Advertise on podcast: Show Cause - A Memphis Law Podcast

This episode features two individuals who have helped redefine what a family looks like in the 21st century United States. The first is a leading voice at the intersection of family law, constitutional law, and LGBTQ rights—Douglas NeJaime, the Anne Urowsky Professor of Law at Yale Law School. Our second guest is our very own Professor Regina Hillman, a member of the Obergefell v. Hodges legal team, which was the U.S. Supreme Court case that led to the nationwide legalization of same-sex marriage in 2015. In today's episode, we get into some great conversations about what a family and parenting looks like in America today, as well as the impact of courts decisions regarding family and parenting beyond the LGBTQ space and the ways in which many of these related cases help to shape the country's evolving definition of what a parent truly is. Whether you're a legal scholar, a student, or simply someone interested in how the law shapes everyday life, this is a conversation you won't want to miss.

In this episode of Show Cause, we welcome Shannon Minter, the Vice President and Legal Director of the National Center for LGBTQ Rights, to discuss his involvement in an event at Memphis Law examining an upcoming Supreme Court case regarding trans athletes and school sports teams and also talk with him about the history of the LGBTQ rights movement, it's history, it's future, and his role in all of it over the years.

This episode of Show Cause features Memphis Law 2L, Jeff Engle. Jeff is the current Director of Technology & Resources for the AI & The Law Society and joins the show to share some information about the new student organization he's a part of, as well as the reasons why this is such an opportune time for AI & The Law Society to launch at the law school. Additionally, drawing upon his background as a seasoned technology executive, entrepreneur, and U.S. special operations veteran with deep expertise in cybersecurity, Jeff goes into detail about what misconceptions surround AI, it's potential uses for law students, faculty, and practicing attorneys, and the ways AI is already working behind the scenes throughout much of our daily lives.

For years, the U.S. government has tried to police antitrust and monopoly issues in the technology industry with varying degrees of success. Several recent rulings have pushed the topic back into the spotlight, with a landmark ruling in a case against Google garnering headlines across the country, though many experts say Google is still winning in the long-term game of monopoly. Additionally, Epic Games (maker of the popular Fortnite game) took on Apple in a long-running antitrust case, with the decision and remedies potentially changing how online commerce and transactions are carried out across the board. Antitrust expert University of Memphis School of Law Herbert Herff Chair of Excellence, Professor John Newman, joins the podcast to go in-depth about these cases and more. He goes into the cultural relevance of these antitrust cases, what they mean to us as consumers, and how they could potentially change the way Big Tech operates in our daily lives.

This episode of Show Cause focuses on a forward-thinking solution to the conservation and future use of the Mid-South's greatest natural resource, the Middle Claiborne Aquifer. In the groundbreaking ruling in Mississippi v. Tennessee, the Middle Claiborne Aquifer was declared an interstate body of water, similar to the Great Lakes and the Colorado River, both of which have extensive agricultural, recreational, and commercial uses across several states. This episode's special guest is University of Memphis Law School alum Phill Ruston (JD '24), who recently published an article titled, "Protecting the Middle Claiborne Aquifer and Other Interstate Groundwaters Through Interstate Compact" in Volume 54, Book 2, of the University of Memphis Law Review.Phill looks at how our our aquifer now needs, in light of that ruling, the aquifer needs multi-state regulation and demonstrates that an interstate compact, rather than the standard equitable apportionment, is the most effective solution in preserving this natural resource for the future. From potential future use as an agricultural hub, to conservation efforts and even the region's drinking water source, Phill lays out why it is important to have states work together NOW in order to best protect this vital resource for future generations.

We’re joined in this episode by two special guests to talkabout a variety of things, including the unique experiences our students receive via our externship program and an in-depth conversation with one of Memphis’s extraordinary judges, touching on his involvement with Memphis Law, dedication to the legal community, and his efforts in making the legal profession more accessible and less intimidating to our students and the greater Memphis community. Chief Magistrate Judge Tu Pham of the U.S. District Courtfor Western Tennessee sat down alongside Professor Danny Schaffzin to talk about all manner of things with us, including their paths to the legal profession, how law school has changed since their days in the classroom, the importance of real-world experience, and breaking down the intimidating barriers that the legal profession can present to both prospective and current law students.

The law school’s Disability Rights Law Clinic will kick off next semester, giving students even more chances to make a real difference in the lives of Memphians through their legal work. So, this seemed like a great time to have Professor Jeff Miller join us to really give some insight into just what this clinic will focus on and why it’s unique. He shares some insight into what exactly Disability Rights Law entails and how the work done by students in this Clinic will continue the trend of positively impacting some of Memphis' communities most in need of legal assistance.

This episode focuses on Memphis Law's partnership with Everytown For Gun Safety and Le Bonheur Children's Hospital to help the pediatric victims of gun violence in the Mid-South. Abigail Weiss, the law school's "Everytown Legal Fellow," joins the podcast to go into detail about the work being done by her and her students in our Medical-Legal Partnership Clinic at Le Bonheur, where they help address the civil legal needs of these children and their families affected by gun violence. The trauma of gun violence goes beyond the immediate health-related concerns. From housing relocation issues, domestic violence, and firearm surrender matters, our MLP team helps to educate the next generation of attorneys to address gun violence through the legal system in a region where gun violence rates are historically high.

