May It Please the Court

Part One comes to an end in the thrilling story behind what is regarded as the most pivotal Supreme Court case of all time: Brown v. Board of Education

With the segregation era in full swing all across the Southern United States, it would take the life and work of one man to engineer social change for a nation. Charles Hamilton Houston and his apprentice, Thurgood Marshall, formulate a plan to reverse Plessy v. Ferguson and end segregation in the U.S. once and for all.

Alex tells the story of Supreme Court Justice John Marshall Harlan, a former Kentucky slaveowner who became the sole voice left on the Supreme Court defending equal rights under the law.

Alex discusses the chaotic 1876 Presidential election, involving disputed ballots, voter suppression, and political brinkmanship that led to end of Reconstruction Era and turned the tide against racial equality.

Alex retells the story of Abraham Lincoln navigating the Civil War, Radical Republicans, and a divided nation to abolish slavery and secure equal rights. From the abolition of slavery to the drafting of the 14th Amendment, this episode explores the fierce political, legal, and military battles that reshaped the Supreme Court, transformed the South, and paved the way for the first African Americans...

Alex retells the dramatic story of Charles Sumner’s fiery Senate speech, the brutal caning that followed, and the Supreme Court’s infamous Dred Scott decision, showing how these events set the stage for Abraham Lincoln, the 14th Amendment, and the fight for equality in America.

Creator and host Alex Akhavan introduces Season 2 of May It Please The Court: the story of the Equal Protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.  Effectively the story of race and discrimination in the United States from the lens of the US Supreme Court, the season will be told in two parts.  Part 1 begins shortly before the Civil War through the end of segregation while Part 2 will delve into...

In the season finale of May It Please The Court, the justices decide the issue of same-sex marriage. In 2015, twelve years after the Court's landmark decision that had invalidated anti-sodomy laws, Justice Anthony Kennedy is once again the tiebreaker needed to expand the scope of the 14th amendment's fundamental right to privacy...one more time.  [Originally Aired September 12, 2018]

It's a new millennium, and gay rights advocates take another stab at invalidating anti-sodomy laws in the landmark case of Lawrence v. Texas. The mainstream public's views on homosexuality have evolved considerably as the legal world waits to find out whether Justice Anthony Kennedy will be the swing vote needed to legalize homosexual conduct nationwide.  [Originally Aired September 5, 2...

It’s a Roe v. Wade rematch when the Supreme Court hears the case of Planned Parenthood vs. Casey in 1992. As a new split forms among the Court’s conservatives, Sandra Day O’Connor, the country’s first female justice, is the deciding vote to determine the future of abortion rights in the United States.  [Originally Aired August 27, 2018]

Substantive due process is now a political issue. Republicans start appointing justices willing to reverse or limit the doctrine responsible for Roe v. Wade. Meanwhile, progressives try to expand interpretations of the 14th amendment to start protecting gay rights.  [Originally Aired August 20, 2018]

With substantive due process back in full force, the Supreme Court takes up the issue of abortion and decides its most controversial case in recent history: Roe v. Wade.  [Originally Aired August 13, 2018]

Just two years after its historic decision in Griswold v. Connecticut, the Supreme Court decides a landmark case about interracial marriage. While the case could have been decided based only on the Equal Protection clause, the Court went further to answer a more fundamental question: can the government stop a person from Loving someone?  [Originally Aired August 6, 2018]

After 30 years without a landmark substantive due process case, the clause makes a roaring comeback in the 1960s when civil rights attorneys revive an old legal doctrine. A new liberty is recognized that will shape the modern world, and it starts by protecting access to contraception for married couples.  [Originally Aired August 6, 2018]

The Lochner Era continues well into the 1930s. The Supreme Court was as divided as ever and starts to become a problem for President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and his New Deal policies. So FDR comes up with a drastic plan to free himself and the nation from the nine old men and bring the Lochner Era to a dramatic end.  [Originally Aired August 6, 2018]

Justice Rufus Peckham gets his chance to make history by writing a new precedent that would dictate American domestic economic policy for a generation. Hear how the arrest of a baker named Joseph Lochner ushered in the infamous era in constitutional history known as the Lochner Era.  [Originally Aired July 31, 2018]

In the pilot, Alex Akhavan traces the origins of the Due Process clause starting with the ratification of the 14th amendment and the birth of a legal debate that continues to divide the Supreme Court today. Is the clause only concerned with fair procedures? Or does it also protect fundamental civil liberties? But the liberties they were talking about the late 1800s might not the ones you think!  [...

Creator and host Alex Akhavan introduces listeners to Season 1 of May It Please The Court, which narrates the riveting events that connect the most important cases in U.S. history.  Each season is one story about one part of the Constitution, and each episode tells its own tale about the context, the personalities, and the legal arguments that changed the country and the world. [Originally Aired J...