Episode 24: Feldman & Kang

It’s SCOTUS reform time! We are joined by Noah Feldman, the Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, and Christopher Kang, the co-founder and chief counsel of Demand Justice and former Deputy Counsel to President Obama. Both of our guests testified to the Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court of the United States. On the pod, our guests explain what they think the Commission should do. We talk through and debate whether the Court is political and/or partisan and whether Supreme Court rulings are un-democratic or lack democratic accountability. Given divergent views on these questions, we also have stark disagreements on the degree to which court reform is necessary and what the ideal reform would be. Our guests are leading thinkers on this timely issue, and their varying perspectives demonstrate the political, institutional, and legal complexities of altering the Supreme Court.  

Referenced Readings:

Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court of the United States Testimonies:

• Noah Feldman on “The Contemporary Debate over Supreme Court Reform: Origins and Perspectives”

• Christopher Kang on “Perspectives on Supreme Court Reform”

• Samuel Moyn on “The Court’s Role in Our Constitutional System”