Impeachment Briefs and Font Choices

On Wednesday, Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney survived an intra-party effort to oust her from her ...

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On Wednesday, Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney survived an intra-party effort to oust her from her GOP leadership position, meanwhile Republican Party Leader Kevin McCarthy decided he will not strip firebrand Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of her committee assignments. When it comes to all the latest intra-GOP squabbles, Sarah and David have the scoop. On today’s episode, our hosts also break down the Supreme Court’s latest orders and the good, the bad, and the ugly of the impeachment briefs.

Show Notes:

-“I’m Comic Sans, Asshole” by Mike Lacher and Saturday Night Live’s Papyrus Skit.

-“U.S. Nazi hunter has one active case” by Evan Perez, Alexander Rosen, Wesley Bruer, Jeremy Moorhead, Alex Lee and Josh Gaynor in CNN.

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  1. Kings Thursday a/k/a Susan

    I loved the font discussion--thank you. On John Quincy Adams, who was briefly mentioned, I can recommend Arguing About Slavery: John Quincy Adams and the Great Battle in the United States Congress by William Lee Miller. Great book about JQA's fight against the gag rule that prevented anti-slavery petitions being heard in Congress.

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  2. Kurt Woolley

    Sarah/David - one item I thought was missing from your podcast that I wanted to know more about was who made the decision at Justice to drop the civil rights case against Yale for discrimination. Since Merrick Garland hasn’t been confirmed yet (as far as I can tell), it’s not clear how that decision was made and if it was made by a junior political appointee under the AG or a career civil servant. Can you provide any context and if we should think about it any differently if it was a decision made by career staff rather than political appointee?

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  3. Ben P

    There's a popular internet phrase that goes "I feel personally attacked by this relatable content." This feeling washed over me when I heard Sarah describe the Bookman Old Style font. I'm a statistics instructor at a university, and I spent the first few years of my teaching career writing up all of my materials in Bookman Old Style. I spent quite a while looking over all the fonts that came installed on my computer, and I chose Bookman Old Style because... well, it seemed like "a way to convey a sense of relaxed sophistication". Not too stuffy, not too informal, looks nice but also just different enough from the norm. Really warmed up those stats exams, for sure.

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    Angie

    That was just awesome...thank you...laughed a lot which I can always use more of

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  5. Michael Hartley

    If placing justice, integrity, and needs of nation above self-interest are criteria, then JQA was a pretty good president. His feud with Jackson is the stuff, or should be for anyone who thinks character influences events, of legends. Plus, he married well and had some pretty impressive children. Glad he is mentioned in the impeachment brief.

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  6. Rodney Rubert

    I would be curious how Sarah would apply her theory of political coverage to Robert Byrd.

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  7. Jason Y

    Typography for Lawyers by Butterick!

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    Doug Herbert

    Today's podcast was the first major disagreement in legal analysis that I have had with David and Sarah. Both were harshly critical of the document filed by David Schoen and Bruce Castor on behalf of President Trump. The critiques focused on the lack of policy arguments and textual analysis and the failure to respond to the detailed arguments made by the House impeachment managers.

    In fact, the document filed by Schoen/Castor was a pretty good piece of lawyering when you consider two critical facts: (a) Schoen and Castor were hired at some time during the day of January 31 and (2) their document was due on February 2.

    David in particular, as a former litigator, should have put himself in their shoes before being so harshly critical. What would YOU do if you were hired to file a document in literally two days at most?

    You don't know what the House impeachment managers are going to say because your two documents are going to be filed simultaneously. Do you wade into the historical thicket relating to the constitutionality of holding an impeachment trial after a president's term has ended? In just 48 hours, it would be almost literally impossible to come up with an even minimally coherent analysis of this dense and difficult body of historical material.

    No, if you're a smart litigator, you think about the art of the possible, not the impossible. It was an inspired choice by Schoen and Castor to conceptualize the document they filed as the equivalent of an answer to a complaint in civil litigation. In an answer a party is supposed to "state in short and plain terms its defenses to each claim asserted against it." [Fed. R. Civ. P. 8]

    In 48 hours, that's all you've got time for -- "short and plain" -- so that's what they did, "short and plain." And they did it in a format that every civil litigator is familiar with and that every civil litigator knows is not supposed to have lengthy legal or policy arguments.

    Moreover, in an answer, you are permitted to deny allegations based on lack of knowledge, which solves another huge problem for Schoen and Castor -- that Trump has no basis for his claims that the election was stolen.

    Now, I'm not claiming that, even within the time constraints faced by Schoen and Castor, they did a stellar job on the document they filed in the Senate. But their decision to file a competent "answer" rather than attempt the impossible feat of filing a competent "brief" was a solid litigation choice under the circumstances.

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  9. Alan Yoshioka

    I enjoyed the podcast a lot!
    May I recommend The Elements of Typographic Style, by Robert Bringhurst, a typographer and book designer who also happens to be a poet. He has an encyclopedic knowledge of the history and ideal applications of different fonts, of course, but the book is also just a visual and intellectual treat, rich in reflections upon the craft of written communication.

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    1. Robert Hernandez

      Typography for Lawyers, by Matthew Butterick.

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  10. Heidi Seward

    Discovering this podcast has made my dish-washing experience so much better: I wash dishes in the evening while listening to y'all argue over fonts and whether or not we should talk about She Who Must Not Be Named. I hate dishes, so thanks for making my life better.

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