Podcast appearances and mentions of sonja west

Chief Justice of the Georgia Supreme Court, Leah Ward Sears and currently a partner at Smith, Gambrell & Russell law firm and Sonja West, Otis Brumby Distinguished Professor in First Amendment Law at The University of Georgia School of Law discuss the life and legal legacy of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and what’s next when it comes to nominating her successor.Also, the United States is nearing another somber milestone in the fight against COVID-19: 200,000 confirmed deaths.

Do you believe that once upon a time, before the rise of the administrative state, our legislature mainly legislated, our executive just carried out laws, and judges resolved individual disputes? Prepare to have your mind blown, as Maggie McKinley explains the central and evolving role that individual petitions for redress before Congress played from before the dawn of the Republic until the 1940s. She argues that our participation in government rather than formal, institutional separation has been the historical guarantor of democratic legitimacy. This show’s links: Maggie McKinley's faculty profile (https://www.law.upenn.edu/cf/faculty/mmckinle/) and writing (https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=1646988) Maggie McKinley, Petitioning and the Making of the Administrative State (https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3150671) Maggie McKinley, Lobbying and the Petition Clause (https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2762012) Sonja West, First Amendment Neighbors (http://digitalcommons.law.uga.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2035&context=fac_artchop) Oral Argument 1: Send Joe to Prison (http://oralargument.org/1) (guest Sonja West) Special Guest: Maggie McKinley.

We speak with NYU professor Ruth Ben-Ghiat about authoritarianism. And following that conversation, law professor Sonja West joins me to discuss the First Amendment and press.

Christian, Joe, and frequent co-host Sonja West dig into the mail and tweet bags and discuss nonsense, sense, and antisense. Topics include: Judge John Hodgman’s weighing in on speed trap law, podcast listening speeds, the Slate Supreme Court Breakfast Table, the insurable liability approach to the gun crisis, Joe sings (yes) a line from “The Externality Song” and (relatedly, obv) Hamilton vs. Upstream Color, price matching and the morality quiz, footnoting and in-text citation and madness, an argument over Guantanamo and rights, more on the culturally polarized gun debate and on rights generally, Posner’s skepticism of academia, and how things change and get better. This show’s links: Sonja West’s faculty profile and writing Oral Argument 1: Send Joe to Prison (guest Sonja West) Judge John Hodgman on flashing lights to warn of speed traps Slate: The Supreme Court Breakfast Table Oral Argument 101: Tug of War Oral Argument 100: A Few Minutes in the Rear-View Mirror Oral Argument 96: Students as Means Kedar Bhatia, Footnotes in Supreme Court Opinions David Foster Wallace, Tense Present (an earlier version of Authority and American Usage in Consider the Lobster and Other Essays) The brief Christian helped with in Rasul v. Bush, making the Mathews v. Eldridge argument the Court wound up adopting in the simultaneously decided Hamdi v. Rumsfeld (see pp. 17-21) Sonja West, The Second Amendment Is Not Absolute The Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act that confers immunity on gun manufacturers for most gun deaths; see also the wiki article on the act Oral Argument 102: Precautionary Federalism (guest Sarah Light) Dissent from denial of cert. in Stormans v. Wiesman Mark Graber, Alito (Religion) v. Alito (Abortion) Richard Posner, Entry 9: The Academy Is out of Its Depth Akhil Amar, Entry 10: Who Judges the Judges Richard Posner, Entry 11: The Immigration Decision Won’t Do Much Dawn Johnsen, Entry 12: How can a judge dismiss the importance of the Constitution? Richard Posner, Entry 27: Broad Interpretations Special Guest: Sonja West.

