On June 14 2024, the Supreme Court ruled that bump stocks are no longer illegal, reversing an order from Donald Trump and the ATF that was passed in the wake of the Las Vegas shootings. The words "Second Amendment" do not appear in the opinion, concurring opinion, or dissent. And yet, within minutes of the ruling, every news agency was calling it a Second Am ... Show More
Apr 14
How did federal income taxes get this way?
We haven't always had a federal income tax, and in the beginning, it only applied to the very richest Americans. So how did we end up with the permanent income tax we have today, with all its complicated rules about everything from pre-tax income to deductions and credits? And wh ... Show More
39m 32s
Apr 9
What is the 25th Amendment?
Sometimes, news happens in the real world, and suddenly a political or civics topic becomes very top of mind for members of the public. And when that happens, we at Civics 101 often say, hey…we have an episode about that. One of those conversations happened this week, after a twe ... Show More
29m 16s
Sep 2024
Anthony Michael Kreis, "Rot and Revival: The History of Constitutional Law in American Political Development" (U California Press, 2024)
One of the great divides in American judicial scholarship is between legal scholars who take the justices at their word and assume that those words define the law and political scientists who dismiss all judicial arguments as smokescreens for partisan bias or wider political forc ... Show More
1h 3m
Aug 2023
The Modern History of Originalism
In this episode, a panel of libertarian and conservative scholars—J. Joel Alicea of the Catholic University of America Columbus School of Law, Anastasia Boden of the Cato Institute, and Sherif Girgis of Notre Dame Law School—explore the different strands of originalism as a const ... Show More
58m 23s
Jul 2023
The Supreme Court's Past, Present, and Future: A Conversation with John Yoo
It has been a momentous few weeks for the Supreme Court. What better time to discuss the Court's history and future? We are therefore launching our "Summer of Law" series to shed light on the legal world .
Kicking the series off is John Yoo, the Heller Professor of Law at the Uni ... Show More
53m 19s
Aug 2024
Machine Gun Charges Tossed & Tom Girardi Convicted
John Donohue, a professor at Stanford Law School and an expert on the Second Amendment, discusses recent cases on gun regulation including a Kansas judge’s decision that the ban on machine guns is unconstitutional. Maia Spoto, Bloomberg Law Correspondent, discusses the conviction ... Show More
35m 17s
Apr 2025
A Constitutional Crisis, Due Process, & the Rule of Law
What is a constitutional crisis? For some, a constitutional crisis is when the president defies the Supreme Court, for others it is when a president simply defies a federal judge’s order. Under the reign of President Trump and his administration, the country has dealt with a numb ... Show More
36m 59s
Nov 2019
Mary Anne Franks, “The Cult of the Constitution” (Stanford UP, 2019)
We Americans are defined by our Constitution and we cherish especially the First and Second Amendments. But like all texts, the Constitution can be read to empower and protect our individual rights, but it can also be used selectively, self-servingly, and in bad faith. And the Co ... Show More
58m 16s