A Wonderful Catastrophe

About this Episode

Now we turn to Joe’s favorite case(s). And monkey selfies. First, some great listener feedback, and Joe’s argument that feedback should be at the end of the show. Then we dive into Erie, the first of two cases decided on April 25, 1938 that together are his favorite case(s). A man injured by an errant door on a passing train brings the case that fundamentally transforms the federal judiciary. Justice Brandeis transcends transcendental nonsense to recognize that courts make common law rather than discover it and thereby gives up power in a move Joe likens to George Washington declining to seek a third term. We close with a discussion of why no one “owns” the now-famous and delightful monkey selfie.

This show’s links:

• Overcast, the newest podcast app on the block
• Episode 8: Party All over the World
• Christian Turner, Leveling Up
• Ed Cray, Chief Justice: A Biography of Earl Warren (and here’s a review)
• Episode 27: My Favorite Case
• About the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
• Erie Railroad Co. v. Tompkins
• United States v. Carolene Products
• Swift v. Tyson
• Black and White Taxicab and Transfer Co. v. Brown and Yellow Taxicab and Transfer Co. (Holmes: “The fallacy and illusion that I think exist consist in supposing that there is this outside thing to be found. Law is a word used with different meanings, but law in the sense in which courts speak of it today does not exist without some definite authority behind it.”)
• The monkey selfie: (go here to see the image if it doesn’t appear in your podcast client)
• Mike Masonic, How That Monkey Selfie Reveals The Dangerous Belief That Every Bit Of Culture Must Be 'Owned'
• Annemarie Bridy, Coding Creativity: Copyright and the Artificially Intelligent Author