United SHE Stands
Testing Our Knowledge Round 3: Cohost vs. Cohost Trivia
We have a fan-favorite for episode 80! Ashley's husband, Nick, joins us once again as the guest host to test our knowledge on all the topics we've covered in 2024 so far. Join us to not only see how much we've learned, but to test yourself as well!
Connect with USS: United SHE Stands Instagram
This episode was edited by Kevin Tanner. Learn more about him and his services here:
- Website: https://www.kevwyxin.com/
- Instagram: @kevwyxin
If you purchase from any links to resources or products, the show may make a small commission.
We have a fan-favorite for episode 80! Ashley's husband, Nick, joins us once again as the guest host to test our knowledge on all the topics we've covered in 2024 so far. Join us to not only see how much we've learned, but to test yourself as well!
Connect with USS: United SHE Stands Instagram
This episode was edited by Kevin Tanner. Learn more about him and his services here:
- Website: https://www.kevwyxin.com/
- Instagram: @kevwyxin
If you purchase from any links to resources or products, the show may make a small commission.
When you post on social media, you're no longer. You're basically considered the press and the press is held to a different standard, so libel and slander are like a thing. Welcome back to the United she Stands podcast, the show that brings kindness and women into politics. I'm Ashley.
Sara:And I'm Sarah, and we're two women from Ohio who are here to become more educated about American politics and build a community so we can all get involved and make an impact together.
Ashley:We hope we'll inspire and empower you along the way. Hello and welcome back to another episode of the United she Stands podcast. This week we're back at you with a co-host the co-host, aka me and Sarah, testing our knowledge on the episodes we have done so far this year in 2024. So, if you haven't been around for one of these before, my husband, Nick, plays host. We hand him the reins and give up the power and he goes through our past episode scripts and prepares questions and then quizzes me and Sarah on any of the episodes that are of an education nature. So things like our First Amendment episodes or 14th Amendment Not so much interviews and other stuff like that, but there's, I think, what did we pick? Six episodes, yeah, and other stuff like that, but there's, I think, what did we pick Six episodes.
Nick:Yeah, I think something like that.
Ashley:There's six episodes from this year that Nick has pulled questions from that me and Sarah will play a little friendly competition and try to answer them and test our knowledge. So, Nick welcome.
Nick:Thanks for having me. I know I'm your favorite guest emcee.
Ashley:You're our favorite host, I think, besides me and Sarah, obviously. Yeah, obviously I mean our only host. But it's fine, Go ahead, Take us off, Nick.
Nick:All right. So here we go. We'll just kind of get started from the top, and again I'm going off the semi-honor system of whoever touches their head first and buzzing in to answer any questions.
Sara:And let me just say Ashley and Nick are in the same room. We're doing this over Zoom, so there may be a slight lag.
Nick:Oh, is that true?
Sara:There might be, I don't know.
Nick:We could find it out. If we think it's, I'll count down to three and we'll see how bad it is yeah. I don't know how we'd ever prove it out scientifically, but I'll see how close you guys are. All right, ready Three, two typically, but I'll see how. In how close you guys are, ready three, two, one, actually what?
Ashley:was that all right?
Nick:whatever it'll be fine, it'll be fine. Yeah, we'll figure out. Look at the screen, not at me in person.
Sara:Yeah, the points are all made up anyways?
Nick:yeah, true, all right. So first question during this type of events, participants gather in a meeting-style format to discuss the issues at hand and debate among their own political parties. You're not going to let me finish the definitions, are you?
Ashley:Caucus.
Sara:Yeah, Okay, I feel like we definitely hit our head at the same time and I was also going to say that. But Ashley, just spit it out.
Nick:We should award the points, the points, to sarah on protest, maybe. Yes, yes, I think, yeah, I think that the key concept is here is people meeting among their own political parties and figuring out which candidates they want to put forward for uh, for presidential elections, right, yep, cool. Hopefully you guys didn't just read through all the show notes ahead of this. I didn't. I thought for presidential elections, right, yep, cool. Hopefully you guys didn't just read through all the show notes ahead of this?
