The Citizen's Guide to the Supreme Court

This week's episode covers Justice Samuel Alito, and instead of focusing on his "Scalito" moniker, Brett and Nazim cover three cases regarding free speech that present a more tempered and emotional view of Justice Alito that rarely gets talked about.  Those cases include Morse v. Frederick (Bonghitz 4 Jesus), Snyder v. Phelps (Westboro Baptist Church), and Reed v. Town of Gilbert Arizona (Religiou...

This week's episode takes a deep dive into Justice Anthony Kennedy, including his background, his famous decisions and how similar he is other noted Republican-but-also-super-liberal Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.  Brett and Nazim also discuss how his writing on the same marriage cases may affect the transgender rights cases likely to be arriving within the next year.  The law false-starts around (0...

Good news and bad news this week.  Good news - there's been a new addition to the Citizen's Guide Family.  Bad news - the 4th Amendment is getting ground into nothing.  This week's spotlight shines on Justice Sotomayor and the case of Manuel v. City of Joliet.

Everyone knows Ruth Bader Ginsburg the Justice, but this week takes a look at Ruth Bader Ginsburg the creative ACLU attorney who helped shape intermediate scrutiny through gender disparity cases.  These cases, including Fronterio v. Richardson, Weinberger v. Wisenfeld, and Duren v. Missouri , show how equal protection and gender was first developed, often with unexpected methods and angles.  Brett...

This week's spotlight shines on Justice Clarence Thomas and how Thomas' conservative views were bolstered by the presence of Justice Scalia.  Brett and Nazim discuss popular Establishment Clause cases to give context to how Thomas and Scalia worked together and then address the case of Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia v. Pauley , which asks whether or not Missouri can use the First Amendment to...

This week's episode continues our weekly focus on individual Justices, with this week's Justice du jour being Stephen Breyer.  Brett and Nazim discuss Breyer's background and cover influential death penalty cases over the last four decades to see if there is traction on finding the death penalty unconstitutional.  Lastly, the current pending case of Moore v. Texas is covered, which asks whether or...

This week's episode starts a series of episodes that will examine individual justices, including their background, their big cases, and one big question about them moving forward.  This week covers Chief Justice Roberts, and specifically how Roberts stacks up against Rehnquist, Burger, and Warren.  Law starts at (02:06).

This week's episode covers a recent Supreme Court denial of an emergency petition by Libertarian Presidential Candidate Gary Johnson to appear as "Libertarian" and not "Independent" on an Ohio voting ballot.  Surprisingly enough, how you appear on a voting ballot has a history with the Supreme Court and it's own test.  Also surprising this week is the revelation that one of the hosts currently ser...

In what is hopefully the end of our discussion on the Voting Rights Act, Brett and Nazim take one more spin around North Carolina NCAAP v. McCrory to discuss what the most recent decision denying a stay of the 4th Circuit's decision means both practically and politically.  Brett and Nazim also discuss the most recent Michigan case where the Voting Rights Act was used to strike down a ban on straig...

This week's episode is a good representation of why its difficult to cover current events in podcast form.  Brett and Nazim begin by discussing the 4th Circuit decision in North Carolina NAACP v. McCrory, which struck down a North Carolina law under grounds that it violated the broad provisions of the Voting Rights Act.  Then, future Brett and Nazim from two weeks later come in to discuss the Supr...

In part one of a two part CLIFFHANGER (!!!), this week's episode introduces the Voting Rights Act, and specifically how it created a dunce corner for States who could not be trusted to pass fair, non-racist voting laws.  After the goodness of the statute is covered at length, Brett and Nazim discuss how the Supreme Court destroyed that part of the statute in Shelby County v. Holder.  General law t...

This week's episode takes us back to the year 2000 when all hell broke loose in the Presidential Election.   Brett and Nazim dive deep into the Bush v. Gore case, including why the case came before the Supreme Court, the lower decisions that put the Supreme Court in place to "decide" the election, and how much blame the Supreme Court should take from this with sixteen years of hindsight on our sid...

This week's mini-episode covers two State law issues that deal with victorious and/or spiteful Public Defenders, with the first being Delaware's Death Penalty being declared unconstitutional after a case involving the PD's office, and the second being Missouri's PD Office appointing public officials to criminal cases as revenge for a lack of funding.  The recent Third Circuit decision denying New...

