The Onion Files an Amicus Brief

An Alabama redistricting case receives a contentious Supreme Court hearing, weighing race neutrality against a ...

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An Alabama redistricting case receives a contentious Supreme Court hearing, weighing race neutrality against a history of racial discrimination. Donald Trump files an emergency request with the Supreme Court and it’s… technical. Oh, and did we mention The Onion’s amicus brief? Also: stick to the end for a letter from the best compliance supervisor in America.

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  1. Avatar photo
    Tomadonna

    First off, David, I am a big fan and I think you are a fine gentleman and southerner, but the way your voice inflected when discussing Alabama did provide some offense. You at times seemed to be able to parse the complexity of the issue at hand with the case but then had this air of superiority that caught me a little off guard. If someone replaced your disdain for you and yours i am sure you would not the hostility.

    however, more importantly the only true way to overcome this issue without some form of racism in some direction is to overturn the true unconstitutional law at the heart of the matter, which has also been a long time issue for Jonah.

    Overturn the 2 U.S. Code § 2a "Permanent reapportionment act" this act is unconstitutional on its face, and directly contributes to the issue here. This locks the states with less dense populations from making districts that represent the best needs of the residents and should be overturned.

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  2. Aaronhfrank

    Another case of the law being to important to be trusted to the lawyers. A man sets up a Facebook parody page that upsets the local police. The police abuse their power, aided and abetted by a prosecutor and convince a judge to issue a warrant. But no one can be held accountable. And the man will have to go through significant expense defending himself.

    This is wrong and everyone in the chain that applied for and approved the warrant should be liable for the damage they caused.

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    Guffia

    Has anybody else noted the appropriateness that “Bruin” is about the right to *bear* arms?

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    Kalin Jones

    I was particularly interested in the prediction that a decision favoring the plaintiffs in the Alabama Voting Rights case might be limited by the court based upon the fact that its existing maps are ultimately the product of years of race-based gerrymandering, and how that might apply in other states. In Georgia, because of a failed gerrymander in 2000, the legislative maps were drawn by the Federal Circuit Court. Since Georgia’s present maps do not derive from the old race based gerrymandered maps, do you think that the rationale of the Alabama precedent would not apply?

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    1. Avatar photocircle-angle-nib
      Sarah Isgur vertical-nib Author

      I would assume--but do not know--that the court drawn maps still started with the pre-existing district lines. Almost all maps do bc otherwise every incumbent would suddenly be starting over or pitted against one another and it would be a lot of chaos. But if they really didnt consider the previous lines at all, then sure, they'd be off the hook.

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  5. Robert and Kim

    David: "If you enjoyed this podcast as much as I did..."

    No one enjoys the podcast as much as you do, David! And the joy you have in doing it is one of the things that makes it great.

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  6. Avatar photo
    Estoppel Enjoyer

    I have to humbly correct this podcast’s discussion about UVA Law School’s parody of WAP. It is not “Wong-Ass Precedent”, as described. Instead, it is WAC, short for Wack Ass Caselaw. And it is GLORIOUS. As a graduate of UVA, a dedicated fan of The Libel Show, a friend of many of the students who put on the show, I feel I must make sure the audience of AO sees it an all it’s glory:

    https://youtu.be/DYSlji3FfX0

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    1. Avatar photocircle-angle-nib
      Sarah Isgur vertical-nib Author

      Waaaait a second. I got this first hand from a recent UVA grad. But given you have brought an AMAZING YouTube video, I bow down. That puts our harvard show to shame on several levels. Wow.

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  7. Mathew A

    It shouldn't just be the police department that is is in trouble, they should also go after the judge and anybody else that approved going after the parity maker

    It's time to hold people responsible

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  8. Avatar photo
    Ben Connelly

    Shoutout to UVA!

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    1. Avatar photo
      Ben Connelly

      Also I think that Onion brief was the only amicus brief I’ve ever read in full

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  9. Avatar photo
    Theirn Scott

    Just to clear my name. I didn't forward The Onion amicus brief to you.

    BTW, I had to type the URL to the comments into a separate browser to access comments. This only happens with Advisory Opinions. OK, maybe it happens with all the podcasts but since this is the "flagship" podcast it's the only one to which I've ever submitted a comment. Ok, that may not be true, I don't remember.

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    1. Avatar photo
      Home

      I've been unable to access AO comments for the past few weeks. The migration fixed the problem! It's good to be back!

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  10. Leonard Goodnight

    Hello. Last thursday, y'all discussed the Pacific Legal challenge to to Biden's student loan pay off plan and seemed pretty optimistic that they had a good case. It's since been dismissed, as I'm sure y'all know (just in case you don't somehow: https://reason.com/volokh/2022/09/30/brief-update-on-the-pacific-legal-foundation-case-against-bidens-student-loan-cancellation-plan/ ). Any chance y'all could discuss what went wrong next time? I'm admittedly not a lawyer, but it seems like a serious issue if the government can just tweak the wording of an order post hoc to deny people standing.

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    1. Avatar photocircle-angle-nib
      Sarah Isgur vertical-nib Author

      It’s on our list but the case wasn’t dismissed. The motion was denied w leave to refile so we’ve been kind of waiting for some of that to move forward.

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      1. Leonard Goodnight

        Roger. I put down my confusing "dismissed" and "denied" to my being a layman. Thanks for the quick response.

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