History of Law in America with Jed Shugerman

Air Dates: November 24-25, 2018

The confirmation of Justice Bret Kavanaugh was a bruising episode for many Americans. Jed Shugerman views that confirmation process against the long history of America’s courts and essential debates over the constitutional limits on executive power.

Shugerman is a Professor of Law at Fordham University. He attended Yale Law School and graduated in 2002, and went on to earned his PhD in History. Blending his two areas of study, Shugarman published, The People’s Courts: The Rise of Judicial Elections and Judicial Power in America. The book “traces the history of judicial elections and Americans’ quest for an independent judiciary―one that would ensure fairness for all before the law―from the colonial era to the present.” (Harvard University Press, 2012). His articles often appear in Law Journals such as Yale Law Journal, the Georgia Law Review and the Harvard Law Review.

“Story in the Public Square” airs on Rhode Island PBS in Rhode Island and southern Massachusetts on Sundays at 11 a.m. and is rebroadcast Thursdays at 7:30 p.m. An audio version of the program airs Saturdays at 8:30 a.m. & 6:30 p.m. ET, Sundays at 4:30 a.m. & 11:30 p.m. ET on SiriusXM’s popular P.O.T.U.S. (Politics of the United States), channel 124. “Story in the Public Square” is a partnership between the Pell Center and The Providence Journal. The initiative aims to study, celebrate and tell stories that matter.