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On today’s episode, David and Sarah celebrate the Supreme Court finally bending to their will and then preview the upcoming oral arguments regarding SB 8, the Texas abortion law. They then move on to a discussion of a wild case involving videotaping police, highlight Liberty University's problems with sexual assault, and then wonder whether an important free speech case is dead or just "mostly dead."
Show Notes:
-SCOTUSblog on oral arguments in the Texas abortion law case
Sarah, you're in good company on how "Texas as a defendant" likely solves some of the procedural hurdles, including the injunction applying to any private individual bringing suit under SB8.
See friend of the pod Will Baude's Volokh post:
https://reason.com/volokh/2021/09/09/reflections-on-texas-as-a-defendant/
Re: How We Talk About Our History/David’s Amateur Unified Vision of America History
Tracking the general views of history that David/Sarah discussed at the end of this podcast, it seems like we have three temperamental camps right now in America when it comes to politics.
1. The MAGA Right – how dare you assert that American heroes/American history/American institutions have/had flaws?
2. The Cancel Culture Left – Justice Harlan/(fill in the blank American historical figure) had flaws, therefore we can learn nothing from him/her. Down with their statute, spit their name from your mouth, etc
3. The Growth Mindset for America – Yes, America and American heroes had flaws, but we can learn from their positive qualities, particularly their capacity to improve themselves over time—just as with Justice Harlan—while simultaneously appreciating that they were not perfect (sometimes even terribly so), especially by contemporary standards.
These general dispositional camps seem more and more salient everywhere to me these days. David seemed to be discussing something similar to them in this French Press ( https://frenchpress.thedispatch.com/p/evangelical-elites-fighting-each ) when he mentions the illiberal right (MAGA), the illiberal left (cancel culture left), and the liberal left / right (American Growth Mindset). These camps also seem to track the trends identified by Jonathan Rauch in his book "The Constitution of Knowledge" (discussed on AO here: https://advisoryopinions.thedispatch.com/p/fact-fiction-and-the-fight )
I recently rewatched Barack Obama’s 2004 DNC speech that spring-boarded his political trajectory towards the white house. It made me think that not only the MAGA Right but also the Cancel Culture Left would absolutely despise this speech if he gave it right now. It’s a strange world we’re living in.