Murdaugh Trial and Georgia Juror…Eventually (Catching Up, Ep. 2!)

"Instead of unity, litigation followed."

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The saga continues with an episode that really should come with its own trigger warning for being just too sexy. Take a deep breath…

-Safe spaces of yore (David’s establishment clause victory)

-The Finality Question, or: Losing My Jurisdiction

-A death row case creates strange bedfellows and scrambles Sarah’s grand theory of the Roberts court

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  1. Avatar photo
    JL

    A 3-2-4 Court? How New Deal'esque.

    Dynamic Duo: Roberts and Kavanaugh (Hughes and Roberts)
    Four Horsemen: Thomas, Alito, Gorsuch, and Barrett (Butler, McReynolds, Sutherland, and Van Devanter)
    Three Musketeers: Sotomayor, Kagan, and Jackson (Stone, Brandeis, and Cardozo)

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  2. Megan Davidson

    Definitely thought, as soon as David said there are certain things that qualify you as a nerd, “If he doesn’t reference Galadriel in Rings of Power….” DELIVERED! I toast you! From one nerd to another.

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  3. Brian.H.Gibson

    I would like to understand why the offended observer doesn't have standing but an employer that doesn't want to pay for contraception DOES have standing?

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  4. Avatar photo
    Phil H

    Sarah and David, your mention of plea bargaining/plea agreements triggered me. I *hate* them. I believe they are the worst aspect of our criminal justice system.

    The main reason is what you stated: It can make the innocent plead guilty to a crime they did not commit, rather than spend the time, expense and uncertainty of a jury trial. Even if that is not common, that is reprehensible. A variation on that is a person guilty of a small crime pleads to a greater crime for the same reason. And the coercive aspect is ripe for abuse -- and may be an occasion of racism in criminal justice.

    As Antonin Scalia once said, jury trials are the "gold standard" of criminal justice. That prosecutors and defendants avoid them (prosecutors to reduce caseload, and defendants because jury trials are too uncertain and onerous) is an ongoing scandal.

    I don't know how to fix the system to remove plea deals. But I have to wonder how other countries manage without resorting to them.

    (There, I feel better now).

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  5. Bretsumner

    My colleague and I really enjoyed the discussion on offended observer standing. We are representing a defendant-intervenor in a case in D.D.C. with an interesting variant on this issue. This case involves a legal challenge to several thousand federal oil and gas drilling permits in southeastern New Mexico with claims focusing on greenhouse gas emissions and climate change.

    One of the Plaintiff organizations assert that they worship and pray on public lands in southeastern New Mexico - in the middle of one of the most prolific oil and gas fields in the United States (across the state line from west Texas) - and their religious practice focuses on praying for the healing lands impacted by the on-going oil and gas activity, and that they breath in "toxic air" from the oil field during their prayers. Excerpt on P's standing statement from Amended Complaint below. Briefing on Motion to Dismiss is complete. Stay tuned. -Bret

    Center for Biological Diversity, et al. v. U.S. Department of the Interior, et al., and New Mexico Oil and Gas Association, et al., Defendant-Intervenors, Case No. 1:22-cv-01716-TSC (D.D.C.).

    Plaintiff NEW MEXICO INTERFAITH POWER AND LIGHT (“NM IPL”) is a non-profit organization based in Albuquerque, New Mexico. It is one of 40 state affiliates of the Interfaith Power and Light National Office, which is headquartered in Oakland, California. NM IPL has members who live, work, worship, or recreate on public lands across New Mexico and on and near the drilling permits in New Mexico challenged herein . . . . These faith leaders live with growing health and environmental concerns in their communities in Hobbs, Carlsbad and Jal, in the Permian Basin of southeast New Mexico, where oil and gas leasing and drilling is rampant. These concerns come from a moral and ethical care for God’s creation and the religious mandate to take care of neighbors. People of faith and leaders who are NM IPL members in nearby Albuquerque, New Mexico and El Paso, Texas have visited and will continue to visit locations in the Permian Basin near Carlsbad, Loco Hills, Hobbs, and Jal, New Mexico, where they have prayed for healing of polluted sites while breathing toxic air from oil and gas
    emissions. For NM IPL members, this oil and gas pollution violates sacred land, water and air
    and the right to a clean environment.

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  6. Don Thiry

    This episode was glorious just to listen to Sarah get slap-happy

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  7. Sean Smith

    Please oh please talk about this one soon: https://apple.news/A38xd2h39SUq3zq_VAesc4w

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  8. Khodge

    Non-lawyer observation here but is the difference between a 10 commandments memorial at the entrance to a courthouse which citizens can't avoid if they need to do government business versus a voluntary prayer vigil.

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  9. General Darden

    Today's pod covered immense and wide geography. But as a non-lawyer, I found the discussion on the differing splits in concurrences/dissents between cases to be of greatest interest, together with the speculation on why (criminal vs civil vs Constitutional) each occurred. Fascinating.

    In Ocala, however, a simple question: wasn't Thomas's dissent just an acknowledgement of the inevitable (let's decide it here and now cause it sure is coming back here anyway) while Gorsuch is all about laying out the reason why the case should be forcefully dealt with now with a post-Lemon framework?

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  10. General Darden

    @Sarah and @David: I think the City of Memphis needs to convene a prayer meeting for Ja'Morant and his gun fetish, or else David will soon need to change his background. Sorry David, but unfortunately, your start player extraordinaire demonstrates a great lack of both judgment and necessary remorse. Couldn't he get a good (experienced political professional) spokeswoman like Sarah to help with his social media?

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