
Justice in Plain Sight
How a Small-Town Newspaper and Its Unlikely Lawyer Opened America's Courtrooms
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
$0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Buy for $19.95
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Peter Lerman
-
By:
-
Dan Bernstein
About this listen
Justice in Plain Sight is the story of a hometown newspaper in Riverside, California, that set out to do its job: tell readers about shocking crimes in their own backyard. But when judges slammed the courtroom door on the public, including the press, it became impossible to tell the whole story. Pinning its hopes on business lawyer Jim Ward, whom Press-Enterprise editor Tim Hays had come to know and trust, the newspaper took two cases to the US Supreme Court in the 1980s. Hays was convinced that the public - including the press - needed to have these rights and needed to bear witness to justice because healing in the aftermath of a horrible crime could not occur without community catharsis. The newspaper won both cases and established First Amendment rights that significantly broadened public access to the judicial system, including the right for the public to witness jury selection and preliminary hearings.
Justice in Plain Sight is a unique story that, for the first time, details two improbable journeys to the Supreme Court in which the stakes were as high as they could possibly be (and still are): the public's trust in its own government.
The book is published by University of Nebraska Press. The audiobook is published by University Press Audiobooks.
“Smart, funny, and above all, enlightening.” (George Rodrigue, two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize and president and editor of the Cleveland Plain Dealer)
“I simply loved Justice in Plain Sight. It is like a fairy tale with a landscape populated by now-extinct beasts.” (Donald E. Graham, former publisher of the Washington Post)
“A suspenseful, true-life legal page-turner about honest men and women standing up for freedom. A thoroughly compelling and engaging read.” (Jonathan Eig, New York Times best-selling author of Ali: A Life)
©2019 Board of Regents of the University of Nebraska (P)2019 Redwood AudiobooksListeners also enjoyed...
-
Criminal Procedure
- Developed for Law School Exams and the Multistate Bar
- By: AudioOutlines
- Narrated by: Rafi Nemes JD
- Length: 3 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Criminal Procedure, we explore the fundamental black-letter rules of criminal procedure most commonly tested on the MBE and in law school. By combining a simplified approach to legal learning with the innovative and on-the-go appeal of an audio study aid, Criminal Procedure provides you with a concise overview of the subject matter in a manner that truly makes it easy to review and memorize. Criminal Procedure also includes numerous hypothetical examples and analyses to help you apply legal reasoning in analyzing fact patterns.
-
-
Just one thing
- By Mariah Fleming on 05-14-19
By: AudioOutlines
-
Doesn't Hurt to Ask
- Using the Power of Questions to Communicate, Connect, and Persuade
- By: Trey Gowdy
- Narrated by: Trey Gowdy
- Length: 8 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
You do not need to be in a courtroom to advocate for others. You do not need to be in Congress to champion a cause. From the boardroom to the kitchen table, opportunities to make your case abound, and Doesn't Hurt to Ask shows you how to seize them. By blending gripping case studies from nearly two decades in a courtroom and four terms in national politics with personal stories and practical advice, Trey Gowdy walks you through the tools and the mindset needed to effectively communicate your message.
-
-
Using questions to persuade!
- By Wayne on 08-19-20
By: Trey Gowdy
-
Doing Justice
- A Prosecutor's Thoughts on Crime, Punishment, and the Rule of Law
- By: Preet Bharara
- Narrated by: Preet Bharara
- Length: 10 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Preet Bharara has spent much of his life examining our legal system, pushing to make it better, and prosecuting those looking to subvert it. Bharara believes in our system and knows it must be protected, but to do so, he argues, we must also acknowledge and allow for flaws both in our justice system and in human nature. Bharara uses the many illustrative anecdotes and case histories from his storied, formidable career - the successes as well as the failures - to shed light on the realities of the legal system and the consequences of taking action.
