Latest / Bloomberg Law / Weekend Law: SCOTUS 2025 & Blake Lively Legal Drama
Transcript
- 0:02Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg Law with June Grossel from Bloomberg Radio.
- 0:08Speaker 2: The Court is minn and a crisis of ethics. These
- 0:12Speaker 2: scandals of obvy the justices have caused public opinion to
- 0:16Speaker 2: question the Court's fairness and independence.
- 0:18Speaker 3: After a series of ethical missteps by justices and controversial
- 0:23Speaker 3: decisions like overturning the right to abortion and granting broad
- 0:27Speaker 3: presidential immunity, only thirty five percent of Americans have confidence
- 0:32Speaker 3: in the courts, a record low and a steep drop
- 0:36Speaker 3: of twenty four points over the last four years. According
- 0:39Speaker 3: to a Gallop poll. The Court has more than fifty
- 0:42Speaker 3: cases on its dock at this term, including some addressing
- 0:46Speaker 3: contentious issues like transgender care for minors, reverse discrimination, ghost guns,
- 0:52Speaker 3: and the TikTok ban. Joining me to discuss the oral
- 0:56Speaker 3: arguments coming up this year is constitutional law expert Harold
- 0:59Speaker 3: cr a professor at the Chicago Kent College of Law.
- 1:03Speaker 3: How the Court seems to love First Amendment cases, and
- 1:06Speaker 3: there are three coming up this year, the ban on TikTok,
- 1:10Speaker 3: age verification for pornography sites, and tax exemptions for religious organizations.
- 1:17Speaker 3: Let's start with the ban on TikTok, which will be
- 1:20Speaker 3: the first oral arguments of the year next Friday. The
- 1:23Speaker 3: Supreme Court is hearing this on an expedited basis because
- 1:26Speaker 3: the ban goes into effect on January fifteenth. Tell us
- 1:30Speaker 3: about TikTok's First Amendment claims well.
- 1:33Speaker 4: Congress in early twenty twenty four passed the law requiring
- 1:38Speaker 4: TikTok basically to be divested from its Chinese parent Fighte
- 1:41Speaker 4: Dance by January nineteenth, twenty twenty five. And the divestiture
- 1:47Speaker 4: requirement has been challenged under the First Amendment and it
- 1:51Speaker 4: is far from privilege, and so the Court did decide
- 1:54Speaker 4: to take an emergency appeal. So it's not exactly on
- 1:57Speaker 4: the merits. It would be an emergency appeal about whether
- 2:00Speaker 4: or not they're so convinced that the First Amendment issues
- 2:03Speaker 4: are substantial or not that they would give an injunction
- 2:06Speaker 4: against the statute to get rid of the January nineteenth deadline. So, obviously,
- 2:12Speaker 4: TikTok is incredibly popular in the United States, and the
- 2:15Speaker 4: fear that led Congress to order the divestiture is the
- 2:19Speaker 4: fact that there is not only a Chinese parent, but
- 2:22Speaker 4: the Chinese parent here can collect so much information about
- 2:26Speaker 4: one hundred million users or so on TikTok and then
- 2:29Speaker 4: change the algorithms by which people see information and through
- 2:34Speaker 4: doing that, influence America in a way that is more
- 2:37Speaker 4: pro Chinese. There's been no evidence that by dancing, TikTok
- 2:41Speaker 4: has done this, but it's certainly, I think well accepted
- 2:44Speaker 4: that they could if they wanted to. So that's what
- 2:46Speaker 4: led Congress to the divestiture. But that raises huge First
- 2:50Speaker 4: Amendment questions because it is picking out one particular social
- 2:55Speaker 4: media platform and saying that there can no longer be
- 2:58Speaker 4: free expression in that venue because of the fear of
- 3:02Speaker 4: the Chinese influence. So it really raises a very important,
- 3:06Speaker 4: but a very novel First Amendment claim, and that's what
- 3:08Speaker 4: will be heard January tenth in order to make sure
- 3:11Speaker 4: there's enough time for the Court to act before January
- 3:14Speaker 4: nineteenth if they are so inclined.
- 3:16Speaker 3: During his campaign, President elect Donald Trump express support for TikTok,
- 3:22Speaker 3: saying he got billions of views on the platform.
- 3:25Speaker 5: They brought me a chart and it was a record,
- 3:28Speaker 5: and it was so beautiful to see. And as I
- 3:31Speaker 5: looked at it, I said, maybe we got to keep
- 3:34Speaker 5: this sucker around a little while.
- 3:37Speaker 3: And Trump put himself in the middle of this by
- 3:40Speaker 3: asking the Supreme Court to stay the law without taking
- 3:43Speaker 3: a stance on whether it's unconstitutional. His lawyer, John Sower,
- 3:48Speaker 3: the future Uslicitor General, wrote, President Trump alone possesses the
- 3:53Speaker 3: consummate deal making expertise, the electoral mandate, and the political
- 3:57Speaker 3: will to negotiate a resolution to save the platform while
- 4:01Speaker 3: addressing the national security concerns expressed by the government. It's
- 4:06Speaker 3: unprecedented to have a future president intervene in a case
- 4:09Speaker 3: before the Court before he takes office to try to
- 4:13Speaker 3: counteract what the current president has done.
- 4:17Speaker 4: So what's even more amazing about that filing is that
- 4:20Speaker 4: it raises a presidential power issue under Article two that
- 4:24Speaker 4: has never been discussed in the Court before, which is
- 4:27Speaker 4: what about the Article to interests of a president elect?
- 4:30Speaker 4: Because what President Trump has done, in a kind of
- 4:32Speaker 4: rambling filing is suggests that his progatives as a future
- 4:37Speaker 4: president should be preserved under Article two by deciding to
- 4:41Speaker 4: stay the divestiture date of January nineteenth. We've just never
- 4:45Speaker 4: had a case on the powers of a president elect,
- 4:49Speaker 4: and President Trump's filing does raise the issue. It's a
- 4:53Speaker 4: can of worms that has not been opened, but it
- 4:55Speaker 4: may be opened by the Supreme Court. We'll have to
- 4:57Speaker 4: see the course of the Court doesn't have to reach that
- 5:00Speaker 4: in deciding whether to stay the case or not. But
- 5:03Speaker 4: it's a fascinating stub issue.
- 5:05Speaker 3: Well, we were all surprised when the Court expanded presidential
- 5:09Speaker 3: immunity from criminal prosecution. So I suppose anything is possible.
- 5:15Speaker 4: Anything is possible. And you know, as a political matter,
- 5:18Speaker 4: President Trump's submission makes some sense because what the Court
- 5:21Speaker 4: does by delaying or not delaying the deadline on January nineteenth,
- 5:24Speaker 4: will have an impact on his presidency. And so there
- 5:27Speaker 4: is absolutely more than a kernel of truth in what
- 5:30Speaker 4: President Trump has stated.
