On The Merits

The Republican National Committee's release of an AI-generated ad last year turned a lot of heads among professional campaigners, and it led some of them to say this new tech has no place in political races. But is this stance sensible, or is it another instance of "AI panic" sweeping the culture? Jessica Furst Johnson, an election law attorney with the firm Holtzman Vogel who's worked in Republican politics for years, thinks it's closer to the latter. Johnson joins our podcast, On The Merits, to talk about how AI, when used properly, could be an effective—not to mention cost-saving—tool for cash-strapped campaigns. She also discusses how efforts to outright ban the technology from elections could run afoul of candidates' First Amendment rights. Do you have feedback on this episode of On The Merits? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690.

John Lewis, the late Congressman and civil rights hero, authored a law in 2007 that tasked the Justice Department with reopening and reinvestigating racially-motivated killings from the Civil Rights era. More than 15 years later, the Justice Department has failed to bring charges in nearly all of the cold cases it has reopened. On our weekly podcast, On The Merits, Bloomberg Law reporter Ronnie Greene talks about why the DOJ has had such little success prosecuting these cases. Moreover, he says, civil rights advocates worry the Justice Department's lack of results may cause Congress to lose patience with the program and defund it. Do you have feedback on this episode of On The Merits? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690.

Rudy Giuliani and Alex Jones are two high profile examples of instances where losing a defamation case at trial leads a defendant directly into bankruptcy. Christopher Hampson, a law professor at the University of Florida, calls this the "defamation-to-bankruptcy pipeline." However, election-denying former mayors and conspiracy-peddling shock jocks aren't the only ones who might find themselves sucked in. Hampson says damages in defamation cases are becoming increasingly enormous because of the ability of falsehoods to spread online. Additionally, he says bankruptcy filers might not be able to shed their debts if they go to trial and lose in a defamation case. On this episode of our podcast, On The Merits, Hampson talks about the implications of this pipeline on bankruptcy law and on the freedom of speech. If defeat in a defamation case means huge debts that will follow you for the rest of your life, can a defendant afford not to settle? Do you have feedback on this episode of On The Merits? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690.

Within the legal industry and beyond, many companies are reining in the flexible work policies they implemented during the pandemic. Though this may be beneficial for these companies, Bloomberg Law survey data shows that it's not what many attorneys want—especially female and minority attorneys. More than 90% of female attorneys who responded to Bloomberg Law's latest Workload and Hours Survey said they want to be able to work remotely at least part of the week, compared with just three quarters of male respondents. Additionally, significantly more women and minority attorneys told Bloomberg Law that, in 2024, they're either open to job offers or are actively looking for a new position. Bloomberg Law analyst Jessica R. Blaemire, who crunched the data from this survey, joins the latest episode of our podcast, On The Merits, to discuss what this means and what effect this could have on the legal industry. She says more restrictive remote work policies, coupled with fallout from the recent Supreme Court ruling on affirmative action, could lead to serious backsliding on diversity goals at many law firms. Do you have feedback on this episode of On The Merits? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690.

Bankruptcy is not something a company wants to go through once, let alone twice. And yet, 2023 saw an uptick in so-called "Chapter 22s"—companies that filed for Chapter 11 a second time. Some repeat filings were due to worse than anticipated business conditions, while two others were due to a court judgment that remained in place after the first bankruptcy. Some bankruptcy attorneys say that, regardless of the reason, if a company files a second time, something had to have gone wrong with the first bankruptcy proceeding. On today's On The Merits, Bloomberg Law reporter James Nani joins us to talk about what's driving these "Chapter 22s." Do you have feedback on this episode of On The Merits? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690.

The January 6, 2021, riot on Capitol Hill was a traumatic event for everyone there, from staffers to dining hall servers, to elected officials themselves. But the ramifications from that day are still reverberating through the halls of Congress and impacting how the body operates. New research shows that Republicans who voted to overturn the 2020 presidential election have since had significantly fewer Democratic co-sponsors for their bills, even for minor, non-controversial legislation. On this episode of our news podcast, On The Merits, Bloomberg Government's Jonathan Tamari talks about how the fallout from January 6 has melded the personal and the political at the Capitol. He also talks about his exclusive interview with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) and how Jeffries might fare if he becomes Speaker of the House next year. Do you have feedback on this episode of On The Merits? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690.

Data obtained and analyzed by Bloomberg Law show that federal judges and their families are facing an increasing number of violent threats. But the federal agency charged with keeping judges safe doesn't have the tools it needs to face this growing problem. The US Marshals Service has an outdated system for collecting and tracking threats against judges, according to former Marshals Service employees. This makes it harder than it should be to prevent attacks. Lydia Wheeler and Gary Harki, a reporter and editor at Bloomberg Law, respectively, did a deep dive into this problem and into Congress's failure to allocate funding to upgrade the system. They join our weekly podcast, On The Merits, to discuss the effect this is having on judges and why many are being told to take their personal security into their own hands. Do you have feedback on this episode of On The Merits? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690.

In the legal profession, admitting one's own cognitive or mental weakness is a huge taboo. That made it all the more remarkable when Richard Bernstein, a sitting Michigan Supreme Court Justice, announced earlier this year that he was temporarily stepping down to seek treatment for depression. Bernstein was already an extraordinary jurist. He was born fully blind, but overcame his disability to not only graduate from law school but go on to be elected a judge. But stepping away from the bench and publicly admitting he needed treatment might have been the most difficult obstacle he has had to overcome in his career. Bloomberg Law reporter Alex Ebert spoke to Bernstein about his decision and about what this could mean for his future. Ebert joins our weekly news podcast, On The Merits, to talk about Bernstein and about why the legal profession lags behind the rest of society in accepting mental health struggles. Do you have feedback on this episode of On The Merits? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690.

The story of baseball's Black Sox scandal, when a group of ballplayers conspired with gamblers to throw the 1919 World Series, has been the subject of countless books and articles—not to mention at least two Hollywood movies. But what's now largely forgotten is a subsequent civil trial when one of those ballplayers, the famed "Shoeless" Joe Jackson, dragged his former team to court. However, that trial is forgotten no more with the recent publication of the unabridged court transcripts, once believed to be lost to time. The transcripts, edited by historians Jacob Pomrenke and David Fletcher, show how Jackson sued the Chicago White Sox for back pay and actually won in front of a jury, only to have the judge hearing the case nullify the verdict and then convict Jackson of perjury. Pomrenke and Fletcher join this episode of our weekly podcast, On The Merits, to talk about why Jackson went to court, how the trial went so wrong for him, and how they came across the long-lost transcripts. They also talk about the relevance of the Black Sox scandal today, when sports gambling is more pervasive than it's ever been. Do you have feedback on this episode of On The Merits? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690.

Every new person who moves to Texas—and there are a lot of them—increases demand in the state for water. But Texas' supply of water isn't just failing to keep up with demand, it's actually going down. Climate change-driven droughts are lasting longer, and that's especially painful in Central Texas where both the Austin and San Antonio metro areas are growing at astonishing rates. Earlier this month, Texas voters approved a new $1 billion water infrastructure fund—but even this may only forestall a time when officials are forced to put a halt to new development in the region. On this episode of our weekly news podcast, On The Merits, Bloomberg Law reporter Bobby Magill walks us through some of the solutions policymakers are considering to try to reconcile the supply of, and demand for, water in fast-growing parts of the country. Do you have feedback on this episode of On The Merits? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690.