-
-
Timely released
- By Deb Talley on 03-22-19
By: Preet Bharara
-
Justice on Trial
- The Kavanaugh Confirmation and the Future of the Supreme Court
- By: Mollie Hemingway, Carrie Severino
- Narrated by: Mollie Hemingway, Carrie Severino
- Length: 11 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Justice Anthony Kennedy slipped out of the Supreme Court building on June 27, 2018, and traveled incognito to the White House to inform President Donald Trump that he was retiring, setting in motion a political process that his successor, Brett Kavanaugh, would denounce three months later as a "national disgrace" and a "circus". Justice on Trial, the definitive insider's account of Kavanaugh's appointment to the Supreme Court, is based on extraordinary access to more than 100 key figures - including the president, justices, and senators - in that ferocious political drama.
-
-
Politicians behaving badly!
- By Wayne on 07-13-19
By: Mollie Hemingway, and others
-
The Cadaver King and the Country Dentist
- A True Story of Injustice in the American South
- By: Radley Balko, Tucker Carrington, John Grisham - foreword
- Narrated by: Robert Fass
- Length: 14 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In The Cadaver King and the Country Dentist, Radley Balko and Tucker Carrington write a true story of Southern Gothic horror - of two innocent men wrongly convicted of vicious crimes and the legally condoned failures that allowed it to happen. Balko and Carrington will shine a light on the institutional and professional failures that allowed this tragic, astonishing story to happen, identify where it may have happened elsewhere, and show how to prevent it from happening again.
-
-
Gothic Horror-Show, With A Few Digressions
- By Gillian on 03-01-18
By: Radley Balko, and others
-
The Run of His Life
- The People v. O.J. Simpson
- By: Jeffrey Toobin
- Narrated by: Stephen Bel Davies
- Length: 18 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The definitive account of the O. J. Simpson trial, The Run of His Life is a prodigious feat of reporting that could have been written only by the foremost legal journalist of our time. First published less than a year after the infamous verdict, Jeffrey Toobin's nonfiction masterpiece tells the whole story, from the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman to the ruthless gamesmanship behind the scenes of "the trial of the century".
-
-
Fear and Loathing in Los Angeles
- By Cynthia on 05-24-16
By: Jeffrey Toobin
-
Criminal Procedure
- Developed for Law School Exams and the Multistate Bar
- By: AudioOutlines
- Narrated by: Rafi Nemes JD
- Length: 3 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Criminal Procedure, we explore the fundamental black-letter rules of criminal procedure most commonly tested on the MBE and in law school. By combining a simplified approach to legal learning with the innovative and on-the-go appeal of an audio study aid, Criminal Procedure provides you with a concise overview of the subject matter in a manner that truly makes it easy to review and memorize. Criminal Procedure also includes numerous hypothetical examples and analyses to help you apply legal reasoning in analyzing fact patterns.
-
-
Just one thing
- By Mariah Fleming on 05-14-19
By: AudioOutlines
-
Doesn't Hurt to Ask
- Using the Power of Questions to Communicate, Connect, and Persuade
- By: Trey Gowdy
- Narrated by: Trey Gowdy
- Length: 8 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
You do not need to be in a courtroom to advocate for others. You do not need to be in Congress to champion a cause. From the boardroom to the kitchen table, opportunities to make your case abound, and Doesn't Hurt to Ask shows you how to seize them. By blending gripping case studies from nearly two decades in a courtroom and four terms in national politics with personal stories and practical advice, Trey Gowdy walks you through the tools and the mindset needed to effectively communicate your message.
-
-
Using questions to persuade!
- By Wayne on 08-19-20
By: Trey Gowdy
-
Doing Justice
- A Prosecutor's Thoughts on Crime, Punishment, and the Rule of Law
- By: Preet Bharara
- Narrated by: Preet Bharara
- Length: 10 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Preet Bharara has spent much of his life examining our legal system, pushing to make it better, and prosecuting those looking to subvert it. Bharara believes in our system and knows it must be protected, but to do so, he argues, we must also acknowledge and allow for flaws both in our justice system and in human nature. Bharara uses the many illustrative anecdotes and case histories from his storied, formidable career - the successes as well as the failures - to shed light on the realities of the legal system and the consequences of taking action.
