On today's lesson: We take a broader look at the First Amendment, and then zero in on one of the freedoms it covers: the freedom of speech. We'll cover the text of the First Amendment in the U.S. Constitution, and why the framers chose to include so many important freedoms in one sentence. Also, what constitutes 'speech', and how landmark court cases have outlined the importance of context when determining the meaning of our first amendment rights. Our guest is Lata Nott, Executive Director of the Newseum Institute's First Amendment Center.
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This podcast is a production of New Hampshire Public Radio.
On today's lesson: What does it take to become a judge? What does the job entail? Also, what are the schools of thought we hear about so much about in relation to Supreme Court justices: textualism, originalism, and the phrase, "the living constitution"? Our guide is Behzad Mirhashem, from the University of New Hampshire School of Law.
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This podcast is a production of New Hampshire Public Radio.
Natural disasters, civil unrest, widespread epidemics - these are just some of the unpredictable events that cantrigger a President or Governor to declare a special "state of emergency". But what exactly does that mean? Is it symbolic, or logistical? What emergency powers does this special designation authorize? Our guide this week is Kim Lane Scheppele, author of Law in a Time of Emergency.
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This podcast is a production of New Hampshire Public Radio.
For a serious crime, accusations of treason get thrown around a lot - which is why the framers were very specific about what does and doesn't make you an actual traitor. In fact, treason is the only crime explicitly defined in the U.S. Constitution. In this episode, University of California Davis law professor Carlton Larson explains the difference between treason and espionage, and why most of those guilty of treason will never be convicted.
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This podcast is a production of New Hampshire Public Radio.
When you cast your ballot in a national election, you’re participating in a specific kind of voting system. But what about the other methods of choosing your candidate and counting your vote? There are systems that approach voting in very different ways… and ways of determining how fair a voting system really is. Producer Hannah McCarthy and Eric Maskin, Harvard Professor of Economics and Nobel Memorial Prize winner, guide us through majorities, pluralities and the ways we make our choices.
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This podcast is a production of New Hampshire Public Radio.
From full trade embargoes to targeted sanctions and frozen assets, sanctions are an increasingly commonplace tool used in U.S. foreign policy. Today, a primer on the purpose and design of economic sanctions, from one of the people who helped develop Obama-era sanctions against Russia: Sean Kane, Counsel at Hughes Hubbard and Reed's International Trade Practice.
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This podcast is a production of New Hampshire Public Radio.
Forty-four people have become President of The United States - all men, and with one exception, all white. Despite that historic profile, and a clause in the constitution, the qualification about who can become President remain fuzzy. Here to explain the formal and informal rules that govern who is allowed to become Commander-in-Chief is Brady Carlson, author of Dead Presidents.
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This podcast is a production of New Hampshire Public Radio.
The right to a Federal grand jury comes from the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution, but what exactly are they, how are jurors chosen and how do they work? We asked Erin Corcoran to join us again to explain this judicial tool. Erin is a former Senate Committee staffer, law professor, and legal consultant.
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This podcast is a production of New Hampshire Public Radio.
What happens at a U.S. Embassy? What does it take to become a diplomat? And how do you celebrate the 4th of July in Africa? In this episode, we get a taste of how ambassadors represent U.S. interests in foreign countries. Our guest is Johnnie Carson, a former U.S. Ambassador to Uganda, Zimbabwe, and Kenya.
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This podcast is a production of New Hampshire Public Radio.
The Speaker of the House is second in the presidential line of succession, after the Vice President and ahead of the President pro tempore of the Senate. The person elected to the Speakership wields a fair amount of power not only in the House of Representatives, but also within their party, but what exactly does a Speaker do? And how does someone end up in that position? 53 men and one woman have held the Speaker’s gavel, and each individual has put their unique mark on Congressional history. We chatted with Matt Wasniewski, Historian of the United States House of Representatives to learn more.
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This podcast is a production of New Hampshire Public Radio.
You've heard of the CIA and NSA... how about the NGA? That's the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency by the way (formerly known as the National Imagery and Mapping Agency) which is just one of the more than a dozen intelligence agencies operating in the United States. So how do all these agencies coordinate? Who is in charge? Today, an intelligent lesson guided by Dr. Amy Zegart, author and co-director of the Center for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford University.
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This podcast is a production of New Hampshire Public Radio.
What is a U.S. territory? What is the status of its citizens with regard to the Constitution and U.S. law? Doug Mack, author of The Not-Quite States of America joins us for a lesson on territories.
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This podcast is a production of New Hampshire Public Radio.
“Obstruction of Justice” has been a term swirling around in the headlines lately, but what does the charge actually mean? And how do you prove it? We’re speaking with Brianne Gorod, Chief Counsel for the Constitutional Accountability Center to learn about the different ways one can be accused of obstructing justice – from witness tampering and retaliation to simple contempt and the many options in-between.
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This podcast is a production of New Hampshire Public Radio.
The separation of church and state is widely considered to be a building block of American democracy, but what did the founders really have in mind when they wrote "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof” into the first amendment? And what's the deal with "one nation under God," and the whole swearing on the bible thing? Backstory's Ed Ayers and Brian Balogh lead today's civics lesson.
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This podcast is a production of New Hampshire Public Radio.
When discussing the political power of special interest groups, you can't help but talk about lobbying. But what does a lobbyist actually do? We know they hand over checks (lots of them) but how do they spend the rest of their time? What separates legal lobbying from bribery? And how is the food at all those Washington D.C. fundraising breakfasts anyway? Jimmy Williams, former lobbyist and current host of Decode D.C. spills the beans.
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This podcast is a production of New Hampshire Public Radio.
The United States is described as a republic, a federation, and a constitutional democracy. So, what is it? Are those terms interchangeable? And, while we're at it, what's the difference between totalitarianism, despotism, and dictatorship? Political science professor Seth Masket digs into the 'isms, 'cracies, and 'archies for a brief primer on different forms of government.
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This podcast is a production of New Hampshire Public Radio.
Presidential job approval. It seems we get a weekly report from news organizations on how citizen’s think the President is doing, so we're digging into how it gets calculated and how much that number really matters with Dan Cassino, Associate Professor of Political Science at Fairleigh Dickinson University.
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This podcast is a production of New Hampshire Public Radio.
With more than 500 members of Congress, parties have to coordinate members and keep them on the same page. Enter: party whips. But what do they actually do? Several of you asked us to find out. We asked Larry Evans, the Newton Family Professor of Government at the College of William and Mary to help us out.
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This podcast is a production of New Hampshire Public Radio.
In this episode we untangle two terms that are closely related, but not the same: Separation of Powers and Checks and Balances. The framers envisioned a government structure that would consist of three separate branches, each with their own power, in order to avoid having one person or one branch from having full control of the country. University of Minnesota Law Professor Heidi Kitrosser joins us to explain how the Executive, Judicial, and Legislative branches are separated and once separated, how they ensure those powers are kept in check.
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This podcast is a production of New Hampshire Public Radio.
We've received a LOT of questions about how the budget process works and honestly, we had a lot of our own! It should come as no surprise that the budget process of the United States government is complex and difficult to explain in less than 15 minutes. We decided to cover some of the terminology that you hear when the budget is discussed to give us all a good foundation. Chances are you'll have more questions when you finish listening this week, but hopefully you'll have a better idea of what's supposed to happen.
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This podcast is a production of New Hampshire Public Radio.
