Whether you're talking about politics in Oklahoma or nationally, it seems to be a time of confrontation, hysteria, or despair - depending on your political tribe. In this episode, Emily and James run down a variety of political news that have people talking in Oklahoma and across the nation.

In Oklahoma, primary elections saw a Texas millionaire waste a lot of money in an unsuccessful bid to unseat U.S. Rep Tom Cole (OK CD-4). Also, the OK Supreme Court strikes down an attempt to create a publicly-funded Catholic Charter school. State Schools Superintendent Ryan Walters responds by mandating that all public schools will teach the Bible (as a historical document) and that all public school classrooms will have a Bible in them.

Nationally, Democrats have had a rough couple of weeks. President Joe Biden had a disastrous debate performance, which has led to open calls for him to drop out of the race. President Biden has responded defiantly, saying he is the best candidate to face former President Donald Trump in November. Meanwhile the Supreme Court released (as is its custom at the end of its term) released a slew of cases in which it gave a partial victory to abortion rights advocates, said states are permitted to deny individuals who have restraining orders against them to purchase or own firearms, that former presidents do have some immunity for "official acts," and that the courts will no longer give deference to government agencies when interpreting whether a law passed by Congress authorizes certain rules or regulations created by the agency, but not expressly authorized by Congress.

Along the way, Emily and James move in and out of agreement on various topics, and have a lively discussion of some of the important political events occurring over the last few weeks.

For more information on the race for Oklahoma's 4th Congressional District, read this: https://nondoc.com/2024/06/18/tom-cole-beats-paul-bondar-oklahoma-4th-congressional-district/

To find out more about the OK Supreme Court's rejection of plans to create a religious charter school, go here: https://www.politico.com/news/2024/06/25/oklahoma-high-court-rejects-religious-charter-school-contract-00164843

To read more about OK State Superintendent Ryan Walters' mandate that all Oklahoma public schools teach "the role the Bible played in American history," click here: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/oklahoma-education-head-discusses-why-hes-mandating-public-schools-teach-the-bible

To read about President Biden's debate performance and the political fallout of it, go here: https://www.politico.com/news/2024/07/04/biden-trump-debate-polling-00166590

To read the most recent opinions of the U.S. Supreme Court, click here: https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/slipopinion/23

For more information on Dr. Emily Stacey, click here: https://www.rose.edu/staff/social-sciences-department/stacey-emily/

For more information on Professor James Davenport, click here:

Everyone knows that the Supreme Court is divided between 6 "conservative" justices and 3 "liberal" justices - and that's all you really need to know about the decisions made by the Court, right? "Not so fast," says Dr. Dean Jens and Sarah Isgur in their recent article for politico. Jens and Isgur note that roughly 50% of the Court's decisions in its 2022-2023 term were unanimous. Less than 10% of the divided opinions had the 6-3 conservative/liberal division. In addition, 90% of those cases had at least one liberal justice in the majority.

In this episode, Emily and James visit with Dr. Jens and Dr. Keith Eakins, a specialist in judicial processes and Constitutional law, regarding some interesting and unexpected overlaps between justices, the role ideology plays in judicial decision-making, and whether we should think of the camps within the Supreme Court justices as 3-3-3 court rather than 6-3.

Along the way, James tries to explain what is meant by "standing" in the judicial context, Emily and James give a preview of the OK primaries, and they introduce a new segment called "I have questions."

To read the Politico article by Dr. Dean Jens and Sarah Isgur, go here: https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2024/06/02/supreme-court-justice-math-00152188

To find out more about Dr. Dean Jens, click here: https://business.ucf.edu/person/dean-jens/

To find out more about Dr. Keith Eakins, click here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/keith-rollin-eakins-jd-phd-02a23713/

Click here to learn more about Dr. Emily Stacey: https://www.rose.edu/staff/social-sciences-department/stacey-emily/

Click here to learn more about Professor James Davenport: https://www.rose.edu/staff/social-sciences-department/davenport-james/

Not My Generation is recorded and produced by Possibilities, Inc. You can learn more about Possibilities, Inc. here: https://www.possibilitiesinc.org/

You can follow Not My Generation on X (Twitter) at @NMGpodcast and on Facebook at Not My Generation Podcast. You can also email us at NotMyGeneration@raider.rose.edu.

The views expressed here are solely the views of the hosts and their guests and do not represent the views of Rose State College, its administration, faculty, or students.

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In this episode, Emily and James visit with Andy Moore, Founder & CEO of Let's Fix This, and Dr. Bradley Ward, Deputy State Director for Americans for Prosperity of Oklahoma. Both organizations are grassroots organizations that advocate for various public policies. We visit with them about the most recent legislative session, the main policies they advocated for and against, and a little about the recent convictions of former President Donald Trump in New York.

Along the way, we learn about Right of First Refusal Laws, some differences the guests have regarding tax policy, and James and Emily discuss their recent trips out of state for some academic meetings.

To learn more about Andy Moore, go here: https://andymoore.com/about

To get more information about Let's Fix This, go here: https://letsfixthis.org/

To check out Andy Moore's podcast, Let's Pod This, go here: https://lets-pod-this.captivate.fm/

To find out more about Dr. Bradley Ward, go here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bradward42/

To learn more about Americans for Prosperity, go here: https://americansforprosperity.org/about/

Learn more about Dr. Emily Stacey here: https://www.rose.edu/staff/social-sciences-department/stacey-emily/

Learn more about Prof. James Davenport here: https://www.rose.edu/staff/social-sciences-department/davenport-james/

Not My Generation is recorded and produced by Possibilities, Inc. You can learn more about Possibilities, Inc. here: https://www.possibilitiesinc.org/

You can follow Not My Generation on X (Twitter) at @NMGpodcast and on Facebook at Not My Generation Podcast. You can also email us at NotMyGeneration@raider.rose.edu.

The views expressed here are solely the views of the hosts and their guests and do not represent the views of Rose State College, its administration, faculty, or students.

Mentioned in this episode:

Not My Generation Promo Snippet