Dissenting Opinions

Will is joined by New York University law professor Maggie Blackhawk to discuss federal Indian law and cases including Oklahoma v. Castro-Huerta and the upcoming case Brackeen v. Haaland. Will and Maggie discuss the legacy of colonialism and the Constitution, the separation of powers in Indian Country, and the government's broader constitutional duties. They then discuss the history of the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) and what we might see happen regarding ICWA this fall. Happy Constitution Day!

In the season finale of Deep Dive into Critical Race Theory, Will and Khiara discuss power, privilege, white supremacy, the possibility of a racial utopia, and confront the fundamental question: can one be a critical race theorist and also an individualist?

In episode 6 of Deep Dive into Critical Race Theory, Will and Khiara dig into healthcare disparities, discussing possible systemic causes from housing to hospital placements to environmental justice. The discussion circles back to many earlier themes, including implicit bias, structural racism, and more.

In episode 5 of Deep Dive into Critical Race Theory, Will and Khiara discuss the implications of critical race theory interacts on education. They start with critical race theory and K-12 education, including some surprising arguments about Brown v. Board of Education. Then they graduate to affirmative action in college admissions. They also discuss what makes CRT "radical" and what true educational "utopia" would look like.

In episode 4 of Deep Dive into Critical Race Theory, Will and Khiara discuss intersectionality, how we can focus on more than one injustice at time, and how the lens of intersectionality lets us examine the connections between different injustices.

In episode 3 of Deep Dive into Critical Race Theory, Will and Khiara zero in on “implicit bias.” They discuss criticisms of anti-racism trainings, legal definitions of racism, the use of social science, and start to preview health disparities and environmental racism, which they will return to a few episodes later.

In episode 2 of Deep Dive into Critical Race Theory, Will and Khiara discuss structural racism, capitalism and land use/zoning laws, individual responsibility in eradicating racism, and how critical race theory became the hot topic phrase in the media today.

Will is joined by UC Berkeley Law professor Khiara M. Bridges to kick off Season 2 of Deep Dive into Critical Race Theory. In the first episode, Will and Khiara discuss: what IS critical race theory? What makes it “critical”? What distinguishes it from other work on race? What unites it as a theory? Will and Khiara further discuss how optimistic or pessimistic we should be about eradicating racism.

In our final episode of Season 1, Will is joined by the newest UChicago Law professor, Curt Bradley, to discuss INS v. Chadha: a transformative case that invalidated the "legislative" veto almost forty years ago. They discuss the formal and functional separation of powers, and the surprising possibility that it wasn't really so transformative after all. This episode also features a look at the scholarship of then-Senator Joseph Biden. Happy Constitution Day!

Will is joined by University of Wisconsin law professor Nina Varsava, where they discuss how to make sense of fractured Supreme Court opinions in light of Marks v. United States. They also discuss the applications of Marks's "narrowest grounds" test in the recent jury-trial decision of Ramos v. Louisiana, with plenty of Dworkin along the way. Later in the episode they dig into Nina's infamous paper on judicial rhetoric.