Jami Floyd

Ten years ago today, my idealism died. On that cold December day, as I stood in the Tallahassee frost, the United States Supreme Court became, for me, a political body, instead of the neutral, objective and purely jurisprudential body I had always hoped it to be. I was devastated.

December 12, 2000 is a critical date in American history. Yet, it is not a date we commit to memory. It is not a date that lives on in infamy, though it should.

My father worked on an apartment renovation in the Dakota in the late 1970s. That's when we met John and Yoko. I distinctly remember my father having such fond memories of them. He'd...

Today, lawyers on both sides of the gay marriage fight will be back in court. This is the appeal from the lower court ruling on California’s Proposition 8, in which the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals is being asked to decide whether the United States Constitution guarantees the right to gay marriage. 

But it is not that simple. As is often the case with complex legal stories, the reporting has been a little bit off the mark on the primary legal issue in the case. The issue is not only whether gays have a right to marry. The primary issue before the judges is whether the case can be appealed at all.

This week’s explosive Wikileaks story includes a bevy of cables related to Gitmo. Were the camp closed, these might be the least interesting of all. As the camp is still in operation, however, the Guantanamo cables made the front page of The New York Times and reignited the debate about when, and indeed whether, the detention center will ever be shuttered.

In case you somehow missed it (or got bogged down in the details of the 291 documents published on Sunday), we’re not talking about generalities in the cables related to the Gitmo prisoners. We’re talking about specific discussions between various countries on whether they would take detainees released from the detention facility.  If you believe what you read, the Pacific island nation of Kiribati is offered millions of dollars of incentives; Slovenia is actually offered the chance to meet President Obama if it takes a prisoner; Brussels is told that taking prisoners could be "a low-cost way for Belgium to attain prominence in Europe.”

Since 9/11, I have been one of those who has, almost always, argued for liberty over security. This is one instance, however, where we have to give up a little freedom in the interest of greater security.

What's in an @name? Alexandra Petri, a Washington Post columnist and a blogger with ComPost, thinks that your email address says a lot about you.  She is joined by a panel of distinguished Brian Lehrer Show guests with retro email addresses who defend their digital identities: Doug Muzzio, professor of political science at Baruch College and host of "City Talk" on CUNY/TV; Siva Vaidhyanathan, associate professor of media studies and law at the University of Virginia; and Jami Floyd, broadcast journalist, legal analyst for cable and network news, and blogger at It's A Free Country.

Are you an email holdout? Defend your @compuserve, @aol, @mindspring... And does someone's email address say anything about them? Do you judge according to their @?

An ethics panel of eight House members deliberated over two days before delivering a sad but unsurprising blow to 20-term New York congressman Charles Rangel. The 80-year-old democratic representative from Harlem was charged with 13 counts of fundraising and financial misconduct. Yesterday, he was convicted on 11 of those charges.

But not before some theatrics: Charlie Rangel refused to defend himself in the congressional ethics hearing, on Monday. Why did he walk out in protest? And what was the effect, if any?

Arianna Huffington, co-founder and editor-in-chief of the Huffington Post.com and the author of Third World America: How Our Politicians Are Abandoning the Middle Class and Betraying the American Dream, discusses whether or not President Obama has betrayed his base.   Then, later in the show, Dr. Cornel West, University Professor in the Center for African American Studies at Princeton University; co-host of Smiley & West; and author of Brother West: Living and Loving Out Loud, A Memoir, weighs in on the topic.  Jami Floyd, broadcast journalist, legal analyst for cable and network news, and blogger at It's A Free Country, chimes in with her post on whether Obama abandoned his base.

For months now, everyone has been asking, “Has Obama abandoned his base?” And with the midterms a week away, reliable leftists like Christopher Hayes of The Nation are ramping up th...

Don't Ask, Don't Tell is an inane policy, one in which we compel people to lie to their superiors about who and what they are as people. But while many on the left are cheering the r...

Jami Floyd, broadcast journalist and legal analyst for cable and network news, and blogger at It's A Free Country, talks about "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" and takes a close look at the legal issues at play in the Supreme Court case Snyder v. Phelps.

All week, I've been listening to the coverage of the "funeral protest" case, Snyder v Phelps. Even though the Supreme Court heard arguments Wednesday, and even though it is one of ...

I love a good tea party as much as the next girl. And I have far more respect for misguided citizen activists than I do for disengaged citizen do-nothings. I find the Tea Party, however passionately engaged, to be dangerously misinformed, misguided and misled.

As Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert prepare to take Washington, we certainly should appreciate the satire, the cynicism even, as healthy for our democracy. After all, Stewart's viewer...

Way back in 1790, just a few short years after the real Tea Party, John Adams was stressing that our political system was broken. But it wasn't broken then, and it isn’t now. Here's...

Brian talks with guest host Jami Floyd about his experience serving jury duty.

The U.S. Supreme Court started a new term this week. Today, they're taking up a free-speech case involving the distribution of dog-fighting videos. Jami Floyd, host of "Best Defense" on TruTV, discusses this case and the most interesting of the other cases on the docket in the new term.

The hearings continue, as does the analysis. Guests include: Jami Floyd, host of "Best Defense" on In Session and part of the Clinton White house; Burt Neuborne, legal director at the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU; Erica Gonzalez, opinion page editor for El Diario-La Prensa, who is ...

The Sonia Sotomayor nomination hearings kick off today at 10am with questioning from members of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Hear live coverage, along with analysis and updates from inside the hearings. Guests include: Jami Floyd, host of "Best Defense" on In Session and part of the Clinton White ...

Jami Floyd and Todd Zwillich helps revisit some of the highlights from the last two hours of hearings.