David Pozen takes us on a tour of constitutional arguments against the war on drugs!

Daryl Levinson discusses Law for Leviathan!

Robert Post talks about the Taft Court!

Cass Sunstein tells us how to interpret the Constitution!

Will Baude discusses textualism and the common law!

Julie Suk discusses her new book, an important contribution to feminist legal theory and the study of misogyny!

Samuel Issacharoff discusses populism and democracy around the world!

Jake Mazeitis and Andrew Porwancher give us the scoop on the “prophet of Harvard Law:” James Bradley Thayer!

After a summer of landmark Supreme Court cases, we are excited to start the season with Mary Ziegler, one of the nation’s leading experts and historians of U.S. abortion politics. She has written four books on the social movements around reproductive rights, including, most recently, Dollars for Life: The Anti-Aboriton Movement and the Fall of the Republican Establishment.

On this week’s pod we have Osita Nwanevu! In the interview, Osita discusses many of the major issues around media institutions today. Somehow David relates journalism to both roasted vegetables and dessert, so we either got really metaphorical or were just hungry!

We’re thrilled to kick off this season with Joseph Fishkin and William Forbath discussing their upcoming book The Anti-Oligarchy Constitution: Reconstructing the Economic Foundations of American Democracy. In this episode, sub-fusc adorned Sam and noted constitutional law scholar David ask the guests how their highly anticipated book addresses how the United States Constitution could and should force legislatures to tackle economic inequality and oligarchy. We discuss why only one side of the political spectrum appears to make strong claims on the constitution regarding economic life during a time of mounting inequality, and, to do so, we trace the tradition of thought regarding the Constitution’s relationship to economic power.

You asked -- we answered! In Digging a Hole’s first AMA (or really Ask Us Anything) episode, we answered your most pressing questions: Is it ethical to move into a gentrifying neighborhood? How should one read articles when considering potential academic appointments? What is cooler -- SCOTUS or the Federal Reserve? What is a professional failure we’ve experienced? Who is our dream sponsor for the pod?

Come for the legal theory and hot takes, stay for Dave's unified field theory of Sam Moyn projects. There’s something for everyone!

Our final guest for Season 3 is Nikolas Bowie, assistant professor of law at Harvard Law School. In this episode, we dive into two of his recent articles -- “Antidemocracy” and “The Constitutional Right of Self-Government.” We begin by discussing the Court’s recent ruling in Cedar Point Nursery v. Hassid (2021) and how it ties to Heart of Atlanta Motel, Inc. v. United States (1964). Next, we discuss the Assembly Clause of the First Amendment and how early in the country’s founding, activists used their right to assemble to defend their right of self-governance.

It’s SCOTUS reform time! We are joined by Noah Feldman and Christopher Kang. 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.

This week, we have an all-star duo in Daniel B. Rodridguez, the Harold Washington Professor of Law at Northwestern Law School, and Miriam Seifter, Associate Professor of Law at the University of Wisconsin Law School! Much to David’s joy, we get Sam deep into the muck of state and local government law. We begin by talking about Daniel and Miriam’s new projects -- The SLoG Law Blog and The State Democracy Research Initiative. Sam then asks our guests which issues in state and local government law they’re thinking about right now. We discuss ongoing battles of state legislatures stripping power from governors, how states and localities are using COVID-related federal aid, and state constitutional law. As part of the conversation, we also get into institutional design of state and local governments and how these institutions promote or hinder majoritarianism.

Professors Maggie Blackhawk and K-Sue Park join us to discuss their recent work diving into the erasure of Native people in legal scholarship, pedagogy, and doctrine. Professor Blackhawk tells us about her recent article, Federal Indian Law as Paradigm Within Public Law, which argues that Native history and federal Indian law are necessary to better understand and develop Constitutional law. Professor Park discusses her draft article, Conquest and Slavery as Foundational to Property Law, which argues for acknowledging histories of Native dispossession and slavery in legal pedagogy and scholarship.

Jamal Greene, Professor of Law at Columbia Law School, joins us to discuss his new book, How Rights Went Wrong: Why Our Obsession with Rights is Tearing America Apart, in which he argues that we need a new approach to adjudicating rights claims. We discuss the flaws he sees in our current system—namely his assessment that courts either offer an absolute right or total deference to legislatures, depending on the right at issue. He also proposes an alternative approach where we can take everyone’s rights claims seriously.