SCOTUS Round-Up: Indian Child Welfare Act Gets Upheld & Looming Decision On Affirmative Action’s Future
The future of affirmative action is very much in the air as the Supreme Court’s conservative majority have questioned the legality of diversity in settings such as higher education. Decisions on cases that include the Students for Fair Admissions still haven’t been decided, but there have been other cases decided in recent weeks, such as Haaland v. Brackeen, which upheld indigenous communities’ ability to adopt their Native children if a relative of theirs is in the process.
Today on AirTalk, we round up these recent Supreme Court developments with Lydia Wheeler, Supreme Court reporter for Bloomberg Law.
Center Theatre Group Will Pause Programming At The Mark Taper Forum Amid Budget Shortfalls
Center Theatre Group announced last week that due to a budget shortfall, it will cut back significantly on its current and upcoming season, in addition to laying off approximately 10% of its full-time staff. CTG, which programs the Mark Taper Forum and the Ahmanson Theatre downtown, as well as the Kirk Douglas Theatre in Culver City, will pause programming at the Taper and limit programming at the Kirk Douglas. The theater group faces high production costs, while ticket sales and donations have not recovered from the hit they took during the pandemic, leading to what CTG is calling a “crisis unlike any other in our fifty-six-year history.” Joining us to discuss Center Theatre Group’s future is Meghan Pressman, Managing Director & CEO, and Snehal Desai, Incoming Artistic Director.
Supreme Court’s So-Called ‘Shadow Docket’ And Its Impact On American Rule Of Law
Most of the U.S. Supreme Court’s proceedings, though not open to the public or broadcast via video feed, are well-documented. You can go to the Supreme Court’s own website to see a list of its merits cases and all of their supporting information, or gather them from (credible) third-party websites like SCOTUSblog and Oyez. But as the University of Texas’ Steven Vladeck writes in his new book “The Shadow Docket: How the Supreme Court Uses Stealth Rulings to Amass Power and Undermine the Republic,” not everything the justices do is so transparent. In fact, Vladeck argues, since about 2017 the Supreme Court has been using its emergency docket, often referred to as its “shadow docket” to make major decisions involving voting rights, reproductive rights and vaccine access. The Supreme Court has always had the ability to make emergency rulings in exceptional circumstances, but Vladeck writes that over the last few years, the High Court has been making more and more of its rulings this way -- without the typical robust oral arguments and explanation one might get from a traditional hearing -- and that it has in particular allowed the Court’s conservative majority to shape American law in its eyes.
Today on AirTalk, Steve Vladeck is with us to talk about his new book, and how he says the Supreme Court’s use of the so-called “shadow docket” is affecting rule of law.
LA County Residents Owe At Least $2.6 Billion In Medical Debt – What’s Going On?
The numbers describing the impact of medical debt among Los Angeles County residents are staggering: 1 in 10 adults (around 810,000 people) are in debt for medical care. All together they owe at least $2.6 billion. That's what analysts found when they examined county-specific data from the annual California Health Interview Survey dating from 2019 to 2021. More than 4,000 adult residents were asked if they had problems paying medical bills for themselves or people in their household in the past 12 months. If they said yes, they were considered to be burdened with medical debt. The responses were then extrapolated to reflect the county’s demographics and population. This new analysis by the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health suggests this debt can have striking consequences on people’s financial, physical and mental health. Joining us to discuss are Jackie Fortiér, senior health reporter at LAist, and Dr. Naman Shah, a practicing physician and LA County Public Health's director of the Division of Medical and Dental Affairs.
With files from LAist. Read the full story here.
What’s The Impact Of Sharing Your Kid’s Childhood Online? ‘Social Media Babies’ Are Old Enough To Tell Us
As an Atlantic piece pointed out recently, the first wave of “social media babies” are finally old enough to tell us how they feel about having their pictures posted on social media growing up. To share or not to share children’s intimate life moments has long been debated by parents, psychologists and privacy experts. But now we can see the impacts playing out. Today on AirTalk, we want to hear about those real life repercussions, both positive and negative. Joining to discuss is Pamela Rutledge, director of the Media Psychology Research Center and media psychologist specializing in the social impacts of media and technology on individuals and society.
Pasadena Playhouse’s Producing Artistic Director On What’s Next After Its Tony Win
On June 11th, the Pasadena Playhouse will receive the 2023 Regional Theatre Tony Award, a huge honor for the official State Theater of California, which will turn 100 years old in 2025. Throughout its storied history, the Playhouse has been an incubator for talent, whether in its “Star Factory” era in the twenties, thirties and forties, to today, where it’s wrapping up a six-month long celebration of Stephen Sondheim. Joining us to discuss the award, the Playhouse’s recent work, and what’s coming up is Danny Feldman, producing artistic director of the Pasadena Playhouse.
