Tag Archives: Courts

Money can distort politics. And the lack of transparency where this money comes from can further distort politics and invite corruption. Since much of the money in campaign finance is not subject to transparency laws, it has taken the name dark money. This specifically references spending by nonprofit organizations created for political spending. How much has dark money skewed American democracy? What role does transparency in spending play in ensuring the legitimacy of democracies? [ dur: 58mins. ]

Stan Oklobdzija is Visiting Assistant Professor at UC Riverside’s School of Public Policy. He is the author of Public positions, private giving: Dark money and political donors in the Digital Age and Closing Down and Cashing In: Extremism and Political Fundraising.
Ciara Torres-Spelliscy is Professor of Law at Stetson Law School. She is the author of Corporate Citizen? An Argument for the Separation of Corporation and State and Political Brands.
Maurice Cunningham is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Massachusetts at Boston. He is the author of Dark Money and the Politics of School Privatization.

This interview was recorded October 2022.

This program is produced by Ankine Aghassian, Doug Becker, Mihika Chechi, Melissa Chiprin, and Sudd Dongre.

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Scholars’ Circle – Abortion/reproductive rights & access post presidential election – November 17, 2024

November 17, 2024 host

In the 2024 election, voters reaffirmed the right to abortion in many states while the nation still elected an anti-abortion president, and anti-abortion majority in both the senate and the house of representatives. What does this mean for abortion rights in the US.

Aziza Ahmed is Professor of Law at Boston University School of Law. She is the author of The Future of Facts: The Politics of Public Health and Medicine in Abortion Law, Informed Decision Making and Abortion: Crisis Pregnancy Centers, Informed Consent, and the First Amendment, and Medical Evidence and Expertise in Abortion Jurisprudence .
Carole Joffe is Professor in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology & Reproductive Sciences at the University of California, San Francisco. She is the author of Doctors of Conscience: The Struggle to Provide Abortion before and after Roe v. Wade, Dispatches from the Abortion Wars: The Costs of Fanaticism to Doctors, Patients and the Rest of Us and co-author of Obstacle Course: The Everyday Struggle to Get an Abortion in America.
Robin Marty is Executive Director for the West Alabama Women’s Center and a freelance reporter. She’s the author of Handbook for a Post-Roe America and co-author of The End of Roe v. Wade: Inside the Right’s Plan to Destroy Legal Abortion.
Rachel Rebouché is the Interim Dean of Temple University Beasley School of Law and the James E. Beasley Professor of Law. She is the author of Abortion Rights as Human Rights, co-author of “Eugenic Abortions” and the Problematic Popularity of the Reason-Based Ban and The New Abortion Battleground.

This program is produced by Ankine Aghassian, Doug Becker and Sudd Dongre.

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Scholars’ Circle – Reforming Supreme Court of United States ; How proxy wars are dominating international relations – August 18, 2024

August 18, 2024 host

With the upcoming election Democrats have proposal to reform Supreme Court with term limits, ethics oversight and many more. Our panel look at how and why people are concerned over the influence peddling related to recent decisions. Hosted by Maria Armoudian. [ dur: 35mins. ]

Erwin Chemerinsky is the Dean and Jesse H. Choper Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law. His many publications include, most recently, Presumed Guilty: How the Supreme Court Empowered the Police and Subverted Civil Rights, and The Religion Clauses: The Case for Separating Church and State (with Howard Gillman).
Andrew Koppelman is John Paul Stevens Professor of Law and Professor of Political Science at Northwestern University. He is the author of The Increasingly Dangerous Variants of the “Most-Favored-Nation” Theory of Religious Liberty and The Supreme Court and the new religious aristocracy in the Hill.

Why do states choose to use third parties to intervene in other nation’s civil wars and political conflicts? On today’s show we interview Andrew Mumford on the legality, efficacy, and implications of the waging of proxy warfare. Hosted by Doug Becker. [ dur: 21 mins. ].

This interview was recorded in February 2020.

Andrew Mumford is Associate Professor in Politics and International Relations at The University of Nottingham, UK. He is the author about Proxy Warfare Counterinsurgency Wars and the Anglo-American Alliance.

This program is produced by Ankine Aghassian, Doug Becker and Sudd Dongre.

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Scholars’ Circle – When democracies prosecute corruptions of its former political leaders – July 7, 2024

July 7, 2024 host

The criminal indictments of former President Trump have created a political crisis in their unprecedented nature. Historically, U.S. presidents have not faced criminal charges, even in cases where there is a high likelihood of guilt, in large part due to respect for the office. Gerald Ford’s pardon of Richard Nixon embodies this norm.

