New York Times magazine / Yale Law School
Emily Bazelon is a staff writer for the New York Times Magazine and a senior research fellow at Yale Law School. A former senior editor at Slate.com, she is the author of Sticks and Stones: Defeating the Culture of Bullying and Rediscovering the Power of Empathy and Character.
Young woman found guilty of manslaughter for encouraging boyfriend to kill himself Conrad Roy III killed himself in a parking lot by hooking up a water pump that emitted carbon monoxide to the cab of his truck. He was texting his 17-year-old girlfriend Michelle Carter, who repeatedly urged him to go through with with killing himself. He was found dead the next day.
Will President Trump be investigated for obstruction of justice? During his testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee, former FBI Director James Comey accused President Trump and other White House officials of lying when they said the FBI was in disarray and its staff lost confidence in him. Trump’s lawyer said Comey was wrong -- that the president never asked for his loyalty, and never asked him to back off the investigation into former NSA director Michael Flynn.
How Jeff Sessions wants to shape American justice Jeff Sessions and Steve Bannon helped Donald Trump form his nationalist agenda -- including the rhetoric around immigrants, vision of cities as riddled with crime. We look at what Sessions’ goals are as attorney general, and how he’ll approach them if he survives the investigation into Russian meddling in the election.
Trump's cabinet emerges, and a rise in bullying Will Senate Republicans rein Trump in?
Campus Racial Uproar The president of the University of MIssouri is stepping down after weeks of protests over his handling of racist incidents on campus. Meanwhile, a thousand miles away at Yale, racial tensions are boiling over on that campus, too. The tipping point came last week with a fight about how administrators addressed culturally insensitive Halloween costumes. Is it cultural deafness or political correctness?
Planned Parenthood Video Sting Reignites the Abortion Debate In the past two weeks the Center for Medical Progress, a group headed by longtime anti-abortion activist David Daleiden, has released two videos of Planned Parenthood officials discussing the price and methods for providing fetal tissue from abortions for medical research. It reportedly has thousands of hours of footage from covert recordings gathered over the past two and a half years. Planned Parenthood calls it a deceptive campaign by abortion foes to misrepresent their work and discredit them. But the undercover sting has already prompted congressional and state investigations into Planned Parenthood's practices and has re-positioned abortion as a key issue Republican presidential hopefuls use to capture the party's conservative base.
What Happens When Judges Change Their Minds? Now that raisins and Spider-Man are out of the way, the Supreme Court can focus on some of the bigger cases to ever grace the docket. From gay marriage to the death penalty to healthcare, the justices are seeking to answer some of the biggest questions of our time. But what if they get it wrong? What happens if years later, they find that they erred in their judgment? Madeleine speaks with Emily Bazelon of the New York Times Magazine, who wrote this week about what happens when judges change their minds.
What Do We Owe Victims of Wrongful Convictions? Glenn Ford spent 30 years on death row in Louisiana's Angola prison — convicted for a murder he didn't commit, but now that he's been exonerated he still can't get the compensation state law says he's entitled to. Last month, prosecutor Marty Stroud told NPR he felt guilty for his role in the wrongful conviction. "I want to apologize to Mr Ford. I would wish him well and wish him the best in efforts for compensation and to be compensated for the years he's been deprived of... I believe it's a horror story from beginning to end, and I played a part in that." Emily Bazelon is staff writer for the New York Times and Truman Capote fellow at Yale Law School.
U.S. Supreme Court and the Limits of Free Speech on Social Media The U.S. Supreme Court is hearing arguments today in the case of a Pennsylvania man, Anthony Elonis, who spent more than three years in prison for violent Facebook posts about his wife. Elonis argues that he was simply exercising his First Amendment rights. His wife, and a lower court, interpreted the posts as real threats. This is the first time the Supreme Court has considered the limits of free speech on social media. What’s at stake?
Gay Marriage, Islam, Panetta and Malala Yousafza A show on tolerance: Gay marriage triumphs, Islam's dust up on Bill Maher, Panetta's complaints and Malala Yousafza gets the Nobel Prize.
Hong Kong, Secret Service, Ebola The standoff in Hong Kong, the Secret Service collapses, Ebola comes to America
Will New Limits on Abortion Hold? In 1973, the US Supreme Court approved a woman’s right to choose an abortion. But recently, the so-called “Right to Life Movement” has successfully blocked access in more and more places; in Mississippi, there’s only one doctor currently providing abortions. Meantime, the US Supreme Court may be closer than ever to taking another look.
Ex-FBI Director Comey tells his side of the story Today, former FBI Director James Comey came close to calling the President who fired him a liar. The White House denied the claim and called it insulting, but Republican Senators did not challenge Comey’s truthfulness. Many questions remain: did the President try to obstruct a federal investigation? Later, we’ll go behind the “velvet rope” for a look at 5-Star health care for the richest Americans.
How was the trip? President Trump's travels got less fun as he went from the Middle East to Europe.
Venezuela spirals into economic and political chaos Venezuela, a country whose potential for prosperity is unmatched, finds itself on the verge of civil war. What sustains the repressive government? With time running out, guest host León Krauze looks at what the international community can do to pull the country from the edge of collapse.
The longest US war: Will Trump send more troops to Afghanistan? The Trump White House is divided over the Pentagon's request for more troops in Afghanistan—where the US has been fighting for the past 16 years. Is there a formula -- either for "victory" or a political settlement? Is there an end in sight for America's longest war?
