On this week’s episode of the Insider podcast, veteran Supreme Court litigator Pam Karlan joins Joyce Vance, while Preet Bharara is out. Karlan served as principal deputy assistant attorney general in the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division and as counsel at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. Today, she is a Stanford Law professor and leads the school’s Supreme Court litigation clinic.
In the show, Karlan takes listeners inside the Supreme Court, sharing what she’s learned from arguing before the justices and reflecting on how the Court has changed over the past half-century. Then, they preview the major cases the Supreme Court will hear this term:
– Viramontes v. Cook County & Grant v. Higgins, whether the 2nd and 14th Amendments guarantee the right to possess semiautomatic rifles such as the AR-15;
– Republican National Committee v. Mi Familia Vota, whether Arizona can require people to prove they are U.S. citizens when registering to vote;
Joyce Vance:
From CAFE and Vox Media Podcast Network, welcome to the Insider Podcast. I’m Joyce Vance. Preet is out this week, so I’m joined by a very special guest. Pam Karlan is a distinguished Supreme Court litigator who has served as principal deputy assistant attorney general in DOJ’s Civil Rights Division and is counsel at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. Pam is at Stanford Law School now. She leads the school’s Supreme Court Litigation Clinic. I’m super jealous. I feel like my whole trajectory in life could have been different if I had had Pam as a professor in law school. And I’m delighted that she’s joining us today to preview the Supreme Court term, which just started this week. Pam Karlan, welcome to the show.
Pam Karlan:
Thanks so much for having me, Joyce. And I feel like my whole life would’ve been different if I had been your intern at the US Attorney’s Office. I would know how to try a jury case, which I’ve never had to do.
