PODCAST: A Discussion with Author and Attorney Joshua Perry about his Novel, Seraphim.

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Summary:

Right out of law school, Joshua Perry moved to New Orleans to work as a public defender. In the chaotic aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, when reformers were trying to fix a broken criminal justice system on the fly, Perry was thrown untrained into defending the city’s most vulnerable people. Over the next decade, Perry served as general counsel at the Orleans Public Defenders and then Executive Director at the Louisiana Center for Children’s Rights, the city’s juvenile defender.

Now, Perry’s debut novel Seraphim – about two carpetbagging public defenders who end up defending a youth accused of high-profile murder – reflects on that experience. It’s a noir legal thriller, and also a meditation on inequality, Judaism, violence, and the often complicated relationship between fathers and sons.  Perry discusses all of these subjects with Associate Dean Rodger Citron in this podcast.          

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Learn more about Joshua Perry, Esq.

Joshua Perry, Esq.:

Joshua Perry was a public defender in New Orleans for a decade, serving as General Counsel to the New Orleans Public Defenders and Executive Director of the Louisiana Center for Children’s Rights, the city’s public defender for children.

From 2019 through 2022, he served as Special Counsel for Civil Rights to the Connecticut Attorney General. Now he is the State of Connecticut’s Solicitor General, leading the team that represents the state in complex cases in the federal and state appellate courts.

Josh lives in New Haven with his wife and three children.

PODCAST: Mitigating Catastrophic AI Risk

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Summary:

On this episode of the Touro Law Review Podcast, Touro Law Professors Peter
Zablotsky and Gabriel Weil, engage in a discussion about artificial intelligence and how this technology poses potential risks. As AI becomes more prevalent and its technical capabilities extend further beyond its current capacity, there is both a danger for misuse and for AI system failures. Professor Weil addresses how AI risk poses a problem for law and policy and further raises the argument that tort law is the best way to govern AI risk.

Professor Weil further investigates potential AI liability under a negligence scheme, what precautionary measures can be taken, and whether this type of technology use can be categorized as abnormally dangerous which would require a lens of strict liability. Furthermore, Professor Zablotksy and Professor Weil contemplate the effectiveness of potential legislation and how judges may struggle to understand AI and its technical operations when applying the law. Professor Weil’s recent paper, “Tort Law as a Tool for Mitigating Catastrophic Risk from Artificial Intelligence,” will be of interest to anyone listening.

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Keeping the Faith: A Discussion with Author Brenda Wineapple about the 1925 Scopes Trial

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Summary:

Every era has its trial of the century. In 1925, Tennessee prosecuted John T. Scopes, a high school teacher, for teaching evolution in violation of state law. The sensational trial drew nationwide attention and included an epic clash between two lawyers – William Jennings Bryan, one of the prosecutors, and Clarence Darrow, one of the defense attorneys.

In Keeping the Faith, Brenda Wineapple provides an account of the Scopes trial while exploring the case from different perspectives. In a front-cover New York Times review, Matthew Stewart described the book as “history at its most delicious, presented free from the musty smell of the archives where it was clearly assembled with great care.” Ms. Wineapple discusses the legal, political, and cultural aspects of the Scopes trial with Associate Dean Rodger Citron in this Touro Law Review podcast.

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PODCAST: Law and Politics: The Case of State Judicial Elections 

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Summary:

Alicia Bannon, Director of the Judiciary Program at the Brennan Center for Justice, discusses the politics of state judicial elections with Associate Dean Rodger Citron.  In 38 states, judges are elected.  As Bannon describes, judicial elections used to be “sleepy” – not much campaigning was done and not much money was spent.  For a number of reasons, that has changed.  In 2023, for example, about $51 million was spent on the election of a state supreme court justice in Wisconsin. 

Furthermore, as Bannon explains, state courts matter.  The most notable example of the importance of state courts is that they very well may have the final say on laws allowing or restricting access to abortion after the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization in 2022.  Bannon describes how judicial elections have become more politicized, what effect this has on the operation and perception of state judicial systems, and what, if anything, can be done in response to these developments.       

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PODCAST: The Demise of Chevron Deference: A Discussion with Professor David Franklin

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Summary: 

The Supreme Court continued its project of reshaping administrative law this term.  Perhaps its most widely discussed decision in this area was Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, in which the Court overruled the doctrine of Chevron deference.  How did the Chevron doctrine operate?  Why, after forty years, did the Supreme Court set it aside?  And what will judges do when interpreting regulatory statutes that are either ambiguous or silent on the question pending before the court?     

DePaul College of Law Professor David Franklin discusses these questions on this Touro Law Review podcast with Associate Dean Rodger Citron.  Franklin clerked on the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and the Supreme Court, has taught Administrative Law and Constitutional Law for more than a decade, and recently wrote about the Loper Bright decision for Slate, see This Supreme Court has betrayed Antonin Scalia’s legacy. (slate.com). 

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PODCAST: A Discussion with Judge Michael Ponsor on “Point of Order.”

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Summary: 

Long before he became a federal judge, even before he went to law school in the
early 1970s, Michael Ponsor wrote fiction.  It was not until 2013, however, that Judge Ponsor published his first novel, The Hanging Judge.  In this podcast, Judge Ponsor discusses his passion for writing as well as his experiences as a lawyer and judge that inform his third published novel, Point of Order. 

In his conversation with Associate Dean Rodger Citron, Judge Ponsor discusses the demands and challenges of being a judge and how he presents them in his novels involving Judge David S. Norcross.  Among other things, Judge Ponsor says, it is necessary for a judge to “rule and roll” in order to do the job.  Judge Ponsor also talks about how his experience teaching in Kenya as a young man figures into Point of Order as well. 

This podcast will be of interest to anyone who wishes to learn more about the relationship between law and literature.

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PODCAST: The Supreme Court and the “Independent State Legislature Theory”: A Discussion with Nicholas Maggio

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Summary: In Moore v. Harper, decided last year, the Supreme Court addressed the “independent state legislature theory.”  In a case arising out of an election in North Carolina, proponents of the theory contended that North Carolina’s Supreme Court did not have the authority to review a legal claim that the state legislature had adopted an illegally gerrymandered congressional map.  The Supreme Court rejected the theory by a 6-3 vote in Moore.  In this Touro Law Review podcast, Nicholas Maggio, an attorney who has written about the independent state legislature theory, discusses the case – in particular, its relevance during an election year and its significance for understanding the current Supreme Court – with Associate Dean Rodger Citron. 

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