Do you have a right to film the police? Should people film the police? A lot of attention has been given to the use by police officers of body cameras (and dash cameras), but what about citizens’ filming arrests on the street? With Jocelyn Simonson, we explore the ways that the use of cameras both facilitates and is expression. This show’s links: Jocelyn Simonson’s facult profile and writing Oral Argument 64: Protect and Serve (guest Seth Stoughton) Jocelyn Simonson, Beyond Body Cameras: Defending a Robust Right to Record the Police Timothy Williams, James Thomas, Samuel Jacoby, and Damien Cave, Police Body Cameras: What Do You See? (an interactive NY Times feature using videos created by Seth Stoughton); see also Jason Kottke’s link to this piece, which also features links to related ideas in film direction The Chicago Police Accountability Task Force (with links to the report); see also Monica Davey and Mitch Smith, Chicago Police Dept. Plagued by Systemic Racism, Task Force Finds ACLU of Illinois v. Alvarez (featuring a dissent by Judge Posner) Floyd v. City of New York (the stop and frisk case); see also p.597 of the same case for the judge’s quotations of police, some used in Jocelyn’s paper, evincing a “contempt and hostility . . . toward the local population”) This American Life 414: The Right to Remain Silent, Act Two (“For 17 months, New York police officer Adrian Schoolcraft recorded himself and his fellow officers on the job, including their supervisors ordering them to do all sorts of things that police aren't supposed to do.”) Jocelyn Simonson, Copwatching About the panopticon Seth Stoughton, Law Enforcement’s ‘Warrior’ Problem (read online here if you don’t want the PDF) About Stephen Colbert’s performance at the 2006 White House Correspondents’ Dinner (Here’s the video.) City of Houston v. Hill (“Why don’t you pick on somebody your own size?”) Fields v. City of Philadelphia (finding no First Amendment right to film police officers) Samuel Warren and and Louis Brandeis, The Right to Privacy Oral Argument 1: Send Joe to Prison (guest Sonja West) Sonja West, First Amendment Neighbors Sonja West, The Monster in the Courtroom Special Guest: Jocelyn Simonson.

It’s our second annual call-out show, and it’s a double-sized episode meant to last two weeks. We’re joined by listeners and previous guests who share with us the bits of culture — books, movies, and television — that have affected them and their experience of law and policy. Many things come up, but here’s the rundown: Listener Cameron, 0:00, Les Misérables Listener Michael, 26:11, JFK, the film Listener Bunny, 44:28, Star Trek: The Next Generation, The Measure of a Man Listener and co-host Sonja West, 1:11:26, The Feminine Mystique Listener and co-host Dave Fagundes, 1:41:25, A Wilderness of Error Mom, 2:10:14, Honor Council, The Insider, Serial This show’s links: Oral Argument 44: Serial (A Double-Sized Episode with Many Special Guests) About Les Misérables (and a list of its various incarnations on film and stage) About the “Ban the Box” movement Hicks v. District of Columbia (in which Justice Douglas cites Les Mis in dissent); Harmelin v. Michigan (approving Michigan’s “three strikes” law); and the dissent from the denial of cert in Riggs v. California (in which the defendant’s third strike under California’s law was for stealing a bottle of vitamins); People v. Taylor (a state court appellate case in which the dissent begins: “In a scenario somewhat reminiscent of a late 20th Century, real life Les Miserables, a hungry, homeless man is sent away for 25 years to life for trying to break into a church so he could eat some food he thought the church would be glad for him to have.”) JFK, the 1991 film About the assassination of JFK Philosophy Bites: Quasi Cassam on Conspiracy Theories Hold Up! About the legislative impact of JFK About Making a Murderer Oral Argument 37: Hammer Blow (guest Michael Dorf) The Measure of a Man, an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation; Picard’s argument for Data’s sentience (youtube) About positronic brains Richard Fisher, Is It OK to Torture or Murder a Robot Oral Argument 41: Sense-Think-Act (guest Ryan Calo) About the technological singularity Her Ray Kurzweil, The Age of Spiritual Machines Betty Friedan, The Feminine Mystique Rostker v. Goldberg (upholding the male-only military draft) Jerome Wakefield, The Concept of Mental Disorder The oral argument in Lawrence v. Texas Amy Argetsinger, Robert Spitzer, Psychiatrist of Transformative Influence, Dies at 83 Oral Argument 55: Cronut Lines (guest Dave Fagundes), discussing Waiting in Line: Norms, Markets, and the Law Lauren Davidson, Google’s New “Popular Times” Feature Could Kill the Queue Errol Morris, A Wilderness of Error (and more about Errol Morris) About Jeffrey MacDonald About the controversies over Fatal Vision The Thin Blue Line Serial, season one Janet Malcolm, The Journalist and the Murderer Daniel Medwed, The Innocent Prisoner’s Dilemma: Consequences of Failing to Admit Guilt at Parole Hearings (see also Rob Harris, The “Innocent Prisoner’s Dilemma”, an excellent NY Times video) Oral Argument 48: Legal Truth (guest Lisa Kern Griffin) The Insider Special Guests: Dave Fagundes and Sonja West.

