Hurricane Leah Hits the Courtroom (Part 4)
The Bravo Docket
Cesie and Angela
4.7 • 2.6K Ratings
🗓️ 21 May 2025
⏱️ 86 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In the final installment of our (Hurricane) Leah McSweeney legal breakdown, we unpack what the judge ultimately decided in her case. We walk through which claims were dismissed—including those related to gender and religion discrimination and hostile work environment—and which are moving forward. We also dig into the court’s analysis of disability discrimination, failure to accommodate, retaliation, and that infamous letter from Andy Cohen. Plus, how the First Amendment continues to serve as a powerful shield for reality TV—especially in this case.
What’s on the docket?
- A deep dive into how the court responded to each of Leah’s claims
- How First Amendment protections shield Bravo’s casting decisions
- Which claims were tossed—and which ones are moving forward
- Why the judge says Andy Cohen’s infamous letter doesn’t qualify as retaliation
- Why Leah’s RICO claim didn’t hold up
- Where the case stands now—and Leah’s latest move to amend her complaint
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This podcast is brought to you by Podcast Nation. |
| 0:06.3 | I like that at the outset of this, too, the court was like, we don't even have to get into whether or not saying you do cocaine with your employees is inflammatory because that doesn't really even matter for my decision because his action was not an adverse employment action. It was just |
| 0:21.8 | part and parcel to engaging in litigation. You want to file claims? You put yourself at risk of getting |
| 0:27.0 | responses back. Like, you can't file a lawsuit, not expect someone to file a response back to you |
| 0:33.3 | or send you a letter with their own defenses in it. So it's part for the course. |
| 0:37.9 | Welcome to the Bravo Docket. |
| 0:51.3 | We're your favorite reality TV drama meets the courtroom. I'm Sessie. |
| 0:56.0 | And I'm Angela and we're two attorneys with a passion for pop culture here to dive into the juiciest lawsuits and legal battles in the world of reality TV. |
| 1:03.8 | Whether you're here for the facts, fun, or just some law 101. Let's get into today's case. |
| 1:11.9 | Hey everyone, welcome back to the Bravo docket. So we are going to continue our discussion |
| 1:16.3 | about Leah McSweeney and get to what the judge ordered in her case. So if you haven't listened |
| 1:22.0 | to her prior three episodes, we recommend you go back and listen to those where we discuss what her causes of |
| 1:29.4 | action are, what the arguments made by the lawyers were, what the leading precedent is in |
| 1:36.4 | this space. And now we'll get into the order. Okay, so like we discussed in the last episode, defendants all moved to dismiss all |
| 1:47.7 | of Leah's causes of action. So they filed a motion to dismiss. I wanted to talk about the standard of |
| 1:53.0 | that first and then get into their specific arguments, which a lot of them, like we've previewed, |
| 1:58.1 | are based on the First Amendment defense, but some of them |
| 2:00.9 | aren't. And I thought those were also interesting because a large chunk have to do with the First |
| 2:06.7 | Amendment, but not everything. And I also wanted to note that defendants also moved to dismiss |
| 2:12.1 | certain claims against the individual defendants, so the ones under Title VII and the ADA, because you cannot sue |
| 2:19.8 | individuals under those. So those got knocked out because of that. And that's something I mentioned |
| 2:26.8 | when we first discussed this episode. All right. So I'm not going to read the background, |
... |
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