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Law in Popular Culture

Scorsese film is among 29 finalists for 2024 Silver Gavel Awards

By Debra Cassens Weiss

March 21, 2024, 9:10 am CDT

An Academy Awards-nominated film directed by Martin Scorsese is among the nominees for the ABA’s 2024 Silver Gavel Awards for Media and the Arts.

The ABA has named 29 finalists among 176 entries in the contest, which recognizes outstanding work that fosters the American public’s understanding of law and the legal system, according to a March 20 ABA press release.

The Academy Awards-nominated film is Killers of the Flower Moon, which was shut out at the Academy Awards, despite its nomination in 10 categories, according to Forbes. The movie is about the murders of Native Americans after oil is discovered on their reservation.

The film is one of two nominees in the Drama & Literature category, one of nine categories in the contest. The most crowded category is the Books category, with seven finalists.

The winners will be announced May 22. ABA President Mary Smith will present the awards Aug. 3 at the 2024 ABA Annual Meeting in Chicago.

“We received outstanding submissions this year and are grateful to the Gavel Awards Screening Committee for their dedicated review and difficult decisions they had to make,” said Lisa Bail, chair of the ABA Standing Committee on Gavel Awards, in the press release. “We are pleased to announce our finalists and extend our congratulations to the exceptional individuals and groups who produced this work.”

The screening committee was made up of 50 professionals with legal and media expertise.

Here are the nominees:

BOOKS

  • Free to Judge: The Power of Campaign Money in Judicial Elections, by Michael S. Kang; Stanford University Press

  • Liar in a Crowded Theater: Freedom of Speech in a World of Misinformation, by Jeff Kosseff; Johns Hopkins University Press

  • Shielded: How The Police Became Untouchable, by Joanna Schwartz; Viking Penguin

  • State of Silence: The Espionage Act and the Rise of America’s Secrecy Regime, by Sam Lebovic; Basic Books

  • The Court at War: FDR, His Justices, and the World They Made, by Cliff Sloan; Hachette Book Group, Public Affairs

  • The Shadow Docket: How the Supreme Court Uses Stealth Rulings to Amass Power and Undermine the Republic, by Stephen J. Vladeck; Basic Books

  • You Might Go to Prison Even Though You’re Innocent, by Justin Brooks; University of California Press

COMMENTARY

  • “Alabama’s Desperate Bid for a Milligan Do-over”: AL.com; Kyle Whitmore, columnist

DOCUMENTARIES

  • Bad Press: OklaFilm LLC; Joe Peeler and Rebecca Landsberry-Baker, directors; Conrad Beilharz and Garrett F. Baker, producers; Tyler Graim, producer/cinematographer; Jean Rheem, editor

  • No Accident: Catalyst Films, HBO Documentary Films, McGee Media; Tina Nguyen and Nancy Abraham, HBO Documentary Films, executive producers; Kristi Jacobson, Catalyst Films, director; Michelle Carney and Ali Moss, Catalyst Films, producers; Chris Herde, editor; Nausheen Dadabhoy, director of photography; Angelica Négrón, original music

  • Pardon Me: Do Moore Films; Shuja Moore, producer/director; Sean Grasso, director of photography; Hunter Bartlett, cinematographer/editor

DRAMA & LITERATURE

  • Killers of the Flower Moon: Apple Original Films; Martin Scorsese, director; Eric Roth and Martin Scorsese, screenplay writers; Leonardo DeCaprio, Rick Yorn, Adam Somner, Marianne Bower, Lisa Frechette, John Atwood, Shea Kammer, Niels Juul, executive producers; Dan Friedkin, Bradley Thomas, Martin Scorsese, Daniel Lupi, producers; Justine Conte, co-producer; Chad Renfro, consulting producer; Rodrigo Prieto ASC, AMC, director of photography; Jack Fisk, production designer; Thelma Schoonmaker ACE, editor

  • Trial in the Delta: The Murder of Emmett Till: Collaboraction Theatre Company; Anthony Moseley, artistic director, co-creator, co-director; G. Riley Mills and Willie Round, co-creators, co-adapters; Dana N. Anderson, co-director; Carla Stillwell, producer