Dahlia Lithwick speaks with Sonja West and RonNell Andersen Jones, two Supreme Court experts who don’t buy the justices’ arguments against allowing cameras in the courtroom. Help us make our podcasts even better! Take Slate's listener survey at to slate.com/survey Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With evidence and criminal procedure scholar Lisa Kern Griffin, we discuss the role of narrative, storytelling, and probability in assessing guilt and innocence. Also, feedback on coffee, citation, librarians, and argument. This show’s links: Lisa Kern Griffin’s faculty profile and writing Sonja West, First Amendment Neighbors, citing Joe Miller, Christian Turner, and Sonja West, Oral Argument 1: Send Joe to Prison at 46:53, available at http://oralargument.org/1 Bunny’s coffee-roasting links: the Nesco Professional 800-watt Roaster, Green Coffee Buying Club, and information from Sweet Maria’s; Listener Zachary’s links: the Fresh Roast Plus 8 and White Mountain Coffee AP, Police Urge Google to Turn Fff ‘Stalking’ Feature on Mobile App for Drivers and Waze Video of Mike Tyson’s ten fastest knockouts Video of Lindsey Graham asking AG-nominee Loretta Lynch about the legal connection between gay marriage and polygamy Oral Argument 40: The Split Has Occurred, discussing Judge Sutton’s gay marriage opinion Oral Argument 44: Serial Oral Argument 45: Sacrifice Lisa Kern Griffin, Narrative, Truth, and Trial About the murder of Julie Jensen Jensen v. Schwochert (granting Jensen’s petition for a writ of habeas corpus on Confrontation Clause grounds); see also the denial of the state’s motion to alter the habeas judgment (note that this case is before the Seventh Circuit, which has had argument but not yet ruled) Christian Turner, Bet Your Life Before You Impose Death Old Chief v. United States Mark Spottswood, Emotional Fact-finding Special Guest: Lisa Kern Griffin.

