When Is Government Speech Coercion?

This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss the Supreme Court’s busy week on government speech and immigration authority; Donald Trump’s bond issue and words problem; and COVID learning loss. Join us for Political Gabfest Live in Washington, D.C. on March 27! Tickets are on sale now; get ‘em before they’re gone. 

Here are some notes and references from this week’s show:

Amy Howe for SCOTUSblog: Court sympathetic to NRA’s free speech claim and Supreme Court skeptical of restricting government communications with social media companies

Lindsay Whitehurst for AP: Supreme Court appears receptive to NRA free-speech lawsuit against a former New York state officia

Hogan Gore for the Austin American-Statesman: 5th Circuit Court of Appeals leaves SB 4 on hold after dueling orders on Texas immigration law

Ben Protess, Maggie Haberman, and Kate Christobek for The New York Times: Trump Spurned by 30 Companies as He Seeks Bond in $454 Million Judgment

Ruth Marcus for The Washington Post: Fair’s fair: Trump should be able to appeal the judgment against him and Catherine Rampell:Trump can’t find anyone to spot him $424 million. Would you?

Sarah Mervosh, Claire Cain Miller, and Francesca Paris for The New York Times: What the Data Says About Pandemic School Closures, Four Years Later

Slate Political Gabfest: The “Stop Counting Now” Edition

Weakley County, TN

Here are this week’s chatters:

Emily: Small Game: A Novel by Blair Braverman and Small Game: A Novel at the DC Public Library

John: Ramishah Maruf for CNN: MacKenzie Scott donates $640 million after open call for nonprofits and Ahjané Forbes for USA Today: Ticketless passenger found in Delta flight’s lavatory, forcing plane to turn around

David: Sarah Zhang for The Atlantic: DNA Tests Are Uncovering The True Prevalence Of Incest and City Cast: Work with us.

Listener chatter from Joshua Weaver in Austin, Texas: Matthew Brown for AP: Montana man used animal tissue and testicles to breed ‘giant’ sheep for sale to hunting preserves

For this week’s Slate Plus bonus segment, David, John, and Emily talk about The Mysterious Case of The Reappearing Princess. See Karla Adam for The Washington Post: Will Princess Kate video put an end to royal communications mess? and Mark Landler for The New York Times: The Royals Tried to Control Their Image Online. The Internet Had Other Ideas.

In the latest Gabfest Reads, Emily talks with Tana French about her book, The Hunter: A Novel.

Email your chatters, questions, and comments to gabfest@slate.com. (Messages may be referenced by name unless the writer stipulates otherwise.)

Podcast production by Cheyna Roth 

Research by Julie Huygen

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