January 11 – Is the Supreme Court Poised to Eviscerate Public Sector Unions?; The Looming Battle Between Guatemala’s Judiciary and Political Establishment; The Backlash in Germany Following the New Year’s Sexual Assaults

Full Program

Part 1

We begin with arguments before the Supreme Court today in a case brought by conservative activists representing a few California teachers who consider paying union dues an infringement of their First Amendment rights, an argument the court’s majority of conservative justices appeared ready to rule in favor of and thus deal public sector unions a severe blow. Elizabeth Wydra, Chief Counsel of the Constitutional Accountability Center, who was in the Supreme Court today, joins us to discuss this politically-charged case that appears to be aimed at decimating unions that tend to support Democratic candidates.

Part 2

Then, ahead of this week’s inauguration of Guatemala’s president-elect, the comedian Jimmy Morales, we examine the fates of 18 former senior military and intelligence officers arrested on charges related to the massacres and disappearances of 245,000 mostly indigenous Guatemalans in the 1980’s. Anita Isaacs, a Professor of Political Science at Haverford College and author of the forthcoming book, “The Politics of Transitional Justice in Postwar Guatemala”, joins us to discuss the looming showdown between the judiciary and the political establishment as prosecutors moved to have the Congressional immunity of the co-founder of Morales’ party lifted.

Part 3

Then finally we go to Berlin, Germany to speak with Stefanie Lohaus, the co-founder and co-editor of Missy Magazine and Anne Wizorek, a prominent feminist activist and author of “Because an Outcry in Not Enough”. Together they have an article in VICE magazine “Immigrants Aren’t Responsible for Rape Culture in Germany” and we discuss the backlash to the 200 alleged sexual assaults that took place around Cologne’s train station during New Year celebrations that have one third of Germans now saying their views on immigrants have worsened.