Expand the Court: A Conversation w/ Michael Klarman

Good Law | Bad Law

Aaron Freiwald, Managing Partner of Freiwald Law and host of the weekly podcast, Good Law | Bad Law, is joined by Professor Michael Klarman, of Harvard Law, to discuss the notion of expanding the Supreme Court, the 2020 election and its potential outcomes, political history, and what Justice Barrett’s recent conformation could mean for our future. Aaron and Michael have a truly riveting conversation that covers many critical topics which may prove paramount to our country’s democratic future.

We post this episode days after one of the most contentious and important election nights of our lifetime. In today’s episode, Aaron and Michael talk about entrenching democracy and how this is absolutely a moment of opportunity. Delving into all of the relevant topics of this week, Michael and Aaron touch on the electorate, the Constitution, geographic clustering, race, voter suppression and more. Michael explains why he believes it absolutely necessary to expand the Court, exploring both the arguments for and against this idea, as well as why in his opinion we as a society can’t afford not to. Aaron and Michael discuss the electoral college, the future of Roe v. Wade, the role of politics in the Supreme Court and the potential agenda of conservative Justices, court legitimacy, and the questions surrounding the future of our institutions’ norms. Is the system broken?

Professor Klarman is the Kirkland & Ellis Professor at Harvard Law School. He received his B.A. and M.A. in political theory from the University of Pennsylvania, his J.D. from Sandford and his D. Phil. In legal history from the University of Oxford. After law school, Professor Klarman clerked for the Honorable Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit before joining the faculty at the University of Virginia School of Law. He has won numerous awards for his teaching and scholarship, which are primarily in the areas of Constitutional Law and Constitutional History. In 2009 he was inducted into the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. Professor Klarman is also a published author; he is currently working on a revisionist history of the Founding.

Listen now to learn more!

To learn more about Professor Klarman and to find a list of his publications, please click here.

To read Professor Klarman’s recent Q&A feature in the Harvard Gazette, please click here.

Host: Aaron Freiwald

Guests: Michael J. Klarman

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