Oral Argument

Joe calls in from an undisclosed location(Santa Clara, CA) for a short show. We begin by discussing listener Alan’s demand for more conflict, an Idaho listener’s request for more Darcy, and listener Amy’s request to discuss her parking ticket. The conversation turns to a federal court’s preliminary injunction in favor of a man who was charged for warning drivers of a speed trap by flashing his lights.

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Joe, Christian, loyal dog Darcy, a fire, some coffee, and melting snow. We kick back and talk about stuff that has been on our minds. This leads to three very different topics. First: we disagree whether the Supreme Court should strike down the President’s recess appointment to the National Labor Relations Board. Text vs. history vs. practice. Second: The Atlanta snowstorm traffic fiasco, in which we discuss mountaineering and computer programming. Third: What makes Dahlia Lithwick so great? Darcy makes a few appearances.

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Logan Sawyer, certified historian and lawyer, joins us to talk about what historians do and how they differ from the crazy uncle who fancies himself a history buff on Twitter. We learn why history is radical, not conservative, whatever political movement it is employed to serve. We discuss the methods of history and science and their abuses. Logan tells us that history is often at war with theory and that historians prey on other fields. He unravels the received wisdom of the New Deal switch in time and the conventional story of Lochner v. New York. As if to make a case in point, we keep distracting him with theory.

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Special Guest: Logan Sawyer.

From far northern climes, we are joined by Sarah Schindler, land use and property expert, hipster scholar, and lawn destroyer. In this episode we discuss Maine, backyard chicken raising, zoning, Brasília, the virtues and pleasures of law-breaking, and banning lawns. Sponsored this week by the Monsanto Corporation. Not really.

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Special Guest: Sarah Schindler.

Should we just get rid of intellectual property law altogether? IP scholar Paul Heald, joining us from his home in Illinois, doesn’t think so. But what should we do about patent trolls? Is it even feasible to create virtual fences around ideas? Paul suggests that patent should work a bit more like copyright (which we all think is broken) and should be used to encourage exchange. The conversation ranges from trade secrets, to programmers, to the invention of the airplane. Turning to the runaway train that is copyright law, Paul tells us his spouse was a plaintiff in the disastrously decided Eldred v. Ashcroft. We talk about Paul’s studies of bad audiobooks, the public domain, the copyrighting of the bible, and a long-forgotten playwright named Shakespeare. Could the public domain, if copyright were sensibly limited, compete substantially with new works? Christian says “more and more” a lot. Paul previews his new study, which involves adult films.

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Special Guest: Paul Heald.

Three episodes means we’ve got a show. This week we talk with coffee guzzler and international law expert Tim Meyer. We start with odd coffee habits. Then we ask what international law is. Is it even law? What is law? From there we cover commands and threats, the WTO, the modern framework of international law, and the difference between hard law and soft law. Tim proposes ditching a dinner with Joe. Did you know the London Group doesn’t meet in London? And why would anyone make an agreement they couldn’t hold you to?

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Special Guest: Tim Meyer.

The real first episode of Oral Argument doesn’t hold back. Prof. Sonja West joins us to talk about the the press, the First Amendment, and other cool things. We discuss Supreme Court justices’ getting to talk about whatever they want, the Press Clause, the religion clauses (and even the quartering clause), Judith Miller and the Iraq War, peyote, bathrobed bloggers, the Twitter, who the press might be, Sonja’s press test, press access to prisons, why Joe should got to prison, religious and secular orthodoxy, bong hits for Jesus, student newspapers and local versions of the controversies over the Washington football team, and Christian’s “profoundly stupid” proposal.

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Special Guest: Sonja West.

This is not the first episode, but it is the launch of Oral Argument, a weeklyish show on which Joe and I talk to people about legal practice, theory, and education and also about random things that interest us. No guests in this test episode we recorded. But we do chat about nonsense, Duck Dynasty, and bad questions abour heroism. We recorded an additional segment on law school exams, but that will have to await the director's cut version of episode 0, due out never.

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