Sara:I didn't. I thought about it, but then I didn't.
Nick:I thought about jumbling some of these, but we'll see. All right, this is the how Presidential Candidates Come to Be episode, the process of primaries, caucuses and national conventions.
Ashley:All right, let's do it.
Nick:Next question this event known as the election before the election are how states decide who will be on their state's primary ballots. I'm just going to give it to Sarah, this time For President of the US.
Sara:Primary election.
Nick:Okay, sarah, bonus question for you. Uh-oh, how long does this process typically take?
Sara:Oh, it usually takes about like two years.
Nick:Yeah, nailed it. Oh, I should have made that an official question. Okay, so in relation to primaries, everyone kind of knows the most famous ones. There's open and closed primaries, but can you name two out of the other five types that there are?
Ashley:probably, if I think about it you guys can work collaboratively okay yeah, um there's like semi open will you take, I'm gonna say like a semi-open primary, because that's ohio, I think. Yeah, basically, like once you you can take either, but once you vote you're affiliated with that party. There's like the top I forget what they're called, but where you go and it doesn't matter the political party, just the top two candidates go to the I think that's called top two, and then there's top four, four, I think yep, yep, yep okay three.
Nick:Well, technically you guys kind of hit four because you had the semi-open partially closed and partially open. Oh, okay you guys kind of hit four because you had the partially closed and partially open. They're kind of like similar concepts. There's one other one.
Sara:Is it a combination of words you've already said?
Nick:It's kind of a weird one. It's open to unaffiliated. I guess it's where unaffiliated voters may choose which party primary they want to vote in, but then voters affiliated with other parties can't cross over okay.
Ashley:So if you're, if you're not like yeah, if you haven't declared a political party, like if you're independent, you can pick which one you want to vote for gotcha yeah cool go team yeah okay, guys, um, believe it or not, that's kind of the end of the content on that one. Episode one, I feel like we get a green star, green checkmark, gold star, green star, yes, green checkmark, gold star.
Nick:Hold on to that feeling of accomplishment because we're starting to get into the bulk of the detailed episodes.
Sara:Yikes.
Nick:All right, so the next one is next set of questions are going to be around the 14th Amendment. So while, yeah, hope you brought your thinking cap, while the 14th Amendment is better known for aspects relating to racial equality, such as the Equal Protections Clause and repealing the Three-Fifths Clause of the original Constitution and its involvement in subsequent famous litigation, such as brown versus the board of education, there is a lesser known section that has recently been in the news as it gives congress the authority to bar public officials who took an oath of allegiance to the us constitution from holding an office and if they engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the constitution. Do you guys know which section it was? There are five sections section four sarah section three section three.
Ashley:That was a bit picky one, but it's really hard to uh yeah well, I know, when you read all the stuff you read, I was like I feel like he's giving us all the answers to anything I would have asked in this.
Nick:I think that highlights the point of this is most of the 14th amendment that you know about has nothing to do with the, the insurrection piece, until very recently yes, and what?
Sara:what is? What are you talking about, nick, very recently, for why?
Nick:I think we'll get into some of this um so, as it relates to section three, we kind of went through the definition, but what was the real intent behind this section when it was put into the the constitution?
Ashley:it was to. There's got the most flummoxed look on her face and actually bringing in to the intention behind it was basically to stop like confederate people who had been from the confederate and you know like tried to overthrow the government during the civil war from like getting back into power yes, even after obtaining a pardon from the the president.
Nick:Yeah, um, it can be overridden. You guys know how that, uh, someone who has been convicted of insurrection or rebellion can get back into government.
Ashley:I would guess two-thirds vote in Congress, but I don't know.
Nick:Yes, so two-thirds vote in Congress will still get them there there was nothing else.
Sara:It seems like that was maybe one option, but that's the only option.
