Horizon celebrates 40 years on the air with Paul Bender, a long-time guest

We continue our celebration of Arizona Horizon’s 40th anniversary by speaking with ASU Law Professor Paul Bender, a former Dean of the Law College and a one-time Principal Deputy Solicitor General who argued more than 20 cases before the U.S. Supreme Court. Paul Bender has been a guest on Horizon from almost the very beginning, helping to explain complex legal issues and important cases before the State and U.S. Supreme Courts. We spoke with Professor Bender about his contributions to Arizona Horizon.

“I like the idea of talking to non-lawyers about important things that are going on in the law, I think there is a lot of confusion about what things mean and I enjoy trying to explain it to people, it helps me explain it to myself, it helps me prepare for class,” Bender said.

Bender continued that speaking on Arizona Horizon helps his law curriculum, “sometimes I’ll talk to you before class and my class is a lot better but I enjoy talking about it and I enjoy trying to educate people into what’s going on and the Supreme Court, which is what we talking about mostly…Supreme Court is such a fascinating institution that is always interesting to talk about.”

Arizona has a big connection with the Supreme Court through the two Supreme Court Justices we had for a while, “not only did we have the two Supreme Court Justices, and they were not just any old Supreme Court Justices, one of them was the first woman on the court…and…Arizona has some very strange laws and sometimes the strangeness makes them be challenged as unconstitutional,” Bender said.

He continued that many Supreme Court Cases involving states laws involve Arizona than a typical state.

“I think you can explain really complicated legal issues to people if you just try to explain it to them. They’re all explainable, the law is amazingly logical,” Bender said.