- 5:32Speaker 3: And for once, we won't have to wait months and
- 5:34Speaker 3: months for the Justices to make a decision. The Court
- 5:37Speaker 3: will have to rule in one week's time to beat
- 5:40Speaker 3: that January nineteenth deadline. Now, on January fifteenth, the Justices
- 5:45Speaker 3: are going to hear arguments in a case challenging a
- 5:48Speaker 3: Texas law that requires porn sites to verify the ages
- 5:52Speaker 3: of users. Industry trade groups contend that the law violates
- 5:56Speaker 3: the constitutional rights of adults. Tell us about their challenge.
- 6:00Speaker 4: They have two general First Amendment claims. I think they're
- 6:04Speaker 4: quite substantial. The first is more of a doctrinal one.
- 6:08Speaker 4: The court below used a kind of rational basis test
- 6:12Speaker 4: in order to assess the legitimacy of this statute in
- 6:17Speaker 4: terms of protecting minors as opposed to a more demanding
- 6:21Speaker 4: scrutiny test, and if their strict scrutiny had been afforded
- 6:24Speaker 4: as it has been afforded to other similar kinds of
- 6:28Speaker 4: age restrictions in statutes on first amendment grounds, that then
- 6:32Speaker 4: statute probably would be struck down. So the first challenge
- 6:35Speaker 4: is simply did the court below use the wrong standard
- 6:38Speaker 4: of scrutiny, in which case the court might then just
- 6:42Speaker 4: remanded back for another go round with the fifth circuit.
- 6:46Speaker 4: But the second issue is more predictable, which is, if
- 6:50Speaker 4: you have age verification on a statute and you require
- 6:54Speaker 4: adults to put in you know, whether it's driver's licenses
- 6:58Speaker 4: or other proof of age, you will ter people from
- 7:01Speaker 4: going to that site for fear of privacy, invasions, for
- 7:04Speaker 4: fear of manipulation, et cetera. So there will be a
- 7:08Speaker 4: diminution in free expression by having an age verification on
- 7:13Speaker 4: this kind of site. And you know, the way the
- 7:15Speaker 4: statute is crafted, it applies to any site which has
- 7:19Speaker 4: at least a third of its material which may be
- 7:21Speaker 4: distasteful or have sexual content which is inappropriate for children. Well,
- 7:25Speaker 4: how do you determine that if you have artworks on display,
- 7:29Speaker 4: or if you have some kind of erotic poetry, And
- 7:31Speaker 4: so there may be just a deterrence of speech by
- 7:36Speaker 4: websites having to self edit for fear of reaching this
- 7:40Speaker 4: one third threshold, which is very hard to ascertain. So
- 7:44Speaker 4: there is a Supreme Court case almost on point of
- 7:47Speaker 4: about twenty years ago. It looked at the Shot Online
- 7:50Speaker 4: Privacy Act and it had an age verification in it,
- 7:53Speaker 4: and it was struck down as unconstitutional and never reenacted
- 7:56Speaker 4: by Congress. And I would predict that the Texas stato
- 8:00Speaker 4: will be held to be on a constitutional as well,
- 8:02Speaker 4: particularly if the Heidens standard of scrutiny is required by
- 8:06Speaker 4: the court.
- 8:07Speaker 3: As you mentioned, this is an appeal from a Fifth
- 8:09Speaker 3: Circuit decision, the Fifth Circuit being the most conservative federal
- 8:13Speaker 3: appellate court in the country, and every other court that
- 8:17Speaker 3: reviewed similar laws has uphel the laws. Texas, of course,
- 8:21Speaker 3: has defended the law, with the ag pointing to a
- 8:25Speaker 3: nineteen sixty eight Supreme Court decision that said states could
- 8:29Speaker 3: bar the dissemination of pornographic magazines to minors. Is that compelling?
- 8:34Speaker 4: Well, the difference is the websites. Right, Once, we have
- 8:37Speaker 4: a whole kind of different world that can't be cordoned
- 8:41Speaker 4: off into magazines delivered or magazines non delivered. We have
- 8:45Speaker 4: a new First Amendment dimension that has been added to it.
- 8:48Speaker 3: Next, let's turn to a case involving the First Amendment's
- 8:51Speaker 3: religion clauses. The justices will review a Wisconsin Supreme Court
- 8:56Speaker 3: decision that said Catholic charities didn't qull for a religious
- 9:01Speaker 3: exemption from the state's unemployment tax.
- 9:05Speaker 4: The question here is whether you can deny a tax
- 9:09Speaker 4: exemption to an arm of a religious institution even though
- 9:13Speaker 4: you couldn't deny it to the religious institution itself. So
- 9:17Speaker 4: the states that have these exemptions, they say religious organizations
- 9:21Speaker 4: are exempt, but how do you tell if it's really
- 9:24Speaker 4: a religious organization? And the language in the Wisconsin statute
- 9:29Speaker 4: itself basically has to be the organizations that are operated
- 9:32Speaker 4: primarily for religious purposes, and they use a test to
- 9:36Speaker 4: determine not just the motivation underlying the arm of the
- 9:42Speaker 4: religious entity, but also their activities. So in this case,
- 9:46Speaker 4: the court said, yes, there can be great religious motivations
- 9:50Speaker 4: for operating charities, and they allotted the efforts of the
- 9:54Speaker 4: Catholic Church to help out people with disabilities, but they
- 9:56Speaker 4: said that the actions of the religious group are secular.
- 10:01Speaker 4: It's nothing about imbuing people with religious sense or devotion
- 10:06Speaker 4: or anything along those lines. And the court therefore made
- 10:09Speaker 4: a distinction between a motivation to create a school, for instance,
- 10:15Speaker 4: or a hospital as opposed to trying to encourage religious doctrine.
- 10:19Speaker 4: So that is a difficult line drawing issue, and that's
- 10:22Speaker 4: the argument here of why it's unconstitutional that will mesh
- 10:26Speaker 4: the courts in determining whether these activities are really religious
- 10:30Speaker 4: or not. But on the other hand, as the Coupreme
- 10:32Speaker 4: Court said more than twenty years ago in the Walks case,
- 10:35Speaker 4: sometimes this wine drawing for tax resumption is just inevitable.
- 10:39Speaker 4: You can't really get around it. You have to have
- 10:41Speaker 4: some kind of test in this instance. So that's the
- 10:45Speaker 4: test of motivations and activities separations. And we'll see if
- 10:49Speaker 4: the court and stuff like that. It's really unclear.
- 10:52Speaker 3: So, but the Roberts Court has expanded religious rights over
- 10:56Speaker 3: and over again. Is this another chance for them to
- 10:59Speaker 3: expect and religious rights?
