Imagine stashing your hard-earned savings in a safety deposit box, only to find out the FBI has raided the place and your money is gone thanks to the controversial practice of civil forfeiture, which allows law enforcement to seize people's assets with little explanation. That's what happened to a number of Californians who stored their cash at U.S. Private Vaults in Beverly Hills.

Join us for this season's sixth episode as we tell their story and explore how their money got caught up in a vault at the center of a federal investigation.

The story doesn't stop there. We also hear from trucker Jerry Johnson, who also experienced civil forfeiture firsthand when his $39,500 in cash was seized by the Phoenix Police Department after he flew into the city to buy a big rig. It took years and help from the Institute for Justice to get his money back.

Special guests:

• Linda Martin
• Benjamin Gluck, an attorney with Bird Marella
• Steve Welk, a former assistant U.S. attorney
• Jeni Pearsons
• Dan Alban, a senior attorney at the Institute for Justice
• Jerry Johnson
• Bob Belden, an attorney at the Institute for Justice

This episode was produced by Kirk McDaniel. Intro music by The Dead Pens.

Editorial staff is Bill Dotinga, Sean Duffy and Jamie Ross.

A note: this episode contains language that might make you or your nana blush. 

Pull up a chair as we bring you into the comedy club and beyond. Laughter may be the best medicine, but how does it hold up in court? Over the decades, courts carved out clear First Amendment protections for comics facing criminal obscenity and parodists taken a little too seriously. While the past informs the present, the rare joker can still find himself at the wrong end of the law over a Facebook post.

In our fifth episode this season, we break down how certain words are OK under the eyes of the law, courtesy of the infamous Lenny Bruce obscenity trials. We also delve into cases like Jerry Falwell's defamation lawsuit against Hustler magazine and the challenges of navigating social media and free speech. Spoiler alert: the First Amendment is not always so cut and dry, causing some parodists to find out the hard way that it does not protect all speech, funny or not.

Join us as we navigate the often amusing and sometimes controversial world of jokes and their legal consequences.

Special guests:

• Waylon Bailey, heavyweight boxer from Forest Hill, Louisiana.
• Douglas Linder, professor of law at the University of Missouri-Kansas City
• James Flynn, managing director at Epstein Becker Green
• Caroline Grace Brothers, an attorney with the Institute for Justice
• Anthony Novak, parodist from Parma, Ohio  
• Mike Gillis, lead writer for The Onion

This episode was produced by Kirk McDaniel. Intro music by The Dead Pens.

Editorial staff is Bill Dotinga, Sean Duffy and Jamie Ross.

Blue laws. They are quirky and annoying outdated restrictions on activities to ensure Sunday is a day of rest and worship. Some go beyond dictating when you can or cannot get a drink, and sometimes they leave you scratching your head wondering, why in the world are they still on the books?

In this season's fourth episode, we dive into the history and impact of the laws. We explore the story of a Brooklyn nightclub suing New York for refusing to issue a special event permit for extended hours on New Year's Eve and the ongoing debate surrounding blue laws and their place in modern society. And we also look at the upside: how these laws give some workers the reprieve they need from a long work week.

Prepare for a joyride through a legal antique shop, just hope the lawman doesn't catch us!

Special guests:

• Polina Buckley, owner of nightclub Eris Evolution
• Jonathan Corbett, a civil rights attorney
• Patricia Campos-Medina, executive director of the Worker Institute at the School of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University

This episode was produced by Kirk McDaniel. Intro music by The Dead Pens.

Editorial staff is Bill Dotinga, Sean Duffy and Jamie Ross.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, around 60 million American households have pets. That is a ton of good boys and girls out there. But have you ever stopped and wondered about the laws that define pet ownership? Are there specific pets that you can't own where you live? How regulated is the pet trade? And what about exotic animals, where the sale and trade of such creatures is a state-by-state issue?

In this episode, we break down the wild and wooly world of pet law  —  from the protections granted (or not so much) in the Animal Welfare Act to the effect that Netflix's breakout pandemic hit "Tiger King" may have had on getting the Big Cat Public Safety Act passed and what's next for regulating primate ownership in the U.S.

