Law audiobooks

Civil Rights Act Pioneered Anti-Discrimination Laws

By: PBS NewsHour

Narrated by: PBS NewsHour

Length: 15 minutes

Abridged: No

President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act into law 50 years ago. Gwen Ifill examines its legacy and unfinished business with President Johnson's daughter, Lynda Johnson Robb, Shirley Franklin, the former mayor of Atlanta, Ranjana Natarajan of the University of Texas School of Law, and former House Republican aide Robert Kimball. Read more

Drugs Used in Lethal Injections

By: PBS NewsHour

Narrated by: PBS NewsHour

Length: 9 minutes

Abridged: No

As foreign supplies have dwindled, traditional lethal injection drugs are being replaced with others manufactured in the U.S. But inmates and lawyers are questioning whether these new drugs will result in death without undue pain and suffering. Gwen Ifill takes a closer look at the issue with Megan McCracken of the University of California,... Read more

Six Women of Salem

By: Marilynne K. Roach

Narrated by: Kate Reading

Length: 17 hours 8 minutes

Abridged: No

Six Women of Salem is the first work to use the lives of a select number of representative women as a microcosm to illuminate the larger crisis of the Salem witch trials. By the end of the trials, beyond the twenty who were executed and the five who perished in prison, two hundred and seven individuals had been accused, seventy four had been... Read more

Idea to invention

By: Patricia Nolan-Brown

Narrated by: Karen Saltus

Length: 6 hours 16 minutes

Abridged: No

You don't have to be a mechanical genius to be an inventor. Anyone can invent - a parent wrestling with a baby sling ...a coach frustrated with slick-soled running shoes ...an office worker determined to keep the computer cords untangled. Inventing is simply finding clever solutions to everyday challenges. Author and inventor Patricia... Read more

Fred & Rose

By: Howard Sounes

Narrated by: Howard Sounes

Length: 14 hours 20 minutes

Abridged: No

FRED & ROSE IS THE DEFINITIVE ACCOUNT OF THIS INFAMOUS TRUE CRIME CASE - NOW UPDATED WITH A POSTSCRIPT FROM THE AUTHOR. AS FEATURED ON TV, AND IN THE PODCAST SERIES, UNHEARD: THE FRED & ROSE WEST TAPES

Fred and Rose West are virtually unique in British criminal history: a husband and wife who loved and killed together.

During their long... Read more

Hawaii Hope

By: PBS NewsHour

Narrated by: PBS NewsHour

Length: 9 minutes

Abridged: No

NewsHour Weekend profiles an innovative probation program in Hawaii that has been so successful in reforming offenders and keeping them out of prison, it's now being copied in courtrooms across the nation. Read more

Taking the Stand

By: Alan Dershowitz

Narrated by: Ella Dershowitz & Alan Dershowitz

Length: 21 hours 22 minutes

Abridged: No

#1 New York Times bestselling author Alan Dershowitz recounts his extraordinary coming of age in this legal autobiography, as well as the cases that have changed American jurisprudence over the past fifty years, most of which he has personally been involved in.

“Overflowing with fascinating and funny vignettes involving his cases and clients, and... Read more

Enemies Within

By: Matt Apuzzo & Adam Goldman

Narrated by: Keith Szarabajka

Length: 8 hours 59 minutes

Abridged: No

Two Pulitzer Prize–winning journalists take an unbridled look into one of the most sensitive post-9/11 national security investigations, a breathtaking race to avert a second devastating terrorist attack on American soil.In Enemies Within Matt Apuzzo and Adam Goldman lay bare the complex and often contradictory state of counterterrorism and... Read more

The Trials of Laura Fair

By: Carole Haber

Narrated by: Pam Ward

Length: 10 hours 38 minutes

Abridged: No

On November 3, 1870, on a San Francisco ferry, Laura Fair shot and killed her married lover, A. P. Crittenden. Throughout her two murder trials, Fair’s lawyers, supported by expert testimony from physicians, claimed that the shooting was the result of temporary insanity caused by a severely painful menstrual cycle. The first jury disregarded... Read more

Is Health Care Reform a Good Bargain or Burden for Young Americans?

By: PBS NewsHour

Narrated by: PBS NewsHour

Length: 10 minutes

Abridged: No

Under the Affordable Care Act, getting young people into the health insurance market will be critical to offsetting the cost of caring for older, sicker Americans. Ray Suarez gets two views on how health reform will affect young adults from Jen Mishory of Young Invincibles and Generation Opportunity’s Evan Feinberg. Read more

Was Justice Served in Murder Acquittal of George Zimmerman?

