Terry Gross

Washington was recently awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. He spoke to Fresh Air in 2008, about the film The Great Debaters, which he directed and starred in.

The court's super majority of conservative judges has already passed down rulings about abortion and the 2nd Amendment. New York Times journalist Adam Liptak says more legal upheavals are likely.

Kelly Lytle Hernández's book, Bad Mexicans, tells the story of the rebels who fled from Mexico to the U.S. to publish an oppositional newspaper that would help spark revolution in Mexico.