MAGAZINES

  • “Incident to Service”: Vanity Fair; Maximillian Potter, contributing editor

  • “What Makes a Murderer?”: The New Yorker/Yale Investigative Reporting Lab; Sarah Stillman, writer

MULTIMEDIA

  • “State Court Report”: The Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law; Alicia Bannon, editor-in-chief, founding editor; Douglas Keith, founding editor; Kathrina Szymborski Wolfkot, managing editor; Pinky Weitzman, vice president, communications; Alden Wallace, director, creative and design; Lisa Vosper, director, multimedia; Jessica Eckert, graphic designer; Brian Palmer, director, editorial; Evan Stepper, director, digital; Nancy Watzman and Kris Fischer, consultants

  • “Your Democracy”: WHYY and the Law and Policy Group Inc.; Gloria J. Browne-Marshall, writer/host; Sarah Moses, television and video producer

NEWSPAPERS

  • “Georgia Leading Nation in New Juvenile Lifers”: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution; Allie Gross, investigative reporter/writer; Brad Schrade, investigative editor; Shawn McIntosh, editor; Miguel Martinez, photographer; Pete Corson, layout design

  • “In the Name of Protection: The Dark Side of Guardianship”: Bloomberg Industry Group; Ronnie Greene and Holly Barker, reporters; Gary Harki and Bernie Kohn, editors

  • “Stalled Justice: Delays in the Cook County Courts”: The Chicago Tribune; Joe Mahr and Megan Crepeau, reporters; Kaarin Tisue and Jeff Coen, editors; Brian Cassella, photographer

  • “The Pittsburgh Synagogue Shooting Trial”: The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; Teresa Lundeman, managing editor, news and features; Megan Guza, public safety reporter

RADIO

  • “Breakdown Podcast: The Trump Indictment”: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution; Tamar Hallerman, senior reporter; Bill Rankin, legal affairs reporter; Jay Black, executive producer; Shane Backler, senior producer; Shannon McCaffrey, senior editor; Pete Corson, audience specialist

  • “The Nocturnists: Post-Roe America Podcast”: The Nocturnists; Ali Block, host/creator; Emily Silverman, MD, co-creator; Molly-Rose Williams, lead producer/editor; Sam Osborn, producer/editor/audio engineer; Jessica Yung, producer/editor; Jon Oliver, audio engineer; Carly Besser, assistant producer; Rebecca Groves, chief operating officer;
Nicole Xu, series illustrator; Anjali Walia, Dahlia Kaki, Fiona Miller, Mulki Mehari and Treya Tompkins, student producers

  • “UnCommon Law’s 5-Part Podcast Series on the FTC’s Proposed Noncompete Ban”: Bloomberg Industry Group; Matthew S. Schwartz, host/producer/sound design; Josh Block, editor/executive producer

  • “We Don’t Talk About Leonard”: WYNC Radio; Andrea Bernstein, Ilya Marritz and Andy Kroll, reporters/hosts; Katya Rogers, editor/executive producer; Molly Rosen, producer; Jesse Eisinger, editor; Shaan Merchant, assistant producer; Jennifer Munson, technical director; Jaren Paul, music/scoring

TELEVISION

  • “Teens’ Landmark Climate Victory”: ABC News; Devin Dwyer, correspondent; Sarah Herndon, producer; Paul Strzegowski, editor; Josh Burleson, photographer; Brad Dunn, audio technician

  • “Warehoused: The Life and Death of Tristin Murphy”: CBS News Miami; Jim DeFede, writer/reporter/producer; Alexander Bombard, editor; Leon Gonzalez, Adam Spunt and Joaquin Garcia, photographers; Angela Travieso and Judy Flook, design and graphics; Monica Kirklan and Tracy Letize, marketing and programming; Kari Patey, news director; Kim Voet, president/general manager; Lily Roos, Mark Memmott, Jack Renaud and Thomas Burke, legal and standards

