In this episode, Jess Bravin of The Wall Street Journal, Jan Crawford of CBS News, and Fred Smith Jr. of Stanford Law School join to explore polarization on the Court and the role of the media and the political branches in shaping public perceptions.
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Today’s episode was produced by Bill Pollock, and Griffin Richie. It was engineered by Dave Stotz, Greg Scheckler, and Bill Pollock. Research was provided by Gyuha Lee, Griffin Richie, Cooper Smith, Trey Sullivan, and Tristan Worsham.
Participants
Jess Bravin is a Supreme Court correspondent for The Wall Street Journal. He is the author of several books, including The Terror Courts, an account of military trials at Guantanamo Bay.
Jan Crawford is CBS News’ chief legal correspondent. Her 2007 book, Supreme Conflict: The Inside Story of the Struggle for the Control of the United States Supreme Court, gained critical acclaim and became an instant New York Times bestseller.
Fred Smith Jr. is a professor of law at Stanford Law School specializing in the federal judiciary, constitutional law, and posthumous legal interests. His work has appeared in several prestigious academic journals and he has been interviewed as an expert by major media outlets.
Jeffrey Rosen is the president and CEO of the National Constitution Center, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization devoted to educating the public about the U.S. Constitution. He is also professor of law at the George Washington University Law School and a contributing editor of The Atlantic.
Additional Resources
- Trump v. CASA, Inc. (2025)
- Jess Bravin and Mariah Timms, “Supreme Court Limits Rulings Against Trump on Birthright Citizenship,” The Wall Street Journal (June 27, 2025)
- Jan Crawford, Supreme Conflict: The Inside Story of the Struggle for the Control of the United States Supreme Court (2007)
- Fred O. Smith, Jr. and Peter O’Neill, “The Forgotten Face of ‘Our Federalism,’” The Yale Law Journal (forthcoming, 2026)
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