Politics And Pandemic: The Legal Strategies At Play

Everything in our lives this past month has existed at the intersection of the coronavirus, or the election. In the past two weeks, there's been a slew of legal questions around both.

President Donald Trump refuses to acknowledge his defeat by President-Elect Joe Biden. And his team and other Republicans have turned to the courts, citing unverified and unproven claims of voter fraud in key battleground states.

Plus, as the coronavirus surges nationwide and here in Massachusetts, there are renewed legal questions about the balance between individual freedom and actions state and federal government can take to curb infections and hospitalizations.

We take listener calls with Nancy Gertner, retired federal judge, senior lecturer at Harvard Law School, and WBUR's Legal Analyst. And with John Fabian Witt, a professor of law and history at Yale University, is author of the new book "American Contagions: Epidemics and the Law from Smallpox to COVID-19."