Opening Arguments OA198: What Is Alan Dershowitz Thinking?
Aug 7, 2018
01:27:30
Today's episode takes an in-depth look at Donald Trump's favorite "liberal," Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz as seen through the eyes of one of his former students. We begin, however, with an update from the Paul Manafort trial, taking a look at the prosecution's strategy, witness list, and some preliminary rulings by Judge Ellis. After that, we dive very deeply into what looks like a very weird phenomenon: why is Alan Dershowitz carrying water for a President whom he ostensibly opposes? Why is he saying things that are demonstrably and indefensibly untrue about the law? Andrew has a theory. Mostly, though, he has stories and research... but they lead to a theory (we promise)! Finally, we end the answer to Thomas Takes The Bar Exam #87 regarding constitutional law and a state vs. the federal Confrontation Clause. Remember to follow our Twitter feed (@Openargs) and like our Facebook Page so that you too can play along with #TTTBE! Recent Appearances None! If you'd like to have either of us as a guest on your show, drop us an email at openarguments@gmail.com. Show Notes & Links
- This is the article in The Hill indicating that the prosecution would, in fact, call Rick Gates; earlier, friend of the show Randall Eliason gave a bunch of reasons why they might not. Oh, and Eliason also has you covered as to why 'collusion' is, in fact, a crime.
- This is the laughable Fox News report on how Judge Ellis hates the prosecution; for a dose of reality, you might want to check out this other article in The Hill about how Judge Ellis chastised both sides's lawyers.
- If you missed it, this is our Episode 107 where we tackled Serial.
- Here's the PBS retrospective on Dershowitz and the OJ trial.
- Our Dershowitz story on 'testilying' begins with Mapp v. Ohio, 367 U.S. 643 (1961) and the origins of the exclusionary rule; Dershowitz coined the term 'testilying' in this New York Times article from 1994.
- Testilying is, of course, a consistent problem today (see A, B) -- but Dershowitz hasn't spoken about it since 1998 (and even then, in an entirely different context).
- Instead, he attacked Baltimore's decision to indict the police in the Freddie Gray case in 2015.