Text, Context, and SCOTUS' Textualism in Bostock - Andrew Koppelman and Sara Harris

Since Antonin Scalia was not available to be on the podcast, we reached out to Northwestern Law School's John Paul Steven's Professor of Law, Andrew Koppelman, and Jackson Walker Labor & Employment attorney, Sara Harris, to fill in. Justice Scalia believed in the concept of textualism when it came to the Court interpreting the law, without allowing one's personal political bias to play a role. According to Merriam Webster, textualism is "a legal philosophy that laws and legal documents (such as the U.S. Constitution) should be interpreted by considering only the words used in the law or document as they are commonly understood." The problem, according to Koppelman is that textualism has to be balanced with context. If a Justice were to apply or misapply the context of the issue, then textualism could be made to fit the outcome the Justice wants, regardless of what the text of the law says. In the Bostock v. Clayton Co., Georgia decision, the five conservative judges split 3-2 on how textualism applied to the 1964 Civil Rights Act, Title VII issue of "because of sex" discrimination, and gave the LGBTQ+ community a win in the process. We dive deep into the text, and the context of the decision.

Information Inspirations

After a bit of a hiatus, we bring back a few items that inspired us this week, and we hope to inspire you as well.

Greg may be retiring his In Seclusion Podcast at the end of this week (awwww), but there are plenty of legal podcasts to fill the void. Here is a couple.

Lawyer Forward is a new podcast from Mike Whelan where he winds together a historical legal story along with a contemporary issue for practicing lawyers. 

If you're looking for something that is more on the topic of law and working closely with others, then check out The Lawyer-Human Show with Colin and Shreya Ley, where they discuss being partners at a law firm, while also being partners in life. It's a fun and informative show and is now being produced by Ben Ambrogi's Populus Radio network. 

Marlene's inspiration comes from the latest print issue of Wired Magazine. While many of us might not see 20 kb of data as a lot, it can add up once millions of people contribute little bits of data to things like email. Danny van Kooten designed a plug-in for MailChimp which helps reduce the amount of data being sent. A little thing like this can help reduce a massive amount of CO2 over time.

Listen, Subscribe, Comment

Please take the time to rate and review us on Apple Podcast. Contact us anytime by tweeting us at @gebauerm or @glambert. Or, you can call The Geek in Review hotline at 713-487-7270 and leave us a message. You can email us at geekinreviewpodcast@gmail.com. As always, the great music you hear on the podcast is from Jerry David DeCicca.