  • “OutLaw: A Half-Century Criminalizing LGBTQ+ Texans”: KXAN; Will DuPree, KXAN live anchor/reporter; David Barer, senior investigative producer; Arezow Doost, investigative reporter; Eric Henrikson, creative producer/senior reporter; Daniel Marin, anchor/reporter; Christopher Adams, data reporter; Cora Neas, Sam Stark and Kelsey Thompson, digital reporters; Josh Hinkle, director of investigations and innovation; Eric Lefenfeld, lead editor; Todd Bynum, chief photojournalist; Chris Nelson and Richie Bowes, investigative photojournalist; Ed Zavala and Frank Martinez, photojournalist

  • “Pittsburgh Synagogue Shooting Trial”: WTAE-TV; Bob Mayo, Sheldon Ingram, Mike Valente, Kalea Gunderson, reporters; Paul Van Osdol, investigative reporter; Chandi Chapman and Tom Garris, anchors/reporters; Kristen Powers, anchor; Jim Parsons, news director; Mike Solakian, assistant director; Lia Launtz, Ahmanda Jackson and Nicolas Matoney, executive producers

A gay adult film actor and member of the Proud Boys is going to prison for breaching the U.S. Capitol perimeter and confronting officers while wearing his desert-camouflaged jacket and jungle camouflage pants during the riots on Jan. 6, 2021.

Federal authorities say he played a leading role in escalating the riots that fateful day.

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Prosecutors

Child-porn prosecution of Netflix for ‘Cuties’ film looks like ‘mosaic’ of bad faith, 5th Circuit says

By Debra Cassens Weiss

December 21, 2023, 9:35 am CST

A federal appeals court has upheld a judge’s preliminary injunction barring a Texas child-pornography prosecution of Netflix for streaming the movie Cuties, agreeing with a Netflix lawyer that the case looks like a “mosaic” of bad faith.

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals at New Orleans ruled for Netflix in a Dec. 18 opinion by Judge Don R. Willett, an appointee of former President Donald Trump.

Law.com and Law360 have coverage, while How Appealing links to additional articles.

The appeals court described Cuties as “a controversial film starring preteen girls who participate in a dance competition.” According to a description by the Cato Institute, which joined an amicus brief supporting the injunction against prosecution, the message of the film is critical of the influence of social media on the young girls, whose “sexualized routines” copied what they saw online.

In one scene, the girls watch a video on their phones in which a dancer briefly flashes her breast. Netflix said it can verify that the dancer was older than age 18 at the time of filming.

Tyler County, Texas, District Attorney Lucas Babin at first obtained an indictment charging Netflix under an obscenity law that was later struck down as unconstitutional under the First Amendment in a different case. Babin dropped the charge but obtained four new indictments under a law that bans promotion of sexual conduct by a child younger than age 18.

Three of the indictments were based on three different clothed minor girls in the film, and the fourth was related to the actress with the exposed breast.

To obtain the indictment, Netflix alleges, Babin “restricted the grand jury’s view to only those scenes and stills that he [had] personally curated and stripped of their proper context.”

Netflix sued in federal court, seeking an injunction against Babin’s prosecution.

The Younger abstention doctrine, which is named after the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1971 decision in Younger v. Harris, is not an impediment, the 5th Circuit said. The doctrine bars federal court interference with state court proceedings, as long as the defendant has an adequate opportunity to raise constitutional challenges in the state forum, Willett explained.

“A state has no legitimate interest, however, in a prosecution brought in bad faith or to harass,” Willett wrote. “Nor, for that matter, does a defendant have an adequate opportunity to assert constitutional violations in the state proceeding when the prosecution itself is the constitutional violation. Thus, in exceptional cases in which a state prosecutor is credibly accused of bad faith and has no reasonable hope of obtaining a valid conviction against the defendant, comity-infused deference gives way, and a federal court may exercise its equitable power to enjoin the prosecution.”

The 5th Circuit said it can’t conclude that a district court erred in enjoining the prosecution “at this preliminary stage and on the fact-intensive record before us.”