- 11:01Speaker 4: It is a chance, and it certainly it wouldn't be
- 11:03Speaker 4: shocking for the Court to do that, but it is
- 11:06Speaker 4: I think only fair to note that if the Court
- 11:09Speaker 4: decides that Wisconnting cannot make a distinction between Catholic charities
- 11:14Speaker 4: and the Catholic Church, that this will give a huge
- 11:18Speaker 4: advantage to religious based organizations that are in healthcare and education,
- 11:23Speaker 4: who then don't have to pay the same taxes that
- 11:26Speaker 4: secular hospitals and secular universities would.
- 11:30Speaker 3: And the effect of a Supreme Court decision upholding this
- 11:32Speaker 3: religious exemption would be widespread because almost all the states
- 11:37Speaker 3: have laws similar to Wisconsins. Coming up next on the
- 11:40Speaker 3: Bloomberg Law Show, I'll continue this conversation with Professor Harold Krant.
- 11:45Speaker 3: We'll discuss whether agency power will take another hit at
- 11:48Speaker 3: the Court this term, and a warning from the Chief Justice.
- 11:52Speaker 3: I'm June Grosso and you're listening to Bloomberg.
- 11:55Speaker 6: Change happens because people care about moving the arc of
- 12:01Speaker 6: the universe towards justice, and it can take time, and
- 12:07Speaker 6: it can take frustration. I live in frustration, and as
- 12:13Speaker 6: you heard, every loss truly traumatizes me in my stomach
- 12:19Speaker 6: and in my heart.
- 12:20Speaker 3: Justice Sonya so To. Mayor and the other liberal justices
- 12:24Speaker 3: have been on the losing side of most of the
- 12:26Speaker 3: controversial cases at the Supreme Court in the last few years,
- 12:31Speaker 3: with the six conservative justices on the winning side, as
- 12:35Speaker 3: the Court decided to overturn the right to abortion, expand
- 12:39Speaker 3: gun rights, eliminate affirmative action, broaden presidential immunity, and roll
- 12:45Speaker 3: back the power of federal agencies. Last term, the Conservative
- 12:49Speaker 3: majority overturned a forty year old legal precedent in their
- 12:54Speaker 3: attack on the administrative state. And there's a case on
- 12:57Speaker 3: the dock at this term involving the Federal Communications Commission
- 13:01Speaker 3: that could open a new avenue for a tax on
- 13:04Speaker 3: administrative power. I've been talking to constitutional law expert Harold Krant,
- 13:09Speaker 3: a professor at the Chicago Kent College of Law, how
- 13:12Speaker 3: the Supreme Court is going to consider a challenge to
- 13:15Speaker 3: the Universal Service Fund, which uses a charge imposed on
- 13:19Speaker 3: monthly phone bills to help more than eight million people
- 13:23Speaker 3: afford telephone and broadband service. The challenges are trying to
- 13:27Speaker 3: revive the so called non delegation doctrine that says Congress
- 13:32Speaker 3: can't delegate its legislative authority to executive agencies. Tell us
- 13:37Speaker 3: a little about the issues here.
- 13:39Speaker 4: This is a Federal Communications Commission rule, but it's done
- 13:43Speaker 4: by delegation from Congress, and so the Congress is delegated
- 13:47Speaker 4: to the SEC the power to impose this fee. And
- 13:50Speaker 4: the first claim against it is that the SEC shouldn't
- 13:54Speaker 4: be imposing a fee that's a tax, and only Congress
- 13:57Speaker 4: can impose taxes. This would be a wild argument if
- 14:01Speaker 4: the Supreme Court buys it, because agencies apply user fees
- 14:05Speaker 4: all the time, and you can look at user fees
- 14:07Speaker 4: as attacks, you can look at them as something else,
- 14:09Speaker 4: a subsidy. How do you distinguish one from the other.
- 14:12Speaker 4: So one way that the Court could just cut back
- 14:15Speaker 4: again dramatically the power of agencies is to begin to
- 14:18Speaker 4: say that anything that looks like attas can only come
- 14:21Speaker 4: from Congress as opposed to the agencies. I don't think
- 14:24Speaker 4: the Court will go there, but that's at least one possibility.
- 14:27Speaker 4: And there's another one that is pretty clear, because the
- 14:30Speaker 4: statue itself says that the fees should be quote sufficient
- 14:34Speaker 4: to preserve and advance universal service. That admittedly is quite vague,
- 14:39Speaker 4: and so this is another vehicle potentially for the Court
- 14:43Speaker 4: to revive the non delegation document, and that would say
- 14:46Speaker 4: that Congress, if it gives power to the SEC, has
- 14:49Speaker 4: to be far more nuanced and clear than this sort
- 14:53Speaker 4: of broad understanding that they set fees sufficient to preserve
- 14:57Speaker 4: and advanced universal services, just not giving enough direction to
- 15:01Speaker 4: the administrative agency. And there's a third side of this
- 15:04Speaker 4: particular challenge which I think is going to be very
- 15:07Speaker 4: close on the Supreme Court, which is that the agency
- 15:10Speaker 4: has given too much power to a private group. The
- 15:14Speaker 4: SEC decided to use a group in this case, which
- 15:18Speaker 4: is called a Universal Service Administration Company, which is a
- 15:21Speaker 4: private group of mainly people in the telecom industry. They
- 15:25Speaker 4: gave that power to set the fee and provided that
- 15:28Speaker 4: if the agency took no action within fourteen days, the
- 15:31Speaker 4: see recommended by this private group would become binding. So
- 15:35Speaker 4: the court may say that the involvement in this private
- 15:39Speaker 4: group makes the delegation even more constitutional problematic and strike
- 15:44Speaker 4: down the structure on that ground. Maybe it's a small point,
- 15:49Speaker 4: but I think the Court might say, Look, the agency
- 15:52Speaker 4: at least has to take some positive, concrete actions, such
- 15:56Speaker 4: as accepting a private recommendation from the group as to
- 16:00Speaker 4: the fee before it becomes binding. In the name of
- 16:03Speaker 4: the United States for the Court signaled to Congress to
- 16:06Speaker 4: stop giving too much authority to private parties who are
- 16:10Speaker 4: not subject to close oversight by the president or heads
- 16:14Speaker 4: of agencies.
- 16:14Speaker 3: You refer to this as a wild argument. And this
- 16:17Speaker 3: case is an appeal from the ultra conservative Fifth Circuit,
- 16:22Speaker 3: which often uses novel legal reasoning, and it's split with
- 16:27Speaker 3: two other appeals courts in declaring the program invalid. So
- 16:32Speaker 3: does it seem like the Court took this case to overturn,
- 16:35Speaker 3: to reverse the Fifth Circuit.
