Broken Law

Recent weeks witnessed the complete collapse of FTX, a cryptocurrency exchange. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen referred to FTX’s downfall as a “Lehman moment” for cryptocurrency, referring to Lehman Brothers' collapse in the 2008 financial crisis. On this episode, Jeanne Hruska speaks with Professor Yesha Yadav of Vanderbilt University and Aaron Klein of the Brookings Institution to discuss...

Today’s episode picks up where we left off last week, with Part II of our election debrief. First, Lindsay Langholz and Jeanne Hruska take a look at the ballot measures that voters weighed in on in 2022 and the potential for future progressive wins using this powerful tool. Second, Lindsay speaks with Marcia Johnson-Blanco and Anna Chu on election protection efforts. Given the wave of voter suppre...

Now that Election Day has come and gone, we are going to take a look at what worked, what didn’t, and what to keep an eye on looking ahead to 2023 and 2024. There is so much to debrief that we will be covering this in two episodes. On Part I of our debrief, Lindsay Langholz speaks with Jessica Huseman about democracy being on the ballot and to debrief on how our election infrastructure and adminis...

The Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) has been a successful federal law since it was enacted in 1978 and is considered by many experts to be the gold standard of child welfare practices. And yet, decades later, a federal court ruled ICWA unconstitutional in a widely criticized 2021 decision. The case, Brackeen v. Haaland , is now before the Supreme Court, which could with its decision rewrite much o...

This week, we are going to break down the epic 5+ hour long oral arguments that the Supreme Court heard in two related cases about affirmative action in higher education. It seems, yet again, even well-established precedent is open for re-examination by this packed Court. Lindsay Langholz is joined by Professor Vinay Harpalani to break down the oral arguments and discuss what we should expect when...

We are reportedly “post-COVID.” And yet, just recently, the National Assessment of Educational Progress reported steep declines in math and reading scores amongst U.S. fourth and eighth graders, compared to tests taken pre-COVID. This begs the question, what are ignoring or accepting when we claim we are post-COVID. This week, Jeanne Hruska is joined by Yael Cannon, Associate Professor of Law at G...

While much attention is being paid this election cycle on which party will control Congress come January, there are several down ballot races that will also have profound effects on our fundamental rights and on the legitimacy of our democracy. These include races for State Attorney General, Secretary of State, state court judges, and district attorneys. On this episode, we provide a rapid overvie...

We are just a few weeks out from Election Day and in several states, voters are already going to the polls. Election laws, including voting rights laws, have undergone significant change in many states since the 2020 election. Lindsay Langholz speaks with Jonathan Diaz from the Campaign Legal Center about the good, the bad, and the alarming when it comes to our electoral system - and what listener...

On October 4, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral argument in Merrill v. Milligan , a case about Alabama's racially gerrymandered congressional map. The question looming over this case is whether the Supreme Court will destroy what remains of the Voting Rights Act. Lindsay Langholz speaks with Bradley Heard from the Southern Poverty Law Center about the case, take aways from the oral argument,...

The Supreme Court started its new term on October 3rd, and we are bracing for more cases where the Court could ignore precedent and judicial restraint, and eliminate safeguards to our civil rights and to our democracy. We preview several of the cases on the Court's docket and discuss their potential ramifications. These cases cover voting rights and gerrymandering, affirmative action, the dea...

In America, it is a fantasy to believe that people accused of a crime will have their case decided by a jury of their peers. The reality is that most convictions are achieved through plea bargains controlled by prosecutors. Is there a way to unwind this broken system of fast-tracked convictions? Christopher Wright Durocher speaks with Dan Canon, author of the book Pleading Out: How Plea Bargaining...

On this episode, Jeanne Hruska is joined by the co-authors of the new book, "The Constitution in Jeopardy," Russ Feingold and Peter Prindiville to discuss a dangerous effort by factions of the Right to radically rewrite the U.S. Constitution. Russ and Peter explain why more attention needs to be paid to this effort and why we need a "new kind of Constitutional politics" in this...

