笔谤辞蹿别蝉蝉辞谤听Lisa McElroy explored recent and pending Supreme Court decisions with Radio Times guest host Tracey Matisak on May 27.
The court鈥檚 ruling in Brown v. Plata that California must reduce prison overcrowding will force the state to either release a significant number of inmates or undertake costly construction of new prisons, McElroy said.
The decision is not just important in California, said McElroy, who writes the Plain English column on .
鈥淭his is putting states on notice,鈥 McElroy said, explaining that the justices agreed with a lower court ruling that the Eighth Amendment requires that prisons need not be luxurious but must provide basic habitability.
McElroy also discussed recent and pending rulings in immigration cases, an employment discrimination case involving Wal-Mart and a First Amendment case concerning the sale of violent video games on the program.
Each decision has far-reaching consequences, McElroy said.
鈥淲e tend to think about the Supreme Court as being distant,鈥 she said, but each case they decide 鈥渁ffects lots and lots of ordinary people.鈥