Nick:That's the only option in here, got it Nice, Good job Ash. Which is all important when you think about it, because this has all come about because of former president donald trump's uh current situation. So, yes, um, there are states who are trying to actively keep him off the ballots and it would take two thirds of a very uh segregated congress to actually allow him back in if he were to be convicted of that well, sorry, real quick just yeah, if you're clear on that, check me that was true when we recorded that episode.
Ashley:The Supreme Court has since ruled he can be on the ballot. So, yeah, no matter what the states were trying to do, yes, on the ballot, he could be president of the United States, even after trying to have an instruction in the capital you what's funny.
Sara:I kind of forgot that all of the stuff with the 14th Amendment even though we did a whole episode on it with states trying to get him off the ballot was a thing because of all of the more recent happenings.
Ashley:Yeah, he's been convicted, felon and all the other things, so yeah.
Sara:Oh yeah, that also happened somewhat recently.
Nick:Yeah, well time. So yes, I'm like oh yeah, that also happened somewhat recently. Yeah, well time. Walk it back, just to kind of put a bow on this kind of fond memory. Um, can you guys name the first two states that actually barred donald trump from their state ballots?
Ashley:I can do one same colorado the other one is like it's a northeast state, it's like maine or new hampshire. I want to say new hampshire feels right, maybe what is.
Sara:It's a northeast state. It's like Maine or New Hampshire.
Ashley:I want to say New Hampshire feels right. Maybe. What is it? It's Maine. Oh, but I knew it was like one of those northeast states where the secretary of state from one of those states was yeah.
Nick:Yes, and Ash. As you alluded to, the Supreme Court has stepped in. Do you know what the name? This is one of the few court names I'm going to ask you for court rulings. You know what the name of that case was, since it seems maybe good trump v colorado, you know 50 trump v not a state I don't remember it's trump anderson.
Sara:Yes, trump v anderson she's got the show notes up I do, do not we cannot see her screen, so we don't know what's going on over there, but I don't have anything open that's kind of the gist of that episode and, ash, you kind of.
Ashley:I did prep that one, so it came back a bit.
Nick:I was going to say you kind of tied in nicely where things currently stand with that, but yes, you also killed it well I remember it.
Ashley:I did not think I would remember anything, to be honest, about that episode, but you also didn't ask us for things. I thought you're going to be like name three court cases that the equal protection clause has been litigated against and I was like which you said brown, the board of education's one, I know just to go off the script here. I don't know the names of them, but I know, like the right to birth control was one, the Roe v Wade, I'm pretty sure was upheld, but the 14th amendment, so it's like those, like the right to same-sex marriage, those are the cases. I don't know their names. Besides Roe v Wade, that those are the cases, so that, like the 14th amendment has impacted. So it's a big deal.
Nick:Yeah, and I didn't in kind of two thoughts with that, I didn't specifically cite it in kind of some of the future episodes. But you know, my takeaway is there's other amendments, other clauses throughout the Constitution that the 14th Amendment was then able to kind of retroactively allow the government to enforce at a state level.
Ashley:Yeah, that's the other.
Nick:Had not done before.
Ashley:That's true, that's the other big thing was like the 14th Amendment, which actually we talked about in a lot of the first one episodes. Like the 14th Amendment, which actually we talked about in a lot of the first of them episodes. The 14th Amendment was what made. Basically it said like hey, the Constitution and its amendments apply to your states. Like your state can't overrule the Constitution. Yes, basically.
Sara:Look at you, nick, you're learning stuff from our episodes.
Nick:Thank you so much for hosting for us and I tried to be nice and not ask for like specific case names and stuff, except for earlier in there. That's really nice, nick. Very appreciated.
Ashley:All right, we're going to move on to our next episode Boss Ass.
Nick:First Ladies, let's go, yeah. So I'm going to read you, we're going to go through all of them that you had, I'm going to give you kind of highlights of their accomplishments and I'm going to see if you can name them. But I'm going to see if you can name them. But before we do that, let's start with kind of a basic question. And can you guys list what some of the responsibilities are that the US Constitution defines for the First Lady?