And it's not just big mammals that need to be regulated to stop wreaking havoc on communities, but also pythons and feral cats. In Florida, the Burmese python population has exploded so much that the state has declared open season on them allowing them to be hunted year-round without a license or permit. And nationwide, the songbird population has declined by drastic numbers due to the skilled hunting of cats.

Special guests:

• Kate Dylewsky, assistant director of government affairs at the Animal Welfare Institute
• John Goodwin, senior director of the Stop Puppy Mills campaign at the Humane Society of the United States
• Tim Pylate, executive director at Armand Bayou Nature Center
• Zandra Anderson, animal law attorney

This episode was produced by Kirk McDaniel. Intro music by The Dead Pens.

Editorial staff is Bill Dotinga, Sean Duffy and Jamie Ross.

Heads up for listeners: this episode contains explicit language. 

When legal battles come down to damages, most consider the final judgment to show who won the game and by how much. But in a highly specialized area of law, that judgment is just the beginning when the losing team refuses to pay. 

In our second episode this season, we introduce you to a few judgment enforcement attorneys, a small specialized group that only numbers in the dozens. Judgment enforcers are lawyers expected to file writs, subpoenas and anything of the like with the courts. But they are also private detectives, investigating where debtors hide their money. 

On the other side, Alki David. Born into a shipping family that owned Coca-Cola bottling plants, David has had a series of businesses himself, including a modeling agency, a video streaming website, and a marijuana company with boxer Mike Tyson called Swissx. He lives in a $20 million Malibu beach house, but not for long due to a court order to seize that house to pay for a sexual harassment judgment against him. 

Special guests:

• Joseph Chora
• Jay Adkisson
• Ron Slates

This episode was produced by Kirk McDaniel. Intro music by The Dead Pens.

Editorial staff is Bill Dotinga, Sean Duffy and Jamie Ross.

Welcome to season three of Sidebar! You'll want to strap in while we bring you closer to the stars as new technology and more investors bring us deeper into space. Science fiction is rapidly becoming science fact. One thing rarely discussed in your favorite sci-fi movies is the laws that govern outer space.

If billions of dollars, dozens of political manifesto and decades of Trekkie dreams come to fruition, there is nothing protecting man's interstellar impression. Even Neil Armstrong's footprint on the moon could go unprotected.

And what about all that space junk? Thousands of active satellites, inactive satellites, pieces of rockets, debris and uncategorized things are out there, floating around our planet. All are governed by little more than the Outer Space Treaty of 1967. 

Special guests:

• Michelle Hanlon, co-director of the Center for Air and Space Law at the University of Mississippi
• Kojiro Fujii, attorney at Nishimura + Asahi in Japan and executive committee member at Nishimura Institute of Advanced Legal Studies
• Skip Smith, space law attorney at Sherman & Howard
• Michael Dodge, associate professor of space studies at the University of North Dakota
• Kelli Kedis Ogborn, vice president of space commerce and entrepreneurship at Space Foundation
• Avishai Melamed, graduate student in Cornell University's Department of Government

This episode was produced by Kirk McDaniel. Intro music by The Dead Pens.

Editorial staff is Bill Dotinga, Sean Duffy and Jamie Ross.

Season three of Sidebar, a podcast from Courthouse News, kicks off just around the corner. Join our hosts and reporters as they take you around the nation to break down lawsuits, the law and how they impact you and the life you live. Follow us on Twitter @SidebarCNS and www.courthousenews.com for more.

This episode was produced by Kirk McDaniel. Intro music by The Dead Pens.

Editorial staff is Bill Dotinga, Sean Duffy and Jamie Ross.

While some aspects of 2022 felt like a return to easier, simpler days, the news coming out of courthouses across the country did not stop.

In this episode, we look at the year's most memorable trials: the ones that made us laugh, the ones that made us cry and the ones that made us stop and question how we got here.

We take you back to the Alex Jones defamation trials in Texas and Connecticut, which garnered enormous damages for the family members of Sandy Hook victims and swamped our social media feeds. Jones wasn't the only right-winger to see his day in court: members of the Oath Keepers were held accountable for seditious conspiracy for their parts in the Jan. 6 insurrection, and in Michigan, a plot to kidnap Governor Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, went bust.

