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

For a quick overview, PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) has a special report (video) - The end of Roe - here. 29 min. And analysis from NPR's Nina Totenberg can be found here. 13 min. 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. 

Privacy

NPR’s Weekend Edition with Scott Simon had two stories this week about privacy. The first was about a law voted, but not yet in effect, in California. 3 min, 46 sec, transcript available. Then he interviewed law professor Kate Klonic about an optional assignment she gave to her class to see how easy it was to find out a lot of information by listening to conversations in public spaces and by using information on their clothes (name of a school) or tags on bags plus Google. Her students were very surprised about how much they could learn. 4 min, transcript available.

Facebook - Zuckerberg Interviewed at Harvard

Mark Zuckerberg, founder  and CEO of Facebook, is interviewed by Jonathan Zittrain. They discuss encryption, ‘information fiduciaries’ and targeted advertisements. Zittrain is a professor at Harvard Law and teaches a course ‘Internet & Society’. 1 hour 43 min., no transcript, but you can turn on subtitles.

Microsoft Before the U.S. Supreme Court

Does Microsoft have to turn over to U.S. authorities the content of emails stored overseas? NPR’s Nina Totenberg has a short (2 min, 26 sec) presentation of the case, United States v. Microsoft Corp. transcript available, but the presentation page of the audio gives more information about the case. A much longer (1 hour) analysis of the issues involved in this case can be found on the First Mondays podcast for February 26. The oral arguments in the case will soon be available here.

Jurisdiction in Cases Involving Stored Data

NPR’s All Tech Considered of March 3 has a report about a case in Brazil where prosecutors are trying to get data stored on Facebook’s WhatsApp to go after drug dealers. The report also examines the broader question of what country’s law applies when the rules about data privacy vary from country to country. 4 min 20 sec, transcript available.

A Review of Major Cases of the U.S. Supreme Court 2013-2014 Term

A very clear review of the most important rulings of the U.S. Supreme Court in its 2013-2014 term was presented by distinguished legal scholars Erwin Chemerinsky and Frederick Lawrence. They examined at length the Hobby Lobby case (corporations' refusal to provide certain forms of contraception), Town of Greece v. Galloway (public prayer), National Labor Relations Board v. Noel Canning (presidential recess appointments), McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission (campaign financing) and McCullen v. Coakley (buffer zone around an abortion clinic) and more briefly Riley v. California (cellphone privacy). The event ended with a discussion of the influence of Brown v. Board of Education, the landmark civil rights case handed down 60 years ago. 1h 25 min, no transcript.

Review of 2013 Term - U.S. Supreme Court 

NPR's All Things Considered of July 1 has an interview with Nina Totenberg, their Supreme Court correspondent, and Tom Goldstein of SCOTUSblog who take a look at the work of the Court this term. 8 min 49 sec, transcript available.
Some more stories on NPR on the recent rulings of the Court can be found here and here.
On July 2, Fresh Air interviewed Adam Liptak, the New York Times Supreme Court correspondent about the Court's major decisions this term. 33 min 57 sec, transcript available.

SCOTUSblog has a few videos of interviews outside the Court in the last days of June as important decisions were handed down.

The Common Law

Speaking in Australia in September on the topic “Developing common law – how far is too far?” Lord Walker of the U.K. Supreme Court provided an international look at the role of judges in the development of the common law. 1 hour, speech notes available

More from Maui

This blog has already mentioned Kathleen Sullivan's analysis of the Supreme Court's last term given in Maui during the judicial conference held there in August by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. Several panel discussions from the conference have also been posted on the 9th Circuit's YouTube channel.  The topics of the panel discussions include

• The Direction and Economic Impact of Health Care Reform Post the Supreme Court Decision
• Tracking the Trackers:  Privacy Protection in the Internet Age
• Tracking and the Government: What is the Government Learning about us? Should we be concerned? 
• What Color is Justice: Racial Disparities in the Criminal Process 
• Federal Courts, Federal Law and Professional Sports:  Emerging Trends in Antitrust, Labor and Intellectual Property

These discussions are between 60 and 90 minutes long, no transcripts.

Television Cameras in Court

BBC Radio 4's Unreliable Evidence examines the use of television cameras in court in its third program of the current series. 43 min, no transcript.
In this report reference is made to the broadcasting of the sentencing of a convicted murderer in a Scottish court on 18 April. 4 min 40 sec. This case is notable because of the extensive use of surveillance cameras to find the murderer. The body of the victim has never been found. You can read more about the case here.
Radio 4's Today program of 18 April examined the question of televising court cases, interviewing Brian McConnachie QC, vice-chair of the Faculty of Advocates Criminal Bar Association and Sir Roger Gale, a Member of Parliament. 3 min 37 sec, no transcript.

The "Brussels Effect"

The University of Chicago Law School has posted a video of a talk by Anu Bradford entitled "The Brussels Effect: The Rise of a Regulatory Superstate in Europe" which examines Europe’s unilateral power to regulate global commerce.  Professor Bradford explains how Europe is successfully exporting its legal institutions and standards — ranging from antitrust and privacy to health and environmental regulation — to the rest of the world.
53:06 minutes, streaming or .mp3 , no transcript

Privacy and Sport on Law in Action

BBC's Law in Action's current series includes two particularly interesting reports, one on Privacy and Copyright,  the other on Sport and the Law . The latter should be especially interesting for students of legal theory because it speaks of the Court for Arbitration for Sport. The presentation of the episode on the Law in Action site asks "How far should sport be special in the eyes of the law? And where should the boundary lie between areas which are decided by traditional courts, sports courts or left up to the sport governing bodies themselves?"
30 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.

U.S. Supreme Court cases "lite"or "up close and personal"

Duke University Law School has recently put online Voices of American Law -  "materials to assist in studying the Supreme Court and its role in American society". It is a project of Thomas Metzloff, a law professor there who teaches a course entitled Distinctive Aspects of U.S. Law for international students
The website includes a selection of 18 relatively recent U.S. Supreme Court cases. Each case presentation includes a short (1-2 min) introductory video (trailer) and one or more longer videos featuring interviews with the parties themselves, their lawyers, and judges and others involved in the case. There are also links to court documents and opinions and further information.  Lesson plans are also proposed as well as an "edited" version of the Supreme Court opinion. Topics include punitive damages, abortion, discrimination based on sex or sexual orientation, election finance, religious freedom, the interstate commerce clause, property and privacy rights.   You can watch the videos online or purchase them ($35 each).

Thinking Allowed on BBC Radio 4

Thinking Allowed on BBC Radio 4 this week examines questions related to privacy — eavesdropping and CCTV in schools. Last week's programme talked about some of the latest ideas on crime presented at the recent British Society of Criminology Conference at Leicester University.

A series of three programmes last November on Thinking Allowed was devoted to white collar crime

• Culture of Crime
• Regulation of Crime 
• Punishment of Crime

These three programmes (30 min. no transcript) were produced in association with the Open University, on whose site you can find an introduction by introduction by Louise Westmarland, senior lecturer in criminology and social policy, and a member of the International Centre for Comparative Criminological Research at the Open University (7 min. transcript available).

Emerging Privacy Issues Between the US and the EU: Bridging the Transatlantic Gap This conference was held at Georgetown Law Center, video (quicktime) or .mp3. 1h13m.

Privacy torts in the U.S. legal system Amy Gajda's weekly program, Legal Issues in the News, often has clever titles that hide the serious legal topic she addresses. Her September 10th offering, entitled "Borat's Losing Day in Court", is about issues of privacy associated with the recent fake documentary, or rather a real documentary about a fictional character — Borat. 3:13 min. RealPlayer, no script.