80 min listen
How Conservatives Won The Courts
ratings:
Length:
31 minutes
Released:
Nov 2, 2023
Format:
Podcast episode
Description
On this week’s episode of Lever Time, David Sirota is joined by lawyer Caroline Fredrickson, who recently penned an op-ed for The Atlantic titled, “What I Most Regret About My Decades of Legal Activism.” As the former head of the American Constitution Society — the liberal counterweight to the conservative legal network The Federalist Society — Caroline speaks with David about the strengths and weaknesses of liberal legal activism over the last two decades.Caroline’s piece explores the past errors of the liberal legal movement, specifically how focusing on social issues like abortion rights ultimately stacked federal courts with judges who are lax on antitrust enforcement and corporate power. The result gave the conservative legal movement more money and power to pursue their own goals on social issues, such as the Supreme Court’s 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson decision, which overturned Roe v. Wade and eliminated federal abortion rights.In today’s interview, David and Caroline discuss how this dynamic created a negative feedback loop that bolstered the conservative legal movement, how think tanks like the Federalist Society have indoctrinated a generation of law students, and how the Democratic Party’s focus on identity politics have obscured the federal judiciary’s expansion of corporate power.A transcript of this episode is available here.Links:
What I Most Regret About My Decades of Legal Activism (The Atlantic, 2023)BONUS: This past Monday's bonus episode of Lever Time Premium featured an interview with music writer Robin James and musician Greg Saunier about the the state of the music industry after the online music platform Bandcamp, which was recently sold to the licensing company Songtradr, laid off fifty percent of Bandcamp’s employees amid union contract negotiations.If you'd like access to Lever Time Premium, which includes extended interviews and bonus content, head over to LeverNews.com to become a supporting subscriber.If you’d like to leave a tip for The Lever, click the following link. It helps us do this kind of independent journalism. levernews.com/tipjar
What I Most Regret About My Decades of Legal Activism (The Atlantic, 2023)BONUS: This past Monday's bonus episode of Lever Time Premium featured an interview with music writer Robin James and musician Greg Saunier about the the state of the music industry after the online music platform Bandcamp, which was recently sold to the licensing company Songtradr, laid off fifty percent of Bandcamp’s employees amid union contract negotiations.If you'd like access to Lever Time Premium, which includes extended interviews and bonus content, head over to LeverNews.com to become a supporting subscriber.If you’d like to leave a tip for The Lever, click the following link. It helps us do this kind of independent journalism. levernews.com/tipjar
Released:
Nov 2, 2023
Format:
Podcast episode
Titles in the series (100)
There's No Duty To Protect (also, Judd Apatow on George Carlin): On the inaugural episode of Lever Time, David speaks with civil rights lawyer and founder of Civil Rights Corps, Alec Karakatsanis, about how police in the US are not legally obligated to protect its citizens. Then, The Lever's Julia Rock discusses her re by Lever Time with David Sirota