It was also a big year for celebrity trials. R&B singer R. Kelly's child abuse conviction in a Chicago courtroom, film producer Harvey Weinstein's second sexual assault trial, a jury deadlocking on rape charges against "That '70s Show" actor Danny Masterson, and a certain defamation trial involving movie stars Johnny Depp and Amber Heard. The headlines didn't stop as trial after trial captured the attention of readers and reporters. 

Come on in, settle down and let us bring you back through the year as we take you through these cases and more until we are back in 2023.

This episode was produced by Kirk McDaniel. Intro music by The Dead Pens.

Editorial staff is Bill Dotinga, Sean Duffy and Jamie Ross.

Bounty hunters. Figures from folk tales, fantasy and reality TV; free agents that work as an extension of the law. Whatever comes to mind, this latest chapter in vigilante justice is shaking things up even more at a polarized time in the country.

The enaction of Texas's Senate Bill 8 allows private citizens to file civil lawsuits against anyone who provides or helps someone attain an abortion, with a possible award of at least $10,000 per lawsuit. Since then, California has passed a law modeled on Texas, allowing private citizens to sue gun law violators. 

How likely are they to catch on in the future?

These sorts of citizen enforcement laws aren't totally new, but the way SB 8 has played out is a lot different than a hired hand chasing after a bank robber who skipped town on bail.

What does it mean to put this kind of power into the hands of ordinary people who end up selecting themselves to take up the cause of policing or surveilling others' decisions?

We talked to experts in our penultimate episode to explore the implications of SB 8 and what it could mean for other constitutionally protected rights. And, to really understand what can happen with these laws, we go back in time to some of the darkest chapters in U.S. history: the enforcement of slavery and Jim Crow laws.

Special guests:

• David Noll, law professor at Rutgers Law School
• John Seago, president of Texas Right to Life
• Louise Melling, deputy legal director at the ACLU and director of its Ruth Bader Ginsburg Center for Liberty

This episode was produced by Kirk McDaniel. Intro music by The Dead Pens.

Editorial staff is Bill Dotinga, Sean Duffy and Jamie Ross.

Pour yourself a hot drink, settle in beside the fire and get ready for a hauntingly good time as we bring you four chilling tales just in time for Halloween.

In our first chapter: McKamey Manor, arguably the scariest haunted house in operation, with an even scarier 40-page liability waiver. Among the things that you agree to possibly experience? Medieval torture devices. Nails removed from their nail beds. You may be subjected to extreme temperatures or have your head enclosed in a box with bees and wasps. These experiences aren't enough to stop over 20,000 fright seekers from joining the waitlist.

Next up on the demon docket: Stambovsky v. Ackley, also known as the Ghostbusters ruling. A man bought a house in Nyack, New York, that turned out to be so haunted that not only did he get out of his purchase, but the appellate division of the New York Supreme Court found that, "as a matter of law, the house is haunted."

A copyright case to turn your blood cold: the battle to keep "Dracula" out of the public domain and the classic silent film "Nosferatu" out of homes. Eventually, the fight landed before a German judge who ordered all remaining copies of “Nosferatu” to be burned, but it was too late — the movie and the infamous vampire live on.

We finish our tour of scary stories with one steeped in the occult: Mark Twain's return from the grave. Or, alleged return. Two mediums, Emily Grant Hutchings and Lola V. Hayes, claimed to speak with the spirit of Mark Twain. The famous storyteller supposedly tasked them with recording his next novel, "Jap Herron: A Novel Written From the Ouija Board.”

This episode was produced by Kirk McDaniel. Intro music by The Dead Pens.

Editorial staff is Bill Dotinga, Sean Duffy and Jamie Ross.

While this U.S. Supreme Court term shouldn't result in as many sweeping decisions as the last, which upended nationwide abortion rights and gun control precedents, it'll be far from a lightweight season. The court's cases are varied: from redistricting to artist integrity to the legality of the Indian Child Welfare Act, which gives tribal governments jurisdiction over the adoption and foster care of Native American children.

In this episode, we break down some of the heavyweight appeals the court will hear with the help of our very own Kelsey Reichmann.

First, we delve into two cases that could affect elections for decades to come, deciding whether states should take race into account during redistricting and if legislatures should be the ones to draw those lines or if the courts have any say in the process.

