Sidebar by Courthouse News

Imagine stashing your hard-earned savings in a safety deposit box, only to find out the FBI has raided the place and your money is gone thanks to the controversial practice of civil forfeiture, which allows law enforcement to seize people's assets with little explanation. That's what happened to a number of Californians who stored their cash at U.S. Private Vaults in Beverly Hills.

Join us for this season's sixth episode as we tell their story and explore how their money got caught up in a vault at the center of a federal investigation.

The story doesn't stop there. We also hear from trucker Jerry Johnson, who also experienced civil forfeiture firsthand when his $39,500 in cash was seized by the Phoenix Police Department after he flew into the city to buy a big rig. It took years and help from the Institute for Justice to get his money back.
Special guests:

• Linda Martin
• Benjamin Gluck, an attorney with Bird Marella
• Steve Welk, a former assistant U.S. attorney
• Jeni Pearsons
• Dan Alban, a senior attorney at the Institute for Justice
• Jerry Johnson
• Bob Belden, an attorney at the Institute for Justice

This episode was produced by Kirk McDaniel. Intro music by The Dead Pens.
Editorial staff is Ryan Abbott, Sean Duffy and Jamie Ross.

While this U.S. Supreme Court term shouldn't result in as many sweeping decisions as the last, which upended nationwide abortion rights and gun control precedents, it'll be far from a lightweight season. The court's cases are varied: from redistricting to artist integrity to the legality of the Indian Child Welfare Act, which gives tribal governments jurisdiction over the adoption and foster care of Native American children.
In this episode, we break down some of the heavyweight appeals the court will hear with the help of our very own Kelsey Reichmann.
First, we delve into two cases that could affect elections for decades to come, deciding whether states should take race into account during redistricting and if legislatures should be the ones to draw those lines or if the courts have any say in the process.
The Supreme Court will also weigh in on a copyright dispute between the Warhol Foundation and Lynn Goldsmith over a photo she took of the artist Prince that Andy Warhol used as a reference in several prints. Another case rooted in the visual arts comes to the court from Colorado. A website designer is challenging the state's Anti-Discrimination Act, saying it violates her First Amendment rights by forcing her to serve LGBT couples.
Last, we lay out the Indian Child Welfare Act, what is at stake over its continued legality, and what the law means to tribal governments, courts and their people.
Special guests:

• Sophia Lin Lakin, interim co-director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Voter Rights Project
• Mitchell Brown, counsel for voting rights at the Southern Coalition for Social Justice
• Amelia Brankov, attorney and chair of the Art Law Committee of the New York Bar Association
• Kathryn Fort, director of clinics at the Michigan State University College of Law
• Angelique EagleWoman, law professor and director of the Native American Law and Sovereignty Institute at the Mitchell Hamline School of Law

This episode was produced by Kirk McDaniel. Intro music by The Dead Pens.
Editorial staff is Ryan Abbott, Sean Duffy and Jamie Ross.

Bounty hunters. Figures from folk tales, fantasy and reality TV; free agents that work as an extension of the law. Whatever comes to mind, this latest chapter in vigilante justice is shaking things up even more at a polarized time in the country.
The enaction of Texas's Senate Bill 8 allows private citizens to file civil lawsuits against anyone who provides or helps someone attain an abortion, with a possible award of at least $10,000 per lawsuit. Since then, California has passed a law modeled on Texas, allowing private citizens to sue gun law violators.
How likely are they to catch on in the future?
These sorts of citizen enforcement laws aren't totally new, but the way SB 8 has played out is a lot different than a hired hand chasing after a bank robber who skipped town on bail.
What does it mean to put this kind of power into the hands of ordinary people who end up selecting themselves to take up the cause of policing or surveilling others' decisions?
We talked to experts in our penultimate episode to explore the implications of SB 8 and what it could mean for other constitutionally protected rights. And, to really understand what can happen with these laws, we go back in time to some of the darkest chapters in U.S. history: the enforcement of slavery and Jim Crow laws.
Special guests:

• David Noll, law professor at Rutgers Law School
• John Seago, president of Texas Right to Life
• Louise Melling, deputy legal director at the ACLU and director of its Ruth Bader Ginsburg Center for Liberty

This episode was produced by Kirk McDaniel. Intro music by The Dead Pens.
Editorial staff is Ryan Abbott, Sean Duffy and Jamie Ross.

Priceless artwork and tribal artifacts have made their way across the globe through several means, some legitimate and others ... not so much.
While we rely on these objects to tell us about history, tradition and culture, the way they end up in our communities sometimes raises questions about what should happen to them, where they rightfully belong and how the legal system can get them home.
Congress has passed laws regulating what should happen to items taken from tribes without their permission, including the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act. The water gets muddier internationally though, as political drama takes center stage.
In this episode, we take a trip across the globe to see how this issue plays out in different communities.
The Founders Museum in Barre, Mass. is grappling with how to properly return moccasins, dolls and clothing from the Wounded Knee Massacre to the Lakota, which lost nearly 300 people in December 1890. Down the street, the Worcester Art Museum uses art once stolen by Nazis in World War II to show the difficult task of getting back Richard Neumann's renowned art collection. We also break down communications between Austria and Mexico over a storied feathered Aztec headdress.
Special guests:

• Ann Meilus, president of the Barre Museum Association
• Manny and Renee Iron Hawk, Lakota members of HAWK 1890, a society for the survivor descendants of the Wounded Knee Massacre
• Shannon O’Loughlin, a citizen of the Choctaw Nation, and CEO and attorney for the Association on American Indian Affairs
• Claire Whitner, director of curatorial affairs and curator of European art at the Worcester Art Museum
• Wesley Fisher, director of research for the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany and the World Jewish Restitution Organization
• Jennifer Kreder, law professor at the Salmon P. Chase College of Law at Northern Kentucky University

This episode was produced by Kirk McDaniel. Intro music by The Dead Pens.
Editorial staff is Ryan Abbott, Sean Duffy and Jamie Ross.

The future is here.

Sixty years ago, the science fiction writer Philip K. Dick wondered whether androids dream and what about. As artificial intelligence moves from the realm of sci-fi into daily reality, helping companies and governments analyze data and make decisions, the questions of what mechanisms motivate AI and whether these programs can overcome human limitations remain unanswered.

Many tech leaders seem to believe we are on the cusp of having self-aware AI with intelligence that surpasses humans. Even if we don’t get there, we’re already facing places where current laws don’t really protect us.

Join us in our sixth episode this season for a tour through a not-so-post-apocalyptic landscape as companies and experts try to navigate how humans bring AI more and more to life.

Special guests:

• Tyler Johnston, founder of the Midas Project
• Stephen Thaler, founder of Imagination Engines
• Ellie Pavlick, assistant professor of computer science and linguistics at Brown University
• Matthew Tokson, law professor at the University of Utah
• Scott Stevenson, CEO of Spellbook
• Ulysses Secrest, artist and owner of Aerarius Metalworks
• ChatGPT

This episode was produced by Kirk McDaniel. Intro music by The Dead Pens.
Editorial staff is Ryan Abbott, Sean Duffy and Jamie Ross.