In April, Pepperdine University Law School hosted a symposium, exploring the most maligned United States Supreme Court Decisions.

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Deputy Solicitor General Neal Katyal headed up a panel of legal scholars to review the recent Supreme Court term.  He talked about important cases from this term including the Wal-Mart case, the impact Justice Kagan has made on the Court and also looked forward to what’s ahead including the Obama health care law cases currently being heard in circuit courts around the country.  The Heritage Foundation hosted this discussion in Washington, DC. 

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Former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor speaks about historical conflicts between the judicial and executive branches of government. She talks about the separation of powers in cases of war and reflects on moments in American history when the three branches of government intersected and clashed. The Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library in Hyde Park, New York hosted this event in 2007.

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Arlen Specter died Sunday, October 14th, 2012, at the age of 82. In his 30 years representing Pennsylvania in the U.S. Senate, Specter participated in the confirmation hearings of 14 U.S. Supreme Court nominees. Soon after leaving the Senate in 2011, Specter sat down for a series of oral history interviews with the Pennsylvania Cable Network. In this interview, he recounts his experience as a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee as it considered the nominations of Robert Bork and Clarence Thomas.

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45 years ago, on October 2, 1967, Thurgood Marshall was sworn in as the first African American Justice on the U.S. Supreme Court.  He was appointed by President Lyndon Johnson.  This is his 1991 retirement press conference.

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Saul Cornell discusses his book "A Well-Regulated Militia: The Founding Fathers and the Origins of Gun Control in America."  He explores the opposing sides of the gun control debate, arguing that both base their opinions on a flawed understanding of the second amendment.

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“Operation Gold” was a 1950s project conducted by the CIA and the British Intelligence Service to tap into Soviet communications by tunneling from West Berlin into East Berlin, Germany. Known as “Operation Stopwatch” by the British, the 1,500 foot tunnel was active for eleven months, and netted about 40,000 hours of East German telephone conversations - even though the KGB knew about the tunnel before it was built. Retired CIA officer Lou Mehrer tells the story of the Berlin Tunnel at the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library & Museum in West Branch, Iowa.

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Harvard Law School history professor Annette Gordon-Reed is the author of two books exploring the story of Sally Hemings and her family’s ties to Thomas Jefferson. Her 2009 book, “The Hemingses of Monticello,” won a Pulitzer Prize. At the National Council for History Education National Conference in Richmond, Virginia, professor Gordon-Reed discusses teaching about slavery, as well as the research that led to her books.

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These are unedited excerpts from a 1992 conversation with former President Gerald Ford. He remembers Dwight D. Eisenhower from the perspective of the Michigan congressman that he was in the 1950s. Topics include the 1952 election and the GOP’s domestic agenda, McCarthyism, civil rights, and Ike’s legacy for the Republican party. He also discusses the day he took his young sons to visit Eisenhower at his Gettysburg farm, and the impromptu lesson the former World War II general gave the Ford boys on one of this nation’s most storied battles.   

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In this program from our 1999 "American Presidents: Life Portraits" series we focused on Rutherford B. Hayes' life and career. Author Ari Hoogenboom and the director of the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center, Roger Bridges, talked about President Hayes as a lawyer, soldier, and politician during the contested election of 1876 in which Congress appointed Hayes president despite his loss to Samuel Tilden in the national election. The guests also explored the grounds of the Hayes Presidential Center, highlighting the various landmarks there. 

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