Welcome to Courtside, Episode I. The podcast begins each week with a short, humorous discussion of the week’s legal news (because we all need humor to get through it). And then it turns to talking about a landmark case that’s been decided by the U.S. Supreme Court. I’ve argued 50 cases at the Supreme Court, and served as the federal government’s top lawyer. But I want the Court to come alive for you.
Each week, I’m going to discuss a single Supreme Court case with one guest, someone who’s not a lawyer and who can translate the case into plain English. So instead of talking about the law with some fusty lawyer named something like Oliver Wendell Holmes, we’re gonna do it with celebrities like John Mulaney and John Legend and Katie Couric. The Supreme Court is increasingly intruding into every aspect of our lives, and the goal here is to unpack that a bit this Summer, and we’ll run through the Summer. In September, the Court comes back and I’ve gotta go back to my day jobs, but if this podcast works out, we’ll do it again next summer.
Oh, by the way, in subsequent episodes, I’ll be releasing bonus material to subscribers from each interview. Given the fabulous guests we are going to have, I don’t want to squander the opportunity to talk to each of them about creativity, resilience, improvisation, and performance.
You’ll see I don’t have any ads on the podcast, that is because substack is pioneering a new model for podcasts, one that is entirely listener supported. For Episode I, I’m making everything available to non-subscribers, so what you see here is the kind of thing you’ll get if you pay for a subscription. I’m donating every dollar I receive from the podcast to charity.
Episode I begins with the Trump arraignment in Florida, and then quickly turns to the Supreme Court. We discuss NYT v. Sullivan, a groundbreaking 1964 case about freedom of the press and speech. This is the key decision that allows the media to operate without getting sued (well, unless you are Fox News). It’s about as major a decision about speech as any the Court has ever decided.
While Courtside is going to avoid lawyers as guests, I couldn’t resist the opportunity to break that rule for this specific episode and invite Ari Melber to the show. Ari has a unique perspective, he was a lawyer at a top law firm practicing First Amendment law, but now he’s on the other side of that, as one of the most brilliant anchors on MSNBC, where he’s had to think about freedom of the press and the threats posed by libel suits, akin to that with Fox and Dominion. Ari is also my partner in crime on MSNBC, where we work together each week on The Beat.
In fact, Ari came to the Supreme Court recently to watch me give my 50th Supreme Court argument. This is us after the argument (I am definitely not someone you want to see photographed before the argument.)
And, as some of you know, I do a series every Monday called Opening Arguments with Ari on his show The Beat.
Anyway, for our discussion with Ari, I put together some materials to help guide you through the case. For Episode 1, all the materials are available to nonpaying subscribers. In later weeks, subscribers will be able to access all the case materials. Each week, I’ll provide a short 3 or 4 pager description of the case, along with a longer (roughly 20 pp) excerpted version of the Supreme Court case. I’ll also throw in the full case too, so interested readers can read that.
So, here is the 3 pager on New York Times v. Sullivan:
Here is the abridged version of the Supreme Court decision:
Here is the full decision:
Also, if you are interested in what the original advertisement that gave rise to the lawsuit looked like, here it is:
Courtside: Episode 1 with Ari Melber