The Supreme Court has been busy! By the end of June 2024, the Court had issued a welter of decisions ranging from presidential immunity to guns to federal agency regulatory power. In this episode of Independent Outlook, a variety of Independent Institute experts will give you the scoop, and a quick assessment of the most pivotal recent Supreme Court cases. They’ll even argue with one another about them!

Former President Trump is now the subject of multiple indictments for violation of criminal statutes. Do these indictments raise troubling questions about the nature and use of criminal law, and its place in our public life? Watch this episode of Independent Outlook and find out...and also learn about the Hunter Biden case, and the teaching of slavery in the Florida classroom curriculum, while you’re at it!

The U.S. Supreme Court has weighed in on racial bias in college admissions, President Biden’s fiat forgiveness of student loans, and the freedom of creative designers to disagree with the state’s view of marriage. Another federal judge has weighed in to put the kibosh on Biden administration efforts to press social media companies to censor on their behalf. That’s a lot of legal heavy-lifting! And we discuss all of it, and more, on this episode of Independent Outlook.

“Nobody is above the law.” That’s a proper American sentiment. How does New York’s 34-count indictment against Donald Trump measure up to it? On another legal front, should Congress ban TikTok? And what are we to make of the revelation that at least one FBI field office set out to create a spy network within Catholic churches?

Resisting unprecedented political and ideological pressure—including public violence and an attempted assassination of a sitting Justice—the U.S. Supreme Court just issued two 6-3 decisions demonstrating the majority’s resolve. In Bruen, the Court struck down New York state’s discretionary handgun licensing law, as a violation of the 2nd Amendment. In Dobbs, it ruled that there is no Constitutional right to abortion, as asserted by Roe, and that therefore states, not federal courts, have jurisdiction over abortion law. Was the Court wise—or foolish—to turn a blind eye to public opinion regarding these momentous rulings?

How could the U.S. Supreme Court allow the unprecedented leak of its draft opinion revoking Roe v. Wade? And how will the Court navigate the apparently complex religious freedom cases now before it? Does President Joe Biden have what it takes to “stand with Ukraine” without provoking a wider war? Will Biden’s “Disinformation Governance Board” protect Americans or quench their freedoms?

In this thirty-second episode of Independent Outlook, Research Fellow William J. Watkins, Jr., joins with Williamson Evers, and Graham Walker to examine the complex issues surrounding the military tensions between Russia, Ukraine, and the West, especially President Biden's recent steps to threaten both economic sanctions and military action in response to Russian activity in the region. We also look at what the Beijing Olympics are revealing about the Chinese Communist regime, which is using the Covid crisis to implement massive and detailed social controls that are not being scaled back as the health crisis recedes—and probably never will be. We further consider the increasingly coercive atmosphere in American academe, illustrated by Georgetown University's punishment of Ilya Shapiro for expressing disagreement with the Affirmative Action policy behind President Biden's SCOTUS nomination plan. And of course, there is much more!

In this seventeenth episode of Independent Outlook, Graham Walker , Williamson Evers, and Research Fellow William J. Watkins, Jr., examine COVID-19 vaccine mandates and passports; school shutdowns; critical race theory and propaganda; Bill of Rights; border crisis; and much more.