35 episodes

A podcast about how our legal system doesn’t work for us.

May it Displease the Court Mary M Whiteside

    • Government
    • 5.0 • 21 Ratings

A podcast about how our legal system doesn’t work for us.

    Ep. 34 - Making Trans Medicine Illegal with Professor stef shuster

    Ep. 34 - Making Trans Medicine Illegal with Professor stef shuster

    In June 2015, the Supreme Court ruled that marriage is a fundamental right guaranteed by the 14th Amendment that must be afforded to same-sex couples. 
    Since then, anti-LGBTQ activists, with funding from creepy right-wing billionaires and help from Republican state legislators in gerrymandered “red” states, have sought new ways to marginalize and bully LGBTQ people. To fracture the unity of LGBTQ people and their allies, the legislative attacks have targeted transgender people. First manufactured concerns about bathroom access, next trans people’s ability to participate in sports, and most recently, attacks on transgender youths and their bodies with the increasing trend of criminalizing trans medicine.
    How has the medical community responded to the criminalization of practices, which are the standard of care for gender dysphoria, and the insertion of legislators who want to prohibit parents of trans youth from making decisions about their children’s medical care?
    In this episode, Michigan State Professor stef shuster, who wrote the book wrote Trans Medicines - The emergence and practice of treating gender, joins host Mary Whiteside.
    *Since recording, the American Medical Association has come of opposing any and all criminal penalties for patients and families attempting to access gender-affirming care and protecting physicians from legal threats for providing care. 
    **Also, several important Court decisions have come out stopping laws banning or limiting gender-affirming care from taking effect. Huge wins for the trans community! However, these favorable decisions will undoubtedly be appealed, so the fight is not over.
    Find us @courtpod on Twitter, and May it Displease the Court on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Clapper
    Drop an email at mayitdispleasethecourt@gmail.com. 
    We would also love to rate and review the show. It helps others find the program.
    Sources
    https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs11199-020-01131-3) 
     
    https://msutoday.msu.edu/news/2020/toxic-masculinity-is-unsafe-for-men
     
    https://socialscience.msu.edu/news-events/news/archives/2020/2020-06-16.html 
     
    ​​https://socialscience.msu.edu/research/thematic/sgm/journal.html 
     
    https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/article-abstract/2783699 
     
    https://www.endocrine.org/news-and-advocacy/news-room/2022/endocrine-society-alarmed-at-criminalization-of-transgender-medicine 
    Article on Willie Simmons: https://www.essence.com/news/willie-simmons-life-prison-alabama-habitual-offender/

    • 55 min
    Ep. 33 - Exploring the Reform Prosecutor Movement with Justin Kollar

    Ep. 33 - Exploring the Reform Prosecutor Movement with Justin Kollar

    Here in America, the number of people we choose to incarcerate makes up 25% of the world’s prison population. And that statistic was driven by mainly by state and local “tough on crime” prosecutors.
    Prosecutors have a huge amount of power and control over who get criminally charged, who doesn’t, what crimes get pursued, and what crimes get ignored, who gets a plea bargain, and who gets denied or offered rehabilitative diversion programs. 
    If you want to change the system the fastest way is to become a reform District Attorney. But while that may be popular with the majority of voters in some areas, even these officials face a ton of well-funded resistance.
    In this episode, Justin Kollar, who has been working as and for the Reform Prosecutor Movement since 2012 joins host Mary Whiteside to discuss the ways prosecutors can use their power to advance justice and divert resources to truly help communities and make them safer. 
    Find us @courtpod on Twitter and May it Displease the Court on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Clapper
    Drop an email at mayitdispleasethecourt@gmail.com. 
    We would also love to rate and review the show. It helps others find the program.
    Sources
    https://fairandjustprosecution.org/about-fjp/our-work-and-vision/ 
     
    https://www.civilbeat.org/beat/kauai-prosecutor-stepping-down-for-nonprofit-gig/ 
     
    https://fairandjustprosecution.org/about-fjp/our-team/
    Article on Willie Simmons: https://www.essence.com/news/willie-simmons-life-prison-alabama-habitual-offender/