Ashley:Trick question yeah.
Nick:Correct.
Sara:Nice.
Nick:Ash has a little bit of advantage because she's sitting in the room and can read my poker face, which is not very good.
Ashley:Well, no, I didn't really. I just knew. I was like wait, that's like, not a Like. How many times do I talk about the Constitution? The first seven pieces outline government responsibilities and the First Lady ain't in there.
Sara:Ain't in there.
Nick:So it's kind of been up to them to forge their own paths. All right, so this one I got to scroll a little bit because I put them in sequential order and I don't want to read them in sequential order because that's cheating Fair. This first lady was a lifelong advocate for mental health, sarah, I should know let's give her her full credit, but Sarah can answer it. Okay. Established the modern office of the first lady and set up her office in the East Wing, which is that president for future. First ladies Worked for Habitat for Humanity, was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom for advocacy work and wrote five books, sarah.
Sara:Rosalind Carter.
Nick:Rosalind Carter, according to all of your phonetic spellings throughout your show notes I forget that Nick sees our show notes.
Sara:Yeah, he sees all our little notes and our show notes.
Ashley:Our episode scripts. That's our show notes. Yeah, he sees all our little notes, all our show notes, our episode scripts.
Sara:That's what he sees.
Nick:Yes, yes, rosalyn.
Sara:Rosalyn. Yes, yes, my girl.
Nick:Okay, okay, let's do this one. This first lady earned degrees from Princeton and Harvard Law School, so she's already buzzing in. She's destroying it. Once in the White House, she started multiple programs and initiatives, including the let's. Move program, which aims to reduce childhood obesity. The Joining Forces initiative, which aims to support service members, veterans and their families. The Reach Higher initiative, which focused on higher education and career support for students. The Let Girls Learn initiative, which promoted education for adolescent girls around the globe. So, very yeah started a lot of different initiatives and programs.
Sara:Let's say it together Three, two, one, michelle Obama.
Nick:Yep Bessie Lady.
Sara:That's so funny. From my Zoom I just saw Ashley's mouth move. I didn't actually hear her say it. I know how that's going to come through on the recording, but can confirm Ashley and I did say it at the same time.
Nick:Fair enough, you guys are doing good, all right. Next one this first lady was First Lady during the Great Depression in World War II. Ash is already ringing in, but again we'll read through the accomplishments she became the first First Lady to have her own press conference for women reporters, had her own daily newspaper column, was the first First Lady to travel to an active war zone, served as the chair of the Human Rights Commission and was appointed to the National Advisory Committee of the Peace Corps.
Ashley:Okay, I felt so confident when I buzzed in Eleanor Roosevelt. Yes, okay, I was like second guessing. I was like oh, okay.
Nick:But as a bonus question, can you give me her actual full name?
Sara:Anne Anne Eleanor Roosevelt, anna.
Nick:Eleanor Roosevelt so close? Well, I did not know.
Sara:And she married her fifth cousin. Yes, back Sarah remembers.
Nick:I believe it was hashtag cute in the notes. Hashtag cute Okay, all right. Next, this first lady was a graduate of Yale Law School Guys, you guys are killing me. Chaired the task force on national health care reform, led the fight to pass the Children's Health Insurance Program, worked to increase funding for research and treatment of cancer, aids, osteoporosis and juvenile diabetes. And then, after her time as First Lady, she became the first First Lady elected to the US Senate and served as Secretary of State.
Sara:Three, two, one Hillary Clinton.
Nick:Glad you guys are doing good on this one. And then also shot. I didn't put this in here because I felt it was too obvious, but she became the first woman in american history to receive a presidential nomination of a major political party yeah, hello about a boss yep, all right.
