Latest news with #ScopesTrial
USA Today
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- USA Today
Judge Judy reveals the Menendez brothers opinion she'll get 'a lot of flak for'
All rise, again. Judge Judy is back on the TV bench with "Justice on Trial," and that death stare still slices through the legal bull as if it never stopped. Judith Sheindlin, 82, who became TV's daytime super judge with her no-nonsense demeanor on the long-running syndicated courtroom series "Judge Judy," has expanded her justice universe on Amazon Prime Video. After "Judge Judy" signed off in 2021 after 25 years and more than 7,000 episodes, Sheindlin launched "Judy Justice," presiding over an arbitration-format show with a panel that includes her granddaughter, Sarah Rose, a law clerk. In 2023, she created "Tribunal Justice," featuring three judges, including her son, Adam Levy, a former district attorney. Your Honor's new legal docuseries, "Justice on Trial" (now streaming), recreates landmark U.S. court cases – including the 100-year-old Scopes Trial. Sheindlin serves as a judge and appears (robeless) as a commentator on the legal ramifications and history. "Everybody, whether legally trained or not, has opinions about legal cases from the O.J. Simpson trial to whether the Menendez brothers should be paroled," Sheindlin tells USA TODAY. "By recreating cases, it gives an entertaining way to see if justice was served." Question: You mentioned the Menendez brothers' possible parole, which is a real possibility following Netflix's "Monster" series. Do you think Lyle and Erik Menendez should be paroled after killing their parents, Jose and Kitty Menendez, in 1989? Answer: What we know about the Menendez brothers is that they killed both of their parents. As we know, after they killed their parents, they went on a buying spree. They got a jury trial, and they were sentenced to life imprisonment without parole. They've done incredibly well in prison, but that doesn't mean they get another chance. That is their sentence. Until Kitty Menendez can stand up before a judge and say, "Give them another chance," the jury and the courts have spoken. Now you have my answer. I'm going to get a lot of flak for that. You wear many robes as different judges in "Justice." But do we see the "Judge Judy" original robe? We're recreating trials that are sometimes 20 years apart, so I wear different robes and in one episode a different hairdo. I do wear the "Judge Judy" robe with a different collar, not the lace one. I think it's the original robe because I took it when I left. It's worn in spots. I hope CBS (which distributed "Judge Judy") doesn't want it back. But it was mine. And CBS has enough problems without worrying about my robe. Why do viewers also see you as a legal narrator in street clothes, without the robe? We added that narrator as a legal roadmap, which the show needed. Actually, the pants are all the same. I just changed the jacket for each episode. That's my little secret. There is less "Judge Judy" commentary in the show. But during one case involving a speeding arrest, you mentioned your husband, Judge Gerald Sheindlin, has more experience in speeding stops. Please explain. I was in the car when he was stopped for speeding, maybe 25 years ago. The female officer came to the car as I was yelling at him, "You were going too fast!" It was like 50 in a 40 zone, so not 100 mph. But still speeding. He was giving some excuse, and I told the officer, "Give him a ticket." Then she recognized me and wouldn't give him the ticket. I wanted to write it myself. And your own driving record is clean of speeding offenses? I've never gotten a speeding ticket. I'm sure I've driven over the limit, but never in a reckless manner. I'm nearly 83, I'm praying I don't get a speeding ticket now. I'm a law-and-order girl. Society makes certain reasonable rules. Like, don't drive over the speed limit. You've been together for 47 years, with a short break. What's your secret? There's an intangible thing you can't quite put your finger on that allows you to hate somebody in one moment and then really like them the next. There are irritations, ups and downs. But I can't picture my life without him. You are known for the phrase, "Beauty fades, dumb is forever." It's even the title of your 1999 book. Yet there's nothing about you that has faded in eight decades. What's your secret? I know I have changed. Sometimes I look in the mirror and say, "When did I become my mother?" In your brain, you're always 40. I have no formula. You just have to be an interesting person your whole life. To me, there's nothing worse than boredom. So if I'm not working, I would clean a bathroom or a kitchen, or redo a closet. I'm getting too old for those, so this is the perfect job for me.
Wall Street Journal
16-07-2025
- Politics
- Wall Street Journal
Did You Hear the One About the Theologian at the Zoo?
David Mamet's July 10 op-ed on the Scopes trial play ('Political Theater Makes Bad Drama,' July 10) reminds me of a joke about a German theology professor who, while visiting the zoo, saw a troubled gorilla, pacing back and forth with a Bible in one hand and Darwin's writing in the other. 'What's bothering you?' the professor asked. 'I cannot decide whether I am my brother's keeper or my keeper's brother,' the gorilla replied. Neither book refutes the other. Good Christians and troubled gorillas can benefit from reading both if they understand that the books deal with different topics. Both use reason and foundational assumptions to explore different issues. When public schools attempt to characterize religious issues as if they conflict with settled science, they overstep their bounds.
Yahoo
13-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Mason Jones dials from long distance
Tired of the put-downs, Tennessee town corrects the record with its own Scopes trial play A small town in Tennessee courted publicity when it recruited a teacher to challenge a law banning the teaching of evolution. But Dayton got a lot more criticism than they bargained for. Every summer, locals reenact the trial, hoping to correct the record about the famous Scopes trial. (AP video: Kristin M. Hall and Mike Stewart.)
