CNN Special Report S2022E15 - Supreme Power: Inside the Highest Court in the Land – A Fareed Zakaria Special

On the eve of the new term of America's Supreme Court, CNN's Fareed Zakaria, host of the global public affairs program Fareed Zakaria GPS, dives deep into the Court's controversial last term, the most conservative in almost a century, and previews the landmark cases ahead. Last term's most dramatic decision, Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, stripped citizens of a previously determined freedom.  SUPREME POWER: Inside the Highest Court in the Land yields new details about Chief Justice John Roberts' furious, ultimately futile fight to stop the conservative bloc of Justices from overturning Roe v Wade.

The stunning political and cultural impact of that precedent-shattering reversal of prior Supreme Court case law has roiled national politics. That decision was foreshadowed by another unprecedented event: the leaking of the draft opinion to the public. Considered an act of extraordinary betrayal, the leak from within the Court threw a spotlight on the brewing personal and deepening partisan tensions among the Court's justices. Zakaria also challenges Court insiders to dissect what's at stake with a little-known case in the new session that may be the most dramatic of all.

This special also traces the history of the Court through the 20th Century, from Franklin Roosevelt's battle to expand a Supreme Court he felt was too obstructionist, to the transformative social changes of the Warren Court, to the ugly and divisive confirmation hearings of the last few decades – to draw a clear line to the present moment. Zakaria and Supreme Court experts reveal how America arrived at this most conservative Court in 100 years. Dissecting Dobbs, looming legal battles that could change the way Americans vote, and so much more with Zakaria from both the last term and the term ahead are:

- Joan Biskupic, Supreme Court biographer (The Chief: The Life and Turbulent Times of Chief Justice John Roberts, 2019; American Original: The Life and Constitution of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, 2010) and CNN senior Supreme Court analyst;

- Noah Feldman, Harvard Law School professor, Bloomberg Opinion columnist, and author (The Broken Constitution: Lincoln, Slavery, and the Refounding of America, 2021; The Three Lives of James Madison: Genius, Partisan, President, 2020);

- Carrie Severino, president of Judicial Crisis Network and author (Justice on Trial: The Kavanaugh Confirmation and the Future of the Court, 2020); and,

- Nina Totenberg, NPR legal affairs correspondent and author (Dinners with Ruth, 2022).