Reflections on Jury and Free Speech Victory

We’ve got two deep dives for you today, each with a lot of laughs (and almost no Donald Trump)!

First, we break down the lawsuit brought by seven police officers against rapper Afroman for hurting their feelings, which ended in a total victory for the defense. It’s still legal to make fun of cops in America! We dissect the claims, discuss what it means to sue for false light invasion of privacy and unreasonable publicity. And then we break down the audio of closing arguments and how each side went about persuading an all-white jury in deep red rural Ohio.

Then, we discuss the ongoing shenanigans in the US Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey, where the Trump administration has installed a “triumvirate” of lawyers to run the office rather than just submit a nominee to the Senate. Things came to a head when the government botched a prosecution for child sexual abuse materials and tried to plow ahead anyway. Judge Zahid Quraishi summoned the DOJ lawyer responsible to appear in court and… it did not go well.

And for subscribers, we have a bonus that dives even deeper into the mess the Trump administration has gotten into in New Jersey because it refuses to back down and just do the normal thing.

Cooley v. Foreman [Afroman lawsuit]

https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/23721423-afroman-lawsuit/

United States v. Villafane (D.N.J. settlement) [docket via CourtListener]

https://www.courtlistener.com/profile/docket-alerts/

“Lemon Pound Cake” [via OGAfroman YouTube]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xxK5yyecRo

“Why You Disconnecting My Video Camera?” [via OGAfroman YouTube]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISe3IVBBbyU&list=OLAK5uy_noWRXtUiSWHo7cMRoI34uqhSRSDpIFtqY&index=3

“Licc’em Low Lisa” [via OGAfroman YouTube]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wWQxSV8CK8

“Randy Walters is a Son of a Bitch” [via OGAfroman YouTube]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4AiuqQpB1U

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