A social media app built exclusively for women uses facial recognition to screen its users. When a transgender woman is kicked off, she takes the company to federal court.

In this episode, we unpack the case that's forcing Australia to answer a contentious question: who counts as a woman under the law?

Case:
Giggle for Girls Pty Ltd v Tickle [2026] FCAFC 64

Guest:
Paula Gerber, Professor of Law, Monash University

Hosts:
Melissa Castan, Professor of Law, Monash University

James Pattison

Further Reading:

• Sex, Gender & Identity: Trans Rights in Australia by Paula Gerber (Monash University Publishing, 2025)
• Why the Giggle for Girls v Tickle judgement is good for trans rights and women’s rights by Paula Gerber (ABC, May 2026)
• Tickle v Giggle for Girls Pty Ltd (No 2) [2024] FCA 960

The award-winning journalist behind the podcast S-Town, Brian Reed, says a civil-rights era US Supreme Court decision that protects journalists is under threat.

Brian tells the story of the landmark press freedom case of New York Times v. Sullivan (1964).

What it made possible? And what happens to journalism in the US if it falls now?

Guest: 

• Brian Reed, host of Question Everything and S-Town

Case: 

• New York Times v. Sullivan (376 U.S. 254) (1964)

Co-Hosts: 

• Melissa Castan, Professor of Law, Monash University 
• James Pattison

Brian's podcasts:

• S-Town (Serial Productions / New York Times)
• The Trojan Horse Affair (Serial Productions / New York Times)
• Question Everything (Placement Theory)

You've probably seen sovereign citizen videos on social media. People reciting weird incantations to get out of traffic stops and court appearances, spouting words that sound like legalese but are actually nonsense. 

This stuff is darkly funny. But it's having real consequences for our legal system and for social cohesion.

In Western Australia in 2022 a suburban Magistrate asked a simple question of a defendant: Are you this person? 

The interaction kicked off a legal drama that ended up in the Supreme Court. The decision could provide a solution to the growing problem of sovereign citizens and pseudolaw adherents.

Case: 

KELLY v FIANDER [2023] WASC 187 

Guest: 

Joe McIntyre, Associate Professor of Law, Adelaide University

Hosts: 

Melissa Castan, Professor of Law, Monash University

James Pattison

Further Reading:

The Strawman Trap: Non-Appearance and the Pitfalls of Pseudolaw, Joe Mcintyre, Harry Hobbs, Stephen Young (2025) 99 ALJ 319

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With Artemis II safely back on Earth, we turn our eyes to the skies above. What is the Moon Agreement? Did Sandra Bullock breach the law in the movie 'Gravity'? Who is legally responsible when someone is injured by a falling satellite?

Guest: Professor Melissa de Zwart, Andy Thomas Centre for Space Resources, University of Adelaide.

Hosts: Professor Melissa Castan, Monash University & James Pattison.

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In 2023, the High Court told the Australian government it couldn't lock people up forever in immigration detention.

This was a constitutional bombshell that led to political panic, and the fallout is ongoing.

Guest: Professor Luke Beck, Monash University.

Cases

• NZYQ v. Minister for Immigration, Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs & Anor [2023] HCA 37
• Al-Kateb v Godwin [2004] HCA 37
• YBFZ v Minister for Immigration, Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs [2024] HCA 40
• EGH19 v Commonwealth of Australia [2026] HCA 7

Update: Australia’s high court orders ankle bracelets be removed and curfews end for 43 former immigration detainees

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When English lawyer Richard Meeran uncovered mining company Cape PLC's internal documents in the 1990s, he found damning evidence of one of the biggest international corporate cover-ups in history.

His friend, lawyer David Kinley, tells the story in "In a Rain of Dust", a real-life legal thriller.

In this episode:

• How Meeran exposed the cover-up
• How Cape PLC was prepared to fight dirty to keep it all suppressed, including targeting Meeran.
• The surreal story of finding smoking-gun documents in an abandoned mining office

In a Rain of Dust: Death, Deceit, and the Lawyer Who Busted Big Asbestos by David Kinley

Guest: Professor David Kinley, Chair in Human Rights Law, University of Sydney Law School

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Every week, professional athletes break their bodies for our entertainment. So it will come as a huge shock to sports fans how poorly the law protects our sporting heroes.

In this episode:

• How our sporting codes lobbied to carve athletes out of injury protection in the 1970s
• How a Carlton player briefly cracked that system open in the 2000s before it slammed shut again, and
• Why the concussion crisis gripping the AFL and NRL is forcing a reckoning today.

If you're paid to play, and paid to get hurt, why aren't you protected when the damage is done?

Guest: Associate Professor Eric Windholz, Monash University Law School

Case: Whitehead v Carlton Football Club Ltd [2005] VSC 257

Further reading

• Why sports stars get less support than other injured workers – and how we can fix it by Eric Windholz
• Professional athletes and injury insurance: A better way forward by Eric Windholz

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Who is to blame when one of Elon or Jeff's suspiciously shaped rockets crashes to Earth from space?

What is pseudo-law, and where did all these goddam sovereign citizens come from?

Why was the government forced to release over 100 serious criminals into the community?

These cases and plenty more coming in this new (and 99.9% improved™) season of Case In Point.

🎙️ Case In Point is produced by MINIATURE.
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When the US Supreme Court ruled in favour of a company called Hobby Lobby in 2014, it was hailed by conservatives as a win for the religious freedom of business owners.

Critics of the decision said it dealt a major blow to the rights of employees to access reproductive healthcare.

But there's more to this case than meets the eye. 

Has the Hobby Lobby case rewritten the rules about what a corporation actually is?

Guest: Associate Professor Steve Kourabas, Deputy Director, Centre for Commercial Law and Regulatory Studies, Monash University

Case: Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., 573 U.S. 682 (2014)

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This case has been described as one of the most bizarre cases in recent Australian legal history, with a climax mirroring one of Agatha Christie’s most famous novels.

Today we ask: is it legally possible to murder a dead body?

Guest: Dr Natalia Antolak-Saper, criminal law scholar, Monash University

Case: R v Darrington [2016] VSC 60

Further Reading: Man jailed for eight years for attempting to murder a corpse (The Age, 29 February 2016)

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