Passing Judgment

Depending on what you've heard, Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg's case against former President Trump is somewhere between frivolous or airtight. And it is likely that one's position depends on the beholder's opinion about Donald Trump himself. In today's episode, Jessica strips away the partisan perspectives and assesses the real world legal nuts and bolts of exactly what the charges are, as well as the obstacles that Bragg faces in proving his case.

Los Angeles Times Supreme Court reporter David Savage joins Jessica on this special episode of Passing Judgment. Savage has been covering the Supreme Court for more than 30 years, a time period that has seen substantial changes in both the composition of the Court as well as the way the Court addresses issues. Jessica recorded this conversation, in part, for her Constitutional Law students at Loyola Law School. We also think it will be fun for you, our Passing Judgment audience, to hear David and Jessica talk about what it has been like to make a career out of covering the Supreme Court. David shares his thoughts on issues related to judicial activism, originalism, Chief Justice John Roberts' judicial philosophy, and what accounted for the rise of the Federalist Society.

The biggest defamation case we've seen in decades is about to go to trial. Dominion Voting Systems, a manufacturer of electronic voting machines and associated software, has sued Fox News and Fox Corporation for defamation, based on false claims that Dominion helped rig the 2020 presidential election for President Biden. Jessica talks through exactly what Dominion will have to prove to succeed in its case.

Former President Trump will be criminally indicted. This is a historic first. But what does it mean legally and politically? Jessica walks through what we're likely to see in the indictment, what an arraignment will look like, and what the next steps will be.

Will the Supreme Court conclude that President Biden overstepped his authority when he created a $400 billion student loan forgiveness program?

Adam Liptak, the Supreme Court reporter for The New York Times, joins Jessica to discuss how we got here and the likely fate of Biden’s program.

This week the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a case that could change the Internet as we know it. Two cases, one case was brought against YouTube by the family of an individual was killed in an ISIS attack in Paris in 2015, and another was filed against Twitter by the family of an individual killed by an ISIS attack in Istanbul in 2017, will ask the high court to interpret the extent that technology companies could face legal liability for content posted on their sites. Jessica discusses both cases and how the eventual decisions by the Court may affect how both tech giants and everyday Americans use the Internet with Michael Macagnone, a legal affairs reporter for CQ Now and Roll Call. Jessica has also written on the cases for MSNBC here.

On January 28th of 2023, what appears to be a Chinese surveillance balloon entered U.S. airspace north of the Aleutian Islands in Alaska. President Biden ordered the balloon to be shot down. In subsequent weeks, three more unidentified flying objects were shot down by the U.S. military over Alaska, Canada, and Lake Huron.

What is going on? How concerning is this string of aerial incidents? Are they related?

Mariana Alfaro, The Washington Post's co-anchor of Post Politics Now, The Washington Post's live breaking political news feed, joins Jessica to talk about what is going on and why the origins of these UFOs are more banal than an invasion of little green men from a planet far, far away.