Thanks to the Memphis Sands Aquifer, Memphis has some of the best drinking water in the world. But the quality of that water may be at risk due to the recent Supreme Court ruling in Sackett v. EPA, which stripped federal protections from a massive amount of wetlands across the country, including the wetlands that help "recharge" and filter the water flowing into our very own aquifer. Recent state legislation introduced last year, and still under review, sought to further roll back wetland protections in Tennessee in favor of development. And with the wetlands in West TN sitting right under Ford's under construction "Blue Oval City," the need to protect these "superheroes" of nature is more vital than ever. Sarah Houston, Executive Director of Protect Our Aquifer, joins the podcast to help explain the importance of the aquifer, not only to Memphis and Tennessee, but also the greater Mid-South region. She dives into the details pertaining to this proposed legislation and explains why protecting these wetlands is one of the truly most bi-partisan issues imaginable. Houston also discusses how the changes proposed by these bills could drastically affect waterways, water quality, and ways of life throughout the entire state of Tennessee, from recreational fishing and hunting, to agriculture, to whole economies in regions throughout the state.

The concept of NCAA student-athletes being recognized as employees has brought about intense debate surrounding NIL deals and regulations. In this episode, we delve into many of the relevant issues such as the ability of student-athletes unionization or players associations, insurance, the implications of student-athletes being "fired" and losing scholarships, increased costs on behalf of universities due to salaries and benefits, taxation issues, and the implications on non-revenue generating sports within athletic departments. Memphis Law professor Lynda Black and recent Memphis Law graduate Lexi Hivner join us to go into more depth about all of these related employment issues and the future of NIL.

Today's space industry is a more than $500 billion dollar enterprise, with commercial spaceflight, governmental contracts, telecommunications, mining, solar power, and overall space tourism all making up the many facets of the field. But as governments the world over, as well as billionaires like Elon Musk and Richard Branson are racing to carve up outer space and establish a presence there, what rights and obligations come along with that? How do we protect this new frontier of pristine and uncharted territories? Who has a right to what and how will we even draw the lines that dictate such things? Today we are joined by Memphis Law Professor Jennifer Brobst, who has written extensively on the issues involved here, and recently published a book chapter entitled, “The legal strategies to preserve the natural and cultural heritage of space,” in the book “Space Tourism.”

On today’s episode of Show Cause, we’re focusing on one of Memphis’ extremely important non-profit legal services provider in the Community Legal Center, or as most everyone in the legal community here refers to it, the CLC. 2024 is the CLC’s 30th anniversary and as such, it seemed a great time to have some of their folks come on to talk about the important work that they are doing in the Mid-South, as well as what they have lined up for the year. This episode features two guests from the CLC, Executive Director Diana Comes and Immigrant Justice Program Director Colton Bane. Both Colton and Diana lend some amazing insight into the work that the CLC is doing here in Memphis and why the organization is so important, not only just in Memphis but regionally and even across the state. Colton gives some really great insight into the massive amount of immigration related work that the CLC handles and how that area has greatly expanded over the years and its impact on the community.

This episode focuses on our upcoming Law Review Symposium entitled "The Path of Least Resistance: How Marginalized Communities are Targeted by Harmful Infrastructures and Land Uses." For anyone interested in issues such as water access, housing, wastewater, and other infrastructure that impacts the well-being of communities, as well as the disparities in how low-income communities fare in these situations, this episode will contain a plethora of interesting items for you! We're joined by Symposium editor Ashlie Gozikowski, who will go into more detail about the symposium itself and why she chose the topic, as well as attorney Sarah Stuart, of Burch, Porter, and Johnson, who is a featured Symposium speaker on a panel focused on the Byhalia Pipeline, where she'll discuss the community involvement, eminent domain issues, and other items related to the successful halting of construction of the Byhalia Pipeline through a low-income South Memphis neighborhood.

Earlier this year, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that individuals with orders of protection against them must be allowed to keep their guns. This overturned a federal statute that prohibits firearm possession by individuals who a court determined pose a credible threat to the safety of an intimate partner or child. This episode of Show Cause focuses on United States v. Rahimi, the first major Second Amendment case that the Court has taken up since its notorious decision last summer in the case of New York State Rifle and Pistol Association vs. Bruen, which stated that restrictions on the right to bear arms are presumptively unconstitutional unless they are, in a judge’s opinion, consistent with the nation’s “historical tradition of firearm regulation.” From the moment the Court agreed to hear the Rahimi case, advocates hoped it would provide an opportunity for the court to limit the sweep of last year’s blockbuster decision expanding gun rights. We discuss the ramifications of the case with Sara Beth Myers, a Nashville-based attorney who has been a prosecutor at the federal, state, and county levels, who also has a long history of specializing in domestic violence cases at every level.

In this episode, we take a look at a number of international news items that have received alot of attention lately. We're joined by our own resident international law expert, Professor Ronnie Gipson, as he becomes the podcast's most frequent guest on his 3rd visit on the show. He goes over issues and news items regarding the recent helicopter crash in Russia involving Wagner military group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin and how that affects Vladimir Putin's efforts in Russia and the war against Ukraine. We also take an in-depth look at the recent coup d'état in the African country of Niger and how the international community has dealt with the matter compared to that of other recent coups, specifically the 2021 coup in Myanmar. Finally, we examine the international environmental matters related to Japan's recent release of treated wastewater from the Fukishima nuclear plant and how neighboring nations are reacting to the matter. In all of our discussions, China came through as an interested or involved party, showing just how intricate and overlapping these matters can be.