On this episode, we discuss sex, gender identity, and the Constitution. That's because we are talking about the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) and the argument that it is already the 28th Amendment to the Constitution. Lindsay Langholz is joined by Kate Kelly, author of "Ordinary Equality," to discuss the ERA’s long journey, the women and queer activists who kept the project going for...

This is a call to action! The U.S. Senate is back in session this month, and inevitably it has competing priorities between now and the end of the year. That's where this episode comes in. Jeanne Hruska speaks with Russ Feingold, President of ACS, and Zack Gima, Vice President of Strategic Engagement at ACS, about why the Senate should prioritize judicial nominations, how it can do that, and...

As we head back to school and in honor of Labor Day, Lindsay Langholz speaks this week with Randi Weingarten, President of the American Federation of Teachers, AFL-CIO, about the myriad of new state laws censoring what teachers can say in the classroom, the resurgence of book bans by school districts, and the broader, purposeful effort to toxify public education. Join the Progressive Legal Movemen...

It has been nearly two months since the Supreme Court released its decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health , overturning Roe v. Wade and throwing the issue of abortion rights to the states. On this episode, Lindsay Langholz speaks with Professor Mary Ziegler about how the aftermath of Dobbs is playing out in the states. What does Kansas say about how abortion might fare in other states and wha...

People with disabilities are the largest minority group in the United States and represent a vital voting constituency that is often overlooked. In recent years, several states have enacted voter suppression measures in the name of "election integrity," which disproportionately impact people with disabilities. Evan Monod speaks with Lia Sifuentes Davis, Clinical Professor at the Universi...

It can be easy to think that the U.S. democratic system is somehow exceptional, a product and an idea to be exported abroad. But the reality is far more complicated. As U.S. democracy faces a moment of truth, there are lessons to be learned from how elections are conducted and secured in other countries. Lindsay Langholz speaks this week with Ann Ravel, former FEC Commissioner, who has served as a...

The January 6th Select Committee has now held eight public hearings this summer. Its investigation is ongoing and more hearings are expected this fall. Simultaneously, more information is unfolding about DOJ's investigation into the events of January 6th, and there is separate state investigation underway in Fulton County, Georgia. This week, we discuss the latest and what to expect next on a...

This week, we continue our review of consequential decisions to come from the Supreme Court this term and turn our attention to Oklahoma v. Castro-Huerta , which will have major implications for tribal sovereignty and jurisdiction going forward. To discuss the decision, Lindsay Langholz is joined by Professor Maggie Blackhawk who explains how, as she described it, the Court acted “against hundreds...

This week, we look back at several of the big decisions that came down from the U.S. Supreme Court in its most recent term, including New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen , West Virginia v. EPA, and Vega v. Tekoh. We also look ahead to a couple of the major cases coming down the pike next term and discuss the alarming trends that are arising with this packed Court's conserva...

In its latest term, the U.S. Supreme Court decided two highly consequential decisions pertaining to the religion clauses of the First Amendment: Carson v. Makin and Kennedy v. Bremerton School District . Lindsay Langholz speaks this week with Ira "Chip" Lupu, Professor Emeritus of Law at GW Law School, about these two cases, just how divergent the decisions are from the Court's prio...

The U.S. Supreme Court's final decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health is as bad as we feared it would be. For the first time in history, our highest court has eliminated a fundamental right by overruling Roe v. Wade . On this episode, Lindsay Langholz is joined by returning guests Jenny Ma, Senior Staff Attorney with the Center for Reproductive Rights, and Rosann Mariappurum, Execut...

The January 6 th Select Committee held five public hearings in three weeks. Even for folks who are immersed in this, these hearings have provided a lot of information to process. Jeanne Hruska speaks with Barbara McQuade, professor at Michigan Law School and former U.S. Attorney, about the biggest takeaways from the hearings, the recent law enforcement activity seemingly connected to the Committee...

Special episode recorded live at ACS's 2022 National Convention. In the first segment, Jeanne Hruska speaks with Ian Millhiser, Vox Media, and Mark Joseph Stern, Slate Magazine, about the biggest legal developments of 2022 thus far and the solutions they would impose if they were god for a day. They also sound off on Twitter and offer advice about careers in legal journalism. In the second se...