Why Don't We Have Constitutional Rights Anymore? (w/ Aziz Huq)

Current Affairs

Aziz Huq is an expert in constitutional law at the University of Chicago law school. He is the author of the book The Collapse of Constitutional Remedies, available from Oxford University Press. Prof. Huq's book focuses on the fact that constitutional rights are meaningless unless there are remedies for violations of those rights, and that while we ostensibly have the same rights as always, courts have steadily eroded our ability to get anything if the government chooses to violate our rights. We discuss:

- Why cops get away with brutality and lying

- How the US court system is not set up to protect people's rights, but we still did have some once

- How the right-wing turn of the courts has meant strong protections for corporate rights and few protections for personal rights against state violence

- How we can perhaps one day have some rights that are more than just words on a piece of paper

Our "cynical know-your-rights poster," mentioned in the episode, is here.