The Supreme Court will also weigh in on a copyright dispute between the Warhol Foundation and Lynn Goldsmith over a photo she took of the artist Prince that Andy Warhol used as a reference in several prints. Another case rooted in the visual arts comes to the court from Colorado. A website designer is challenging the state's Anti-Discrimination Act, saying it violates her First Amendment rights by forcing her to serve LGBT couples.

Last, we lay out the Indian Child Welfare Act, what is at stake over its continued legality, and what the law means to tribal governments, courts and their people.

Special guests:

• Sophia Lin Lakin, interim co-director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Voter Rights Project
• Mitchell Brown, counsel for voting rights at the Southern Coalition for Social Justice
• Amelia Brankov, attorney and chair of the Art Law Committee of the New York Bar Association
• Kathryn Fort, director of clinics at the Michigan State University College of Law
• Angelique EagleWoman, law professor and director of the Native American Law and Sovereignty Institute at the Mitchell Hamline School of Law

This episode was produced by Kirk McDaniel. Intro music by The Dead Pens.

Editorial staff is Bill Dotinga, Sean Duffy and Jamie Ross.

It's a First Amendment fight for the modern ages: the right to free speech versus the pursuit of justice, and the stakes are often someone's freedom. In courtrooms across the country, prosecutors are going after rappers using the artists' lyrics against them.

While not a recent development in the law, the issue has entered the spotlight with the arrests of rappers Young Thug and Gunna in Georgia on charges of violating the state's RICO Act. Prosecutors allege the high-profile artists directly engaged in criminal activity ranging from drug-related to murder as members of the gang Young Slime Life, and cite some of their rap lyrics as evidence to support the claims.

Where do protections for the right to freedom of speech end under the First Amendment? Why do rap music and Black artists seem to be the target of these prosecutions when artists in other genres tell similar tales of crime and violence? We dive into this and more in our 10th episode in this season of Sidebar.

Special guests:

• Roqy Tyraid, hip-hop artist and member of the ACLU of Arizona’s Board of Directors
• Clay Calvert, law professor at the University of Florida
• Margaret Russell, law professor at Santa Clara University School of Law
• Walter Olson, senior fellow at the Cato Institute
• Charis Kubrin, professor of criminology, law and society at the University of California, Irvine
• Adam Dunbar, professor at the University of Nevada, Reno
• J. Christopher Hamilton, assistant professor at the Newhouse School for Public Communications at Syracuse University

This episode was produced by Kirk McDaniel. Intro music by The Dead Pens.

Editorial staff is Bill Dotinga, Sean Duffy and Jamie Ross.

Jury duty. A cornerstone of the American justice system brings together complete strangers with almost no context to dispense justice. Being called to your civic duty as a juror can be confusing, like taking a class you never meant to sign up for.

In this episode, we take you behind the scenes in courthouses across the country to reveal the inner workings of how juries operate. Fans of true crime and “Law & Order” create new perspectives. Social media is now an unavoidable part of the process. And now, remote juries are adding a contemporary element to the selection process.

We detail how you make the final cut or get out of a jury summons. It's not always an easy process, even if you are Samuel L. Jackson. Some of the best stories about juries, however, can't be predicted or avoided with all the preparation and analysis in the world.

Special guests:

• Jo-Ellan Dimitrius, a trial consultant that has helped pick 600 juries, including for O.J. Simpson’s defense team
• Denise de La Rue, a trial consultant that helped pick juries for Ted Kaczynski, Eric Rudolph and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s defense teams
• Mark Drummond, director of the Civil Jury Project at NYU

This episode was produced by Kirk McDaniel. Intro music by The Dead Pens.

Editorial staff is Bill Dotinga, Sean Duffy and Jamie Ross.

From August 1942 to October 1945, the Amache incarceration camp on the dusty, desolate eastern plain of Colorado detained 10,000 Japanese Americans and other immigrants. Those imprisoned at Amache built their own town with a fire department, a beauty salon and schools. Detainees raised crops, grew gardens and held festivals to honor the changing seasons.

Just children when uprooted with their families during World War II, the survivors of the camp were left to make sense of what happened to their families while their parents wanted to move on. The next generation of Japanese Americans, the grandchildren of prison camp survivors, are working to ensure their family’s history and legacy do not disappear into the dust.

