0:00 // Introduction — Trump versus the Constitution after 16 months
Uploaded 17-07-26
1:27 // The five worst Supreme Court decisions of all time
3:13 // Dred Scott 1857 — the case that helped start a civil war
5:33 // Plessy v Ferguson 1896 — separate but equal and Angola prison
8:38 // Buck v Bell 1927 — eugenics, sterilisation and echoes in the present
10:43 // Korematsu 1944 — Japanese internment and the road to Guantanamo
13:39 // Bowers v Hardwick — criminalising sodomy and how Stafford Smith fought it
18:00 // Lawrence v Texas — how the Supreme Court finally overruled Bowers
19:18 // The current court — immunity for presidents and the 22 unanimous decisions
21:38 // Roberts versus Clarence Thomas — two very different conservatives
23:44 // The biggest decision of this term — Trump's tariffs struck down 6 to 3
26:19 // Why Britain needs a constitution — prisoners' votes and Cameron's contempt
27:43 // Criminal cases — death row, mental disability and the court doing its job
31:20 // First Amendment cases — conversion therapy, gender and street preaching
35:38 // Louisiana v Calais — gerrymandering, affirmative action and why it will backfire
42:13 // Conclusion — the Constitution is surviving, but Britain has no such protection
Watch the Q and A session here: https://youtu.be/EYtlT4N0z28
The Americans are very proud of their written constitution. During the first 3/8 of President Trump’s second term of office, the constitution has been severely tested. Where has the Constitution succeeded in providing legal safeguards, clarity and stability, and where has it failed? How will the remainder of this presidency look? And what is coming after Trump?
This lecture was recorded by Clive Stafford Smith on the 4th of June 2026
Clive Stafford Smith JD OBE is a dual UK-US national, the founder and director of the Justice League a non-profit human rights training centre focused on fostering the next generation of advocates.
He was the Senior Prefect at Radley College, where he studied maths and science; then a Morehead Scholar at the University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill), where he took a degree in Politics; and a Stone Merit Scholar each of his three years at Columbia Law School, graduating in 1984.
He previously founded and directed the legal action charities Louisiana Capital Assistance Center (1993 in New Orleans) and Reprieve (1999 in London). Since 1984 he has tried many capital cases, and helped to represent over 400 people facing execution in the US and elsewhere. He also brought the first challenge to Guantánamo Bay, where he has secured the release of 87 detainees, and continues to assist the remaining 15. In all five of the cases he has helped bring to the U.S. Supreme Court the petitioner has prevailed.
He has recently taken on the case of Aafia Siddiqui, the woman who has most suffered from the US rendition-to-torture program – abducted with her three children. He continues to work on capital cases in the US, including a Post-Mortem Project where he is investigating the claims of innocence of 184 people executed since 1977.
Clive has published a number of books including Bad Men (2008, describing work in Guantánamo) and Injustice (2012, on the capital case of Kris Maharaj), both of which were short-listed for the Orwell Prize; and most recently The Far Side of the Moon (2023), deconstructing the parallel lives of his father and a client Larry Lonchar, both of whom were labelled Bipolar. He has many other publications, including manuals for the defence of capital cases, and law review articles about aspects of capital defence. He has worked on many films and documentaries, starting with Fourteen Days In May (1987), recently ranked as one of the top BBC documentaries of all time.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/current-chal
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