Nick:next one right. This first lady created the Fine Arts Committee for the White House, established the White House Historical Association, spearheaded efforts to make the White House a museum that was protected by Congress, won an Emmy when she provided the first televised tour of the White House and also famously said she didn't like the word lady in First Lady, and that sounded like a prized resource.
Ashley:Go ahead, sarah. I wouldn't have done it, unless I know because- of the process of elimination Jackie Kennedy.
Nick:Yes, Five out of five guys.
Sara:Boss-ass First Ladies.
Nick:You guys did them proud.
Ashley:Okay, well, now's the bad news. The next three episodes are all on the First.
Sara:Amendment yeah, it's about to go straight downhill, so we'll see how it goes from here.
Nick:Yeah, yeah, yeah, yep. So I'll mask all case names, all the hard stuff. No, I'm just kidding. I tried to keep this conceptual, conceptual, all right. So, yeah, we're going to go onto the First Amendment. Specifically I don't think this is giving anything away specifically the freedom of religion. All right, so the religion clause of the first amendment is made up of two clauses. The first stops the government from telling you what to believe, but only in places where they hold power, such as public schools and government buildings. What is this clause known as?
Ashley:okay, there's two clauses. It's the free exercise in the establishment class. I just don't know. Hold on, I have to think about which one's which.
Sara:Oh, okay, with that, can you repeat? Yeah, can you repeat it.
Nick:Yeah, so this one stops the government from telling you what to believe.
Ashley:Free exercise. It's actually establishment. It's actually establishment.
Nick:You're making me doubt myself. No, it's right, I was thinking free though too.
Ashley:Right. But yeah, it's established because it's basically saying, like the government, like on government property, they won't establish a religion. So it makes sense. Well, I just mix them up.
Nick:Yeah. So yeah, I mean yes, you already. I mean like spoiled kind of the second question here. The second clause makes it so you can practice your religion however you see fit, as long as it does not impede on other people's rights, aka you can pray in school or in public to whichever God you believe in, or if you don't believe in any, that's also protected Free exercise. And that is yes, that is the free exercise clause.
Sara:Amen.
Ashley:Funny, funny, nailed it.
Nick:All right, style points for sarah. Okay, so just this one's going to kind of be a little bit of a throwback. So the first amendment gives us five freedoms, which we just talked about, the freedom of religion. Can you guys name the other ones?
Ashley:we sure can yeah all right, all right, so you do two, then I'll do two.
Sara:Okay, I'm gonna go. I'm to use your thing, ray Stein's pour a beer Religion.
Ashley:Is that the next question? You're fine, you can tell you no, I would have gotten there.
Nick:Freedom starts with a, b.
Ashley:She would have figured out, because she knows there's none that start with B.
Sara:Yes, and I know there's two with P. I just you know.
Nick:Okay, anyways, stein's religion speech for a pint press assembly petition nailed it nailed it all right, I guess that mnemonic device of yours actually works. I was very curious to see if you'd remember your own mnemonic device it is really good.
Sara:I mean ash says it's hers. It was created by AI.
Ashley:I had to ask the right questions to AI to get that, because you should have seen what it first spit me out. It was not good.
Sara:No, that's fair. You do have to craft your verbiage.
Nick:Yes, okay, all right, we're going down the funnel of complexity here in detail. Can you name the three court cases that are represented by one word each, whose decisions have created the test commonly applied to subsequent court cases to see if the establishment clause has been violated? So these are so commonly used that there's just one word given to each of them.
Ashley:Okay, all I can think of Sarah. Do you have an idea? Nope, I'm tapping out, it's the test.
Nick:It's the test it is the tests.
Sara:I just keep it okay because I immediately thought lemon test.
Ashley:Yeah, yeah, yeah okay, I could think of lemon test is the first.
Nick:Yes, okay lemon.
Sara:Hold on.
Nick:Is it the one word that we couldn't say yes, I'm staring at the way you spelled it in the notes and it drives me insane looking at it corrosion, corrosion I mean yes, coercion coercion, coercion, coercion.
