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Hidden Verdicts uncovers forgotten legal cases that shaped history, presented in an engagingly unforgettable way. Hosted by Jeff Brown, a lawyer and proud Actors' Equity member, this podcast offers a fresh perspective on the law, making complex topics accessible and fun for all ages and educational levels. Join us as we explore the stories behind the cases that changed America.
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Legal analysis and commentary from Justia.com with the columinst team of Vikram Amar, Neil Buchanan, Sherry Colb, John Dean, Michael Dorf, Joanna Grossman, Marci Hamilton, Julie Hilden, Joanne Mariner and Anita Ramasastry.
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Blind Justice: The Supreme Court and the Execution of the Disabled.
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Send us a text Explore the harrowing case of Johnny Paul Penry, a man with intellectual disabilities sentenced to death. From the chilling details of his crime to the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling, this episode examines justice, morality, and the complexities of the death penalty in America. Support the show Thank you for listening to Hidden Verd…
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McNaghten’s Mind: The Insane Origins of the Insanity Defense.
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Send us a text In the shadows of Victorian England, Daniel McNaghten’s mind unraveled, leading to a crime that would haunt the legal world and redefine sanity. Explore the origins of the insanity defense in the chilling tale of madness and murder. Support the show Thank you for listening to Hidden Verdicts! If you enjoyed today’s episode, don’t for…
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The Bullet, the Noose, and the Supreme Court’s Verdict.
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Send us a text In a cold, silent yard, a man stands between life and death—faced with a choice no one should ever have to make, Wallace Wilkerson, convicted of murder, is offered two methods of execution: the noose or the bullet. But as his final hours draw near, a deeper question lingers—was the real cruelty in how he would die, or in the choice i…
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State Secrets vs. Justice: The Man the Courts Wouldn’t Help.
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Send us a text In this episode of Hidden Verdicts, we explore the chilling case of Khalid El-Masri, a German citizen who was mistakingly abducted, tortured in a CIA black site, and denied justice by the courts. His story reveals the terrifying consequences of state secrecy and the limits of justice in the name of national security. Support the show…
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The Battle of Identity: What It Means to Be a Tomato.
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Send us a text In this episode of Hidden Verdicts, we explore the bizarre 1893 Supreme Court case Nix v. Hedden, where a tomato’s identity was put on trial. Was it a fruit or a vegetable? The case went beyond tariffs to touch on the deeper issue of how labels define us. Join us as we dive into this legal battle and reflect on what it means to be re…
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When The Supreme Court Sanctioned Forced Sterilization.
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Send us a text In this chilling episode of Hidden Verdicts, we examine the disturbing legal foundation that connects the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Buck v. Bell to Adolf Hitler’s Final Solution. Discover how the legal sanction of forced sterilization in America provided a model for Hitler’s policies of racial extermination and the far-reachin…
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The Spark of Death: Edison’s Gift and the Supreme Court’s Darkest Ruling.
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Send us a text In 1890, William Kemmler made a fateful decision—he chose the electric chair over the hangman’s noose, becoming the first man in history to die by electricity. But what he thought would be a quick and painless death turned into a gruesome spectacle. Behind it all was Thomas Edison, eager to showcase his latest invention in a way no o…
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Kamala Harris: White, Black, or Indian? Make America Think Again.
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Send us a text In this episode of Hidden Verdicts, we dive deep into the legal gymnastics that dictated who was considered black and who wasn’t, with monumental cases like Plessy v. Ferguson setting the groundwork. How did the Supreme Court decide what fraction of someone’s blood made them a different race? And why do these outdated ideals still li…
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How A Cell Phone Ended Up In Witness Protection.
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Send us a text In this episode, we dive into Carpenter v. United States, the case that forever changed digital privacy. Timothy Carpenter thought he was untouchable until his phone had other plans. When the FBI used his cell phone data to track his every move, Timothy found himself at the center of a legal battle that would reshape how law enforcem…
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Send us a text When Christmas decorations go too far, what’s a city to do? In 1984, a nativity scene in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, set the stage for an all-out courtroom drama. Enter Lynch v. Donnelly, where one man’s fight to remove baby Jesus from government property snowballed into a Supreme Court showdown. Was it the war on Christmas or just the …
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The Day They Kicked Government Out Of The Bedroom.
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Send us a text What Tries to control the most post personal choices between a husband and wife? In this episode of hidden verdict, we dive into Griswold versus Connecticut, the case that redefined privacy writes in America. Estelle Griswold and Dr. Lee Buxton took a stand against a law and dictated with couples could and couldn’t do in the privacy …
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When National Security Was Used To Hide Negligence.
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Send us a text A deadly plane crash, three grieving widows, and the government desperate to keep its secrets hidden. In this episode of Hidden Verdicts, we uncover the story behind United States v. Reynolds - the first case to establish the “states secrets’ privilege. What started as a quest for justice turned into a battle over national security, …
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When The Law Is Dirtier Than The Laundry.
