Welcome to Allicast Slate's Legal Affairs Podcast.

I'm Galia Lithwick, Slate's Supreme Court correspondent.

And we thought we'd kick things off this week with a little court audio from this past

Monday.

This is Chief Justice John Roberts, sampling M&M, the rap star.

In an argument about what kind of speech falls outside of First Amendment protection

because it qualifies as what's known as a true threat.

You know, that'll make a nice med for bed for mommy at the bottom of the lake, tie a rope

around a rock.

This is during the context of a domestic dispute between a husband and wife.

There goes mommy's splashing in the water, no more fighting with dad, you know, all that

stuff.

Now, under your test, could that be prosecuted?

No.

Because if you look at the context of these statements, because M&M said it instead of

somebody else.

This case called Alonus versus U.S.

involves a self-described aspiring rapper who uses very violent language on Facebook

in reference to his estranged wife, his children, an elementary school, his former co-workers,

and a female FBI agent.

Later on in today's podcast, we're going to talk to a scholar of rap music in the law

about how rap music has been invoked in courtrooms.

...