Passing Judgment

It is a week legal and political roundup of the big stories of the week that was. Joe joins Jessica to help explain the Supreme Court's big ruling today regarding Texas' restrictive abortion law, the District of Columbia's Circuit Court's decision regarding the work of the House Select Committee investigating the insurrection on January 6th, the resolution of the Jussie Smollett case, and the legacy of Senator and former Republican candidate for president Bob Dole, who died this week at the age of 98. 

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Time for a legal roundup.

We cover oral arguments before the Supreme Court in the big abortion case, oral arguments before the DC Circuit regarding Trump's attempt to stop the January 6th Select Committee from getting Whitehouse documents, and the shooting in Michigan this week.

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Financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein died by suicide while incarcerated in August of 2019, but that's not the end of the story. Epstein's confidant and alleged former girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, is now facing federal charges for sex trafficking. Maxwell is a British citizen and former socialite who stands accused of assisting Epstein in multiple instances of exploiting and abusing underage girls over nearly a decade. On this episode of Passing Judgment, Jessica gives a summary of the beginning of the trial, for which opening arguments are expected today to take place.

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On August 12th 2017, during two days of protests and counterprotests surrounding the white supremacist “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, a man named James Alex Fields Jr. drove his car into a group of counterprotesters, severely injuring several of them and killing a 32-year-old woman named Heather Heyer. Fields was eventually convicted and sentenced to life in prison, plus 419 years. In public statements about the violence, then-President Donald Trump kicked off a political firestorm when he failed to immediately denounce the white nationalists, saying there were “...very fine people on both sides.” In the conclusion of the civil trial that arose in the aftermath of that bloody weekend, a jury this week ruled that the white nationalist organizers of the "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville must pay more than $26 million in damages. In this episode of Passing Judgment, Jessica and Joe discuss the civil trial and how the outcome may impact future activities by white supremacist organizations.

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In the verdict in the second high-profile court case with a strong racial aspect in just five days, a jury today found three white men, Gregory McMichael, Travis McMichael, and William "Roddie" Bryan, guilty in the murder of Ahmaud Arbery. Arbery was jogging in a residential neighborhood in Brunswick, Georgia in late February of 2020 when the three men chased the young black man in their vehicles. Suspecting Arbery was a burglar, Travis McMichael shot and killed Arbery with a shotgun during a scuffle. On this episode, Jessica and Joe break down the 27 charges against the men, how and why the case and the verdict were different from the outcome in last week's Rittenhouse trial, the selection of an almost all-white jury for the murder of a black man in a mostly-white county, and why 75 days elapsed between Arbery's murder and the arrest of the three men.

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During a summer of civil unrest in 2020, a white police officer shot a 29-year-old black man named Jacob Blake in the back in Kenosha, Wisconsin. This sparked days of protests and rioting in Kenosha. Kyle Rittenhouse, an Illinois resident, drove to Kenosha, saying that he wanted to protect businesses from looters. He brought his Smith and Wesson M&P15 Sport II, an AR-15-style rifle. After a series of chaotic events, Rittenhouse shot and killed two people - Joseph Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber, and he wounded a third, Gaige Grosskreutz. After a widely-publicized trial, the jury today found Rittenhouse not guilty on all counts. Jessica and Joe break down the verdict, its context, and its larger consequences.

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The trial of Kyle Rittenhouse has garnered national attention for a myriad of reasons, and it brings up important questions related to self-defense, vigilantism, and race. In today's episode, Jessica and Joe give a summary of facts of the case, discuss how the prosecution and the defense presented their arguments to the jury, and examine the judge's headline-generating role in this trial.

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Biden indicted. Why? What is next?

Trump wins a (temporary) victory in his effort to prevent the National Archives from releasing documents to the House Select Committee on January 6th.

Biden has a (perhaps temporary) loss in his effort implement a vaccine mandate.

And the Supreme Court considers the religious rights of death row inmates.

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We've all heard the aphorism from Lord Acton, “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." But does it? And if it does, how does power corrupt people who would otherwise act in the best interest of others? Does power make people more susceptible to abusing that power or are people more likely to abuse power drawn to leadership positions? Author and political scientist Dr. Brian Klaas set out to answer those questions in his new book, Corruptible: Who Gets Power and How It Changes Us. (Scribner, November 9, 2021). In his previous books, The Despot's Accomplice: How the West is Aiding and Abetting the Decline of Democracy and The Despot's Apprentice: Donald Trump's Attack on Democracy, Klaas turned his keen eye on the increasingly divisive state of the world and how the former U.S. president Donald Trump undermined democracy at home and abroad. This time, Klaas broadens the scope of his research by conducting over 500 interviews for Corruptible - sitting with presidents, rebel leaders, cult members and dictators to try and determine if that age old adage is true.

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It’s hot button season here on Passing Judgment. We have been closely following the fate of abortion rights with Supreme Court cases out of Texas and Mississippi. Today's episode of Passing Judgment focuses on another lightning rod topic that has come before the court, and that’s gun rights. On Wednesday of this week, the court heard about two hours of oral arguments about the Constitutionality of a New York law that restricts concealed carry permits. With a new solid conservative majority on the Court, what has changed about how the nine justices address the interpretation of the Second Amendment? And will the current case out of New York wind up expanding gun rights in several states - areas where 25% of Americans live?

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