Month: May 2022

Alito’s Opinion Opens the Door to Overturning Laws Protecting Rights to Privacy

We begin with the growing realization that Supreme Court Justice Alito’s draft opinion to overturn Roe and Casey is not just about banning abortion but is also a way to open the door to overturn laws protecting rights to privacy such as the landmark Griswold vs Connecticut that legalized contraceptives and an earlier ruling legalizing interracial marriage along with the recent ruling legalizing gay marriage. Joining us is Lisa Graves, the Executive Director of the new corporate watchdog group True North Research. She has served as a senior advisor in all three branches of the federal government–as Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Justice Department, as Chief Counsel for Nominations on the Senate Judiciary Committee, and as a Deputy Chief of the article 3 judges division for the U.S. Courts.

The Legislative Path Forward to Protect Abortion Rights

Then we look into the legislative path forward to protect abortion rights since the House has already passed such a bill but the Senate is another matter and the role of Senators Manchin and Sinema as saboteurs of the Democratic agenda emerge again since the filibuster stands in the way of a senate vote protecting minority rule in spite of a clear majority of Americans opposing a ban on abortion with no exceptions for rape and incest. Joining us is Caroline Fredrickson, a professor of law at Georgetown University, a senior fellow at the Brennan Center and the president emerita of the American Constitution Society. She is the author of The Democracy Fix: How to Win the Fight for Fair Rules, Fair Courts, and Fair Elections, and The AOC Way: The Secrets of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Success and previously served as the director of the ACLU’s Washington legislative office and as general counsel and legal director of NARAL Pro-Choice America, and, during the Clinton administration, she served as special assistant to the president for legislative affairs.  

The DHS IG Reports On Trump’s 2020 Russia Coverup as Pro-Putin Republicans Try to Shut Down the DHS Disinformation Board

Then finally we investigate the disconnect between the DHS Inspector General’s report revealing how Trump’s Acting Head of DHS buried information on Russian interference in the 2020 election and today’s bill introduced by Senator Tom Cotton and Congresswoman Lauren Boebert to defund the DHS’s newly formed Disinformation Governance Board. Joining us is Laura Thornton, director and senior fellow at the Alliance for Securing Democracy at the German Marshall Fund. Previously, she was director of global programs at the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance where she managed multiple teams across Europe focused on constitution-building, parliamentary process, elections, gender and inclusion, political parties, and democracy assessment and analysis.