Summary Deadlocked: How America Shaped the Supreme Court is a new miniseries from Emmy-winning filmmaker and producer Dawn Porter that explores the course the court has taken since its inception. It’s an informative series for anyone invested in American history or politics, and a must-watch for those trying to understand or grapple with recent Supreme Court decisions.
I certainly spent a lot of time in making Trapped focusing on the court, but really, I've been concerned about how decisions are being made as much as what the decisions are, because I think process is important. And so, about three years ago, Showtime called me up and said, “Do you want to do something on the Supreme Court?” I was like, “Yes. Yes, I do,” but we didn't know what it was at the time. It took a little while to figure out.
But I think what we're seeing now is different. We're seeing a very aggressive, conservative court that is not abiding by past decisions, [and] that is taking cases and deciding them without opinion on the emergency docket. Those are things that are worrisome, because the big thing for the Supreme Court is, “Show your work.” Show why you're making this decision so that we can, as a country, say, “Yeah, we understand why something had to change.
Obviously, everyone on the Court is a person with their own opinions and everything, but it’s supposed to be an impartial body. Now that we have Ginny Thomas whispering QAnon theories, and Harlan Crow and the Federalist Society having their influence, what do you think is the normal amount of external influence? How much should the outside world realistically affect Court decisions?
Dawn Porter: Yeah, yeah, exactly. I'm so glad you highlighted that, because I love where she's quoting Scalia and she says [that] he says of her, “Some very good people can have some very bad ideas.” He says, “I don't attack people. I attack ideas.” I think despite the fact that they had such different political views and different views of constitutional interpretation, they were quite respectful and quite close friends.
This is a process, filmmaking question, but I’m a Crooked Media fan over here. I love that you have the Strict Scrutiny hosts in the series. How did you choose who to talk to for this, and was there anybody who wouldn’t speak to you?