Ashley:Someone coercion that is a hard word lemon coercion and I actually knew more than I thought.
Sara:I got the first two. I the third one for sure, don't have yeah it's the endorsement.
Ashley:Ah, okay, these are three tests that are now. It's fair, because I feel like we didn't talk a lot about that one in the episode, like we definitely talked more about the other two well, yeah, oh, I know, because I had to say the word coercion.
Sara:You did a billion and ten times yeah I mean well, we're gonna.
Nick:We're gonna test your guys's knowledge of which ones are which, and we're gonna start with this one. So this test asks whether government's actual purpose is to endorse or disapprove a religion that uses. Okay, you guys want to go ahead the endorsement. Endorsement no, what the lemon test? It uses a three-pronged approach to determine if a statute is constitutional. Specifically, if it has a primarily secular purpose, its principal effect neither aids nor inhibits religion, and government and religion are not excessively entangled, then something's considered constitutional as long as those three pieces hold up.
Ashley:I should have let you finish, because once you said three-pronged, I probably would have known. But I heard you say the word endorse and I was like I'm like oh nice, yeah, I was like the one I don't know. Yeah, let's do that one.
Nick:Yeah, so this one is technically a lemon test. Okay, all right. This test is used particularly in the context of government-sponsored prayer practices. The Supreme Court has said that, at a minimum, the Constitution guarantees that government may not force anyone to support or participate in religion or its exercise.
Ashley:Coercion.
Nick:This one is coercion, I guess by process of elimination. This third one, this test, which was suggested as a clarification to the Lemon Test, asks whether, irrespective of a government's actual purpose, the practice or law under review in fact conveys a message of approval or disapproval.
Sara:Endorsement.
Nick:And then later Justice O'Connor stated that this should be judged by whether a reasonable observer would think the government is promoting or approving a specific religion.
Ashley:Okay, we didn't do that bad. Yeah, that's Pretty solid.
Nick:Okay, Well, we will keep moving down. The First Amendment to the freedom of speech. What is the right to speak, to be heard and to share opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship or legal action or legal sanction, called. This is what most people probably think of when they think about the First Amendment protecting free speech.
Ashley:Do you have a guess, Sarah? No Freedom of expression.
Nick:Yes.
Sara:Oh nice. Freedom of expression yes, oh nice.
Nick:Freedom of expression. Okay, so yeah again, these are going to get a little nitty gritty. So in deciding cases involving artistic freedom of expression, the Supreme Court leans on what principle? That means the government can't censor or restrict expression just because some segment of the population finds its content offensive.
Ashley:You know, Sarah.
Sara:Nope.
Nick:Laws related to this regulate only the time, place and manner of speech and are usually found constitutional. They must regulate speech without reference to that speech's substance, be narrowly tailored and leave open alternative avenues of expression.
Ashley:Content neutrality.
Nick:Correct.
Ashley:Nice.
Nick:So I think content neutrality these laws, effectively they don't look at the content of the message, they just kind of restrict where, the time and place and manner of how that message can be delivered. Because they're not looking at the contents, they're considered content neutral.
Sara:Gotcha. Well, this is good. You know'm really learning this.
Ashley:It's needed well, it's like anything remember like I think I don't remember what they say, but you have to like read or consume something so many times before you really like remember it. So I feel like that's like part of this. Yeah, yeah, for sure all right.
Nick:Next one these types of laws are typically struck down by courts, who often say the government has no power to restrict expression because of its message. Many of these laws are struck down by the courts.
Ashley:It's the opposite content-based. Yeah, Nice.
Nick:Amendment cases because courts hold these laws to very strict scrutiny, the content-based laws, while holding the content-neutral ones to only intermediate or mid-level scrutiny. So they evaluate a lot harder when laws come in front of them that are trying to restrict speech based on content.
Ashley:Yeah, yeah, I kind of remember more than I thought I did, yep.