What can the U.S. learn from other countries that have prosecuted former presidents? And what can we learn from American history about the prosecutions of political figures? Is the prosecution of former heads of state simply the weaponization of justice mechanisms? And how common is this political charge? [ dur: 58mins. ]

Jeremi Suri is Professor in the Department of History and the LBJ School of Public Affairs and the Mack Brown Distinguished Chair for Leadership in Global Affairs at The University of Texas at Austin. He is the author of The Impossible Presidency: The Rise and Fall of America’s Highest Office and his latest book Civil War by Other Means: America’s Long and Unfinished Fight For Democracy. He hosts the podcast This is Democracy.
Tom Ginsburg is Leo Spitz Professor of International Law and Ludwig and Hilde Wolf Research Scholar at the University of Chicago Law School. He is the author of the books The Endurance of National Constitutions, Constitutions in Authoritarian Regimes,and co-author of the paper The Comparative Constitutional Law of Presidential Impeachment.
Ezequiel González Ocantos is Associate Professor in the Department of Politics and International Relations, and a Professorial Fellow of Nuffield College, at the University of Oxford. He is the author of Shifting Legal Visions: Judicial Change and Human Rights Trials in Latin America, The Politics of Transitional Justice in Latin America: Power, Norms and Capability Building, and co-author of Prosecutors, Voters, and the Criminalisation of Corruption in Latin America(w/ Paula Muñoz, Nara Pavao & Viviana Baraybar).

This interview was recorded August, 2023.

This program is produced by Doug Becker, Ankine Aghassian, Maria Armoudian and Sudd Dongre.

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Scholars’ Circle – SCOTUS overturns Colorado State Supreme Court decision to bar insurrectionists from its state ballot – March 10, 2024

March 10, 2024 host

The US Supreme Court overturned Colorado’s State Supreme Court decision to remove Donald Trump from its ballot based on the 14th Amendment’s prohibition on insurrectionists holding office. What might this signal about the court and its role in the 2024 election and in electoral politics more generally?

Polls suggest that voters want to know if Donald Trump is a criminal before voting in November. But the Supreme Court’s decisions make it less likely that this occurs before the election. What does this mean for the future of the US and for democracy and the constitution? [ dur: 58mins. ]

John R. Vile is Dean and Professor of Political Science at Middle Tennessee State University. He is the author of, The Writing and Ratification of the U.S. Constitution: Practical Virtue in Action, Encyclopedia of Constitutional Amendments, Proposed Amendments, and Amending Issues, 1789-2015, and ReFramers: 170 Eccentric, Visionary, and Patriotic Proposals to Rewrite the U.S. Constitution.
Sanford Levinson is W. St. John Garwood and W. St. John Garwood, Jr. Centennial Chair in Law at the University of Texas Law School. He is the author of many publications including Our Undemocratic Constitution: Where the Constitution Goes Wrong (and How We the People Can Correct It) and Framed: America’s 51 Constitutions and the Crisis of Governance and, with Cynthia Levinson, Fault Lines in the Constitution: The Framers, Their Fights, and the Flaws that Affect Us Today.
Andrew Koppelman is John Paul Stevens Professor of Law and Professor of Political Science at Northwestern University. He is the author of The Increasingly Dangerous Variants of the “Most-Favored-Nation” Theory of Religious Liberty and The Supreme Court and the new religious aristocracy in the Hill.

This program is produced by Doug Becker, Ankine Aghassian, Maria Armoudian and Sudd Dongre.

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Scholars’ Circle – 14th Amendment of the US constitution, it’s history and enforcement today – February 18, 2024

February 18, 2024 host

Colorado disqualified former president Donald Trump from running on its ballot for President, arguing he violated the 14th Amendment’s prohibition on insurrectionists from holding public office. What do history and law say about this amendment and its purpose? What would so-called originalism mean as applied to the case? [ dur: 58mins. ]

John R. Vile is Dean and Professor of Political Science at Middle Tennessee State University. He is the author of, The Writing and Ratification of the U.S. Constitution: Practical Virtue in Action, Encyclopedia of Constitutional Amendments, Proposed Amendments, and Amending Issues, 1789-2015, and ReFramers: 170 Eccentric, Visionary, and Patriotic Proposals to Rewrite the U.S. Constitution.
Frank Bowman III is Floyd R. Gibson Missouri Endowed Professor of Law at the University of Missouri School of Law. He is an expert on the impeachment of the president and other federal officers. Bowman is the author of High Crimes and Misdemeanors: A History of Impeachment for the Age of Trump. His writes the blog “Impeachable Offenses”.
Jeremi Suri is Professor in the Department of History and the LBJ School of Public Affairs and the Mack Brown Distinguished Chair for Leadership in Global Affairs at The University of Texas at Austin. He is the author of The Impossible Presidency: The Rise and Fall of America’s Highest Office and his latest book Civil War by Other Means: America’s Long and Unfinished Fight For Democracy. He hosts the podcast This is Democracy.