- 16:36Speaker 4: It's unclear to me. I think that the case has
- 16:39Speaker 4: a merit to it, and I think that the Court
- 16:42Speaker 4: has been interested in non delegation issues, and particularly non
- 16:44Speaker 4: delegation issues involving power that's shared with private parties. So
- 16:48Speaker 4: I'm not surprised that the Court took this case. And
- 16:51Speaker 4: there is a split in the circuits, and I don't
- 16:53Speaker 4: think we can be confident that the Court's going to
- 16:55Speaker 4: rebuff the Fifth Circuit in this particular case. I think
- 16:58Speaker 4: they will in other cases, but none of that soil
- 17:00Speaker 4: in this one.
- 17:01Speaker 3: There's an interesting case involving a claim of reverse discrimination
- 17:06Speaker 3: in employment and what plaintiffs have to show to support
- 17:10Speaker 3: their claims under Title seven.
- 17:13Speaker 4: Yes, in order to advance a Title seven case or
- 17:16Speaker 4: discrimination case, you have to show kind of a prime
- 17:18Speaker 4: officia case that you were treated differently than another covered group,
- 17:22Speaker 4: and that because you were treated differently, it resulted in
- 17:25Speaker 4: some kind of adverse employment action. So do you even
- 17:28Speaker 4: get to the pleting stage. One has to allege these
- 17:31Speaker 4: particular type of harms. Now, what happens if you're a
- 17:36Speaker 4: member of majority religion or majority race, or if you're
- 17:41Speaker 4: straight in terms of your sexuality, and if you then
- 17:45Speaker 4: make a claim that even though you're straight, you were
- 17:48Speaker 4: treated unfairly based on your straightness, and therefore you are
- 17:54Speaker 4: claiming some kind of discrimination that's protected under the Act.
- 17:57Speaker 4: And indeed, in the ohioed case, there was an individual
- 18:01Speaker 4: who is straight and she didn't get a promotion, and
- 18:05Speaker 4: instead the promotion went to someone who is gay and
- 18:07Speaker 4: then was later demoted and someone took her old position
- 18:11Speaker 4: who was gay as well. And even though someone who
- 18:14Speaker 4: is straight made these employment decisions, she claimed that the
- 18:19Speaker 4: decision was in violation of her statutory rights to be
- 18:23Speaker 4: treated the same as everybody else based upon her sexuality,
- 18:27Speaker 4: and a number of courts have held, but others have
- 18:29Speaker 4: disagreed that there is an additional hurdle that somebody who
- 18:34Speaker 4: is of majority religion, race, or who are straight as
- 18:38Speaker 4: in this case, has to surmount before they can get
- 18:41Speaker 4: into court, and they have to show background circumstances to
- 18:45Speaker 4: give more of color or more oomph to their argument
- 18:49Speaker 4: that they were treated unfairly based upon covered characteristics. And
- 18:53Speaker 4: in some ways that requirement makes the sense because for
- 18:57Speaker 4: a court they have to go into any kind of
- 19:01Speaker 4: analysis that just wastes time because it's so unlikely that
- 19:05Speaker 4: if you're a majority, you'll be subject to discrimination. And
- 19:08Speaker 4: so those courts said, then, as a way to conserve resources,
- 19:11Speaker 4: we just want to make sure that somebody who pleaded
- 19:14Speaker 4: the case will show a little bit more of those
- 19:17Speaker 4: background circumstances, which suggests despite the fact that their majority,
- 19:21Speaker 4: they were subject to discrimination.
- 19:23Speaker 3: And this decision could have ramifications for DEI initiatives. How
- 19:28Speaker 3: before I let you go, let's talk a little about
- 19:30Speaker 3: the Chief Justice's year end report, which he issued on Tuesday.
- 19:35Speaker 3: He defended the independence of the judiciary, but said it
- 19:39Speaker 3: was being threatened by violence against judges, intimidation of judges,
- 19:44Speaker 3: and the prospect of federal officials defying court orders. Robert's
- 19:50Speaker 3: annual reports typically ignore the current concern surrounding the justices.
- 19:55Speaker 3: For example, last year, he looked at the judiciary's role
- 19:58Speaker 3: in integrating public schools after Brown v. Board of Education,
- 20:03Speaker 3: with no mention at all of the Court having overturned
- 20:07Speaker 3: the constitutional right to abortion just a few months earlier.
- 20:11Speaker 3: So what's your take on this year's report.
- 20:13Speaker 4: It can be empathetic to his wish and his hope
- 20:16Speaker 4: and his fervent desire that the Supreme Court retained its
- 20:21Speaker 4: independence and respect in our society. And I guess, on
- 20:23Speaker 4: one hand, you can be skeptical, given that a lot
- 20:26Speaker 4: of the loss of support and respect for the Court
- 20:28Speaker 4: has come because of this Court's decisions, most notably Chief
- 20:32Speaker 4: Justice Roberts's decision in the presidential communitic case in the
- 20:35Speaker 4: abortion case as well. But I mean, I think he
- 20:38Speaker 4: is right that we are, in this politicized world, even
- 20:42Speaker 4: more open to attacks upon judges than we were before.
- 20:46Speaker 4: And there's been picketing in front of justice houses, as
- 20:49Speaker 4: we know, and that's something to be probably a little
- 20:52Speaker 4: bit frightened up. But there's also been other kinds of defiance.
- 20:55Speaker 1: You know.
- 20:55Speaker 4: Vice President Advance has suggested that certain times it's totally
- 21:00Speaker 4: appropriate for the administration to ignore what the Supreme Court would hold.
- 21:04Speaker 4: So there are challenges coming from various different sectors, people
- 21:08Speaker 4: that just disagree with the Court as well. It was
- 21:11Speaker 4: what people think that they don't have to listen to
- 21:13Speaker 4: what the Court says. So there is reason for Chief
- 21:16Speaker 4: Justice Roberts to decry those kinds of challenges to the
- 21:19Speaker 4: Court's authority. But I think at the same time, part
- 21:22Speaker 4: of the problem is the courts aren't doing.
- 21:24Speaker 3: And according to the US Martial Service, the volume of
- 21:28Speaker 3: threats directed at judges has more than tripled over the
- 21:32Speaker 3: past decades, So certainly that's a concern. But when he
- 21:35Speaker 3: talked about intimidation, and he mentioned protesters quote intent on
- 21:41Speaker 3: harassing judges and public officials he said have tried to
- 21:45Speaker 3: intimidate judges by suggesting political bias is behind their decisions
- 21:50Speaker 3: without a credible basis. Both of those seem like First
- 21:54Speaker 3: Amendment protected activities.