In our eighth episode this season, we talk with Amache survivors and their families who have been visiting the site on an annual pilgrimage for decades. Academic researchers and students have worked with the survivors to uncover and preserve their history. Their work was recognized nationally this past March when Amache became the newest national park.

Special guests:

• Carlene Tanigoshi Tinker, an 82-year-old survivor of Amache 
• Ken Kitajima, a 91-year-old Amache survivor  
• Erin Tsurumoto Grassi, the granddaughter of Amache survivors  
• Mitch Homma, the son of Amache survivors 
• Bonnie J. Clark, professor of anthropology at the University of Denver
• Calvin Hada, president of the Nikkeijin-Kai of Colorado 
• Gabriel “Jack” Chin, law professor at the University of California Davis
• Richard Primus, law professor at the University of Michigan

This episode was produced by Kirk McDaniel. Intro music by The Dead Pens.

Editorial staff is Bill Dotinga, Sean Duffy and Jamie Ross.

Priceless artwork and tribal artifacts have made their way across the globe through several means, some legitimate and others … not so much.

While we rely on these objects to tell us about history, tradition and culture, the way they end up in our communities sometimes raises questions about what should happen to them, where they rightfully belong and how the legal system can get them home.

Congress has passed laws regulating what should happen to items taken from tribes without their permission, including the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act. The water gets muddier internationally though, as political drama takes center stage.

In this episode, we take a trip across the globe to see how this issue plays out in different communities.

The Founders Museum in Barre, Mass. is grappling with how to properly return moccasins, dolls and clothing from the Wounded Knee Massacre to the Lakota, which lost nearly 300 people in December 1890. Down the street, the Worcester Art Museum uses art once stolen by Nazis in World War II to show the difficult task of getting back Richard Neumann's renowned art collection. We also break down communications between Austria and Mexico over a storied feathered Aztec headdress.

Special guests:

• Ann Meilus, president of the Barre Museum Association
• Manny and Renee Iron Hawk, Lakota members of HAWK 1890, a society for the survivor descendants of the Wounded Knee Massacre
• Shannon O’Loughlin, a citizen of the Choctaw Nation, and CEO and attorney for the Association on American Indian Affairs
• Claire Whitner, director of curatorial affairs and curator of European art at the Worcester Art Museum
• Wesley Fisher, director of research for the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany and the World Jewish Restitution Organization
• Jennifer Kreder, law professor at the Salmon P. Chase College of Law at Northern Kentucky University

This episode was produced by Kirk McDaniel. Intro music by The Dead Pens.

Editorial staff is Bill Dotinga, Sean Duffy and Jamie Ross.

It feels like hardly a day goes by when you don't hear about the passage of a new, sweeping abortion law, an abortion-rights group challenging the law or another state weighing in on the treatment of transgender children, medically or within the school system. At the core of all this is bodily autonomy. How much say does an individual have over their own body?

The phrase "my body, my choice" has been often used by those seeking to defy public health orders for the past two years. Meanwhile, state lawmakers have made consequential decisions impacting the ability of Americans to make personal healthcare decisions, which are a matter of life and death.

In our sixth episode this season, we look at Texas Governor Greg Abbott ordering the state's Department of Family and Protective Services to investigate parents of transgender kids receiving gender-affirming care, a process he called "abusive." We also dive deeper into the fallout of the state's ban on abortions beyond six weeks of pregnancy and the copycat laws that have cropped up around the nation.

Special guests:

• Laura Briggs, professor of women, gender, sexuality studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst
• Louise Melling, deputy legal director for the ACLU
• Kimberly Mutcherson, dean and professor of law at Rutgers Law School

This episode was produced by Kirk McDaniel. Intro music by The Dead Pens.

Editorial staff is Bill Dotinga, Sean Duffy and Jamie Ross.

A quick note before we jump in: this episode contains discussions about abuse. 

It's not often that a case goes to trial that touches on many elements that intrigue the public. Celebrity, the #MeToo movement, public opinion and the media's coverage all swirl together as cameras are ready to capture the defamation trial between Hollywood stars Johnny Depp and Amber Heard.

The former husband and wife square off in court over a $50 million defamation lawsuit Depp filed after Heard wrote an op-ed for The Washington Post detailing her experience as a domestic violence survivor. Heard didn't name Depp in the piece but had previously sought a restraining order against the movie star for allegedly assaulting her.

