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Can the Corrupt Courts Be Fixed?

On this episode of The Time of Monsters, Alexander Sammon discusses scandals and gridlock.

Jeet Heer

May 10, 2023

Demonstrators hold signs with the faces of US Supreme Court Justices during an abortion-rights protest in New York, on Tuesday, May 3, 2022. (Stephanie Keith / Bloomberg via Getty Images)

The emerging scandals at the Supreme Court are only getting worse with new revelations about Clarence Thomas and his wife, Ginni, being the beneficiaries of plutocratic largess. But it remains unclear whether the Democrats can mount an effective attack that uses the scandal to reform the courts.

To discuss how gridlock and a lack of political will is allowing a constitutional crisis to fester, I spoke with Alexander Sammon, a political writer for Slate. He provides an expert tour of both the scandals and the completely inadequate political response, as well as providing some insights on how Democrats could use their existing power to actually rein in an increasingly lawless judiciary.

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Jeet HeerTwitterJeet Heer is a national affairs correspondent for The Nation and host of the weekly Nation podcast, The Time of Monsters. He also pens the monthly column “Morbid Symptoms.” The author of In Love with Art: Francoise Mouly’s Adventures in Comics with Art Spiegelman (2013) and Sweet Lechery: Reviews, Essays and Profiles (2014), Heer has written for numerous publications, including The New Yorker, The Paris Review, Virginia Quarterly Review, The American Prospect, The GuardianThe New Republic, and The Boston Globe.


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