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Radiolab Presents: More Perfect

How does an elite group of nine people shape everything from marriage and money, to safety and sex for an entire nation? Radiolab's first ever spin-off series, More Perfect, dives into the rarefied world of the Supreme Court to explain how cases deliberated inside hallowed halls affect lives far away from the bench.

Episodes

Podcast: Radiolab Presents: More Perfect: American Pendulum I

What happens when the Supreme Court, the highest court in the land, seems to get it wrong? In this episode, we follow Fred Korematsu's path to the Supreme Court, and we ask the question: if you can't get justice in the Supreme Court, can you find it someplace else?
posted by latkes on Oct 5, 2017 at 10:35 AM - 3 comments

Podcast: Radiolab Presents: More Perfect: The Imperfect Plaintiffs

On this episode, we visit Edward Blum, a 64-year-old “legal entrepreneur” and former stockbroker who has become something of a Supreme Court matchmaker — He takes an issue, finds the perfect plaintiff, matches them with lawyers, and works his way to the highest court in the land. He’s had remarkable success, with 6 cases heard before the Supreme Court, including that of Abigail Fisher. We also head to Houston, Texas, where in 1998, an unusual 911 call led to one of the most important LGBT rights decisions in the Supreme Court’s history. (The overriding theme of this episode is the creation of test cases.) [more inside]
posted by Going To Maine on Jul 2, 2016 at 11:08 AM - 0 comments

Podcast: Radiolab Presents: More Perfect: The Political Thicket

When Chief Justice Earl Warren was asked at the end of his career, “What was the most important case of your tenure?”, there were a lot of answers he could have given. After all, he had presided over some of the most important decisions in the court’s history — cases that dealt with segregation in schools, the right to an attorney, the right to remain silent, just to name a few. But his answer was a surprise: Baker v. Carr, a 1962 redistricting case. [more inside]
posted by Going To Maine on Jun 15, 2016 at 10:51 PM - 3 comments

Podcast: Radiolab Presents: More Perfect: Cruel and Unusual

On the inaugural episode of More Perfect, we explore three little words embedded in the 8th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution: “cruel and unusual.” America has long wrestled with this concept in the context of our strongest punishment, the death penalty. A majority of “we the people” (61 percent, to be exact) are in favor of having it, but inside the Supreme Court, opinions have evolved over time in surprising ways. [more inside]
posted by Going To Maine on Jun 15, 2016 at 10:02 PM - 1 comment