- 21:56Speaker 4: They can be right, it's a fine line to draw
- 21:58Speaker 4: between when they are harassment as opposed to when it's
- 22:02Speaker 4: just criticism of the court. And the way to I
- 22:04Speaker 4: think see this clash most plainly is to talk about
- 22:08Speaker 4: the immunity decision, and some people can criticize it as
- 22:11Speaker 4: being badly crafted. Others can say it's just illegitimate. And
- 22:15Speaker 4: those are two ways of criticizing the opinion, and it's
- 22:20Speaker 4: hard to say what is really the difference between saying
- 22:22Speaker 4: is poorly reasoned as opposed to it's politically lawless. Those
- 22:27Speaker 4: are just different perspectives if people don't accept the opinion,
- 22:32Speaker 4: and so I think he's conflating one with the other
- 22:34Speaker 4: to some extent. But it is notoriously very difficult to
- 22:38Speaker 4: try to figure out what is legitimate dissense protests as
- 22:42Speaker 4: opposed to one saying that the Supreme Court is lawless
- 22:46Speaker 4: and we should have a quick overhaul of the entire
- 22:48Speaker 4: judicial system.
- 22:49Speaker 3: Robert specifically criticized threats to ignore federal court rulings by
- 22:54Speaker 3: elected officials, which he said had come from across the
- 22:57Speaker 3: political spectrum. But as you mentioned, and Vice President elect JD.
- 23:02Speaker 3: Vance had said, and when the courts stop, you stand
- 23:05Speaker 3: behind the country, like Andrew Jackson did, and say the
- 23:09Speaker 3: Chief Justice has made his ruling, now let him enforce it.
- 23:13Speaker 3: I just want to mention that not only is Vance
- 23:15Speaker 3: a lawyer, but his wife clerked for the Chief Justice.
- 23:19Speaker 4: Which is an odd term for sure. And the Andrew
- 23:22Speaker 4: Jackson issue arose at least allegedly out of protests from
- 23:25Speaker 4: a Supreme Court decision saying that the removal of Indigenous
- 23:29Speaker 4: peoples from a particular reservation was illegal and ordered the
- 23:34Speaker 4: administration to comply with it and by all historical measures.
- 23:39Speaker 4: Andrew Jackson refused and continued to disband the indigenous communities.
- 23:45Speaker 4: And you know, with the Vice president articulating that kind
- 23:49Speaker 4: of issue, it's putting into play this notion that the
- 23:53Speaker 4: Court is just another political arm of the country and
- 23:55Speaker 4: that it should be subservient to the president vice president
- 23:59Speaker 4: who will elected and given a mandate by the voters,
- 24:03Speaker 4: unlike the Supreme Court itself. And that is a dangerous
- 24:07Speaker 4: notion and maybe some progressives have ported with it as
- 24:11Speaker 4: well in frustration with what the Court has done recently.
- 24:14Speaker 4: But now the Court is being challenged by the members
- 24:18Speaker 4: of its party who appointed most of them, the Republicans,
- 24:21Speaker 4: So they have reasons to be nervous because they're now
- 24:24Speaker 4: potentially going to be challenged by both sides of the
- 24:27Speaker 4: political spectrum.
- 24:28Speaker 3: It's going to be an interesting year, that's for sure.
- 24:31Speaker 3: Thanks so much, Hal that's Professor Harrold Krent of the
- 24:34Speaker 3: Chicago Kent College of Law coming up dueling lawsuits over
- 24:38Speaker 3: Blake Lively's claims of sexual harassment on a film set.
- 24:42Speaker 3: I'm June Grosso and this is Bloomberg.
- 24:47Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg Law with June Grosso from Bloomberg Radio.
- 24:53Speaker 7: That special connection you feel, that first kiss, but fifteen seconds,
- 25:06Speaker 7: that's all it takes to completely change everything. I'm so sorry.
- 25:15Speaker 3: The biggest drama in Hollywood these days is not a film,
- 25:19Speaker 3: but the legal drama surrounding the hit movie It Ends
- 25:23Speaker 3: with Us, starring Blake Lively and director Justin Baldoni. There
- 25:28Speaker 3: are dueling lawsuits and probably more to come. Lively sued Baldoni,
- 25:33Speaker 3: Wayfairer Studios, and his PR team on Tuesday, alleging sexual
- 25:38Speaker 3: harassment and a coordinated campaign to undermine her reputation for
- 25:43Speaker 3: coming forward about sexual misconduct on the set of the movie.
- 25:48Speaker 3: This came after Baldoni and his publicist filed a two
- 25:51Speaker 3: hundred and fifty million dollar defamation suit against The New
- 25:54Speaker 3: York Times, claiming the newspaper to fame them in an
- 25:58Speaker 3: article about Lively's allegations, which they claim was rife with inaccuracies,
- 26:04Speaker 3: misrepresentations and omissions. Joining me is labor and employment lawyer
- 26:09Speaker 3: Nisha Verma, a partner at Dorsey and Whitney. Nisha tell
- 26:13Speaker 3: us about Lively's lawsuit.
- 26:15Speaker 1: Blake Lively ultimately filed a lawsuit in federal court in
- 26:19Speaker 1: New York, alleging the same allegations that she had previously
- 26:24Speaker 1: indicated about ten days earlier in a complaint that was
- 26:28Speaker 1: filed with the state agency in California that handles discrimination
- 26:32Speaker 1: and harassment complaints. The complaint accuses Baldoni and the CEO
- 26:36Speaker 1: Wayfarer of engaging in inappropriate sexual conduct on set. But
- 26:41Speaker 1: that's not all. The very interesting thing about her action
- 26:44Speaker 1: is that it shows text messages between Baldoni and his
- 26:47Speaker 1: publicists which indicate that he hired a PR team to
- 26:50Speaker 1: combat any potential negative PR if Lively goes public with
- 26:55Speaker 1: what the internal messages call her grievances. Those text message
- 27:00Speaker 1: between the publicists are explosive. So in one exchange, Baldoni's publicist,
- 27:06Speaker 1: Jennifer Abel relates to another publicist, Melissa Nathan, that Baldoni's
- 27:11Speaker 1: not satisfied with this PR plan that's been put forward,
- 27:15Speaker 1: And we can see from reviewing it a pr plan
- 27:17Speaker 1: that it is designed to discredit Lively, and there's a
- 27:22Speaker 1: concern that's quoted by Baldoni that he doesn't feel like
- 27:25Speaker 1: he's getting the protection he needs, and another publicist been
- 27:29Speaker 1: responds saying we can bury anyone and we can't write
- 27:33Speaker 1: that we will destroy her, noting what would happen if
- 27:37Speaker 1: the communication has gone to the wrong hands. There are
- 27:39Speaker 1: also texts that show that these two original publicists hired
- 27:43Speaker 1: another agency to engage in some sort of social media
- 27:47Speaker 1: activity on a wide scale that would shift the narrative
- 27:50Speaker 1: from Baldoni to Lively. But the important thing to understand
- 27:53Speaker 1: is that the core of a case is the same
- 27:57Speaker 1: employment claims that we see filed by any other individual
- 28:02Speaker 1: that goes through this state agency, which is sexual harassment
- 28:05Speaker 1: and retaliation. And so the core of the sexual harassment
- 28:09Speaker 1: complaints are that Baldoni was engaging in unnecessary sexual conduct,
- 28:14Speaker 1: unnece sexual comments on text, and that Lively and her
- 28:18Speaker 1: team brought forward their concerns during the writer strike in
- 28:23Speaker 1: late twenty twenty three, and the studio actually agreed to
- 28:27Speaker 1: meet Lively's conditions prior to resuming filming. Lively's complaint in
- 28:32Speaker 1: and of itself says that filming proceeded smoothly from that point.
