How is it that judges arbitrarily chosen by presidents who didn't even win the popular vote are appointed for life and can overturn our most cherished rights? What’s with the veneration of the US constitution, which was written by slave owners? Is America really a democracy?To discuss this and more, Rania Khalek was joined by Aziz Rana, a professor of law at Cornell University and author of the book “The Two Faces of American Freedom.”Follow Aziz’s work here: https://www.azizrana.com/ You can listen to all episodes of Rania Khalek Dispatches anywhere you get podcasts.Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3za9DRK Apple: https://apple.co/3zeYpeW TIME CODES0:00 Intro1:50 Judges for life 5:29 Why are Democrats so weak on this? 11:13 How can liberal and conservative justices be so chummy?14:27 Supreme Court’s drift to the extreme right 18:49 Cult of personality around supreme court justices22:12 Court’s achievements or people’s achievements? 27:01 Reducing the power of the Supreme Court31:06 The myth of steady progress35:42 Can we achieve through legislation what we fail to achieve to litigation?40:43 The constitution as counter-revolutionary46:23 History of constitution worship tied to imperialism50:24 Liberalism vs the constitution: Contradictions 53:33 Have elections and democracy lost their meaning?56:27 Is the US a democracy?  59:08 Foreign policy1:02:57 Internal violence and mass shootings1:07:00 Mass incarceration 1:12:12 America does NOT have universal suffrage 1:16:21 Radical constitutional transformation 1:21:48  Federal judiciary system, is it flawed?