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- [00:04]
A
Welcome to this episode of sistersidebar. If you don't want to miss any episodes, click here. You can subscribe and press like and ring the bell so that you always get notifications and don't miss an episode. If you have a question for us, you can email them to us@sistersinlawoliticon.com and you can also tag us on social media at sistersinlaw. But you don't have to just send us an email in writing. You can use any of your message apps to send us your voice asking the question and then we may play your voice on our show. Please, please send us your questions. Let's get started. Barb, we have some really good questions. Here's one for you from Laura.
- [00:54]
B
Hi Sisters, this is Laura in Sacramento, California. Looking ahead to a differently constituted court. How might a future SCOTUS reverse this court's current spate of precedent shattering, results driven cases on everything from executive power to reproductive rights to voting rights without itself reinforcing the sense that precedent is no longer relevant? Yeah, that's a great question, Laura. You know, there is a standard that courts are supposed to follow when deciding whether to overturn precedent. I mean, ordinarily our system is one of starry decisis to stand by things decided because that provides notice to people and reliability about what the law requires. But from time to time, the courts do overturn precedents. This court, in my opinion, has overturned precedent just because they didn't like it. You know, they've often said it was egregiously wrong when it was decided. It's egregiously wrong today. So we're just gonna overturn it. But there is a formula they're supposed to look at. There are four fact they're supposed to consider. One is whether the facts or the law have changed in some significant way since the time of the original decision. So maybe we've learned about things, scientific discovery, facts have changed, or other things. That could be one basis. Another is whether it has grown to be inconsistent with other laws. So some other laws have been developed and then you've got this one out there that's not really consistent. And so to promote uniformity, that could be a reason. Another reason is it turns out that the rule has proved unworkable in practice. So the court thought, let's make this the rule. And then over time we've seen that it just doesn't really work. That's a reason. And then the fourth factor they're supposed to look at is whether people have relied on this decision in their own lives. That's a reason for not overturning precedent. I would have argued that that was a very strong reason to maintain Roe versus Wade and not the Dobbs decision. And so you could imagine a scenario where if you had a differently constituted, they could look at things like Citizens United and say the world has really changed since 2010 when they did not anticipate this flood of dark money that might come into the system. So that could be an example of how we could see change in the law with a different constitution of the court. I don't think the justices currently on this court are going to change the decision, but perhaps some decades down the road, we could see some relief. All right, Jill, here's one for you. It's from Brandon in New York, who asks what what's the point of giving someone more than one life sentence? Does it have any other effects besides determining the length of the sentence?
- [03:35]
A
Well, of course, the length of the sentence is determined by the first. Life is life. The only reason that I can justify giving two life sentences is because you have two separate crimes that both deserve a life sentence. And if one of those gets appealed and overturned for any reason, you still have the second one to fall back on. So they, of course, would have to run concurrently because you can't have a life and then a life after life. So they would run concurrently. But if one gets overturned, you still have the other to fall back on.
- [04:10]
B
Ooh, I can think of some people I would like to see sentenced to consecutive terms. So even their afterlife term has to be served in prison.
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A
Who would that be? Barb, should we say now?
- [04:21]
B
I'll plead the fifth. Jill, here's one for you from Joanne.
- [04:26]
A
Hi, sisters in law.
- [04:28]
B
This is Joanne from Bluffton, South Carolina. I read Joyce's essay on Trump's appeal of the E. Jean Carroll case. Unsurprisingly, Trump has asked for an extension to pay up. What about the other E. Jean Carroll case? Where does that stand?
- [04:43]
A
Why weren't the two cases lumped together? Thank you for that question, Joanne. I really, really like it, and it is very interesting how quickly we forget, but there are two E. Jean Carroll cases. Both of them are related, but they happened on two different occasions. One happened while Donald Trump was the president and he spoke from the White House lawn. That's the second case. The first one, she, as you have noted, collected $5 million, actually more than that because interest had accrued. But her really big judgment for over $80 million has not yet been paid because it's still under appeal. Of course he's trying to claw back the 5 million in what I predict, and I hope, Barb, you will agree with me, is a fruitless task, that he will not be able to get the money back. But in this case, we're having arguments made that because he was speaking from the White House that it's an official act. Well, speaking about a charge of defamation and sexual assault from the White House does not make it an official act. So I think that it will end up the same way and that she'll end up eventually collecting. But as of now, it's still under appeal.
