Should the fine have to fit the crime?
The episode follows Alaska bush pilot Ken Jopie, who lost his $95,000 Cessna after being convicted of felony bootlegging for flying a six-pack of beer into a dry village, and has spent over a decade fighting the forfeiture. Through Ken's case, law professor Michael O'Hare and attorney Sam Gedge explain the Eighth Amendment's Excessive Fines Clause, how a 1998 Supreme Court case (Bajikajian) established limits on economic punishments, and how lower courts have since applied that standard unevenly. The conversation explores why fines and forfeitures can be constitutionally excessive, the incentives that drive governments to rely on them, and why Ken's case could prompt the U.S. Supreme Court to clarify the law.
What Up Holmes?
This episode traces how Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, initially hostile to broad free speech protections, radically changed his views during World War I and authored the famous Abrams dissent that introduced the 'marketplace of ideas' metaphor. The hosts, along with law professor Thomas Healy, explore what caused Holmes's shift, then examine how that marketplace metaphor has shaped a century of First Amendment thinking and how it breaks down in the age of social media and misinformation, drawing on MIT researcher Sinan Aral's Twitter study and media lawyer Nabiha Syed's critiques. The episode closes by proposing that free speech should be seen as an ongoing democratic experiment that must be continually rethought, including by centering listeners' rights and information health.
The Alabama Murders - Part 5: Cruel and Unusual
Malcolm Gladwell examines the botched 2022 execution attempt of Kenny Smith in Alabama, situating it within the broader history and practice of lethal injection. Through interviews with Smith's mother, his longtime lawyer, a medical expert, and courtroom and press excerpts, the episode details Alabama's lethal injection protocol, previous failed executions, and the political response that extended the time window for executions. The story raises questions about what constitutes "cruel and unusual" punishment and how a method designed to appear humane can mask severe suffering and systemic failure.
The Alabama Murders - Part 3: A Peculiar Institution
Malcolm Gladwell examines the trial of John Forrest Parker for the murder of Elizabeth Sennett, highlighting how medical evidence and timing cast serious doubt on whether Parker actually inflicted the fatal stab wounds, and pointing instead toward her husband, Reverend Charles Sennett. The episode then traces how Alabama's judicial override system allowed a judge to impose the death penalty against a jury's recommendation of life without parole, and how the state later abolished override without correcting past cases, leaving Parker on death row despite the system's acknowledged flaws.
Adoptive Couple v. Baby Girl
Radiolab revisits the Supreme Court case Adoptive Couple v. Baby Girl, centered on the custody of Veronica, a child eligible for Cherokee Nation membership, and the application of the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA). The episode traces the mid‑20th century history of widespread removal of Native American children from their families that led to ICWA, then walks through the conflicting narratives of Veronica's adoptive parents, her Cherokee father Dustin Brown, and their lawyers as the case moves through the courts up to the Supreme Court. A 2025 update explains that Veronica was ultimately returned to her adoptive parents and that, despite repeated legal challenges, ICWA was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2023 but continues to face ongoing challenges.