Yahoo
11-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Tired of put-downs, Tennessee town corrects the record with play about the Scopes trial it hosted
DAYTON, Tenn. (AP) — A small town in eastern Tennessee courted national publicity and attention a century ago when local leaders planned a test trial over the teaching of evolution in public schools. What they got from the eight-day Scopes trial was more than they bargained for. The trial of the century — and the first to be broadcast over the radio — inspired articles, books, plays and movies, including the popular 'Inherit the Wind.' It also characterized Dayton as an uneducated town of strident Christian fundamentalists, a narrative locals have spent decades trying to rewrite. For over 30 years, people in Rhea County have put on a play every July using the trial transcript, aiming to correct the record. In their own words, the actors and director of 'Destiny in Dayton' explain the complexities of the town captured by history. The director Dan Buck was a theater professor at a nearby private university when he got an email seeking a director for the play about the Scopes trial. Buck knew about the trial, but didn't know Dayton had its own play. 'The legacy of little towns telling their own story through theater is rich history, right?' Buck said, noting the tradition was playfully lampooned in the mockumentary, 'Waiting for Guffman.' Locals have put on the play to counter the stereotypes and creative liberties from 'Inherit the Wind,' as well as columnist H.L. Mencken's harsh critique of residents at the time. 'I quickly learned that the people of the town here are not real fond of the play or the movie,' Buck said. 'They call it the 'Scottish play,' which is a reference to Macbeth, the thing you're not supposed to say: the cursed play.' In truth, the story of the trial was more complicated and nuanced than most people think. John T. Scopes, the local teacher, was a willing participant in testing the anti-evolution law, and prosecutor William Jennings Bryan didn't die after the trial because he was defeated by defense attorney Clarence Darrow's arguments. In directing the play on the trial's 100th anniversary, Buck says he is working toward the same mission Dayton leaders had a century ago. 'I am building up the buzz about this town, getting people here to get them excited, putting Dayton on the map,' Buck said. 'Maybe we are trying to use this story and this trial to get a little attention to this specific place.' The descendant Jacob Smith, 23, didn't realize his connection to the most famous trial until he started studying history. His great-great-great-grandmother's brother was Walter White, the county superintendent of schools and one of the key figures who brought the trial to Dayton. Smith plays Dudley Field Malone, a defense attorney for Scopes who gave speeches as equally impassioned and memorable during the trial as Bryan and Darrow. One of Smith's favorite lines to deliver is a reference to the so-called battle between the two sides in court. 'He basically says, 'There is never a duel with the truth,'' Smith said. 'He said, 'It always wins. It is no coward. It does not need the law, the forces of government, or,' and he pauses, 'Mr. Bryan.'' Smith is currently the county archivist, and he delights in seeing people visit Dayton's original courthouse with its squeaky and shiny wood floors, tall windows and impressive stairs that lead up to the wide courtroom on the second floor. 'You can hold the handrails going up to that circuit courtroom, just like those lawyers would have done and all those spectators would have done back in 1925,' Smith said. The 'Great Commoner' Larry Jones has acted in community and local theater since childhood, so he thought he knew the story of the Scopes trial after performing in a production of 'Inherit the Wind.' He later realized the famous play was taking creative liberties to make the trial a metaphor for something else captivating the nation's attention at the time: McCarthyism. Jones plays the role of Bryan, a famous Christian orator and populist politician whose speeches earned him the nickname of 'the Great Commoner.' He says the hardest part was not learning the lengthy speeches Bryan gives during the trial, but rather the sparring he must do when Darrow unexpectedly puts Bryan on the stand to defend the literal truth of the Bible. 'I'm just having to respond spontaneously, and it feels spontaneous every time,' Jones said. 'So part of my mind is going, 'Oh my gosh, is that the right cue? Am I going to say the right thing?'' Jones said audiences still connect to the retelling of the trial a century later because these are issues they continue to deal with. 'People are still arguing the same case,' Jones said. 'What is the role of the federal government or the state government in public school systems? What should be allowed? What shouldn't be allowed? What can parents exert influence over for their children's sake? Whether it's evolution or whether it's literature or any of the political issues that are abundant today, it still is the same argument.' No conclusion The outcome of the trial was no great surprise. The jury found Scopes guilty after a few minutes of deliberation. The defense attorneys' goal all along, however, was to take the legal argument to a higher court. Today, Dayton embraces its place in history with the annual celebration of the trial. Businesses advertise and promote the 'Monkey trial.' And locals have adopted the phrase: 'Dayton has evolved.' 'We're dusting off a very old story, but it's very new,' said Buck. 'It's very, very right now.' ___ Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP's collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
Washington Post
11-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Washington Post
Tired of put-downs, Tennessee town corrects the record with play about the Scopes trial it hosted
DAYTON, Tenn. — A small town in eastern Tennessee courted national publicity and attention a century ago when local leaders planned a test trial over the teaching of evolution in public schools. What they got from the eight-day Scopes trial was more than they bargained for. The trial of the century — and the first to be broadcast over the radio — inspired articles, books, plays and movies, including the popular 'Inherit the Wind.'
