Supreme Court HILF with Dawn Brodie

Mary was a recent guest on HILF - History I'd Like to F**K with Dawn Brodie to discuss the Supreme Court.

Dawn is joined by lawyer, Mary Whiteside, for a journey through the often-dark history of America's highest court. Hear about the worst villains, the occasional heroes - and why Mary and Dawn both still have hope for the future.

EPISODE SUMMARY

Dawn is joined by lawyer, Mary Whiteside, for a journey through the often-dark history of America's highest court. Hear about the worst villains, the occasional heroes - and why Mary and Dawn both still have hope for the future.

EPISODE NOTES

Dawn met guest, Mary Whiteside, while they were both backlot tour guides at Universal Studios, Hollywood. When Mary suggested the HILF subject of the Supreme Court, Dawn was a bit stymied. The legal system can feel a little dark, a little depressing, and just too damn hard to understand sometimes - with the dates and the names and the precedents and -- what's an amicus? Which is why Dawn immediately said yes, because Mary is not just a guest with a HILFY curiosity, she's a real lawyer, and a mom, and funny and cool and ready to go down on Justice...

00:02:13 - Dawn introduces Mary with a question of how a lawyer found herself being a movie studio tour guide to begin with. Mary explains that she was always interested in being a performer but that being a lawyer gave her (and her mom) the security she was looking for. ...And performing for the jury is like a little play. 

00:08:22 - Along with the subject, Mary assigned Dawn the book INJUSTICES by Ian Millhiser. 'The Supreme Court's History of Comforting the Comfortable and Afflicting the Afflicted.' It is a dark path through some dark history which, as Mary says, gives you lots stuff to get pissed off about it.

00:12:40 - Dawn begins with a quick overview of your middle school social studies, and the origin of the Supreme Court in the constitution. As one of the three branches of government, the purpose is to create reasonable checks and balances on the Executive and the Legislative... That's it's purpose, but certainly not always it's function. 

00:19:14 - Mary gives the HILF on the individual that she thinks is the 'best' justice to have ever served on the Supreme Court, Sonia Sotomayor. 

00:29:17 - Dawn and Mary discuss the history of the changing number of justices on the Supreme Court from 5 in the very beginning, to as many as 10 after the Civil War. FDR briefly discussed raising the number to 15 but was quickly shot down politically for even suggesting it. Today, the subject has come up again and is no less controversial. 

BREAK

00:37:18 - Dawn and Mary resume with a conversation about what it's like to be a Judge and how they are the closest thing to Royalty we have in America, given their lifetime appointments. 

00:40:25 - After discussing the 'best' Justice ever to have been on the court, Mary now gives us the 'worst'... and what do you know, it's another one who is sitting there currently, Clarence Thomas. In addition to questioning the constitutionality of his decisions, Mary takes issue with the ethics of his wife, Ginny Thomas working as a powerful lobbyist and consultant on cases he oversees. 

00:57:56 - After a lot of bad news and despair for the cause of democracy, Dawn and Mary discuss how the idea of Revolution is both the greatest threat and the last resort of any System... and too many people want it for too many different reasons. 

01:03:08 - And before we sign off, as promised, a little home. The latest justice, Ketanji Brown Jackson, has a strong record and can be a sound voice of reason in an unreasonable time. And of course we can still vote... for now.