Supreme Court

PODCAST: The Supreme Court and the “Independent State Legislature Theory”: A Discussion with Nicholas Maggio

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Summary: In Moore v. Harper, decided last year, the Supreme Court addressed the “independent state legislature theory.”  In a case arising out of an election in North Carolina, proponents of the theory contended that North Carolina’s Supreme Court did not have the authority to review a legal claim that the state legislature had adopted an illegally gerrymandered congressional map.  The Supreme Court rejected the theory by a 6-3 vote in Moore.  In this Touro Law Review podcast, Nicholas Maggio, an attorney who has written about the independent state legislature theory, discusses the case – in particular, its relevance during an election year and its significance for understanding the current Supreme Court – with Associate Dean Rodger Citron. 

Brought to you by the Touro Law Review.   

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PODCAST: A Discussion with Robert Tsai on “Demand the Impossible: One Lawyer’s Pursuit of Equal Justice for All.”

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Stephen Bright’s relentless pursuit of equal justice is at the center of Professor Robert Tsai’s most recent book.  For nearly forty years, Bright led the Southern Center for Human Rights, a nonprofit that provided legal aid to incarcerated people and worked to improve conditions within the justice system.  Among other things, Bright argued four death penalty cases at the Supreme Court and won each of them. 

As Tsai discusses with Associate Dean Rodger Citron, the story of these four cases illustrates inequalities in the legal system and legal strategies for combatting them.  The discussion illuminates how race, economics, and politics influence the operation of the criminal justice system when the stakes are at their highest – that is, when the defendant’s life literally depends upon the outcome.    

Brought to you by the Touro Law Review.   

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Learn more about Robert Tsai

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PODCAST: The Supreme Court’s “Shadow Docket”

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During this podcast, Associate Dean Rodger Citron and Associate Dean Tiffany Graham discuss the Supreme Court’s “shadow docket.”

The Supreme Court’s shadow docket refers to emergency decisions and other orders decided by the Court outside of its merits docket, which refers to cases decided after full briefing and oral argument. In the past few months, the Court has issued orders in a number of important cases on the shadow docket, generating substantial interest in this topic. The phrase “shadow docket” was coined in a 2015 Law Review article by Professor William Baude. (see Foreword: The Supreme Court’s Shadow Docket).

Associate Deans Citron and Graham discuss the increase in significant cases decided on the shadow docket, including the challenge to a recent Texas law restricting access to abortion, and consider the reasons for and criticism of this development.

Brought to you by the Touro Law Review. 

Our guest, Tiffany Graham, is the Associate Dean for Diversity & Inclusion and an Associate Professor of Law at Touro College, Jacob D. Fuchsberg School of Law, where she teaches Constitutional Law.

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