This program is produced by Doug Becker, Ankine Aghassian, Maria Armoudian and Sudd Dongre.

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Scholars’ Circle – US Supreme Court upholds Native American tribal sovereignty in adoption cases – June 25, 2023

June 26, 2023 host

What does the recent Supreme Court case, Haaland vs. Brackeen, upholding the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) mean for Indian adoption law? Is adoption of Indian children based on child welfare or Tribal interests? We explore why this is a false distinction. And why ICWA is essential for preserving the tribes and their identity, and perhaps most importantly, their sovereignty. [ dur: 58mins. ]

N. Bruce Duthu is the Samson Occom Professor (and former Chair) of Native American Studies at Dartmouth College. He is the author of Shadow Nations: Tribal Sovereignty and the Limits of Legal Pluralism , American Indians and the Law and was a contributing author of Felix S. Cohen’s Cohen’s Handbook of Federal Indian Law, the leading treatise in the field of federal Indian law. He has co-produced a documentary Dawnland. The film is about the impact of the removal of children from Wabanaki families for placement in foster homes with white families. Professor Duthu is an enrolled tribal member of the United Houma Nation of Louisiana.
Gregory Ablavsky is Marion Rice Kirkwood Professor of Law at Stanford Law School. He is the author of The Savage Constitution, The Indian Child Welfare Act And the Presentment Clause: A Very Pink Herring and Federal Ground: Governing Property and Violence in the First U.S. Territories. He also filed an amicus brief in the case of Haaland v Brackeen.
Robert J. Miller is Professor of Law at Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law. He is Interim Chief Justice at Pascua Yaqui Tribe Court of Appeals. He is the author of Reservation “Capitalism”: Economic Development in Indian Country , Native America, Discovered and Conquered: Thomas Jefferson, Lewis and Clark, and Manifest Destiny and A Promise Kept: The Muscogee (Creek) Nation and McGirt v. Oklahoma. He is an enrolled citizen of the Eastern Shawnee Tribe.

This program is produced by Ankine Aghassian, Doug Becker, Melissa Chiprin, Mihika Chechi, and Sudd Dongre.

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Scholars’ Circle – Capital Punishment in US is explored as it faces ethical, political and legal concerns – May 21, 2023

May 22, 2023 host

The death penalty in the United States has faced increased opposition based on ethical, political, and legal concerns. Several states have outlawed it, but the federal government has returned to its use with a feverish wave of state executions last year. We discuss the implications of the use of the death penalty in the US and examine additional forms of extreme sentencing, such as life without parole. [ dur: 58mins. ]

Frank R. Baumgartner is the Richard J. Richardson Distinguished Professor of Political Science at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. He is the co-author of The Decline of the Death Penalty and the Discovery of Innocence and Deadly Justice: A Statistical Portrait of the Death Penalty.
Lee Kovarsky is Bryant Smith Chair in Law and Co-Director of the Capital Punishment Center at The University of Texas in Austin School of Law. He is the author of The Trump Executions and the co-author of The Death Penalty: Concept and Insight.
Jenny-Brooke Condon is a Professor of Law in the Center for Social Justice at Seton Hall Law School. She directs the Equal Justice Clinic. She is the author of When Cruelty is the Point: Constitutional Restraints and Remedies for Family Separation and Denialism and the Death Penalty.

This program is produced by Ankine Aghassian, Doug Becker, Melissa Chiprin, Mihika Chechi, and Sudd Dongre.

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Scholars’ Circle – Biography of Judge Frank M. Coffin ; History of 3rd party politics in US – October 30, 2022

October 29, 2022 host

Some say that we have entered a new era in Supreme Court jurisprudence in the wake of the Court’s recent Dobbs decision, reversing nearly 50 years of law recognizing a woman’s right to choose, and that this has ushered in a far more confrontational and political court. But are both political and legal considerations baked into America’s judiciary by design? We speak with the author of a new biography of former First Circuit Court of Appeals Chief Judge, Frank M. Coffin, a former member of congress, former USAID official and jurist renowned for his deep understanding of the politics of judging but was able to do so in a manner that privileged comity, cooperation and respect, even in times of profound political disagreement. Hosted by Tim Fadgen. [ dur: 23mins. ]

Richard J. Maiman is Professor Emeritus of Political Science at University of Southern Maine. He is the author of A Man for All Branches: Judge Frank M. Coffin of Maine.

