On this week’s episode of the Touro Law Review Podcast, we are joined by New York University Law School Professor Barry Friedman, an expert on the Supreme Court and public opinion, discusses the current Supreme Court.  According to the Pew Research Center, “Americans’ ratings of the Supreme Court are now as negative as – and more politically polarized than – at any point in more than three decades of polling on the nation’s highest court.”  (See Views of Supreme Court Far Less Positive After Abortion Ruling Reversing Roe v. Wade | Pew Research Center.)       

Professor Friedman puts this research in historical context, noting that the public’s view of the Court has waxed and waned over time.  During the New Deal, for example, the public’s view of the Court declined during its clash with President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the mid-1930s.  Professor Friedman explains why he believes the situation with the Court today may be different from dips in public opinion in prior eras.  He suggests that this may be due, in part, to the erosion of political checks on the Court that previously were stronger.  Along the way, Professor Friedman and Associate Dean Rodger Citron discuss a number of the current justices and some of the most important cases of the Court’s 2021-22 term.

      

Brought to you by the Touro Law Review.   

Our guest today is Professor Barry Friedman.

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On this week’s episode of the Touro Law Review Podcast, Associate Dean Rodger Citron talks with Robin Peguero about his first novel, With Prejudice, and his views about the criminal justice system.  After graduating from Harvard Law School, Peguero worked as a prosecutor in Miami, an experience he drew on while writing the novel.       

The conversation begins with Peguero talking about his life-long interest in writing stories.  It then turns to a discussion of the jury – its critical role in a trial, its composition (which is intensely contested by the lawyers trying the case before them), and its operation.  What do we mean when we talk about “a jury of our peers?”  To what extent does deliberation give us confidence in the jury’s verdict?  Peguero addresses these questions and others during the conversation, exploring them from his perspective as a lawyer and a writer.      

Brought to you by the Touro Law Review.   

Our guest today is Robin Peguero.

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