This week's episode continues the discussion from last week about non-BOR amendments, only this week is decidedly more positive.  This week centers mostly on voting, equality, and taxes; and to liven things up, Brett and Nazim suggest fairly unworkable changes to our existing system of government.   Finally, Brett and Nazim discuss whether or not Citizens United, or any other proposal, will be the...

The non-Bill of Rights Amendments, 11 through 27, cover a host of different topics including government regulation, voting, and equality; and this week's episode covers part one of our efforts to rank these amendments from the bottom up.  The goal is to cover how the Constitution is amended, and whether its possible for an amendment to be passed in the upcoming future.  This episode covers ranking...

Planes are going down over ABQ, as this is the finale of Season 2 of the Citizen's Guide to the Supreme Court.  Much like last year, Brett and Nazim make podcast announcements, cover cases were cert. was denied, wrap up the historical value of this term, and laugh at their own jokes.  Unlike last year, we're still coming back next week with more podcasts.  Podcast announcement starts at (6:39) and...

This week's episode wraps up the 2015/2016 term, where Brett and Nazim almost come to blows over Spokeo v. Robbins, guess Thomas' complaints with Green v. Brennan, share a laugh over Nichols v. US, vet out the appellate process over Welch v. US, and ruminate about the government over McDonnell v. U.S.   Law starts at (6:22).

This week's episode covers Fisher v. University of Texas, which held that UOT's affirmative action program was in compliance with the Constitution and the Equal Protection clause.  Brett and Nazim vet out how and why this program was able to pass the seemingly high barrier of strict scrutiny and what that says for future programs implementing similar procedures.  Law starts (08:21), following this...

This week's episode first covers Beylund v. North Dakota and Voisine v. U.S., two cases that deal with the viability of criminal statutes aimed at stopping drunk driving and preventing firearm possession by domestic violence offenders.  Law starts at (03:26) but there is one tangent on summer movies and the other featuring a controversial take on hamburgers.  It's a serious episode, so you can let...

In this mini-episode, Brett and Nazim spend 30 minutes breaking down a one-line order from the Supreme Court in the immigration case of U.S. v. Texas, including  why there is no decision, what will/should happen next now that the Executive Order has been quashed by the 5th Circuit, and whether this decision rests on solid Constitutional grounds or is just revenge for Obamacare.  Law starts (0:37).

This week's episode takes a deep dive into Whole Women's Health v. Hellerstadt, the case that invalidated a Texas law that set impossibly high medical standards on abortion clinics.  Brett and Nazim discuss how/whether this case changed the undue burden standard, and in light of this decision, where a women's right to choose currently sits in regard to all of our Constitutional rights.  The Law st...

This week's episode covers three big cases that were issued in the last week.  Utah v. Strieff seemingly erodes the 4th amendment into a nub, U.S. v. Taylor seemingly destroys federalism, and Kirtsaeng v. Wiley & Sons seemingly opens the gates for frivolous copyright claims.  You; however, luckily have an episode that addresses these concerns in order, for purposes of determining whether or not th...

Brett and Nazim had some extra time this week, so this episode serves as a supplement to last Sunday's episode on non-SCOTUS decisions, which include the Connecticut assault rifle ban, Justice Thomas' possible retirement, and the Net Neutrality decision in D.C. circuit court.  Law starts at (4:06).

It's been a boring week in the Supreme Court, so Brett and Nazim cover popular legal cases in lower Federal and State Courts, including the 9th Circuit concealed weapon decision, the Stanford Swimmer Judge controversy, the Google/Oracle slugfest, and a 9-1-1 Operator liability decision out of the 10th Circuit.  The law starts at (7:56), but skipping that far passes our new favorite game "How Many...

This edition of the expedited podcast covers the recent decisions in Puerto Rico v. Sanchez Valle (which held that double jeopardy applied to Puerto Rico), Dietz v. Bouldin (which held that a judge is allowed to call a jury back after releasing them), and Williams v. Pennsylvania (which held that a judge who worked on a death penalty case for the district attorney could not later hear the appeal o...