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B
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- [06:58]
A
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- [07:46]
B
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- [08:21]
A
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- [09:21]
B
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- [10:04]
A
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- [10:49]
B
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- [11:36]
A
Barb for you. We have a question from Tim in London. Someone from the UK is listening to us now. I'm so glad. Tim asked, if a criminal makes it to a non extradition country, are they scot free?
- [11:53]
B
Ooh, thanks for the question, Tim. I hope you're just asking for a friend because there you are already in the U.K. yes, mostly. So the United States has extradition treaties with many, many countries. And what it says is if you know someone is found in that country, say Germany is a good example. We have an extradition treaty with Germany. If somebody flees to Germany, we can work through the treaty provisions. Typically it has to be reciprocal crime, something that's a crime both in this country and that country. And if so, they will extradite that person back. They get a hearing to make sure they're the right person and if so, they're sent back to face charges. But there are several other countries, many other countries with whom we have no extradition treaty. Russia, China, state sponsors of terrorism, Iran, you know, some of these countries, there's no extradition treaty. So if a person goes to that country, typically we are not able to get them. Now what does happen, and I've been through this before, is the prosecutor in the United States would file what's known as a red notice with Interpol and that goes into the system, into every one of those countries where we do have an extradition treaty so that if that person ever travels into one of those countries, which happens from time to time, then that country would arrest the person and put them in extradition proceedings. So in some ways, when people are wanted in the United States, it's a little bit of a home confinement situation because they're not able to travel to any country with whom we have an extradition treaty.
- [13:19]
A
Barb, we have a great question for you from Tricia in Fairfax, Virginia. She asks, as media consumers, what is the best way to protect ourselves from getting fooled by AI Fakes? This is right up your alley because of your book and how much you've studied this.
- [13:34]
B
Yeah, I really like this question, Tricia, and I appreciate it very much. More and more we are seeing AI fakes on social media, including political ads, where we see candidates doing things and saying things that they never said or did in a Perfect world. Some states are already doing this, but I would love to see required AI labeling and so on some of the platforms, we're seeing that this ad was generated through artificial intelligence, and that way, at least the user has notice that this is fake. I submit that even that can cause some real harm because it creates this idea of false impressions. And even if you don't remember the details of what you saw, you might still have a bad impression of that candidate based on what you saw through AI. In the absence of these kinds of common sense laws that label AI, I think there are some things that we can do. One is to have a healthy skepticism when you see things online. If you see something that looks outrageous, maybe think twice about whether it's true, maybe look for a second source just because you saw somebody post a funny image. I'm seeing some of these, these days of Trump with these enormous pompadour hairdos after, you know, some observer, some observers say he's been wearing the toupee. And so there's been, you know, some really ridiculous hair pieces displayed before you believe those to be true, perhaps, you know, try to look for credible sources and ask if this image is. Is accurate. So it's a shame that we have to do that work ourselves. But I think until we get label, which I would forcefully advocate for, I think that's the best that we can do. Jill, our last question comes to us from Dr. Ann, who asks, what's the relationship, if any, between standing and venue, between who can bring a case and where they're allowed to bring it?
- [15:22]
A
Thank you, Dr. Ann. I always like when we get questions that we take for granted that everybody understands. But these are legal terms that have very different meanings. They are related. Standing is who can bring a lawsuit. You have to have some injury. It has to be something that is compensable by the courts that gives you standing. But then the question is, even if you have standing, where can you file the case? And that's what venue is. So for venue, you have to be in a place where either the defendant lives or does business, or where the crime, or not necessarily the crime, where the conduct that you're suing about took place. So if you bought a product in your hometown, even if the corporation doesn't have an office there, they were doing business there. And that subjects them to venue in your home state. And so that's how you get the two related. You have to first have standing to file the lawsuit, but then you have to file it in the right jurisdiction.
- [16:32]
B
Thank you for listening. To Sister Sidebar with Jill Winebanks and me, Barb McQuaid. Keep sending in more great questions for next week's show, and if you send in a voice memo, we'll try to play a question during our next episode. Follow Sister sidebar and hashtag Sisters in Law wherever you listen. And please give us a five star review. It really helps others find the show. Please show some love to this week's sponsors, Thrive Cosmetics in Blueland. The link is in the show notes. Please support them because they make this podcast possible. Don't forget to pick up Sisters in Lawmerch and other goodies@politicon.com merch. See you every week on Wednesdays and Saturdays for new episodes of Sisters in Law and Sister Sidebar look at that. Nailed it. Good job, Jill.