250 Years of Bad Decisions Pt. 2: The Law Was Never Neutral [TEASER]

0:05 [SPEAKER_04]: Hey everyone, this is Leon from Prologue Projects. [SPEAKER_04]: On this week's episode of 5-4, Peter, Reannon, and Michael are continuing the series they started this past summer. [SPEAKER_04]: Looking back at key moments in the history of the Supreme Court, in honor of the country's 250th birthday.

0:24 [SPEAKER_04]: Today's episode tackles the idea of judicial neutrality and how right-wing actors, pawn and around the court have weaponized the supposed neutrality of the law to wander what has always been a fundamentally political project. [SPEAKER_04]: This is five to four. [SPEAKER_04]: A podcast about how much the Supreme Court has always sunk.

0:51 [SPEAKER_05]: Welcome to five to four where we dissect and analyze the Supreme Court cases that have humiliated our nation, like Eric Schmidt, humiliating himself during a congressional hearing. [SPEAKER_05]: I'm Peter. [SPEAKER_05]: I'm here with Reannon. [SPEAKER_05]: Hey, y'all. [SPEAKER_05]: And Michael.

1:04 [SPEAKER_03]: I actually enjoyed that. [SPEAKER_03]: I rarely enjoy a congressional hearing, but I thought that one was is pretty fun. [SPEAKER_05]: Do you want to explain it for the folks at home? [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, Eric Schmidt, Republican from Missouri, was questioning Jack Smith, the special prosecutor who had investigated Donald Trump and prosecuted him for that matter.

1:22 [SPEAKER_03]: And was trying to imply or outright state that Jack Smith had colluded with Fannie Willis, the district attorney in Atlanta to imprison Donald Trump and then had purged himself at this hearing [SPEAKER_03]: and his evidence for this were internal communications and text messages showing that Jackson Smith had been at an Atlanta Hawks game.

1:48 [SPEAKER_03]: In Atlanta, the day after a big scandal with Fannie Wells broke about her sleeping with another prosecutor who had been prosecuting Trump and all that. [SPEAKER_01]: What would you say if I had a series of text messages from your team that said you were in Atlanta at a warrior Hawks game on February 3rd, 2024, the day after Willis and Wade announced their fair.

2:06 [SPEAKER_07]: and surely he got this right. [SPEAKER_07]: I mean, it's text messages. [SPEAKER_03]: He had a big poster board. [SPEAKER_05]: He pulled up with the text messages on. [SPEAKER_05]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_03]: And he's like, I believe you just purged yourself and then they hid the poster board.

2:18 [SPEAKER_03]: And immediately tried to move on as they realized. [SPEAKER_03]: Jack Smith had no idea what the fuck they were talking about. [SPEAKER_02]: It's possible I flew through the Atlanta airport on the way to Florida, but I do not have a recollection of going to Atlanta. [SPEAKER_02]: And I definitely did not go to a Hawks game.

2:34 [SPEAKER_03]: Turns out he had been at the Iowa Hawkeye's game to see Katelyn Clark play college basketball in college park, Maryland. [SPEAKER_05]: Yes. [SPEAKER_06]: Not in Atlanta. [SPEAKER_05]: There's like a long pause in the room where everyone's like, what's going on? [SPEAKER_05]: Like, what is this accusation?

2:49 [SPEAKER_05]: It's the... [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I think is the one who's like coming out as a ballmower could it then be that University of Iowa's the Hawkeye's could that be it. [SPEAKER_05]: Yes, yeah, like midwestern lady obviously she knows all the the college mascots. [SPEAKER_05]: You know what I mean.

3:06 [SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, yeah, Hawkeyes, right. [SPEAKER_01]: And then Schmitt gets like angry who's questioning is this by the stream. [SPEAKER_01]: Well, you are using your time center with this is. [SPEAKER_06]: you're using your time to be a literate. [SPEAKER_05]: So, right, yeah, pretty good stuff, politics, very stupid, just an embarrassment.

3:24 [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, the pulling out of the poster board and then hiding it and then Democrats being like, can we see the poster board? [SPEAKER_03]: Can you bring that back out? [SPEAKER_03]: And then being like, we don't have to show you our poster board, like that's so weird. [SPEAKER_03]: Just absolute clouds, just absolute clouds.

3:40 [SPEAKER_05]: All right, folks. [SPEAKER_05]: Earlier this year, we dropped the first episode in our 250 years of bad decision series. [SPEAKER_05]: A short series reflecting the court's role in our nation's trials and tribulations thus far. [SPEAKER_05]: Now, we're going to continue that today. [SPEAKER_05]: Will there be a third episode?

3:57 [SPEAKER_05]: Probably. [SPEAKER_05]: Who knows? [SPEAKER_05]: We're sort of just vibing this out over the course of the year, frankly. [SPEAKER_05]: One of the primary thesis statements of this podcast from the beginning has [SPEAKER_05]: In the idea that the law is not neutral, that it can never be neutral, that the court uses the perception of neutrality to obscure its politics and its ideas.

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