Background Briefing: April 3, 2024
Jack Smith’s Shot Across the Bow at the Trump-Friendly Judge on the Classified Documents Case
We begin with the Special Counsel Jack Smith challenging the Trump-appointed judge on the documents case to make a ruling, which is likely to embrace her alternative reading of the 1978 Presidential Records Act instead of the Espionage Act and thus be immediately appealed to the 11th circuit to overturn it or have Judge Cannon removed from the case. Joining us is Harry Litman, a former United States attorney and deputy assistant attorney general in the Justice Department. He is the Executive Producer & host of the Talking Feds podcast and the senior legal affairs columnist at the Los Angeles Times where his latest article is “How Jack Smith just called out Judge Aileen Cannon in the Trump classified records case.”
The Florida Supreme Court’s Six Week Abortion Ban and a Ballot Initiative to Enshrine Abortion Access in the Florida State Constitution
Then we look into the Florida Supreme Court’s ruling to reduce the state’s 15 week abortion ban to six weeks, as well as its ruling to allow a ballot initiative that would enshrine abortion access in the state constitution. Joining us is John Stoehr, a fellow at Yale’s Ezra Stiles College, a contributing writer for the Washington Monthly, a contributing editor for Religion Dispatches and senior editor at Alternet and Raw Story. He is the editor and publisher of The Editorial Board, a daily newsletter about politics in plain English for the common good, and we will discuss his article at Alternet, “The backlash against Dobbs could do more than defeat Trump.”
“Why Silicon Valley Reactionaries Love RFK Jr.”
Then finally we speak with Jeet Heer, a national affairs correspondent for The Nation and host of the weekly Nation podcast, The Time of Monsters. He also pens the monthly column “Morbid Symptoms” and is the author of In Love with Art: Francoise Mouly’s Adventures in Comics with Art Spiegelman and Sweet Lechery: Reviews, Essays and Profiles. We discuss his latest article at The Nation, “Why Silicon Valley Reactionaries Love RFK Jr.”