Friday, March 01, 2024

U.S. Supreme Court Ethics

The main story on John Oliver's Last Week Tonight program on February 25 was the U.S. Supreme Court and its ethics. Funny, with a spectacular end - "how is this legal?". 30 min. no transcript.

Thursday, February 08, 2024

Trump in the Ballot?

NPR's program Consider This has an interview with University of Chicago law professor Aziz Huq about the case before the U.S. Supreme Court deciding if section three of the 14th Amendment applies to
Donald Trump. 


The case will be argued before the Court Thursday February 8. The Court has said the oral arguments will be live-streamed. 12 min. 53 sec., transcript available.


To prepare yourself for listening to the oral argument, you can see a presentation of how this one will take place as part of an article in Politico - Meet the Lawyers Arguing the Trump Ballot Case...(the second video).



Sunday, February 04, 2024

History of Gun Control for the U.S. Supreme Court

The February 3 report on NPR's Weekend Edition examining the importance of history in the interpretation of 2nd Amendment gun rights can be found here. 5 min., transcript available.


Monday, January 01, 2024

Donald Trump on the Ballot?

NPR's Geoff Bennett interviews election law expert Professor Rick Hasen about the application of Article 3 of the 14th Amendment to the candidacy of former president Donald Trump in the 2024 election. 6 min., transcript available.

Tuesday, December 19, 2023

Does Santa Break the Law?


In the spirit of the holiday season, the Civics 101 Podcast revisits a question they examined last year - is Santa a Criminal?

At the beginning of the podcast, we learn that the podcast discussion will include talk about "trespassing, burglary, stalking, and also criminal versus civil cases, tort law, the commerce clause. And finally, how a legal professional might defend the jolly old elf were he to be on trial." 23 min. 25 sec. transcript available.

Funny, but accurate presentation of the legal questions.

 The Mandatory Repatriation Tax - Unconstitutional?

The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in a case challenging the legality of the mandatory repatriation tax, or MRT, which imposes a one-time tax on offshore investment income. The tax applies regardless of whether the earnings were distributed to shareholders or whether the shareholders owned the shares when the corporation made the earnings on which they are being taxed. NPR's Nina Totenberg has two pieces about this case which is getting a lot of attention because of the implications a decision will have on many more important parts of the tax code. Totenberg's first presentation, before the case was argued before the Court, presents the facts of the case and explains what the legal questions are. 6 min. 56 sec. transcript available

The second reports on what happened during the oral arguments. 3 min. 48 sec. transcript available. One mistake in this transcript is found near the end when transcribing the Solicitor General's remarks. The transcript presents the SG's words as saying that a realization requirement is "inaccurate, profoundly historical and consistent with the text of the 16th Amendment...". In fact she characterised the requirement as "ahistorical, inconsistent with the text of the 16th Amendment". Quite a difference!

Wednesday, December 06, 2023

 Oxycontin Bankruptcy Settlement Before U.S. Supreme Court

NPR's Nina Totenberg reports on the arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court about whether to allow a settlement in bankruptcy court that is favored by a high percentage of victims of the drug Oxycontin or to reject it on a broader policy argument about the purposes of bankruptcy laws. 4 min. 20 sec. transcript available.