Supreme Court Back In Session; Talking About The News At Home; Stopping Harassment In Campaigns
(J. Scott Applewhite/AP)
On The 21st: The Supreme Court begins its session today, without the ninth seat filled. We talk about what’s on the docket this term. Plus, over the past few months three female elected officials have been working on recommendations to stop harassment in Illinois politics. But first, how are news headlines affecting our children? We’ll hear from a family doctor on what she’s seeing and how to talk about these issues at home.
Today marks the opening day for the Supreme Court’s new term. And without a ninth justice to fill the empty seat, it may be that the the court has been tinkering with the docket.
And what of that empty seat? Well, last week more than 20 million people watched the intense Senate hearing on the nomination of nominee Brett Kavanaugh, including emotional testimony from Christine Blasey Ford who has accused Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her when both were in high school, something he has vigorously denied.
Following this the Senate moved ahead with a procedural vote on Kavanaugh’s nomination, but is expected to put off a final floor vote until the FBI finishes an investigation of these allegations this week.
The court, however, is moving forward, as it always has. To talk more about what's on their radar, we were joined by legal experts and professors Tonja Jacobi from Northwestern’s Pritzker School of Law and Matthew Sag from Loyola University of Chicago. They’re the co-founders of ScotusOA, a website that analyzes Supreme Court oral arguments.
Will The Supreme Court be acknowledging the lack of a ninth justice? Not likely.
— The 21st (@21stShow) October 1, 2018
"That's pretty standard for the justices to just go on and pretend they're not affected by politics, even if they might be," says @TonjaJacobi.
Plus-
How is the constant, at times intense news cycle affecting our children? It's important to take a step back and evaluate how we engage our kids in these conversations. Dr. Geeta Maker Clark has been looking into that question. She practices family medicine on Chicago’s North Shore and she wrote a post on Facebook last week, an “unsolicited PSA from your local family doctor," that pointed out that especially now, what you say and how you say it matters very much, especially around our children.
Dr. Maker-Clark joined us on the line.
"The brain is very plastic at this time in life and it's still developing," says Dr. Maker-Clark of young kids.
— The 21st (@21stShow) October 1, 2018
"We need to be doing an integrity check- how much of this needs to be spilling out into our kids lives."
And-
It’s been nearly a year since the #MeToo movement was put into the national spotlight. And since then, we’ve been hearing many different stories about sexual harassment and sexual assault.
Since February a non-partisan panel of women in government have been working on ways to stop a culture of harassment in state politics, especially on campaigns.
They went all over the state and talked to women who were affected by this issue, and last week they released their findings to the public.
For more on this, we were joined in studio by one of the co-founders of that panel. Carol Ammons is a Democrat representing Illinois’ 103rd House district that’s the Champaign-Urbana area. Kerry Lester also joined us. She’s a longtime political journalist, now an author most recently of No, My Place: Reflections on Sexual Harassment in Illinois Government and Politics.
Over the past few months three female elected officials have been working on recommendations to stop harassment in Illinois politics.
— The 21st (@21stShow) October 1, 2018
We're with @kerrylester from the @dailyherald & @StateRepAmmons NOW talking more about the Anti-Harassment, Equality and Access Panel.