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Send us a text In 1866, Yick Wo, a Chinese Immigrant, stood up to a city’s unfair law, and change civil rights forever. Join us as we explore how one man’s fight against injustice reached the U.S. Supreme Court and exposed the dangers of discrimination hidden within the legal system. This is the story behind Yick Wo v. Hopkins - and why it still ma…
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A Handwritten Letter That Changed Criminal Justice.
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Send us a text In this episode, we explore the story behind Gideon v. Wainwright, the landmark case that transformed the American criminal justice system. It all began with a simple handwritten letter from Clarence, Earl, Gideon, a man convicted of burglary, who wrote to the Supreme Court from his prison cell. His plea for legal representation resu…
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The Speech That Sent a Labor Leader to Prison.
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Send us a text What happens when one man’s voice becomes too powerful for the government to ignore?In this episode of Hidden Verdict, we dive into Eugene V. Deb’s fiery anti-war speech that landed him in prison. Discover how his words sparked a battle over free speech and led it to a landmark Supreme Court decision that still shapes America today. …
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How A Group of Butchers Changed Civil Rights Forever.
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Send us a text In this episode of hidden verdict, we explore the slaughterhouse cases a little known Supreme Court ruling that drastically impacted the interpretation of the 14th amendment. Discover have a dispute between New Orleans butchers, and the state of Louisiana lead to a precedent that narrowed civil rights protections, shaping the fight …
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After Congress denied him most of the funding he requested for a border wall last week, President Trump declared a national emergency, thereby invoking power to shift funds that were originally appropriated for other purposes. To state the obvious, no emergency exists. Illegal border crossings are down, and while there has been a recent increase in…
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Justifying External Support for Regime Change in Venezuela
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Venezuela has suffered through two decades of incompetent, corrupt, and authoritarian socialist rule, first under Hugo Chávez and, since 2013, under Nicolás Maduro. Seeking to restore democracy and prosperity, two weeks ago Juan Guaidó, the president of the Venezuelan National Assembly, declared himself the country’s acting president pending new el…
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How Should the Law Address Illicit Motives in the Age of Trump?
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Until late last week, the Supreme Court was preparing to hear oral argument in a case presenting the question whether Federal District Judge Jesse Furman erred by ordering discovery outside of the administrative record to discern the motives behind the Trump administration’s decision to add a question concerning citizenship to the 2020 census. In a…
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Why Facebook’s Hate-Speech Policy Makes So Little Sense
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A recent New York Times article disclosed details of Facebook’s global effort to block hate speech and other ostensibly offensive content. As the article explains, Facebook has good reason to worry that some people use its platform not just to offend but to undermine democracies and even to incite deadly violence. Yet Facebook’s response seems curi…
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Obamacare Nonseverability Ruling Exposes Uncertainty in our Conception of Law
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In the wake of a Supreme Court ruling in a Michigan land dispute earlier this year, I explained in a column for this site that the non-ideological divisions between the justices on display in the case reflected disagreement on a deep question about the very nature of law: How general must a legislative command be to count as a law? I asked: “How ma…
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Double Jeopardy Case in Supreme Court is About More than Trump
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If President Trump were to pardon Paul Manafort or other people who have been or may be indicted by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, prosecutors in New York or another state might respond by seeking indictments under state law. Would such a state prosecution be barred by the Constitution’s Double Jeopardy Clause? No, because there has long been a “s…
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The Department of Education’s Title IX Power Grab
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The Department of Education (typically abbreviated as ED) recently issued a notice of proposed rulemaking regarding Title IX, the federal statute that forbids educational institutions receiving federal money from discriminating on the basis of sex. The proposed new rules would make it more difficult for colleges and universities to hold accountable…
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Matthew Whitaker and the Constitution’s Appointments Gaps
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One week ago, US Attorney General Jeff Sessions resigned at the “request” of President Donald Trump, who wasted no time in designating Matthew Whitaker as Acting Attorney General, pending the nomination and Senate confirmation of a full-time replacement. Although hardly Edward Levi (President Gerald Ford’s extremely distinguished AG), Whitaker does…
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Justice O’Connor Withdraws From Public Life, and the Reagan Court is Finally Born
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Last week, retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor announced that, facing the prospect of advancing dementia, she was withdrawing from public life. Justice O’Connor will rightly be remembered as a pioneer. As the first—and for well over a decade, the only—woman on the Supreme Court, she transformed the institution. For most of her nearly …
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Trump’s—and the GOP’s—Hat Trick of Falsehoods About Pre-Existing Conditions
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Last week, USA Today published an op-ed by Donald Trump in which the president attacked Democratic proposals to create a system of Medicare for All. Despite using complete sentences and correct spelling, the essay was recognizably Trumpian: it stoked fears in his disproportionately elderly supporters through tendentious assumptions and outright lie…
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