PBS has just announced its new series on ouThe Supreme Court, to air during the 2006-07 season. The series follows a historical time-line and has four episodes:
Program One – "The Least Dangerous Branch" – will examine the creation of the Court and follows it up through the brink of the Civil War.
Program Two – "Making America Modern" will explore the issues before the Court during the period after the Civil War when America experienced unprecedented economic growth. Culminating in the cases of the New Deal...
Program Three – "By the Content of Their Character" – will focus on the Court's reaction to state and federal legislation on Bill of Rights freedoms, with special attention to the explosion of civil rights cases from the early 1940s to the present.
Program Four – "With Liberty and Justice for All" will review how the Court has undertaken to define individual rights or civil liberties in America. This last hour of the series will investigate how the Court, especially under the leadership of Chief Justice William Rehnquist, has risen in importance to become the institution most responsible for resolving the central questions of American life.
[RE: that last sentence, for a reality check, be sure to check out Fred Schauer's
Harvard Law Review Forward, just out.]
(I will fill in more details, including a link to the accompanying website, once technical difficulties are resolved.)
