a Great Writer". The subtitle says it all: "The novelty of this language, his use of metaphor, and his wicked sense of humor".

Things We Missed Over the Summer

A new series by Clive Coleman -  Every Case Tells a Story, started in June on the BBC with three 28 minute episodes :

• Treason on Trial (1945 trial of « Lord Haw-Haw »)
• The Case Against Slavery (1772 Somersett Case)
• The Case of Kolkata (2005 case to decide who founded the city)

Elsewhere, Clive Coleman spoke to judges on the subject of diversity in the judiciary. A downloadable version can be found here. 4 min 34 sec, transcript available.

On the subject of the judiciary in England and Wales, BBC’s Law in Action had a programme in June entitled Courts on Trial. 28 min, no transcript. Law in Action will be back with a new series of episodes in November.

Judges as Humans

The U.K. Supreme Court held an event - "The Humanity of Judging" - on November 19, part of the Being Human festival. A video of the event has just been posted. Included are remarks from a judge and several academics, including one who discussed images of judges and another the importance of diversity in the backgrounds of judges. 53 min, no transcript.

An English High Court Judge on Family Law

Peter Jackson, one of the most senior High Court judges assigned to the Family Division of the High Court, spoke at London School of Economics on 12 December 2013. He detailed what he does by going through his agenda for the last two weeks, then described how he reaches decisions. His talk is here, available as a video or audio, 1 h, 25 min, no transcript available.