Tennessee Law Drags On

Not every wrong has a legal remedy.

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The AO train keeps rolling after Saturday’s emergency pod with an episode chock-full of legal conundrums, fatal contracts, and (one) happy ending.

-Weird vibes on SCOTUS case about immigration and the First Amendment

-Tennessee’s anti-drag statutes… (Or: David is very, very tired)

-Fox and defamation

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Comments (21)
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  1. Sgmills23

    David mentions he has a top 4 British crime dramas. Can you provide a list of shows?

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    1. Jabobward

      Davis stated that one issue with the TN Drag Show law is the phrase, "where children may be present" and it would be better if it read "where children are present". What would prevent someone finding out where a drag show was going to happen and showing up with their child to disrupt. Would that work?

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  2. Christopher D. Whipple

    Thanks for the recommendation Monsieur French. If we could keep finding a way to mention British crime shows in each episode, I would appreciate it.

    Oh...good job on the law stuff as well.

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  3. Helbock

    The goat issue:
    The Sheriffs = "I was just following orders". Same excuse used by Nazi murders. This is NEVER an acceptable excuse!

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    Mike

    Can you work something about the (potential?) OpenAI defamation case into a pod sometime soon?

    https://www.reuters.com/technology/australian-mayor-readies-worlds-first-defamation-lawsuit-over-chatgpt-content-2023-04-05/

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  5. Michael.Mcchesney

    I am curious about David's television Mount Rushmore. I am sure he probably mentioned his top 4 shows on past episodes, but I don't recall what they were. My own list of the 4 greatest TV shows would probably be The Mandalorian, Star Trek (TOS), Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and (sorry David) Lucifer. The Mandalorian is the only show still making new episodes. I just watched Chapter 22 before finishing up this episode of AO. Speaking of Lucifer, in the 1980s, my favorite author, Robert Heinlein, wrote a book titled the Number of the Beast. In that book a scientist invents a device that allows travel through time and space as well to parallel universes. They discover that it is actually possible to travel to universes where fictional characters are real, such as to L. Frank Baum's land of Oz. That reminds me of a 1976 collection of short stories titled Star Trek the New Voyages. In one of those stories, Visit to a Weird Planet Revisited, William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, and Deforest Kelly are filming a transporter scene when they find themselves transported to the "real" enterprise. As much as I would love to be able to visit a universe where Star Trek was real, I would settle for being able to trade episodes of Law & Order, Baywatch, and the Fast and Furious films for seasons 4 through 10 of the Adam West Batman series, seasons 2 through 15 of Firefly and seasons 3 through 8 of Terminator The Sarah Connor Chronicles. After all, if the many worlds interpretation of Quantum Mechanics is correct, for every decision to cancel a series you liked too soon, there is another universe where the show was renewed. While getting access to 23rd Century medical technology is arguably more important than getting new seasons of cancelled TV shows, the Prime Directive would probably keep the Federation from giving us their medical tech anyway. So I say binge away on Season 4 of the original Star Trek.

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    Tuckermail2

    My wife and I love CB Strike. Highly recommend you watch this. Wonder if you and David could comment on recusal again. I tend to agree with you that judges can generally separate personal and professional lives. That said, personal integrity would cause me personally to recuse myself if my daughter had worked for the candidate the defendant would be facing in a general election for President. Thoughts?

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  7. JP

    David mentioned at 21:40 the example that it might be protected speech to encourage someone to rob a CVS, but it would not be protected expression to give someone money for gas to go rob the CVS, which made me curious: why the distinction between money and speech in this context, but not in the context of political contributions?

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      Sarah Isgur vertical-nib Author

      Contributions are speech under the law (see citizens united)--which is why there are no restrictions on independent expenditures by yourself or in corporate form. But restrictions on contributions directly to candidates pass strict scrutiny bc of the compelling government interest against quid pro quo corruption or the appearance of quid pr quo corruption.

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    Andrew Fortier

    I feel like "Goat Law" could be a very under explored legal avenue. Just like Bird Law on Always Sunny.

    Real question, looks like Bob Iger brought up the prospect of First Amendment retaliation during the most recent share holder meeting. Could we get a primer on what that type of case would look like? Especially First Amendment retaliation against a corporation.

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  9. Anand Dharan

    I understand why David, of all people, is tired of talking about drag. When he first had that feud with Sohrab Ahmari in 2019, one commentator who watched their in-person debate at CUA (which French won handily) observed that while French undoubtedly had the stronger legal arguments, it might not matter because Ahmari’s illiberalism might have more political appeal on the right in the current environment. That turned out to be exactly right. I never thought back then that drag - including drag queen story hour! - would be an actual national culture war flashpoint in 2023.

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    Martin

    The existence of a “bad man stays in jail” canon of construction implies the existence of similar ones like “bad policy stays enjoined”.

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