- 28:38Speaker 1: But then there's this very specific action of Baldoni closer
- 28:43Speaker 1: to the time of marketing the film after filming, hiring
- 28:46Speaker 1: these pr agents to discredit Lively taking.
- 28:50Speaker 3: The first part of her allegations about harassment on the set.
- 28:55Speaker 3: What kinds of things specifically does she complain about.
- 28:59Speaker 1: So there's an example of Baldoni's and another producer speaking
- 29:03Speaker 1: about a pornography addiction. So that's something that I'm gathering
- 29:07Speaker 1: is alleged to have occurred when the filming was not occurring.
- 29:10Speaker 1: There's also allegations of sex scene being filmed and Valdoni
- 29:16Speaker 1: going off script and engaging in things that were not
- 29:18Speaker 1: previously agreed to.
- 29:20Speaker 3: Baldoni has disputed Lively's claims, and in his suit against
- 29:24Speaker 3: The New York Times, he claims that The Times deliberately
- 29:28Speaker 3: omitted portions of text exchanges and other information that contradicted
- 29:34Speaker 3: Lively's version of events. He's also claimed that Lively wanted
- 29:38Speaker 3: to wait to meet with an intimacy coordinator when production started,
- 29:43Speaker 3: and that she advocated for her characters closed to be sexier.
- 29:48Speaker 3: I mean, if this goes to triale. Is this all
- 29:50Speaker 3: going to be a jury question about whether this constitutes
- 29:54Speaker 3: sexual harassment?
- 29:55Speaker 1: Yeah? I think the question of whether there was sexual
- 29:58Speaker 1: harassment on the set of this movie is high factual.
- 30:01Speaker 1: I don't think there's a ton of interesting legal questions
- 30:04Speaker 1: as to that first part of the lawsuit. I do
- 30:07Speaker 1: believe that comparing Lively's complaint in Baldoni's complaint does not
- 30:10Speaker 1: simply answer the question with respect to Lively's allegation. For example,
- 30:16Speaker 1: the text that Baldoni shared in his complaint, as you
- 30:19Speaker 1: mentioned against The New York Times, I believe it shows
- 30:22Speaker 1: that Lively did not need to meet with the intimacy
- 30:25Speaker 1: coordinator in advance of starting filming. Altogether, Lively's allegations about
- 30:31Speaker 1: the intimacy coordinator is that during the actor strike, before
- 30:36Speaker 1: they resumed filming, So this is several months after probably
- 30:39Speaker 1: that first text. Lively required an intimacy coordinator on set
- 30:44Speaker 1: at all times. So while Baldoni's complaint appears to go
- 30:48Speaker 1: to the content of an intimacy coordinator, it doesn't in
- 30:51Speaker 1: and of itself answer the question as to whether Lively's
- 30:54Speaker 1: allegation is accurate.
- 30:56Speaker 3: Let's talk about the retaliation claim he hired a PR team.
- 31:01Speaker 3: Lots of high profile people and even companies hire crisis
- 31:06Speaker 3: PR teams. What does she allege that makes that actionable?
- 31:10Speaker 1: Interestingly, like any other employee that brings a retaliation claim,
- 31:15Speaker 1: Lively is, at her core asserting that she was subject
- 31:19Speaker 1: to sexual harassment, she brought a valid complaint against that,
- 31:21Speaker 1: and then she was subject to an adverse employment action
- 31:25Speaker 1: as it relates to her complaint. Those are the elements
- 31:28Speaker 1: of the Elisa California and federal claims that she's bringing. Now,
- 31:33Speaker 1: that is what I think raises the most interesting legal
- 31:36Speaker 1: issue here is that her argument is not that she
- 31:39Speaker 1: was fired from the movie. Her argument isn't that she
- 31:41Speaker 1: was demoted. Her argument is that her employer hired outside
- 31:46Speaker 1: professionals to discredit her in connection with the marketing of
- 31:51Speaker 1: the movie, in anticipation that Lively would ultimately come forward
- 31:57Speaker 1: with her complaints, which Lively maintains are protected. And so
- 32:02Speaker 1: I think there's a couple preliminary questions. There was Lively
- 32:05Speaker 1: an employee of some of these people this entire time?
- 32:09Speaker 1: Did her employment start and end during the filming of
- 32:11Speaker 1: the movie, or did she continue to be an employee
- 32:13Speaker 1: during the marketing? Can there be an adverse employment action
- 32:17Speaker 1: to someone who maybe is no longer your employee. That's
- 32:19Speaker 1: an interesting question. And then two, does this conduct of
- 32:24Speaker 1: hiring publicists to discredit Lively in anticipation of her coming
- 32:30Speaker 1: forward with her grievances constitute an adverse employment action? Where
- 32:34Speaker 1: Lively's complaint in and of itself speaks to that damage
- 32:38Speaker 1: of the adverse employment action being done to other brands
- 32:41Speaker 1: that are unrelated to her employment on this movie and
- 32:45Speaker 1: employment with Wayfarer, her beverages brand, her haircare brand, obviously,
- 32:51Speaker 1: her ability to appear in additional TV shows and on
- 32:55Speaker 1: Saturday Night Live. There's an interesting and serious question as
- 32:59Speaker 1: to whether making action that might interfere with her ability
- 33:02Speaker 1: to essentially work other jobs is an adverse employment action
- 33:05Speaker 1: in this job.
- 33:07Speaker 3: If his conduct on set didn't rise to the level
- 33:09Speaker 3: of sexual harassment, what happens with the retaliation suited?
- 33:13Speaker 1: The question for the retaliation suit isn't necessarily was she
- 33:17Speaker 1: actually subject to retaliation under the elements of the law.
- 33:20Speaker 1: It's did she have a good faith belief to believe
- 33:23Speaker 1: she was subject to sexual harassment? And did she raise
- 33:27Speaker 1: a complaint about that? And she did the documentation during
- 33:30Speaker 1: the actor strike indicates that she did raise that complaint
- 33:34Speaker 1: and the root of the retaliation action is based on
- 33:38Speaker 1: her complaint, whether it was one hundred percent true or not.
- 33:42Speaker 1: Did her employer act in a way adversely to her employment?