    • 50 min
    Ep. 32 - Making Jury Trials More Fair with Rhian Jones

    Ep. 32 - Making Jury Trials More Fair with Rhian Jones

    The Constitution protects our right to an impartial jury. Still, the normal process of selecting a jury often lets attorneys' unconscious or conscious biases infect jury selection. If a juror’s biases are undetected or dismissed as something that can be set aside, they can inflect the verdict leading to wrongful convictions.
    Biases are habits of thought or patterns of thinking that include preferences, inclinations, or just impressions. Biases can include cognitive shortcuts that can lead to wrong assumptions or errors in judgment. Judging a past event using what you know today is hindsight bias. Confirmation bias is only seeking information to confirm a prejudgment. All of these are impediments to a fair jury.
    The stakes could not be higher for an innocent person accused of a crime. If a jury fills in gaps in the government’s proof with stereotypes, hunches, and vague bad feelings, then the 
    In this episode, trial attorney Rhian Jones joins host Mary Whiteside to discuss the dangers of hidden biases on a jury and ideas to make jury selection better and fairer.
    Find us @courtpod on Twitter and May it Displease the Court on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Clapper
    Drop an email at mayitdispleasethecourt@gmail.com. 
    We would also love to rate and review the show. It helps others find the program.
    Sources
    Rhian Jones
    http://etksdefense.com/attorneys/rhian-jones/
    Peremptory Challenges
    https://www.npr.org/2021/09/06/1034556234/arizonas-supreme-court-eliminates-peremptory-challenges 
    https://civiljuryproject.law.nyu.edu/understanding-bias-preserving-peremptory-challenges-preventing-their-discriminatory-use-and-providing-fairer-and-more-impartial-juries/ 
    https://abovethelaw.com/2015/11/criminally-yours-dont-eliminate-peremptory-challenges/ Article on Willie Simmons: https://www.essence.com/news/willie-simmons-life-prison-alabama-habitual-offender/

    • 41 min
    Ep. 31 - Cancel Culture and Wokeness with Prof. Lee Pierce

    Ep. 31 - Cancel Culture and Wokeness with Prof. Lee Pierce

    We hear the terms cancel culture and wokeness thrown around these days, but do you know what they mean? A common defense tactic of someone embroiled in a public and embarrassing controversy is to proclaim loudly, through their platforms, they have been canceled, and of course, the people canceling them have to be woke.
    That is what Dr. Nicholas Niciosa and his wife, Mary, claimed after they received public criticism after it became known that they hosted a party with racist themes at their mansion. A lawsuit was filed by an employee whose supervisor took him and other employees to this party during work hours. 
    In this episode, we bring back one of the best people on the planet Prof.Lee Pierce. She joins host Mary Whiteside to discuss cancel culture, free speech, and wokeness.
    Find us on Twitter @courtpod and May it Displease the Court on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Youtube shorts, and we will launch a youtube channel soon.
    Drop an email at mayitdispleasethecourt@gmail.com. 
    We would also love to rate and review the show. It helps others find the program.
    Sources:
    https://www.democratandchronicle.com/story/news/2022/08/11/rochester-ny-firefighter-alleges-captain-took-him-to-racist-party-mocking-juneteenth/65400205007/ 
    Article on Willie Simmons: https://www.essence.com/news/willie-simmons-life-prison-alabama-habitual-offender/

