Clarence Thomas Wants to Blow Up Defamation Law

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4.8 • 616 Ratings

🗓️ 21 February 2019

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This week, the Supreme Court declined to take up an appeal by Kathrine McKee, a woman who publicly accused Bill Cosby of raping her more than 40 years ago. As part of this decision, Clarence Thomas issued an alarming concurring opinion that may signal the start of a prolonged attack on the First Amendment in the courts. Imani and Jess explain how this fight may take shape and what could change forever if Thomas's position wins out.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, fellow law nerds.
0:09.1	Welcome to another episode of Boom Lawyard,
0:11.8	a rewire.
0:12.4	Dot News podcast hosted by the legal journalism team
0:15.9	that really wants to just mute the conversation
0:18.9	on the 2020 Democratic primary.
0:22.0	It is too much.
0:22.6	Too much.
0:23.9	I'm Imani Gandhi.
0:26.0	And I'm Jess Piclo.
0:30.9	Rewire.com news is dedicated to bringing you the best reproductive rights and social justice,
0:33.3	news, commentary, and analysis on the web.
0:35.8	And the team legal podcast is part of that mission.
0:39.0	So a big thanks to our subscribers and a welcome to our new listeners.
0:44.0	This week, the Supreme Court declined to take up the appeal of Catherine McKee.
0:48.7	She's the woman who publicly accused Bill Cosby of raping her 40 years ago.
0:53.9	Clarence Thomas agreed with the Supreme Court's decision to deny certain that case, but in doing so, he issued
0:55.8	a rather alarming concurring opinion. His opinion makes it pretty clear that he really wants
1:01.8	to loosen the standard for libel against public figures and basically leave it to the states
1:07.1	to create their own patchwork First Amendment jurisprudence.
1:15.5	Essentially, it's the latest dystopian free speech opinion from Clarence Thomas.
1:20.7	And in this episode, we're going to talk about what in the world is going on with Clarence Thomas and his interpretation of the First Amendment.
	...

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