Nick:Look at you. All right, the supreme court has taken a categorical approach to what is not protected by the first amendment. This means, based on the category of speech, it may not be protected. Can you guys name? I won't ask for all of them, but some of them you want to do, like three or four out of the one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight sarah, do like three, I'll try to do three.
Ashley:Can you repeat the question?
Nick:The type of speech that is not protected by the person. So the Supreme Court kind of has different categories for types of speech. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. Like these categories are not protected and you can be well, you can't claim first amendment freedom of speech if this is the type of speech you're using I think I for sure know one okay fighting words, you're gonna say that I love that
Ashley:one favorite one, fighting words defamation, including libel and slander, child pornography, obscenity, um like. I forget what it's called, but basically like to incite violence incitement incitement nailed it I think you're about to get all eight no, I already kind of forget the rest of them.
Nick:Close, close six uh, so, yeah, the last two are true threats. And then speech that's integral to criminal conduct. Uh, so it's aka speech that's inciting illegal actions or soliciting others to commit crimes.
Ashley:Yeah, okay not protected folks. Yeah, don't do it all right.
Nick:so which of the doctrines above or which of the categories above is one of the rare content-based exceptions? Remember we talked about the court is, you know, very I don't know very, very detailed in terms of the content based up. This is one of the rare content-based exceptions to the court's general rule of content neutrality, along with libel and obscenity, so that rules it out. It constitutes a category of punishable speech outside of the first amendment. So one of these things is kind of the exception that you can actually be punished for this type of speech.
Ashley:Fighting words.
Nick:It is fighting words.
Sara:Oh, I was going to say the violence, one inciting violence or whatever you said.
Nick:But this one specifically was called out and the court ruled that such words, by their very utterance, inflict injury or tend to incite an immediate breach of peace. Moreover, they play no essential part of any exposition of ideas and are of such slight social value that they may be permissibly restricted in the greater interest of morality and public decency. So this is the one that came about. I believe there was a gentleman that was selling some sort of you know kind of anti-government news piece or whatever, and there was a crowd that was very angry with him. The police showed up and removed him for his own protection and while being removed he called the police officers fascists and racketeers, and the whole state government was fascists and racketeers, and the whole state government was fascists and racketeer. And then he was prosecuted for making those claims and the Supreme Court did not side with him Fighting words you know.
Nick:Those be fighting words.
Sara:Those be fighting words.
Nick:Not protected, all right, so bonus question here. So why are people incorrect when they claim that their social media posts are protected under the First Amendment?
Sara:Apparently people thought this was fighting words because we made a reel about. Well, ash made a reel about this and it blew up.
Ashley:Then we got some angry, angry people in our comment section on this one. A couple reasons. Number one one when you post on social media, you're no longer it's, you're basically considered the press, and the press is held to a different standard.
Ashley:So libel and slander are like a thing but that was not in your notes well, that's because I think I learned in the next one when we do press freedom but anyway so, yeah, like you, when you publish that you're held to like libel or slander basically standards and if you truly publish something that is like not true or qualifies as slander or libel, then you're, you could be basically charged for it. But as a member of the press, yeah, as a member of the press, but also for, like, celebrities or public figures. That's like a harder thing to prove to do you like. Basically they're. You're kind of like allowed, not like allowed allowed, but you're more allowed.
Nick:You're going to have to walk this one back if you want me to have any questions for the next episode.
Ashley:Okay, I'm going to hold off, but basically also. Second, we didn't even really talk about this. But second, it's a private platform. Yes, social media is a private platform the government. It's not up to the government what you can or can't post on there. You sign terms and conditions when you sign up for those.
Nick:Yes, that was the other big one.
Ashley:Oh sorry, that's what you were going for. Nick's like yeah stop talking, press and speech kind of like crossover.
Nick:Well, that's a fantastic segue to our last episode. First Amendment freedom of the press.
Ashley:Freedom of the press.
