Shows
High School SCOTUSA Close Read of the Affirmative Action Decision with Richard FordAfter a brief interlude for an episode of LGBTQ+ rights, Elise is back with a second episode on the affirmative action decision, joined by Professor Richard Ford of Stanford Law School. Professor Ford offers his take on many of the same questions we put forward to Professor Stulberg: Is the diversity rationale still alive? What will the college admissions landscape look like after this decision? And how will socioeconomic status be used as an attempt to maintain diversity? He also walked Elise through the nuances of the majority opinion — namely, the Court refused to overturn Grutter and Bakke, leaving pot...
2023-07-2348 minHigh School SCOTUSSlowing the Backslide: Protecting LGBTQ+ Rights with Joshua BlockAs a brief interlude to coverage of the Court's affirmative action decision, Hannah and Elise sat down with Joshua Block, a senior staff attorney at the ACLU, to discuss the legal battles to stop anti-LGBTQ+ legislation and the implications of the Court's recent decision in 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis. This is a long overdue conversation: LGBTQ+ rights are increasingly under attack across the country, but it is children and students who are most frequently the target of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation, including attacks on their right to learn about sexual orientation and gender identity in schools, their right to read diverse...
2023-07-1743 minHigh School SCOTUSThe end of affirmative action with Lisa StulbergTwo weeks ago, the Court struck down race-conscious affirmative action in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard University. In the first of many episodes to come, Elise and Hannah break down the opinion with Lisa Stulberg, a professor of sociology at NYU's Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development. Chief Justice Roberts' opinion answered some of our questions — universities will no longer be able to consider race as they historically have, and this Court no longer sees diversity as a compelling enough reason for affirmative action. But it also raised SO many questions about the future of college ad...
2023-07-1247 minHigh School SCOTUSThe Future of Student Loan Debt with Jonathan GlaterIt's been a while! In the latest episode of the High School SCOTUS podcast, we're back with a wide-ranging conversation between Elise and Professor Jonathan Glater of the University of California, Berkeley School of Law. Professor Glater is an expert on all things higher education and student loan debt; he is also the Faculty Director of the Center for Consumer Law & Economic Justice at Berkeley. He joined the podcast to discuss two pending cases before the Court, Biden v. Nebraska and US Dept. of Education v. Brown, both of which consider the constitutionality of President Biden's student loan relief...
2023-06-0737 minHigh School SCOTUSProtecting Native American Rights with Rebecca NagleOn the latest episode of the High School SCOTUS Podcast, Elise sits down with Rebecca Nagle, the host of the This Land podcast from Crooked Media and a powerful activist for indigenous rights. They spoke primarily about two monumental Supreme Court cases, McGirt v. Oklahoma, a 2020 case that considered whether Creek Nation land qualified as a “federal reservation,” and Haaland v. Brackeen, a case currently before the Court that weighs the constitutionality of the Indian Child Welfare Act. Also included: the hidden record in the Brackeen case, Rebecca's take on Justice Gorsuch's progressive stance in tribal law cases, and the...
2023-01-2940 minHigh School SCOTUSOur right to a safe climate with Julia OlsonIn the latest episode of the High School SCOTUS Podcast, Elise and Hannah sat down with Julia Olson, founder and executive director of Our Children's Trust, a non-profit, public interest law firm that provides legal services to youth in an effort to secure their legal rights to a safe climate. We discuss Julia's passion for law and environmentalism, her realization that she could use her legal ability to fight the climate crisis and protect the next generation, her monumental litigation in Juliana v. United States, and her advice to young people who are desperate for change. Julia does ground-breaking...
2022-12-2944 minHigh School SCOTUSA critique of affirmative action with Richard SanderIn the fifth episode of the affirmative action series, Elise and Hannah spoke with Professor Richard Sander of the University of California, Los Angeles School of Law about his perspective on the detrimental effects of racial preferences in higher education. They also discussed the importance of considering and evaluating empirical evidence related to affirmative action, and what he noticed at the Supreme Court's oral arguments on Oct. 31. Professor Sander has written extensively on the issue of race conscious policies, especially in the University of California higher education system, and began his career studying housing segregation.
We hope...
