Judge Sonia Sotomayor gets her day –her week—in the court of public opinion with Senate confirmation hearings. We’ll take the measure of the nominee and the Senate’s inquiry.

The Supreme Court has ruled in favor of white firefighters in New Haven, Connecticut, reversing a decision endorsed by Judge Sonia Sotomayor. We’ll look at the case, and what it means for affirmative action.

Supreme Court nomination sweepstakes in high gear. A woman is expected. We’ll look at gender, the candidates, and the court.

Former ACLU board member Wendy Kaminer has gone to war with the ACLU. Says it’s lost track of civil liberties. We’ll hear her case.

Cyber bullies verbally savaged two Yale law students. The women fought back. Their case may change the rules on what you can say online.

“CSI” it’s not. A new report on crime labs from the National Academy of Sciences calls into question decades of forensic techniques. We’ll investigate.

We’ll hear the red-hot debate over whether top Bush administration officials could – or should — be prosecuted for crimes against the constitution.

The right attacks ACORN and its voter registration drives. Now Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says the real issue is widespread vote suppression. We’ll hear the debate.

The presidential election and the U.S. Supreme Court. Top legal thinkers on what an Obama Court or a McCain Court would mean for the country.

For much of the country, it felt like a bolt from the blue. Last week, giant California gave a green light to gay marriage.
California’s high court, in a 4-3 ruling, said civil union rights were not enough. Gay Californians — and those from anywhere else who barrel west to the Golden State — are entitled, [...]

The Irrawaddy delta in Myanmar is underwater, thousands dead, and environmentalists say it’s global warming. Monster tornadoes are plaguing the U.S. — last weekend in Missouri, Oklahoma and Georgia.
Meanwhile, far away, on the west coast of Alaska, the tiny fishing village of Kivalina is falling into the sea. And its attorneys are suing 24 oil, [...]

The heat on New York governor Eliot Spitzer is now tremendous. By the end of the day, he may have resigned. He may be hanging on.
But the supernova of media attention to Spitzer’s alleged use of a high-priced prostitution ring — Emperors Club, Client No. 9, “Kristen,” five thousand dollars per tryst — has lit [...]

There is no death row or execution chamber at Guantanamo, but the Army is working on it. On Monday, the Pentagon made public murder and conspiracy charges against six Guantanamo inmates accused in the attacks of 9/11, and announced it will seek the death penalty before a military tribunal.
The military’s own JAG legal community and [...]

Freedom of speech is enshrined right there in the American Bill of Rights, but Americans took a long time to really embrace it. By 1798, President John Adams was already blowing by the First Amendment to go after supporters of Thomas Jefferson.
More than a century later, in World War I, Americans were sentenced to 20 [...]

Michael Mukasey’s confirmation as Attorney General looked like a sure thing. Now, with the legal definition of torture in the balance, Democrats aren’t so sure.
-Tom Ashbrook
Guests:
Charlie Savage, reporter for The Boston Globe, is author of “Takeover: The Return of the Imperial Presidency and the Subversion of American Democracy.”
John McGinnis, professor at Northwestern University School of [...]

It was a travesty: crude, privileged white-boy lacrosse players at Duke, raping a black woman for kicks. And then it was a different travesty: innocent young men railroaded by a politically-ambitious prosecutor, and a public too willing to believe.
Race and class stereotypes turned on their heads and unleashed with a vengeance. A media machine and [...]

With its 800,000 citizens, South Dakota may be one of the smallest states in the nation, but it made a big noise last week.
The South Dakota legislature has passed a bill that would virtually ban abortion. Straight out. No matter how old or young the woman. No matter if the pregnancy was the result of [...]