    • 51 min
    Ep. 30 - Originalism is Fake

    Ep. 30 - Originalism is Fake

    The Conservative majority on the Supreme Court is upending the legal landscape overturning cases like Roe v. Wade, making it almost impossible for states to enact limits on gun possession, and more, all under the guise of a legal theory called originalism. 
    In this episode, we bring back one of our most popular guests, Prof. Eric Segall. He joins host Mary Whiteside to discuss his book Originalism as Faith.
    Listen as Professor Segall debunks originalism as a legal theory. Self-avowed originalists on the Supreme Court only use the Constitution's original meaning in their opinions when it helps their argument. But, even though they claim originalism is the only correct method of Constitutional interpretation. They effortlessly abandon originalism when it doesn’t help them reach their desired results. In short, originalism is nothing more than a rhetorical device that plays well on Fox News. It masks the Justices’ true motive, which is to impose their moral value judgments on the rest of us without admitting that it is their views. They prefer to claim that they are only doing the will of the Founders, which somehow matches identically with what the Republican Party and their wealthy and religious donors want them to do. What luck!
    Find us on Twitter - Prof. Segall is @espinsegall and @scotussegall on TikTok
    The podcast is @courtpod on Twitter and May it Displease the Court on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok
    Drop an email at mayitdispleasethecourt@gmail.com. 
    We would also love to rate and review the show. It helps others find the program.
    Sources:
    Originalism as Faith
    https://www.abebooks.com/Originalism-Faith-Segall-Eric-J-Cambridge/30213915736/bd?cm_mmc=msn-_-comus_shopp_textbook-_-naa-_-naa&msclkid=a2162b84717d1beb3eb94831ae6abfb3 

    Read more from Prof. Segal - Originalism as Dangerous Nonsense

    http://www.dorfonlaw.org/2022/11/originalism-as-dangerous-nonsense.html?m=1 
    Additional References
    https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2022/06/alito-dobbs-opinion-ending-abortion-rights-extreme-lines.html 
    https://nysba.org/the-supreme-courts-bruen-decision-and-its-impact-what-comes-next/ 
    https://www.exposedbycmd.org/2021/11/29/koch-spent-nearly-150-million-2020 
    Article on Willie Simmons: 
    https://www.essence.com/news/willie-simmons-life-prison-alabama-habitual-offender/

    • 57 min
    Ep. 29 - Unrig Democracy with Daniel G. Newman

    Ep. 29 - Unrig Democracy with Daniel G. Newman

    Political divisions are driving wedges at all levels, national, state, communities, and families. The fracture may seem unbridgable. But Americans agree that our government does not work for us. It works for the rich and powerful. Even acknowledging the problem can make you feel overwhelmed, and the knee-jerk reaction is often to look away because the solution feels impossible to achieve. 
    In this episode, Daniel G. Newman joins host Mary Whiteside to discuss his graphic novel Unrig: How to fix our broken democracy, art by George O’Connor.
    Unrig a nonfiction graphic novel by democracy reform leader Daniel G. Newman and artist George O’Connor takes readers on a journey. First it explains how the system is rigged in favor of the rich and powerful and then highlights the heroic efforts of those unrigging the system to limit the influence of big/dark money and to return political power to the voters. 
    ​”If you're overwhelmed by negative news and despairing for the direction of our country, Unrig is a tonic that will restore your faith and reveal the path forward to fix our broken democracy.”
    Find us on Twitter - Daniel is @danielgnewman, and the podcast is @courtpod.
    Drop an email at mayitdispleasethecourt@gmail.com. 
    We would also love to rate and review the show. It helps others find the program.
    Sources:
    Learn about and buy Unrig
    https://www.unrigbook.com/ 
    Check out Daniel’s organization Maplight
    https://www.maplight.org/
    Article on Willie Simmons:
     
    https://www.essence.com/news/willie-simmons-life-prison-alabama-habitual-offender/

    • 37 min

Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5
21 Ratings

21 Ratings

Adam Are. ,

Insightful and no-nonsense, Mary and Lee are great!

This podcast comes at a perfect time with the shift that’s happening in our society. Mary and Lee bring a lot of experience from their respective fields to the table to tell us what the media can’t see. Their knowledge clears up a lot of the disinformation out there to tell us how the court system really works!

mimi _ LA ,

Inside track on our flawed system

Great hosts who offer a unique perspective of our court system ... but the podcast does much more than point out its flaws. It discusses changes that can - and should - be made to make justice more equal for all. Smart guests. Relevant topics. Now I can use time stuck in traffic gaining some fresh insight.

Larkonthewing ,

Real and Researched

This podcast is quickly becoming one of my regulars. Lee and Mary have a natural chemistry that makes you feel like you’re listening in on a friend’s phone call. This show humanizes a field that I have always felt was cold and distant. There’s so much work to be done to reform our system. Let’s get to work!

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