In this episode, we break down how we got here, the intersection of the #MeToo movement, journalism and defamation law that the case manages to encompass, and dive into how social dynamics dictate the public's response to domestic violence claims.

Special guests:

• Xiyin Tang, assistant professor of law at UCLA School of Law
• Jason Whiting, professor of marriage and family therapy at Brigham Young University
• Raees Mohamed, defamation attorney at RM Warner
• Michael Balter, journalist
• Lyrissa Lidsky, dean of the University of Missouri School of Law

This episode was produced by Kirk McDaniel. Intro music by The Dead Pens.

Editorial staff is Bill Dotinga, Sean Duffy and Jamie Ross.

Need a primer for this year's midterm elections? We've got you covered.

We talk to reporters and experts about how former President Donald Trump is still shaping American politics after losing reelection almost two years ago.

The glue that binds Republicans together isn’t just "Stop the Steal" and other theories circulating about voter integrity: it’s a camaraderie built around identity and resistance to changing demographics.

How is the GOP changing its messaging in "purple" districts where voters may be less keen on Trump talk and more interested in their bottom lines?

We also look at the "Great Resignation." Spoiler alert: it's not just impacting your friends and family. So far, 53 representatives have announced they will not be running for reelection this year.

A quick warning before you jump in: this episode contains adult language. 

Special guests:

• Michael Rocca, political science professor at the University of New Mexico
• Gunner Ramer, political director at the Republican Accountability Project
• Jon Caldara, president of the Independence Institute
• Megan Burns, communications and digital director for the Colorado Democratic Party
• Kristi Burton Brown, chairwoman of the Colorado Republican Party
• Tyler Allcorn, candidate for Colorado’s 8th Congressional District

This episode was produced by Kirk McDaniel. Intro music by The Dead Pens.

Editorial staff is Bill Dotinga, Sean Duffy and Jamie Ross.

The internet never forgets. 

It's an invaluable tool, but also one that provides little forgiveness for some individuals whose past run-ins with law enforcement, financial woes and photos of a night out on the town become publicized. 

We are coming to you in this episode with a primer on why the "right to be forgotten” became law in the European Union, and how the concept plays out in courtrooms and newsrooms across the United States as the government and the media try to determine what deeds can and should be erased from the internet at large. 

While the EU requires search engines to remove links in search results upon valid request, the U.S. has long sided with people's right to know and speak freely without fear of censorship. But that has not stopped the conversation from entering into our public discourse. 

Special guests:

• Ali Arko, defamation and content removal attorney with Kohrman Jackson & Krantz
• Paul Sternberg, internet defamation attorney
• Daniel Castro, vice president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation
• David Krause, editor of The Aspen Times

This episode was produced by Kirk McDaniel. Intro music by The Dead Pens.

Editorial staff is Bill Dotinga, Sean Duffy and Jamie Ross.

In this episode of Sidebar, we examine the human, ecological and political toll of the current and former administration's approaches to the U.S.-Mexico border.

While physical barriers and infrastructure have entered into our collective imagery of today's border, nothing has a more tangible impact than policy. The Trump administration implemented the Remain in Mexico program in January 2019, forcing asylum-seeking migrants to wait in Mexico for their day in U.S. court. That policy remains in effect to this day, further complicating the Biden administration's goal of enacting lasting change to the immigration system as migrants arrive at the border searching for refuge.

Efforts to build a border wall didn't begin or end with President Trump, though, and it hasn't stopped affecting the conservationists that live and work in the region advocating for native habitats and species. The National Butterfly Center of Mission, Texas, has found itself in the middle of a fight between the federal government and Trump supporters over the wall.

Special guests:

• Ev Meade, director of Proceso Pacífico
• Marianna Treviño-Wright, executive director of the National Butterfly Center
• Brian Segee, endangered species legal director of the Center for Biological Diversity

This episode was produced by Kirk McDaniel. Intro music by The Dead Pens.

Editorial staff is Bill Dotinga, Sean Duffy and Jamie Ross.

Welcome to the second season of Sidebar. 

A quick warning before we jump in: this episode contains adult language and descriptions of violence. 

