Most of us take it for granted that if we're ever in court and we can't afford a lawyer, the court will provide one for us. And in fact, the right to an attorney is written into the Constitution's sixth amendment. But for most of U.S. history, it was more of a nice-to-have — something you got if you could, but that many people went without.
Today, though, public defenders represent up to 80% of people charged with crimes. So what changed? Today on the show: how public defenders became the backbone of our criminal legal system, and what might need to change for them to truly serve everyone.
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Chris Line, an attorney with the Freedom From Religion Foundation, calls the baptism of Tattnall County High School football players “religious coercion.”
The reliability of a document by one of the U.S. Constitution's framers has long been under serious doubt. North Carolina Republicans cited it in a case that could upend election laws.
The document last went up for auction in 1894. After the new auction was announced, the group that crowdfunded an attempt to buy a similar copy last year told NPR, "We're looking into it."
Wednesday on Political Rewind: It was one year ago today that Georgia voters handed control of the U.S. Senate to Democrats when they elected Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock. But as the 2022 election cycle gets underway, Republicans and Democrats are ready for a fierce fight to determine which party will claim dominance of state politics. Like many states, Georgia is seeing a powerful new wave of COVID-19 cases. The Department of Public Health reported more than 67,000 confirmed cases over the new year holiday weekend. Gov. Kemp is set to announce his support for a further loosening of Georgia’s gun laws. Plus, Andre Dickens is sworn in as Atlanta's new mayor…and there’s tightened security on Capitol Hill as the one-year anniversary of the insurrection approaches.
Wednesday on Political Rewind: As the Senate Judiciary committee prepares to vote on the confirmation of Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the U.S. Supreme Court, our panel of experts takes a look at how she could help shape rulings that may have a big impact here in Georgia.
Our panel of legal experts will weigh in on these key questions and discuss how the court might rule on two important trump anti-immigration cases.
There's no questioning that the past 72 hours in America since President Trump's testing positive for the coronavirus have added yet another chapter to the drama that is 2020, with many uncertainties ahead for how the president's illness could affect the outcome of the presidential election less than a month away. This murkiness has even left political science scholars scratching their heads at what could come next.
GPB's Sarah Rose spoke with Andrew Pieper, a professor of political science at Kennesaw State University, who said we are living in unprecedented times.
The president is calling for unauthorized immigrants to be excluded from census numbers used to divide seats in Congress. The Constitution says the count must include every person living in the U.S.