- 33:46Speaker 1: That brings us to the separate tricky question, which is
- 33:51Speaker 1: hiring publicists in this manner pant him out to an
- 33:55Speaker 1: adverse employment action when perhaps the person's employment is over.
- 34:00Speaker 3: It seems like there's a lot having to do with
- 34:03Speaker 3: the press tour and that Baldoni stepped away from the
- 34:07Speaker 3: plan that the team originally agreed upon and was focusing
- 34:11Speaker 3: on female trauma rather than female triumph, and that Lively
- 34:16Speaker 3: and just about everyone else went in one direction and
- 34:21Speaker 3: he went in another. Also that they were vague about
- 34:24Speaker 3: their comments on Baldoni's performances and directing, So it seems
- 34:29Speaker 3: like the camps divided there. So wouldn't he have a
- 34:33Speaker 3: rite at that point to try to defend himself And
- 34:35Speaker 3: you might call it retaliation, but he might call it
- 34:38Speaker 3: defending himself.
- 34:39Speaker 1: And he uses those words in the longer texts that
- 34:42Speaker 1: are included and Baldoni's complain against The New York Times
- 34:46Speaker 1: Following the portions of the text that I read to
- 34:50Speaker 1: you with the very salacious and explosive comments of we
- 34:54Speaker 1: can bury anyone, and we can't write that we will
- 34:58Speaker 1: destroy her. There is further context where the publicist is
- 35:04Speaker 1: indicating that this is all an effort to defend you
- 35:07Speaker 1: because you deserve defense. I think that is going to
- 35:10Speaker 1: be a highly factual question in the case. I don't
- 35:13Speaker 1: know that it's going to be determinive because Baldoni's materials
- 35:17Speaker 1: that he includes in the New York Times complaint don't
- 35:21Speaker 1: dispute the core allegation by Lively that these individuals were
- 35:25Speaker 1: hired to discredit Lively, and one of those reasons is
- 35:28Speaker 1: because there was an anticipation that Lively was going to
- 35:31Speaker 1: bring forward her grievances, as stated in their materials, and
- 35:37Speaker 1: it cannot be separated that one of those grievances is
- 35:41Speaker 1: Lively's allegations of sexual harassment, which should constitute protected activity
- 35:47Speaker 1: under the laws she's suing. Under the fact that there
- 35:50Speaker 1: was an underlying sexual harassment complaint here makes some of
- 35:54Speaker 1: the later motivations I think potentially less relevant when we
- 35:58Speaker 1: come to the legal analysis of what Lively is alleging.
- 36:02Speaker 3: He filed a defamation action against the New York Times
- 36:04Speaker 3: for two hundred and fifty million dollars. He hasn't yet
- 36:08Speaker 3: filed the lawsuit against Lively. What do you think the
- 36:11Speaker 3: strategy is here? On his side?
- 36:14Speaker 1: I believe he filed the lawsuit against The New York
- 36:15Speaker 1: Times because he knows his ability to file a lawsuit
- 36:18Speaker 1: against Lively during those ten days was incredibly limited. The
- 36:23Speaker 1: first legal action to be filed in this, we'll call
- 36:26Speaker 1: it a controversy, was Lively's agency complaint with the California
- 36:30Speaker 1: Civil Rights Division. Filing a defamation lawsuit based on somebody's
- 36:34Speaker 1: submission to that agency or filing some sort of countersuit
- 36:39Speaker 1: would not go very far at all. It would be
- 36:41Speaker 1: subject potentially to an anti slat motion, and against filing
- 36:45Speaker 1: something with the state agency like that is considered privileged
- 36:49Speaker 1: if there was a defamation action. So in order for
- 36:52Speaker 1: Baldoni to get essentially his side of the story out,
- 36:56Speaker 1: I believe the lawsuit against the New York Times was
- 37:00Speaker 1: his available avenue to do so.
- 37:02Speaker 3: So she filed that complaint in California, and hours after
- 37:07Speaker 3: you sued the New York Times, she sued him in
- 37:10Speaker 3: New York. What's her strategy?
- 37:13Speaker 1: Well, I'll speak to the states first. So I understand
- 37:16Speaker 1: from her original contract, which is alleged in her New
- 37:20Speaker 1: York complaint, I understand that there was a California choice
- 37:24Speaker 1: of law provision. Therefore, that does explain the submission of
- 37:29Speaker 1: the civil rights complaint to the California State Agency and
- 37:33Speaker 1: invoking California employment laws simultaneously. Lively's complaint, which is filed
- 37:38Speaker 1: in New York, does allege that much of the conduct
- 37:41Speaker 1: between the parties occurred in New York. Lively and her husband,
- 37:45Speaker 1: Ryan Reynolds, have a residence in New York, and I
- 37:47Speaker 1: believe a lot of the business transactions occurred in New York.
- 37:51Speaker 3: How do you think this goes down? What happens next?
- 37:54Speaker 1: All these people who are soon have to respond to
- 37:56Speaker 1: their complaints, right, that's a lot of people. Another fascinating
- 37:59Speaker 1: as aspect of this case is that we've talked about
- 38:02Speaker 1: essentially three legal complaints. There were actually four legal complaints
- 38:05Speaker 1: in ten days because the original PR firm that Baldoni
- 38:10Speaker 1: was engaged with, the owner of that firm has sued
- 38:14Speaker 1: her former employee, who is one of the publicists we've
- 38:17Speaker 1: been speaking about, for breach of contract, and she's also
- 38:20Speaker 1: sued Baldoni. So, like I said, all of these individuals
- 38:23Speaker 1: that have been served with lawsuits have to respond, taking
- 38:26Speaker 1: them one at a time. I think the lawsuit against
- 38:29Speaker 1: The New York Times is going to be one that's
- 38:32Speaker 1: more likely to be handled on a procedural basis. The
- 38:35Speaker 1: New York Times can bring an anti slap action, and
- 38:37Speaker 1: it has successfully done so with respect to other similar lawsuits,
- 38:43Speaker 1: including one by Donald Trump. They also have defenses with
- 38:47Speaker 1: respect to the defamation action because there is a requirement
- 38:51Speaker 1: that Baldonis show malice, and there's a serious question as
- 38:56Speaker 1: to whether his complaint even attempts to do that. For example,
- 39:01Speaker 1: there's numerous times where Baldoni presents a longer version of
- 39:06Speaker 1: a text message that Lively had produced in her complaint.