We speak to Maurice Caldwell and Zachary Vanderhorst – two men recently exonerated after spending decades in prison. These men now must grapple with their unjust incarcerations and the toll taken on their lives.

Caldwell recently reached an $8 million settlement in a lawsuit against San Francisco after being wrongfully convicted of murder and spending 20 years in prison. We also hear from Kitt Crenshaw, a now-retired police commander who denies claims that he framed Caldwell and says he acted lawfully.

Vanderhorst spent over 45 years in prison after California laws allowed charges against him at 19 years old for a murder he didn't commit. Failures of the justice system and his court-appointed legal counsel led to his wrongful conviction.

Special guests:

• Terry Gross, attorney at Gross & Belsky
• Paige Kaneb, supervising attorney at the Northern California Innocence Project
• Rebecca Young, attorney at the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office
• Patrick Murray, attorney at Keker, Van Nest & Peters

This episode was produced by Kirk McDaniel. Intro music by The Dead Pens.

Editorial staff is Bill Dotinga, Sean Duffy and Jamie Ross.

Season two of Sidebar, a podcast from Courthouse News, kicks off just around the corner. Join our hosts and reporters as they take you around the nation to break down lawsuits, the law and how they impact you and the life you live. Follow us on Twitter @SidebarCNS and www.courthousenews.com for more.

This episode was produced by Kirk McDaniel. Intro music by The Dead Pens.

Editorial staff is Bill Dotinga, Sean Duffy and Jamie Ross.

Just when we think we have wrapped for the season … we're back, baby! We bring you this mini-episode to analyze Friday's decision by the Supreme Court, which allows Texas abortion providers to sue some defendants over the near-total abortion ban and leaves the Texas law in place.

Kelsey Reichmann, our Supreme Court reporter, joins Sidebar producer and Austin-based reporter Kirk McDaniel to discuss what the ruling means, how we got here and where we go from here.

This episode was produced by Kirk McDaniel. Intro music by The Dead Pens.

Editorial staff is Bill Dotinga, Sean Duffy and Jamie Ross.

Welcome to the season finale! We culminate 11 episodes with a look into UFOs with the experts who study them and seek to know more about if there is really life out there. What does science say, and what can we expect our government to tell us about these unidentified objects?

Then, we break down the oddest, wildest cases and news events that the podcast team has covered. From monkey selfies and Lil Nas X's Satan shoes to Utah's near-ban on porn and a Halal chicken story that just doesn't quit, some stories are enough to make us scratch our heads and stifle a laugh.

Special guests:

• Peter Davenport, director of the National UFO Reporting Center
• Kate Dorsch, historian of science and a postdoctoral teaching fellow at the University of Pennsylvania
• Larry Klayman, Judicial Watch founder
• Seth Shostak, senior astronomer at the SETI Institute

This episode was produced by Kirk McDaniel. Intro music by The Dead Pens.

Editorial staff is Bill Dotinga, Sean Duffy and Jamie Ross.

We kick off the penultimate episode of our first season of Sidebar in the American West, where a dispute has been brewing for decades between ranchers, the government and environmentalists over wolves. This long-standing debate over the extent to which these carnivorous mammals should be protected or hunted down and killed isn't going anywhere soon.

Then we take a deep dive into a border emergency not often discussed: human waste flowing in the Tijuana River Basin. What will it take for the U.S. and Mexico to tackle the sewage crisis, expected to worsen as Tijuana's population increases?

Last, we hear from our own Matthew Renda on the Elizabeth Holmes trial. Holmes and her company, Theranos, promoted a portable blood testing device that promised to revolutionize the medical testing industry. The federal government says it was all a lie to bilk investors of millions.

Special guests:

• Jeremy Heft, biologist at the Wolf Education & Research Center
• Bonnie Brown, executive director of the Colorado Wool Growers Association
• Brian Wakeling, game management bureau chief for Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks
• Karin Vardaman, founder-director of Working Circle
• Bethany Case, co-chair of Surfrider San Diego’s Clean Border Water Now campaign
• Joseph Palmer, supervising environmental health specialist for San Diego County’s Department of Environmental Health and Quality

This episode was produced by Kirk McDaniel. Intro music by The Dead Pens.

Editorial staff is Bill Dotinga, Sean Duffy and Jamie Ross.