2022-12-1840 minHigh School SCOTUSSchool Choice After Brown with Lisa StulbergIn the fourth episode of their affirmative action series, Elise and Hannah sit down with Professor Lisa Stulberg, who teaches the sociology of education at New York University. Their wide-ranging conversation included discussion of the charter school debate, school choice and desegregation in K-12, and America's misconception that merit is neutral. They also found time to talk about how our society inflates the impact of race-conscious policies, and Professor Stulberg's perspective on why diversity is so crucial in higher education. Professor Stulberg is an expert in the field, and this episode is really worth a listen.
Mentioned...
2022-11-2138 minHigh School SCOTUSReframing Affirmative Action with Richard FordIn the third episode of the affirmative action series, Elise talks with Professor Richard Ford about reframing affirmative action and considering how social and cultural perceptions of race-conscious policies have overstated their ramifications. They also discuss Professor Ford's time as a high school journalist, his experience as a housing policy consultant, and his predictions for what will come after the Supreme Court's rulings in this year's affirmative action cases.
Mentioned in this episode:
Regents of the University of California v. Bakke (1978)
Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1 (2007)
...
2022-11-1542 minHigh School SCOTUSTesting the Diversity Rationale with Jonathan MasurIn the second episode of their series on affirmative action, Elise and Hannah sit down with Professor Jonathan Masur of the University of Chicago Law School to discuss his study "Assessing Affirmative Action's Diversity Rationale," written with Professors Justin Driver, Kyle Rozema, and Adam Chilton. The study analyzed how citations to law review journals changed in the years after implementing a diversity policy as a microcosm to empirically measure the impact of diversity in higher education. Listen to the episode to hear more about their findings and the study's relevance to the cultural and social debate around affirmative action.
2022-10-3146 minHigh School SCOTUSAffirmative Action Ep. 1: An IntroductionThis term, the Supreme Court will decide two cases concerning the future of affirmative action: Students for Fair Admission v. University of North Carolina and Students for Fair Admission v. President and Fellows of Harvard College.
Over the next few months, Elise and Hannah will be speaking with legal scholars and education experts from across the country about affirmative action. Affirmative action and its interaction with the Supreme Court is a messy, tangled, and complicated topic with unique relevance to students and the education system. That also makes it the ideal subject for this podcast.
Fu...
2022-10-1725 minHigh School SCOTUSTerm in Review: Education and the Court with Caitlin MillatIn the tenth episode of the High School SCOTUS Podcast, Elise and Hannah are joined by Caitlin Millat to break down the cumulative impact of the Court's recent opinions on students, schools, and education. Caitlin is a Climenko Fellow and Lecturer in Law at Harvard Law School and is an expert on public education law and policy. In fact, she was once a teacher and academic dean at an elementary school in Brooklyn. Not only did we discuss the practical implications of this term's rulings with Caitlin, but she also gave input where the Court's jurisprudence could go next...
2022-08-0846 minHigh School SCOTUSThe Second Amendment and NYSRPA v. Bruen with Joseph BlocherIn the ninth episode of the podcast, Elise and Hannah talk about the Court's recent decision in New York State Rifle and Pistol Association (NYSRPA) v. Bruen, a ruling that struck down New York's requirement that those who want to carry a gun in public must prove a "special need" to do so. To dig deep into the legal and practical significance of the case, Elise and Hannah are joined by Professor Joseph Blocher of Duke University School of Law. Professor Blocher specializes in research on the First and Second Amendments and co-directs the Center for Firearms Law at...
2022-07-3147 minHigh School SCOTUSTerm in Review: Religion at the Court with Sarah Barringer GordonIn this episode, Elise and Hannah are joined by Professor Sarah Barringer Gordon of the University of Pennsylvania Law School to break down the Supreme Court's recent opinions in two major cases about the intersection of religion and schools: Carson v. Makin, where the Court ruled that Maine could not restrict its tuition assistance vouchers to secular schools, and Kennedy v. Bremerton, in which the justices allowed a football coach to pray publicly on the 50-yard line of the football field. Hannah and Elise begin with a brief primer on the cases, before handing the mic to Professor Gordon...
2022-07-1250 min
High School SCOTUSAdvocating for Your Rights with Mary Beth TinkerOn a special episode of the High School SCOTUS Podcast, Mary Beth Tinker joins Elise and Hannah to discuss wearing a black armband to school in protest of the Vietnam War, helping to establish a right to free speech in school with the landmark Tinker v. Des Moines, and the value of teaching students that their views, values, and voices matter. Mary Beth Tinker was a joy to interview, and we hope you enjoy the episode as much as we enjoyed the conversation.
