S7 Ep. 43: Harry Siegel on the Supreme Court, Bribery, and Scofflaws

New York Daily News columnist Harry Siegel joins co-host V.V. Ganeshananthan and guest co-host Matt Gallagher to talk about his recent piece about the Supreme Court’s decision to permit what he has dubbed “after-the-fact bribery.” Siegel, who has covered corruption for years, explains how the legality of accepting gratuities, tips, and gifts has become so nuanced that it’s now almost impossible to prosecute a politician who’s been bought off, and details why the newest version of the law is “fundamentally incoherent.” Siegel also talks about the language, literature, and history around ducking the rules, including the origin of the word “scofflaw,” and reads from a recent New York Daily News article.

To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/

This episode of the podcast was produced by Anne Kniggendorf.

Harry Siegel

• “Supreme Court Legalizes After-the-Fact Bribery” New York Daily News | June 6, 2024
• “Scofflaw Trump is a Defaming Menace to America” New York Daily News | January 27, 2024
• The muckrackers and the gunslingers: What’s in the balance as the Supreme Court gets ready to take up a legal challenge to New York’s tough firearm laws” New York Daily News | February 1, 2019

Others:

• “English, loanword champion of the world” by Britt Peterson | The Boston Globe | June 29, 2014
• Breaking Bad
• The Sopranos
• Succession
• Bad English: A History of Linguistic Aggravations by Amman Shea
• Thomas Malthus
• Archy and Mehitabel by Don Marquis
• e.e. cummings
• Krazy Kat by George Harriman
• Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol
• All the King’s Men by Robert Penn Warren
• The Last Hurrah by Edwin O’Connor
• Democracy by Joan Didion
• Democracy and American Novel by Henry Brooks Adams
• Primary Colors by Joe Klein
• Plunkitt of Tammany Hall by William R. Riordon
• The Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan
• The Man in the Arena: Selected Writings of Theodore Roosevelt: A Reader by Theodore Roosevelt

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