By: PBS NewsHour

Narrated by: PBS NewsHour

Length: 14 minutes

Abridged: No

The George Zimmerman verdict has provoked passionate debate about legal justice and race in the U.S. Judy Woodruff gets reaction from Christina Swarns of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, New Yorker contributor Jelani Cobb, Jonathan Turley of the George Washington University Law School and Carol Swain of Vanderbilt Law School. Read more

SCOTUS: Police Can Swab for DNA Upon Arrest

By: PBS NewsHour

Narrated by: PBS NewsHour

Length: 5 minutes

Abridged: No

In a 5-4 vote, the Supreme Court ruled that police officers can take DNA samples without a warrant from people they arrest for serious crimes without violating the Fourth Amendment. Marcia Coyle of The National Law Journal joins Gwen Ifill to help clarify the details of the ruling and how the justices were split on the decision. Read more

Devil in the Grove

By: Gilbert King

Narrated by: Peter Francis James

Length: 17 hours 53 minutes

Abridged: No

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize“A must-read, cannot-put-down history.” — Thomas Friedman, New York TimesArguably the most important American lawyer of the twentieth century, Thurgood Marshall was on the verge of bringing the landmark suit Brown v. Board of Education before the U.S. Supreme Court when he became embroiled in a case that threatened to... Read more

Cool War

By: Noah Feldman

Narrated by: Noah Feldman

Length: 5 hours 53 minutes

Abridged: No

A bold and thought-provoking look at the future of U.S.-China relations, and how their coming power struggle will reshape the competitive playing field for nations around the world
 
The Cold War seemingly ended in a decisive victory for the West. But now, Noah Feldman argues, we are entering an era of renewed global struggle: the era of Cool... Read more

The Price of Justice

By: Laurence Leamer

Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner

Length: 13 hours 22 minutes

Abridged: No

This nonfiction legal thriller traces the fourteen-year struggle of two lawyers to bring the most powerful coal baron in American history to justice.Don Blankenship, head of Massey Energy since the early 1990s, ran an industry that provides nearly half of America's electric power. But wealth and influence weren't enough for Blankenship and his... Read more

The Roberts Court

By: Marcia Coyle

Narrated by: Bernadette Dunne

Length: 12 hours 54 minutes

Abridged: No

Seven minutes after President Obama put his signature to a landmark national health care insurance program, a lawyer in the office of Florida GOP attorney general Bill McCollum hit a computer key, sparking a legal challenge to the new law that would eventually reach the nation's highest court. Health care is only the most visible and recent... Read more

The Lawyer Bubble

By: Steven J. Harper

Narrated by: Walter Dixon

Length: 7 hours 24 minutes

Abridged: No

A noble profession is facing its defining moment. From law schools to the prestigious firms that represent the pinnacle of a legal career, a crisis is unfolding. News headlines tell part of the story—the growing oversupply of new lawyers, widespread career dissatisfaction, and spectacular implosions of pre-eminent law firms. Yet eager hordes of... Read more

Sandra Day O'Connor Explores SCOTUS

By: PBS NewsHour

Narrated by: PBS NewsHour

Length: 8 minutes

Abridged: No

Sandra Day O'Connor made Supreme Court history as the first female justice to serve on the bench. In her new book, Out of Order, she explores other aspects of history at the high court, as well as her own approach to service. O'Connor talks with Judy Woodruff about making tough decisions and women in the legal profession. Read more

High Court Hears Challenge to Same-Sex Marriage Ban

By: PBS NewsHour

Narrated by: PBS NewsHour

Length: 14 minutes

Abridged: No

The Supreme Court considered the constitutionality of California's Proposition 8, a ballot measure that bans same-sex marriage. Kwame Holman reports on reactions from supporters on both sides of the debate. Judy Woodruff talks to Marcia Coyle of the National Law Journal, who analyzes the arguments inside the courtroom. Read more

Attorneys Debate Constitutionality, Legality on Prop 8 Case

By: PBS NewsHour

Narrated by: PBS NewsHour

Length: 9 minutes

Abridged: No

As the Supreme Court considers arguments on the definition of marriage, and the legal and societal implications of same-sex marriage, Gwen Ifill moderates a debate between California Attorney General Kamala Harris and Austin Nimocks from the Alliance Defending Freedom, two attorneys who were present in the courtroom. Read more

Tales of Murder, Murderers and the Death Penalty at the Supreme Court

By: PBS NewsHour

Narrated by: PBS NewsHour

Length: 6 minutes

Abridged: No

A new book examines the murders, murderers and capital punishment overseen by the highest court in the U.S. Jeffrey Brown talks with veteran journalists Martin Clancy and Tim O'Brien about Murder at the Supreme Court, which documents some of the most notorious crimes and subsequent penalties. Read more

Out of Order

By: Sandra Day O'Connor

Narrated by: Sandra Day O'Connor

Length: 7 hours 5 minutes

Abridged: No

“I called this book Out of Order because it reflects my goal, which is to share a different side of the Supreme Court. Most people know the Court only as it exists between bangs of the gavel, when the Court comes to order to hear arguments or give opinions. But the stories of the Court and the Justices that come from the ‘out of order’ moments... Read more

Case on Police Collecting DNA from Criminals Reaches Supreme Court

By: PBS NewsHour

Narrated by: PBS NewsHour

Length: 7 minutes

Abridged: No

A man was arrested in Maryland and police officers took a DNA sample that connected him to an unrelated crime. The Supreme Court is now weighing whether the Fourth Amendment should protect him from that kind of search. Ray Suarez gets analysis and context on the case from Marcia Coyle of the National Law Journal. Read more

The Law

By: Frédéric Bastiat

Narrated by: Bernard Mayes

Length: 2 hours 7 minutes

Abridged: No

First published as a pamphlet in June 1850, The Law is already well over 150 years old, and it will still be read when another century has passed.America now faces the same situation France did in 1848 and the same socialist-communist plans and ideas adopted there are now sweeping America—the collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe... Read more