Show Cause - A Memphis Law Podcast

Today's space industry is a more than $500 billion dollar enterprise, with commercial spaceflight, governmental contracts, telecommunications, mining, solar power, and overall space tourism all making up the many facets of

But as governments the world over, as well as billionaires

How do we protect this new frontier of pristine and

Today we are joined by Memphis Law Professor Jennifer

On today’s episode of Show Cause, we’re focusing on one of

2024 is the CLC’s 30th anniversary and as such,

This episode features two guests from the CLC, Executive Director Diana Comes and Immigrant Justice Program Director Colton Bane.

Both Colton and Diana lend some amazing insight into the

This episode focuses on our upcoming Law Review Symposium entitled "The Path of Least Resistance: How Marginalized Communities are Targeted by Harmful Infrastructures and Land Uses." For anyone interested in issues such as water access, housing, wastewater, and other infrastructure that impacts the well-being of communities, as well as the disparities in how low-income communities fare in these situations, this episode will contain a plethora of interesting items for you!

We're joined by Symposium editor Ashlie Gozikowski, who will go into more detail about the symposium itself and why she chose the topic, as well as attorney Sarah Stuart, of Burch, Porter, and Johnson, who is a featured Symposium speaker on a panel focused on the Byhalia Pipeline, where she'll discuss the community involvement, eminent domain issues, and other items related to the successful halting of construction of the Byhalia Pipeline through a low-income South Memphis neighborhood.

Earlier this year, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that individuals with orders of protection against them must be allowed to keep their guns. This overturned a federal statute that prohibits firearm possession by individuals who a court determined pose a credible threat to the safety of an intimate partner or child.

This episode of Show Cause focuses on United States v. Rahimi, the first major Second Amendment case that the Court has taken up since its notorious decision last summer in the case of New York State Rifle and Pistol Association vs. Bruen, which stated that restrictions on the right to bear arms are presumptively unconstitutional unless they are, in a judge’s opinion, consistent with the nation’s “historical tradition of firearm regulation.”

From the moment the Court agreed to hear the Rahimi case, advocates hoped it would provide an opportunity for the court to limit the sweep of last year’s blockbuster decision expanding gun rights.

We discuss the ramifications of the case with Sara Beth Myers, a Nashville-based attorney who has been a prosecutor at the federal, state, and county levels, who also has a long history of specializing in domestic violence cases at every level.

In this episode, we take a look at a number of international news items that have received alot of attention lately. We're joined by our own resident international law expert, Professor Ronnie Gipson, as he becomes the podcast's most frequent guest on his 3rd visit on the show.

He goes over issues and news items regarding the recent helicopter crash in Russia involving Wagner military group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin and how that affects Vladimir Putin's efforts in Russia and the war against Ukraine. We also take an in-depth look at the recent

Marijuana and cannabis-based products are everywhere these

Even in states like Tennessee, where marijuana and THC-derived

Here in Tennessee, the most recent to-do about marijuana

More and more states across the country are legalizing the

In an effort to understand the market and legal landscape a

This episode takes a look at Tennessee's Adult Entertainment Act and the recent ruling from a Federal District Court judge in Memphis which found it unconstitutional. Memphis Law professor Regina Hillman joins the show to discuss a wide array of LGBTQ related topics, from the ripple effects from legislation like the Adult Entertainment Act and how it plays out across our culture, as well as the history of the LGBTQ community’s fight against various laws throughout the country over the past few decades. We also delve into the larger legal and cultural issues at the heart of many of these cases and ways education has had an impact on America’s viewpoints surrounding them.

Today’s guest has an incredibly timely book addressing the differences, and some surprising similarities, between these two pillars of the Court, and the still unfolding impact of the transition from Justice Marshall to his replacement on the bench in Justice Thomas.

Our very own Professor Daniel Kiel has authored the forthcoming book, “The Transition: Interpreting Justice from Thurgood Marshall to Clarence Thomas.”

These two Justices may have been a generation apart in life, but they both spent the majority of their lives confronting the questions of race, the Constitution, and American Citizenship.

Professor Kiel makes the case that this particular transition was one of the most momentous shifts in power in the judicial branch of our lifetime. Not only did it shift the ideological balance on the Court; it was inextricably entangled with the persistent American dilemma of race. He explores the lives and writings of the first two African American Justices on the Court, touching on lasting consequences for understandings of American citizenship as well as the central currents of Black political thought over the past century.

The consequences of this transition are still unfolding today, both on the Court and in society. Take a listen to today’s episode to hear Professor Kiel tell us more about how their unique perspective as Black justices – the lives they have lived as African Americans and the rooting of their judicial philosophies in the relationship of government to African Americans – that makes this succession echo across generations.

In this episode of Show Cause, we are joined by two of our very own Memphis Law professors (Associate Dean Jodi Wilson and Professor Jennifer Brobst) to talk about the fears, implications, applications, ideas and future of AI programs like ChatGPT and the broader concept of technology’s impact in the classroom.

ChatGPT is a new chatbot program developed by OpenAI and which is capable of writing convincing essays, solving science and math problems, and producing functional computer code. It’s already caused quite the stir in the world of higher education, with students using it to write their assignments, passing off AI-generated essays as their own and professors and administrators scrambling to keep up. There has been an initial wave of widespread concern among academics about the impact this has in the classroom and what it means for the future of teaching, learning, ethics in the classroom, and much more.

But, as with all new technologies, there is more here than just the initial fear.

Within weeks of ChatGPTs unveiling, new anti-plaguarism programs were developed and adopted across the country. Many teachers went from feeling hopeless to utilizing the new AI programs as tools for idea generation or conversation starters. In short, a middle ground seems to be forming. But the technology is still new and it’s repercussions are still being felt out, especially in the worlds of legal education and the larger legal industry, where change has been traditionally slower to take hold.

Take a listen as we learn more about a variety of different elements that pertain to the crossover between new tech and our students education in today's world. 

How do abortion access, FAA enforcement of airline refunds, airplane crashes, pilot arrest and detainment, and the history of the airline industry and international airline standards all tie together? Find out in episode 11 of Show Cause as we're joined by International Law and Aviation Law expert, our very own Professor Ronnie Gipson. 

As the travel season ramps up again, everyone can relate to the stress and hassle associated with flying and the airline industry, but there are a lot more things happening in the world of air travel, the aviation legal arena, and international law than you might think. 

Join us as we examine issues related to the FAA crackdown on airlines to issue passenger refunds for canceled flights, the history of the airline industry and international sets of standards brought to the forefront due to a recent airline crash in Latin America, and the unique way private pilots and a small non-profit have teamed up to help patients access abortion related healthcare services in states that have enacted bans after the reversal of Roe v. Wade.