&lt;div&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span data-stringify-type="bold"&gt;With the recent passing of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, there's been a lot of debate about how much power the Supreme Court should&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span data-stringify-type="bold"&gt; re&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span data-stringify-type="bold"&gt;ally&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span data-stringify-type="bold"&gt; have.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;p&gt;We tend to think of the Supreme Court justices as all-powerful guardians of the constitution, issuing momentous rulings from on high. They seem at once powerful, and unknowable; all lacy collars and black robes.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;But they haven’t always been so, you know, supreme. On this episode of&lt;span&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;em&gt;More Perfect&lt;/em&gt;, we go all the way back to the case that, in a lot of ways, is the beginning of the court we know today.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;Also: we listen back to a mnemonic device (and song) that we created back in 2016 to help people remember the names of the justices. Listen, create a new one, and share with us!&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;iframe frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/j4TENcocyss" width="100%"&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a class="twitter-share-button" href="https://twitter.com/share" data-url="https://youtu.be/j4TENcocyss" data-text="My #SCOTUSsong would be ___" data-via="Radiolab" data-size="large"&gt;Tweet&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The key links:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;- Akhil Reed Amar's forthcoming book, &lt;a href="https://www.amazon.com/Constitution-Today-Timeless-Lessons-Issues/dp/0465096336"&gt;The Constitution Today: Timeless Lessons for the Issues of Our Era&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;- Linda Monk's book, &lt;a href="https://www.amazon.com/Words-Live-Annotated-Constitution-Stonesong/dp/078688620X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;amp;ie=UTF8&amp;amp;qid=1467405824&amp;amp;sr=1-1&amp;amp;keywords=Linda+Monk"&gt;The Words We Live By: Your Annotated Guide to the Constitution&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The key voices:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;- Linda Monk, &lt;a href="http://lindamonk.com/"&gt;author and constitutional scholar&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;- Akhil Reed Amar, &lt;a href="https://www.law.yale.edu/akhil-reed-amar"&gt;Sterling Professor of Law at Yale&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;- Ari J. Savitzky, &lt;a href="https://www.wilmerhale.com/ari_savitzky/"&gt;lawyer at WilmerHale&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The key cases:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;- 1803: &lt;a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/1789-1850/5us137"&gt;Marbury v. Madison&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;- 1832: &lt;a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/1789-1850/31us515"&gt;Worcester v. Georgia&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;- 1954: &lt;a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/1940-1955/347us483"&gt;Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;- 1955: &lt;a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/1940-1955/349us294"&gt;Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (2)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Additional music for this episode by &lt;a href="http://www.podingtonbear.com/wpnew/"&gt;Podington Bear&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Special thanks to Dylan Keefe and&lt;span&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;a href="http://mitchboyer.com/"&gt;Mitch Boyer&lt;/a&gt; for their work on the above video.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;span&gt;Support Radiolab by becoming a member today at&lt;span&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;a href="https://pledge3.wnyc.org/donate/radiolab-it/onestep/?utm_source=wnyc&amp;amp;utm_medium=radiolab-redirect&amp;amp;utm_campaign=pledge&amp;amp;utm_content=show-notes" target="_blank" title="Pledge"&gt;Radiolab.org/donate&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span&gt;.    &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt; &lt;/p&gt;

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