Courthouse in the Muscogee Creek Nation, whose territory was at question in McGirt v. Oklahoma
On this show:
0:08 – The latest unemployment filing numbers are out, more than 1 million new claims are still being filed each week — but analyzing the number is difficult, because of the enormous backlog that exists. Dean Baker, senior economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research and K. Sabeel Rahman, president of Demos, join us.
0:34 – What are you dealing with during Covid-19? We take listener calls: One person calls to urge a Green New Deal, teachers call in to express frustration with Fresno schools reopening, a healthcare worker says seeing people in their city without masks on makes them feel “disposable,” and a homeowner wants to see mortgage relief from the government.
1:08 – The Vallejo Police Department has released a highly-produced video that contains body camera footage from the night Sean Monterrosa was shot and killed by officer Jarrett Tonn — but none of it shows Sean in the moment he was gunned down. Brian Krans (@citizenkrans) is an independent investigative reporter and producer working with Open Vallejo. He joins us, as well as John Burris, civil rights lawyer representing the family of Sean Monterrosa. The family is calling for VPD chief Shawny Williams to resign and says they suspect there is more video to be obtained.
1:20 – Today was the last day for Supreme Court opinions during this term. In two major opinions, Trump v. Mazars and Trump v. Vance, the court gave Manhattan’s attorney but not Congress access to the president’s tax returns. Marjorie Cohn (@marjoriecohn) is a professor emerita at Thomas Jefferson School of Law and former president of the National Lawyers Guild. You can read her articles at marjoriecohn.com.
1:33 – In a 5-4 decision with liberal justices and Gorsuch in the majority, the Supreme Court has decided in McGirt v. Oklahoma that most of eastern Oklahoma is Native American reservation territory. It’s a major decision for tribal sovereignty and for the Muscogee Creek Nation – we hear response from Joel West Williams, citizen of the Cherokee Nation and staff attorney at Native American Rights Fund.
1:46 – In two decisions Wednesday, the Supreme Court decided that Catholic schools can discriminate against teachers on the basis of age or disability, and also that employers don’t have to cover birth control for workers. Imani Gandy (@AngryBlackLady), Senior Editor of Law and Policy at Rewire.News and co-host of the podcast Boom! Lawyered, joins us to talk about the two cases, Little Sisters of the Poor and Our Lady of Guadalupe.