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Listener

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supported WNYC

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Studios.

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I'm Julia Longoria. This

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is More Perfect.

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The Supreme Court holds a special

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place in the American imagination. For

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a lot of us, it starts... In

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high school. I

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visited East

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High in Denver, Colorado.

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To hang out with their Constitution team.

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These kids have named their pocket

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constitutions. The

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team competes in the national

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We the People competition, where

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they're asked to argue about the Supreme

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Court in legalese. It's

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like the nerd Super Bowl.

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In

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the 1803 case of Marbury v. Madison,

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the Supreme Court proclaimed... I

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know this because I too

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was this cool in high school.

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My

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Constitution team, from an all-girls

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Catholic school in Miami, Florida, we

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were good. We made it all the way

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to nationals.

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Just like the Supreme Court, we had

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our minds focused on the 4,543 words

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of our pocket constitutions.

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What is joy for the high school nerd, if

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not something to memorize? ideal

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of justice to fall in love

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with. Hello?

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Hello, Mrs. Heffernan. My

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very first tour guide to the Supreme

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Court was my high school government teacher,

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Mrs. Heffernan. The Supreme Court

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has always been my hero. She's

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a bit of a fan. I was like a cheerleader

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for the court. It

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protected you from discrimination.

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In the Supreme Court, according to Mrs. Heffernan,

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if you have a problem that democracy

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can't solve,

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you can appeal to the court to

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swoop in and serve justice.

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The Supreme Court always represented

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the little guy. At

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least that was the hope. For

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me, the romance was about what

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happened in the courtroom. Growing

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up in a pretty conservative bubble and

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going to college in a liberal bubble,

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the Supreme Court really did seem like it

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could be a place above politics,

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where you could actually listen to

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two sides of an issue truly

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disgust and debate it,

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deeply and earnestly. That

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felt really hopeful. It

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was always the court who ignored

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the majority and said, OK,

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you know, we're not elected. We're just going to

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interpret it based on the Constitution. But

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I think that, you know, that has changed. The

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Supreme Court has been pulling crazy bullsh**

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forever. One 11th grader I

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talked to had no such romance.

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And people like to say that it's so much

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worse now. But if you sit and like

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maybe try and think, then you recognize

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that, oh, my gosh, they have been cycling

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out crazy opinion after opinion since f**king

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forever.

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Today,

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it's hard for the Supreme Court to maintain

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the air of grandeur and mystery

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they might have had in the past. There's

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a bunch of things kids could point to. My

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favorite is that one time, early

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in the global pandemic, when the Supreme

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Court tried working from home. The

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FCC has said that when the subject

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matter of the fall ranges to this topic,

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then the call is transformed.

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Maybe

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a justice forgot

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to press mute while flushing

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the toilet during a live-streamed

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oral argument. Like,

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they're people too, and of course they can be swayed

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by different things. And then, somebody

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leaked a draft of one of the

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most polarizing opinions

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in recent history. I

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think the media coverage on Roe v. Wade made me, you

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know, pay more attention to the courts, and

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their decisions on a bunch of different cases. Take

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a look for a moment at this eight-foot

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security fence and gone up all around the

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court. Same kind of fencing put up around the Capitol

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after January 6th. It's a sign of

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how deep and sharp the divisions

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in this country are that have been deep and

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deep. While we grown-ups are compelled to

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make up our minds about the Supreme

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Court in this moment, they're

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either restoring justice or destroying

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America. High schoolers,

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these rough drafts of human

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beings, are still just

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trying to figure out what they believe. What

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do you think of the Supreme

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Court? I think there's

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definitely flaws. I do

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not think that people that are

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not elected by citizens

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should make decisions

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for citizens. Oh,

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but if they're elected, then that would make them

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pretty political. So I just

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realized that. Today,

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it seems

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strange to me that like these nine people

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go up and decide what

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is and what isn't. not just constitutional,

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but like right and just.

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So this season of More Perfect, we're

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taking a cue from the high schoolers and

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we're questioning everything. The

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honor of all the Chief Justice and the

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Associate Justices of the Supreme Court

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of the United States. Oh,

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yea, oh, yea, oh, yea.

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What is the Supreme Court for? Who

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is it for? Is it a place

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above politics where you can get a fair

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hearing?

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The number one thing for me was

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just how warm and respectful

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the people were, whether they agreed with

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you or didn't. Or

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is it an anti-democratic

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branch of government that needs

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to be tamed? Will this

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institution survive

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the stench that this creates

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in the public

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perception? Oh,

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yea, oh, yea. We're going to try to make sense

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of this current moment on the Supreme Court and

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ask, what is justice

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in America? Who gets to

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decide? And should it be this

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way? From WNYC

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Studios, this is More

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Perfect, season four.

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God save the United States and this

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honorable court.