Nick:All right. So here's your definition question. The First Amendment also gives what right to gather information and report news or circulate opinion without censorship from the government.
Sara:Freedom of the Press.
Nick:Yes.
Sara:I was like is this a trick question.
Nick:Normally I don't read the title first, right out of the gates. I kind of gave it, I kind of slipped on that one. So you got a little little softball there, all right. So we got freedom of the press. But why did the founders include this in the first amendment, like what was their kind of original intention?
Ashley:To censor the government. So somebody watched not to censor somebody, to basically be the watchdog of the government.
Nick:That is correct, ash. I felt that the government needed a watchdog, and in this case, that watchdog was a free press with protections under the Constitution. He also believed that the free press to be one of the components essential to creating a free, democratic nation. Democracy, y'all Democracy, freedom of the press.
Sara:Democracy, y'all.
Nick:All right. Next question this type of speech is a published false statement that is damaging to a person's reputation, and a Supreme Court decision established that the First Amendment may protect this type of speech when it is about a public official, in order to foster vigorous debate about the government and public affairs.
Ashley:Libel Is the question. What is the type of speech?
Nick:Yeah, what is the type of speech?
Ashley:Libel or slander.
Nick:It is. It is libel. So yeah, libel is a type of speech. It's a false statement that's damaging a person's reputation, but counter if the speech was untrue and caused harm to reputation. So Supreme Court kind of stepped in during a specific case and laid all this out. All right, to protect open discourse, the Supreme Court adopted what tests which meant that no public official could win damages for libel without proving that the statement was made with knowledge that was false or with reckless disregard of whether it was false or not. The court intended this to be a very high standard, one that public officials would have a hard time satisfying and, if found true, was because conduct by the news media went beyond just negligence or carelessness.
Nick:I don't know the name. So this is the actual malice test. Public officials or whoever actually have to prove that you were intentionally being malicious in order to be able to win a libel case.
Sara:That makes sense.
Nick:Yeah, kind of put a cap on this and thinking about, you know, false statements and everything in regards to government or public officials. At the end of the day, what does this mean for media in making false statements, specifically media's ability to make false statements? I don't understand the question kind of this thinking of, like all these rulings and the positions of the courts, like what does that mean? Is the media allowed to make false statements, are they not?
Ashley:like they're kind of given a grace period yeah. So it says yeah, the media can report false information, as long as it wasn't done with malice, aka false information being reported out has to be an honest mistake yeah, because the idea is that, like the news is time sensitive too, so like you got to get it out and it doesn't always give you the time to like back, check, fully verify, yeah yeah, and you know your your episode talked about when this rule first came out.
Nick:Like you know, we didn't live in the internet. You know they would publish these stories. It wouldn't go to print till the next morning. And then you know, 15, you know, if you found out that there was an issue within that 15 hour window, you didn't have time to go fix your print run type stuff. So yeah, so yeah, the goal was to make sure any false information coming from the media is as the result of an honest mistake, um, or when it's being reported with no intent of, you know, being malicious or or being having libel, type of thing. Yeah, okay, guys, believe it or not, that was your six episodes in a whirlwind really wow, I actually feel like we did pretty well yeah I'm impressed, we rock we do nick.
Ashley:What's your? What's the verdict?
Nick:uh, gold stars all around how about green stars?
Ashley:all right. Well then, that's a wrap, folks. Thanks for listening. Nick, thanks so much for hosting, hosting once again and taking the time to read through all of our episode scripts and prepping our questions. Thanks, nick, appreciate you. We hope everyone had a little refresher reminder, learned something new, and we will catch you guys next week, see ya.
Sara:Thanks for joining us for today's episode. We really appreciate the support.
Ashley:We would also really appreciate it if you hit the follow button and share this episode with anyone you think would enjoy it.
Sara:And we'd like to thank Kevin Tanner, who edited this episode. If you're interested in learning more about him and his services, his website and Instagram are in the show notes.
Ashley:With that, we'll see you next week.