- 39:09Speaker 1: But the longer version of the text message doesn't necessarily
- 39:12Speaker 1: contradict what it is Lively is at her core alleging
- 39:16Speaker 1: in her complaint. It just provides more context as to
- 39:19Speaker 1: what these people were talking about. Really briefly, there's an
- 39:22Speaker 1: example of Lively producing a text message between the publicists
- 39:28Speaker 1: that does not include an emoji, which we can see
- 39:31Speaker 1: is because these were forensically pulled, and Baldoni producing a
- 39:35Speaker 1: separate version that includes an upside down emoji and indicating
- 39:39Speaker 1: that that upside down emoji indicates the text message was
- 39:42Speaker 1: sarcastic and that The New York Times should have noted
- 39:46Speaker 1: that that is going to be challenging to parlay into
- 39:50Speaker 1: actual malice, which is necessary to bring a defamation suit
- 39:54Speaker 1: on a public matter like this.
- 39:56Speaker 3: Do you think a settlement is likely here?
- 39:58Speaker 1: No? I don't think so. I believe these complaints were
- 40:01Speaker 1: in part filed because each of these parties needed to
- 40:05Speaker 1: tell their story in light of the other content about
- 40:08Speaker 1: them out there, and now that that's happened, I see
- 40:12Speaker 1: an expectation that that process continue. I don't know anybody's motivations,
- 40:17Speaker 1: but the overall story does not indicate that any of
- 40:20Speaker 1: these actors primarily file their lawsuits for money, and settlement
- 40:24Speaker 1: typically only gets you money. They can't change the public perception.
- 40:28Speaker 3: So then a lot more to come in this particular
- 40:30Speaker 3: Hollywood drama. Thanks so much, Nishe. That's nische Verma of
- 40:35Speaker 3: Dorsey and Whitney. In other legal news today, President elect
- 40:38Speaker 3: Donald Trump has lost his bid to get his conviction
- 40:42Speaker 3: in the New York hush money case thrown out before
- 40:45Speaker 3: his inauguration later this month. On Friday, Judge Juan Mrshon
- 40:49Speaker 3: refused to toss the jury verdict, joining me is Bloomberg
- 40:52Speaker 3: Legal reporter Eric Larson. Eric tell us why the judge
- 40:56Speaker 3: made this decision.
- 40:58Speaker 8: Judge Marshawan said that Trump was essentially requesting to expand
- 41:03Speaker 8: what we already know of its presidential immunity from criminal
- 41:07Speaker 8: prosecution to extend that to president elect, and the judge
- 41:12Speaker 8: indicated this, you know, was unprecedented. There has never been
- 41:15Speaker 8: a case like this before, and that the established presidential
- 41:19Speaker 8: immunity for a sitting president has never been extended to
- 41:23Speaker 8: a president elect. And the judge that there was no
- 41:25Speaker 8: reason to do that. Now, did you.
- 41:27Speaker 3: Find any of Trump's arguments to have a jury verdict
- 41:30Speaker 3: thrown out persuasive?
- 41:32Speaker 8: Trump's lawyer essentially disappointed to the established president for a
- 41:38Speaker 8: sitting president being protected from criminal prosecution, you know, saying
- 41:43Speaker 8: that previous Supreme Court president and the Justice Department's own
- 41:47Speaker 8: internal policies on prosecuting a sitting president that they relate
- 41:52Speaker 8: to the imposition of a criminal sentence essentially being a
- 41:56Speaker 8: bad look for a president because of the stigma associated
- 42:00Speaker 8: with it and also the mental and physical demands associated
- 42:04Speaker 8: with the defendant helping prepare for their defense, that all
- 42:07Speaker 8: of that would interfere with the president's duties. And I
- 42:11Speaker 8: think that in Trump's view, he's saying that while he's
- 42:14Speaker 8: not a sitting president, that he has so much work
- 42:17Speaker 8: to do and that he has so much responsibilities as
- 42:20Speaker 8: a president elect, that essentially the same protection should be
- 42:24Speaker 8: extended to him for the same reason. But Judge Marson
- 42:29Speaker 8: just wasn't having that and said that he was forbidden.
- 42:33Speaker 8: The judge that he was forbidden from recognizing any the
- 42:36Speaker 8: presidential elect community, saying that that would essentially be a
- 42:40Speaker 8: retroactive dismissal of criminal charges against a defendant who happened
- 42:45Speaker 8: to be elected president after they were convicted, and that
- 42:48Speaker 8: he just wasn't going to do that.
- 42:50Speaker 3: And the judge set a sentencing date for next Friday,
- 42:53Speaker 3: and he also.
- 42:55Speaker 8: Took the unusual step of indicating in this ruling that
- 42:59Speaker 8: he has no intention of sentencing Trump to any period
- 43:03Speaker 8: of time behind bars, and as we know, for the
- 43:05Speaker 8: crimes that Trump was convicted of, he faces as long
- 43:08Speaker 8: as four years behind bars. Many legal experts, even before
- 43:12Speaker 8: Trump won the election, predicted that all things being equal,
- 43:16Speaker 8: he probably would get far less time behind bars than that,
- 43:19Speaker 8: or probably more likely no time, and it would just
- 43:22Speaker 8: be probation. So it's not a huge surprise that the
- 43:26Speaker 8: judge is saying he's not going to sentence him to
- 43:29Speaker 8: time behind bars, but he did take the unusual step
- 43:32Speaker 8: of signaling that just so everyone is aware that he's not,
- 43:35Speaker 8: on January tenth, going to be sentencing Trump to prison.
- 43:39Speaker 8: But of course that leads up in the air what
- 43:41Speaker 8: the sentence will be, if it could be a period
- 43:43Speaker 8: of probation or something like that. All of that would
- 43:46Speaker 8: also be unprecedented for Trump to have a sentence of
- 43:49Speaker 8: any kind handed down, you know, ten days before his inauguration,
- 43:53Speaker 8: So we can expect, probably I would think, a very
- 43:57Speaker 8: quick attempt at appealing, but it's uncle exactly how that's
- 44:01Speaker 8: playing your work. You can't appeal the verdict itself properly
- 44:04Speaker 8: until he is sentenced. He may be able to appeal disruling,
- 44:09Speaker 8: so we'll have to wait and see on that. And
- 44:11Speaker 8: by the way, that judge gave Trump until January fifth
- 44:14Speaker 8: to decide whether or not he wanted to appear in
- 44:17Speaker 8: court for the sentencing or appear virtually.
- 44:19Speaker 3: I know you'll be there, Eric, thanks so much. That's
- 44:22Speaker 3: Bloomberg Legal reporter Eric Larson, and that's it for this
- 44:25Speaker 3: edition of The Bloomberg Law Show. Remember you can always
- 44:28Speaker 3: get the latest legal news on our Bloomberg Law Podcast.
- 44:31Speaker 3: You can find them on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and at
- 44:34Speaker 3: www dot Bloomberg dot com slash podcast Slash Law, And
- 44:39Speaker 3: remember to tune into The Bloomberg Law Show every weeknight
- 44:42Speaker 3: at ten pm Wall Street Time. I'm June Grosso and
- 44:46Speaker 3: you're listening to Bloomberg