Guns, Tech, and Free Speech
Case in Point: The Legal Show on the Hottest Legal Cases in Politics and Culture
The Heritage Foundation
4.5 • 527 Ratings
🗓️ 9 April 2021
⏱️ 37 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This week the Court issued a high-profile and very technical opinion in the copyright dispute between Google and Oracle. Your hosts break down the complicated issues in that case and cover other interesting orders from this week including an opinion by Justice Thomas about free speech and Big Tech that sparked a national conversation. Later on, Amy Swearer joins us again! This time, however, she's in the hot seat as a guest and subject-matter expert to discuss the Supreme Court and the Second Amendment. Lastly, Zack quizzes GianCarlo with some trivia about the Justices' pre-SCOTUS jobs.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Mr. Chief Justice, may it please the court. |
| 0:06.2 | I'm John Carlo Canoparo. |
| 0:08.0 | I'm Zach Smith. |
| 0:09.2 | And welcome to SCOTUS 101, where we break down what's happening at the Supreme Court, what the justices are up to, and other things related to our favorite branch of government. |
| 0:21.4 | Welcome to another episode of SCOTUS 101. |
| 0:25.2 | Zach, how are things looking at the court this week? |
| 0:27.9 | They're looking pretty good, G.C. It was a relatively light week. We only had one opinion. |
| 0:33.0 | We had a couple of noteworthy orders, and we had no oral arguments. And in fact, the court's next |
| 0:39.3 | conference to consider cases isn't scheduled until April 16th. Well, let's jump right into what |
| 0:46.8 | we do have. In Supreme Court-related news, Justice Breyer made news this week because he gave a |
| 0:53.3 | speech at Harvard where he said that the idea of court packing, that is, expanding the number of justices on the court, was not a good idea because it would increase the perception that the court was motivated not by law but by politics, which would erode public trust. |
| 1:08.7 | He went on to say that, and I quote, if the public sees judges as politicians |
| 1:12.7 | in robes, its confidence in the courts and in the rule of law itself can only diminish, |
| 1:18.2 | diminishing the court's power, including its power to act as a check on other branches. |
| 1:23.3 | Kind of makes you think, maybe judges, therefore, ought to strive towards objectivity in their decision-making. |
| 1:29.6 | Maybe, say, by removing their personal preferences from the process and limiting themselves to faithfully interpreting and applying the text of laws in the Constitution? |
| 1:37.9 | I don't know. Wild idea. |
| 1:39.7 | I don't know where you get these crazy ideas from, GC. Who would think such a thing? |
| 1:45.8 | Not Justice Breyer, ironically. Well, I don't always where you get these crazy ideas from, GC. Who would think such a thing? Not Justice Breyer, |
| 1:51.4 | ironically. Well, I don't always agree with Justice Breyer, but I think he was spot on with his speech in this aspect of it, at least, this week. All right, moving on to orders. First up, we have |
| 1:57.8 | small the Memphis light gas and water. This was a denial Memphis light, gas, and water. |
| 2:08.0 | This was a denial of certiorari, and Justice Gorsuch dissented, which Justice Alito joined. |
... |
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