The Supreme Court this week handed down a series of landmark non-decisions. We talk with PhD candidate and commentator Anthony Kreis about the confusing, hopeful, exciting, promising, uncertain, and evolving state of marriage equality. In the wake of a (so far) uniform wave of appellate court decisions striking down gay-marriage bans, the Supreme Court steps in and … lets them stand without taking them up for decision. Why? And what is the state of law? What is likely to happen, and what are local officials to do? (And if you’re in a position to hire a Visiting Assistant Professor or Fellow, you’d be crazy not to try to hire Anthony.) This show’s links: About Anthony Kreis, his CV, and his twitter feed Anthony Kreis, Marriage Equality in State and Nation Amy Howe, Today’s Orders: Same-Sex Marriage Petitions Denied (summarizing the cert denials and containing links to the SCOTUSblog pages for the decisions striking down marriage bans in the Seventh (Posner’s “Go figure” decision), Tenth (also here), and Fourth Circuit Courts of Appeals) Latta v. Otter, the Ninth Circuit case handed down on Tuesday of this week and striking down marriage bans in Nevada and Idaho Loving v. Virginia and amazing audio of the oral argument McLaughlin v. Florida Last term’s gay marriage decisions: United States v. Windsor and Hollingsworth v. Perry Description of and links to audio of oral arguments in the several Sixth Circuit cases challenging marriage bans in Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, and Tennessee Linda Greenhouse and Reva Siegel, Before Roe v. Wade: Voices that Shaped the Abortion Debate Before the Supreme Court’s Ruling (see especially beginning at p.303 about whether Roe is to blame for the ensuing political conflict over abortion and what that might say about how courts should approach gay marriage) A recent Pew survey on, among other things, whether homosexuality is sinful Heather Hollingsworth, Koster Won’t Appeal Same-Sex Marriage Ruling, reporting that the Missouri AG won’t appeal a state trial court ruling requiring recognition of same-sex marriages performed in other states Geoff Pender, State’s Gay Marriage Ban’s Days Appear Numbered (about Mississippi) Some background on homosexuality and Catholicism Margaret Fosmoe, Notre Dame, Saint Mary’s Extend Benefits to Same-Sex Spouses Doug Richards, Handel: Gay Parents “Not in the Best Interest of the Child” (interview transcript showing the rhetoric around the 2010 Georgia gubernatorial primary, including this gem: “Why is marriage between one man and one woman? (Laughs). Are you serious?”) James Oleske, Jr., The Evolution of Accommodation: Comparing the Unequal Treatment of Religious Objections to Interracial and Same-Sex Marriages Dahlia Lithwick and Sonja West, Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around: The Supreme Court Is Harming people with Its Inscrutable Gay Marriage Actions. South Carolina v. Condon, order of the South Carolina Supreme Court barring probate judges from issuing marriage license, notwithstanding the Fourth Circuit’s decision in Bostic, until the federal district court in South Carolina takes action (in response to AG Alan Wilson’s petition) Saikrishna Pakrash, The Executive’s Duty to Disregard Unconstitutional Laws Kansas Supreme Court’s temporary injunction blocking issuance of same-sex marriage licenses Lyle Denniston, Gay Marriage and Baker v. Nelson Catherine Thompson, GOP Nominee for Wisconsin AG Says He Would Defend Interracial Marriage Ban Center for Reproductive Rights, What if Roe Fell? (see especially pages 8-9 on the repeal implications of a federal finding of unconstitutionality) Christian Turner, Roles Special Guest: Anthony Kreis.

We are joined by budding media celebrity, Sonja West, who got her start on Episode 1 of Oral Argument. We again turn to the Hobby Lobby decision and the Supreme Court’s odd epilogue. With Sonja’s expert guidance we try to make sense of the web of religious liberty. Also, war on women or the century of gender equality? This show’s links: Sonja West’s faculty profile and writing Oral Argument 1: Send Joe to Prison, guest Sonja West Sonja West’s appearance on MSNBC’s The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores The full but brief text of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act Oral Argument 25: Normal Religions, in which we first discussed and set out the basics of the Hobby Lobby decision Wheaton College v. Burwell, granting a temporary injunction pending full appellate review Wheaton College, the one in Illinois, and its Statement of Faith and Educational Purpose Form 700 Dahlia Lithwick and Sonja West, Quick Change Justice: While You Were Sleeping, Hobby Lobby Just Got So Much Worse Marty Lederman, What Next in Wheaton College? Is It Also a “Win/Win” Compromise? University of Notre Dame v. Sebelius, Posner’s Seventh Circuit opinion on Notre Dame’s objections to filling out Form 700 Michael Dorf, Hobby Lobby Post-Mortem Part 2: The Wheaton College Stay Reprieve, Gitmo Detainees Demand Same Religious Rights as Hobby Lobby Employment Division v. Smith, the case that launched RFRA Boy Scouts of America v. Dale Dahlia Lithwick, After Hobby Lobby, Dahlia’s analysis of the gender divide evident in and exacerbated by the Supreme Court’s end-of-term decisions (posted after we recorded) Special Guest: Sonja West.