Mentioned in this episode:
Tinker v. Des Moines
Mahanoy v. BL
Hazelwood School...
2022-07-0451 minHigh School SCOTUSReligious Liberty at School with Heather WeaverIn Episode 6 of the High School SCOTUS Podcast, Elise is joined by Heather Weaver, a senior staff attorney at the ACLU Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief, to dive further into how religious liberty evolves behind the schoolhouse gate, and how schools can prevent the establishment of religion without infringing on religious freedoms. Elise prefaces the discussion with a lesson on Wisconsin v. Yoder and Board of Education Westside Community Schools v. Mergens, two cases concerning whether religious activities at schools violated the Establishment Clause.
Mentioned in this episode:
Wisconsin v. Yoder
B...
2022-06-0550 minHigh School SCOTUSPrayer at School with Ira C. LupuElise and Hannah are joined by Professor Ira C. Lupu of George Washington School of Law for the fifth episode of the High School SCOTUS Podcast. With the help of Professor Lupu, we tackle the religious clauses of the First Amendment — the right to free exercise and the establishment clause — and explore how those interests clash in the schoolhouse. Specifically, we use the case study of prayer at school to understand how courts ensure the private right to pray while keeping separate religion and the government-run entity of a public school.
Cases mentioned:
Engel v. Vitale
2022-04-091h 05High School SCOTUSCensoring school libraries with April Dawkins and Emerson SykesIn Episode 4 of the High School SCOTUS Podcast, Hannah and Elise speak with two guests, April Dawkins of the University of North Carolina, Greensboro and Emerson Sykes of the ACLU’s Speech and Privacy project, about freedom to access information in schools. We focus heavily on censorship and removing books from school libraries, beginning with a preview of Island Trees School District v. Pico before taking a deep dive into the current legal and political debate over books in our school libraries. Listen up! This is an important one.
Mentioned in this episode:
Island School Di...
2022-03-141h 09High School SCOTUSThe Right Not To SpeakIn the third episode of the High School SCOTUS podcast, Elise and Hannah discuss when students have the right to opt out of school-led speech. They review two World War II-era cases: Minersville School District v. Gobitis and West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette. Both Gobitis and Barnette, heard only three years apart, considered whether schools could require that students participate in the Pledge of Allegiance. Gobitis said yes; Barnette said no. Listen to find out more!
Mentioned in this episode:
Strict Scrutiny: the highest standard of review, requiring states to prove that...
2022-02-2217 minHigh School SCOTUSStudent Speech Rights with Catherine J. RossIn the second episode of the High School SCOTUS podcast, Elise and Hannah tackle student speech. What can students voluntarily say, and when do schools have the authority to restrict or discipline speech? What court cases helped to establish the boundaries of these rights?
Our guest was Professor Catherine J. Ross of George Washington University Law School, the author of Lessons in Censorship: How Schools and Courts Subvert Students’ First Amendment Rights. Professor Ross gave us insight into the limitations of Tinker, the policing of off-campus speech, and why schools are the “nurseries of democracy.”
Mentio...
2022-02-0451 minHigh School SCOTUSCivic Education and the Constitution with Jeffrey RosenIn the very first episode of the High School SCOTUS podcast, Elise Spenner and Hannah Saraf sit down with Jeffrey Rosen for a primer on the value of civic education, the importance of teaching students about the Supreme Court, and the path to engaging teenagers in discussions about their rights.
Mentioned in this episode:
Live Interactive Classes on the Constitution
Interpretation of the Suspension Clause: Justice Amy Coney Barrett and Neal Katyal
We the People podcast
"Will the Supreme Court Strike Down Biden's Vaccine Mandates?"
Interactive Constitution
Further reading:
Anna Salvatore's Interview with Jeffrey R...
2022-01-2148 min
SCOTUStalkFrom 9th grade study hall to the Supreme CourtAnna Salvatore started High School SCOTUS as a way to explain the Supreme Court’s work to high schoolers. After early success, the site has blossomed into a nationwide publication pulling in high school journalists from across the country – students like freshman Elise Spenner. Salvatore and Spenner join SCOTUStalk to discuss their work, what’s next for High School SCOTUS, and their thoughts on this term’s student speech case, Mahanoy Area School District v. B.L. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2021-06-2221 min