DISCOVERY presented by UW Law

Jan 08 2025 65 ep. 22 mins 35
DISCOVERY presented by UW Law Podcast artwork

DISCOVERY is a podcast presented by the University of Washington School of Law in Seattle, WA, featuring distinguished guests discussing today's biggest social, political and legal issues. Episodes focus on a diverse mix of legal and legal-adjacent topics through intimate conversations with experts, speakers and leaders from around the globe. For more, visit law.uw.edu/podcast.

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They Had Standing

Jan 08 2025 22 mins  
We interview new faculty member Jeremiah Chin, an expert on children’s rights and constitutional rights, about Held v. Montana, the first constitutional climate trial led by children in U.S. history. The Montana Supreme Court ruled in favor of the 16 youth plaintiffs in December 2024 that Montana’s fossil fuel energy policies and actions violate the children’s state constitu

Why Would I Bother?

Oct 02 2024 31 mins  
To open season seven of Discovery, we’re discussing voter suppression through a social science lens with UW Law faculty member Danieli Evans. The 2024 U.S. Presidential Election is just weeks away and concerns around preserving voters’ rights are ever-present as Americans begin casting their ballots. Poll taxes, strict voter ID laws and restrictions on mail voting are example

The History of Impeachment

Jul 01 2024 31 mins  
Some scholars call our politically fraught and hyper-partisan times “the age of impeachment.” They claim the increased use of impeachment and removal proceedings signals an erosion in institutional norms, perhaps that we’ve even “overwhelmed” the use of impeachment and diluted impeachment of any significance. What does U.S. impeachment history tell us? The Constitution

An Unprecedented Rollback of Human Rights

May 28 2024 26 mins  
In 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court held that the Fourteenth Amendment’s guarantee to personal liberty does not include the right to abortion and returned the power to regulate abortion to individual states. Justice Samuel Alito said in the Court’s majority opinion that the decision in Dobbs v. The Jackson Women's Health Organization would end the abortion controversy once and for

Big Data Searches and the Future of Criminal Procedure

Apr 15 2024 26 mins  
Beginning with the tale of an unsolved mystery, and expanding to the U.S. Capitol riots on January 6, 2021, UW Professor of Law Mary D. Fan takes us through a look at how crimes are being solved through the use of digital searches. Keyword and geofence warrants are now tools helping law enforcement identify unknown perpetrators. However, courts are split over their constitutional

The Youth Tax

Mar 11 2024 31 mins  
The Supreme Court has categorically ruled that the application of neuroscience research to the legal culpability of minors committing crimes, no matter how serious, must be considered in the criminal justice system. In addition to maintaining public safety, the primary goals of the juvenile justice system include rehabilitation and successfully reintegrating youth into the communit

The Extraordinary Career of Stephen Bright

Feb 05 2024 26 mins  
In this episode of “Discovery,” we interview our first return guest, Professor Robert Tsai of the Boston University School of Law. Tsai visited the UW Law Faculty Colloquium to discuss his forthcoming (and fourth) book, Demand the Impossible: One Lawyer’s Pursuit of Equal Justice, a historical thriller about the decline of the death penalty adjacent to the career of attorney

The Laws of Space Mining

Jan 03 2024 25 mins  
If fishing in international waters is legal, what about mining asteroids and the moon for water ice and precious metals? Turns out in-situ resource utilization (ISRU) is lawful, as governed by the Outer Space Treaty and Artemis Accords, and embraced as advancing the cause of space exploration. Of interest to NASA and other civil space agencies around the globe, as well as a number

Operating in the Shadows

Nov 15 2023 24 mins  
On June 29, 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against race-based admissions at college campuses nationwide after hearing companion cases by Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA) that challenged admissions programs at Harvard and the University of North Carolina (UNC). SFFA overturned the 2003 ruling by a more liberal Supreme Court in the case Grutter v. Bollinger, which affirmed th

Congress Has Spoken

Apr 13 2023 23 mins  
Over the last half century, Congress has passed strong laws relating to environmental protection, covering a range of resources and industries. Despite these bold and comprehensive laws, implementation can be challenging, especially when it comes to the court system’s interpretation of them. Sanne Knudsen, the Stimson Bullitt Endowed Professor of Environmental Law at UW Law, call