The Spring Break episode in which Joe and Christian take a break from solving the world’s legal problems to talk about the technology and culture of writing. We start with some listener feedback, and then Joe reports on an accidental experiment he performed with his car lights. Moving on to email, we discuss a number of bad habits, including needless attachments and clicking on links. Then, the big daddy: Microsoft Word. We discuss what Christian thinks is horribly wrong with it and the excellent, usable alternative to the whole concept of the WYSIWYG word processor. We argue. We close with Memphis. Christian's spouse conducts various noisy activities in the background. And Darcy barks. Never fear: we'll get back to the law stuff next week. This show’s links: Episode 1 with Sonja West (http://oralargument.org/1) Charlie Jane Anders, Great Fast Food Glasses of Yesteryear (http://io9.com/5422249/great-fast-food-glasses-of-yesteryear/) Wikipedia on Headlight flashing (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Headlight_flashing) Please don’t send me Microsoft Word document (http://en.nothingisreal.com/wiki/Please_don't_send_me_Microsoft_Word_documents) John Gruber, On Top (http://daringfireball.net/2007/07/on_top) John Gruber, Markdown (http://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/) David Sparks, The Joy of Text (http://macsparky.com/blog/2011/2/10/the-joy-of-text.html) Paul Jacobson, Could MultiMarkdown Replace Word for Lawyers? (http://pauljacobson.org/2013/03/09/could-multimarkdown-replace-word-for-lawyers/) Markdown for Lawyers (http://www.whiteheadlawllc.com/technology/ediscovery/markdown-lawyers-ii/) Markdown cheatsheet (https://www.penflip.com/Penflip/help/blob/master/Markdown.txt) Brett Terpstra, The iOS Text Editor roundup (http://brettterpstra.com/ios-text-editors/) Scrivener (https://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener.php), a writing app for Mac and Windows Case study (http://literatureandlatte.com/casestudies.php?show=david_sparks) on using Scrivener in a legal practice, featuring David Sparks Ulysses (http://www.ulyssesapp.com), a writing app for Mac Byword (http://bywordapp.com), a great text editor for Mac, iPhone, and iPad Editorial (http://omz-software.com/editorial/), Christian’s favorite markdown editor for the iPad Typography in ten minutes (http://practicaltypography.com/typography-in-ten-minutes.html) from Butterick’s Practical Typography (http://practicaltypography.com/index.html), see also his Summary of Key Rules (http://practicaltypography.com/summary-of-key-rules.html) Ben Carter, Typography for Lawyers: One Space, Double Spacing, and Other Good Ideas (http://bluegrassroots.org/home/typography-for-lawyers-one-space-double-spacing-and-other-go.html)

The real first episode of Oral Argument doesn’t hold back. Prof. Sonja West joins us to talk about the the press, the First Amendment, and other cool things. We discuss Supreme Court justices’ getting to talk about whatever they want, the Press Clause, the religion clauses (and even the quartering clause), Judith Miller and the Iraq War, peyote, bathrobed bloggers, the Twitter, who the press might be, Sonja’s press test, press access to prisons, why Joe should got to prison, religious and secular orthodoxy, bong hits for Jesus, student newspapers and local versions of the controversies over the Washington football team, and Christian’s “profoundly stupid” proposal. This show’s links: Sonja West’s faculty profile (http://www.law.uga.edu/profile/sonja-r-west), writing (http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=518870), and Twitter stream (https://twitter.com/sonjarwest/) Sonja West, Press Exceptionalism (http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2228813), 127 Harv. L. Rev (forthcoming 2014) Justice John Paul Stevens, Originalism and History (http://www.supremecourt.gov/publicinfo/speeches/JPS%20Speech(Georgia)_11-06-2013.pdf), text of address at University of Georgia, Nov. 6, 2013 New York Times v. Sullivan (http://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=10183527771703896207) Branzburg v. Hayes (http://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=11598860258825518787) (the Supreme Court on the reporters’ privilege) In re: Grand Jury Subpoena, Judith Miller (http://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=6530900504914793267) Employment Division v. Smith (http://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=10098593029363815472) (the peyote case) Houchins v. KQED (http://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=17191976500273269128) (the Supreme Court on press access to prisons) Neshaminy student newspaper to resume ‘redskin’ ban (http://articles.philly.com/2013-12-25/news/45541924_1_playwickian-student-editors-student-newspaper), Philly.com Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier (http://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=2391207692241045857) Morse v. Frederick (http://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=10117776825257150184) (the BONG HiTS 4 JESUS case) Special Guest: Sonja West.