On this election week, we bring you from our archives this panel discussion on third parties in the United States.

Throughout US history third parties have had a profound impact on policy, governance and voter turnout. So why are we still in a two-party system? [ dur: 35min. ]

This interview was first broadcast in July 2017.

Omar H. Ali is a professor of African Diaspora History and Politics at University of North Carolina at Greensboro. He is the author of In the Balance of Power: Independent Black Politics and Third-Party Movements in the United States.
David Gillespie is a professor of Political Science at College of Charlston & the Citedal. He is the author of Challengers to Duopoly: Why Third Parties Matter in American Two-Party Politics
Scot Schraufnagel is a professor of Political Science & Director of Graduate Studies at Northern Illinois University. He is the author of Third Party Blues: The Truth and Consequences of Two-Party Dominance

This program is produced by Ankine Aghassian, Doug Becker, Mihika Chechi, Melissa Chiprin, and Sudd Dongre.

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Scholars’ Circle – Insight into Ethnic Conflict in Autocratic Uzbekistan and Tajikistan ; Creative Lawyers for Human Rights – September 11, 2022

September 12, 2022 host

Protests across Central Asia have rocked the nations of the former Soviet republics of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

The states’ violent suppression of these movements have killed hundreds and undermined human rights protections. We explore the roots of these conflicts and what these violent crackdown mean for human rights, democracy, transparency and peace in the region. [ dur: 31mins. ]

Steve Swerdlow, esq. is Associate Professor of the Practice of Human Rights in the Department of Political and International Relations at the University of Southern California. A human rights lawyer and expert on the former Soviet region, Swerdlow was Senior Central Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch, heading the organization’s work on Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, and founding its Kyrgyzstan field office. He is the author of Uzbekistan’s Religious and Political Prisoners and Uzbekistan’s Ethnic Minorities: Out of Sight, But Not Out of Mind.
Suzanne Levi-Sanchez is Visiting Scholar at Harvard University’s Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies. She is the author of The Afghan-Central Asia Borderlands: The State and Local Leaders, Bridging State and Civil Society: Informal Organizations in Tajik/Afghan Badakhshan, and The assassination that shook the Pamir Mountains to the core.

We interview Maria Armoudian who has authored a book on international human rights and the role that lawyers have played at advancing cases against human rights abusers. [ dur: 27mins. ]

Maria Armoudian is a lecturer at the University of Auckland in New Zealand. She is the author of the books Reporting from the Danger Zone: Frontline Journalists, Their Jobs and an Increasingly Perilous Future, Kill the Messenger: The Media’s Role in the Fate of the World, and her most recent Lawyers Beyond Borders : Advancing International Human Rights Through Local Laws and Courts . Maria is a host and anchor of the Scholars’ Circle.

This program is produced by Ankine Aghassian, Doug Becker, Mihika Chechi, Melissa Chiprin, and Sudd Dongre.

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The Scholars' Circle Interviews

Tag Archives: Courts

Scholars’ Circle – Why voters should strike down Dark Money in politics – December 22, 2024

Scholars’ Circle – Abortion/reproductive rights & access post presidential election – November 17, 2024

Scholars’ Circle – Reforming Supreme Court of United States ; How proxy wars are dominating international relations – August 18, 2024

Scholars’ Circle – When democracies prosecute corruptions of its former political leaders – July 7, 2024

Scholars’ Circle – SCOTUS overturns Colorado State Supreme Court decision to bar insurrectionists from its state ballot – March 10, 2024

Scholars’ Circle – 14th Amendment of the US constitution, it’s history and enforcement today – February 18, 2024

Scholars’ Circle – US Supreme Court upholds Native American tribal sovereignty in adoption cases – June 25, 2023

Scholars’ Circle – Capital Punishment in US is explored as it faces ethical, political and legal concerns – May 21, 2023

Scholars’ Circle – Biography of Judge Frank M. Coffin ; History of 3rd party politics in US – October 30, 2022

Scholars’ Circle – Insight into Ethnic Conflict in Autocratic Uzbekistan and Tajikistan ; Creative Lawyers for Human Rights – September 11, 2022

By Maria Armoudian