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Tennessee’s AG On Drag Shows, Guns And Climate

·49 min·3 clips

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The setup is awards-night Pro Say. Amber McKinney, Alex Lawson, and Haley Knoth explain that the Burton Awards recognize excellence in the law and legal writing, then use the event to get a few legal world interviews on tape. Alex has the main one. He talks with Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Scermetti between Burton events, in a hotel restaurant loud enough that the show has to warn listeners about it. That messiness works. The segment feels like a real event grab, not a sealed studio interview. Before Scermetti comes in, the episode lays out a trust problem around whether high-ranking officials who commit crimes face accountability. The numbers land hard. In 2016, 60 percent of Americans said such an official probably would be held accountable. By 2021, that answer was down to 24 percent. From there, the show treats public confidence as a checks-and-balances problem and asks how one state attorney general thinks about the job. Scermetti's role has an odd setup. Alex notes that Tennessee is the only state where the attorney general is chosen by the state Supreme Court, rather than by voters or a governor. So the question is plain: what does that do to the work, and what should people outside Tennessee understand? Scermetti keeps the answer narrow. He says his job is not to make policy or decide what Tennessee's laws should be. His job is to implement, operationalize, and defend laws adopted by elected officials. The credits thank the producers, guests, and Burton organizers, then send listeners to Law360 coverage, including a story on Justice Breyer's remarks at the event.

As heard by us

A brisk legal-news episode anchored by Burton Awards coverage and a Tennessee attorney general interview.

This Pro Se installment keeps its focus on legal-industry ground that feels specific without getting buried in jargon. Burton Awards coverage and the Tennessee attorney general interview give the piece a clear spine, and the conversation works best when it treats the attorney…

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Want a Burton Awards episode with a sit-down interview with Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Scermetti?

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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