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.

 End of Term for SCOTUS

This term the U.S. Supreme Court has decided several landmark cases. The most important one so far overturned what is known as the doctrine of Chevron deference. The courts now, not regulatory agencies, will have the final word interpreting federal laws. NPR's Nina Totenberg explains here the history of the question and what a revolution this decision is. Totenberg also presents another decision about one of the laws applied to some January 6, 2021 insurrectionists. 7 min., transcript available. 

More about the criminal law case (January 6th) can be found here. 3 min., transcript available.

More about the case overruling the Chevron doctrine can be found here. 4 min. 43 sec. transcript available.

Coming on Monday, the decisions about presidential immunity and social media. 

 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.

Abortion and the U.S. Supreme Court

On December 1, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a case about a Mississippi law banning abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy, a challenge to the Court's precedents in Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey. National Public Radio had several stories about this case, Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization. The longer one features commentary by NPR Chief Legal Affairs Correspondent Nina Totenberg, SCOTUS Blog's Tom Goldstein, and Florida State University Law Professor Mary Ziegler. 12 min. 35 min., transcript available.

A shorter segment, with just Nina Totenberg, can be found here. 4 min. 56 sec. transcript available.

For more in depth coverage, 1A, a program from from WAMU (American University Radio) heard on Dec. 2 is available here. 46 min. 26 sec. no transcript. A condensed version of the story can be found here. 33 min. 5 sec. no transcript.

Abortion Bans - Overturning Roe v. Wade?

The U.S. Supreme Court has just agreed to hear a case in the fall about a Mississippi abortion ban that clearly violates the ruling in Roe v. Wade which gives a woman the right to abort before viability of the fetus. The lower court held that the law couldn't stand. The fact that the Court agreed to hear the case makes many think that the conservative majority intends to overrule Roe. Nina Totenberg has the story here. 4 min. 19 sec., transcript available.

Abortion before the U.S. Supreme Court - Again

The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments on Wednesday March 3 in a case, June Medical Services v. Russo, concerning Louisiana legislation which makes abortion not illegal but much more difficult to obtain. In another case, only 4 years ago, the Court held that almost identical legislation in Texas created an undue burden on women seeking abortions because the result was that most clinics providing abortions would have to close because they could not meet the addition requirements. Lower courts had found these requirements would not in fact to make the procedure safer.
The case this year raises the question of stare decisis (or the rule of precedent) since the only thing that distinguishes the two cases is the composition of the Court, with two new justices known to be opposed to abortion rights.
Counsel for the state of Louisiana also raised a procedural question of standing, saying that the abortion clinic doctors cannot make the argument that the legislation is unconstitutional, only women seeking abortions have standing to do this.
NPR's legal affairs correspondent, Nina Totenberg, presents the case here. 6 min., 50 sec.
Earlier reporting on NPR can be found here. 3 min., 49 sec., transcript available.
The NPR station in Boston's program, Here and Now, has an interview with Dahlia Lithwick, who writes about the Court for Slate, about the case here. 7 min., 14 sec., no transcript.