-
-
Timely released
- By Deb Talley on 03-22-19
By: Preet Bharara
-
Justice on Trial
- The Kavanaugh Confirmation and the Future of the Supreme Court
- By: Mollie Hemingway, Carrie Severino
- Narrated by: Mollie Hemingway, Carrie Severino
- Length: 11 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Justice Anthony Kennedy slipped out of the Supreme Court building on June 27, 2018, and traveled incognito to the White House to inform President Donald Trump that he was retiring, setting in motion a political process that his successor, Brett Kavanaugh, would denounce three months later as a "national disgrace" and a "circus". Justice on Trial, the definitive insider's account of Kavanaugh's appointment to the Supreme Court, is based on extraordinary access to more than 100 key figures - including the president, justices, and senators - in that ferocious political drama.
-
-
Politicians behaving badly!
- By Wayne on 07-13-19
By: Mollie Hemingway, and others
-
The Cadaver King and the Country Dentist
- A True Story of Injustice in the American South
- By: Radley Balko, Tucker Carrington, John Grisham - foreword
- Narrated by: Robert Fass
- Length: 14 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In The Cadaver King and the Country Dentist, Radley Balko and Tucker Carrington write a true story of Southern Gothic horror - of two innocent men wrongly convicted of vicious crimes and the legally condoned failures that allowed it to happen. Balko and Carrington will shine a light on the institutional and professional failures that allowed this tragic, astonishing story to happen, identify where it may have happened elsewhere, and show how to prevent it from happening again.
-
-
Gothic Horror-Show, With A Few Digressions
- By Gillian on 03-01-18
By: Radley Balko, and others
-
The Run of His Life
- The People v. O.J. Simpson
- By: Jeffrey Toobin
- Narrated by: Stephen Bel Davies
- Length: 18 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The definitive account of the O. J. Simpson trial, The Run of His Life is a prodigious feat of reporting that could have been written only by the foremost legal journalist of our time. First published less than a year after the infamous verdict, Jeffrey Toobin's nonfiction masterpiece tells the whole story, from the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman to the ruthless gamesmanship behind the scenes of "the trial of the century".
-
-
Fear and Loathing in Los Angeles
- By Cynthia on 05-24-16
By: Jeffrey Toobin
-
It Takes a Revolution
- Forget the Scandal Industry!
- By: Larry Klayman. Esq
- Narrated by: Larry Klayman Esq.
- Length: 6 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With a title that satirically mocks It Takes a Village by Hillary Clinton, It Takes a Revolution: Forget the Scandal Industry! details how our executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government have become thoroughly corrupt and failed the citizenry.
-
-
Awesome!
- By Amazon Customer on 11-10-20
-
Lady Justice
- Women, the Law, and the Battle to Save America
- By: Dahlia Lithwick
- Narrated by: Dahlia Lithwick
- Length: 10 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Lady Justice, Dahlia Lithwick, one of the nation’s foremost legal commentators, illuminates these many heroes of the Trump years. From Sally Yates and Becca Heller, who fought the Muslim travel ban, to Roberta Kaplan, who sued the neo-Nazis in Charlottesville, to Stacey Abrams, who worked to protect the voting rights of millions of Georgians, Lithwick dramatizes in thrilling detail the women lawyers who worked tirelessly to hold the line against the most chaotic presidency in living memory.
-
-
Beautiful
- By susan c on 09-26-22
By: Dahlia Lithwick
-
John Lennon vs. the USA
- The Inside Story of the Most Bitterly Contested and Influential Deportation Case in United States History
- By: Leon Wildes
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 7 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At a time when the hottest issue in US immigration law is the proposed action by President Obama to protect from deportation as many as five million illegals in the United States, the John Lennon case takes on special relevance, notwithstanding the passage of 40 years since he was placed in deportation proceedings. This is John and Yoko's incredible story, as told by the lawyer who fought in the front lines.
-
-
Important piece of history
- By VB on 01-25-21
By: Leon Wildes
-
The Assassination of Fred Hampton
- How the FBI and the Chicago Police Murdered a Black Panther
- By: Jeffrey Haas
- Narrated by: George Newbern
- Length: 11 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Uncovering a cold-blooded execution at the hands of a conspiring police force, this engaging account relentlessly pursues the murderers of Black Panther Fred Hampton. Documenting the entire 14-year process of bringing the killers to justice, this chronicle also depicts the 18-month court trial in detail. Revealing Hampton himself in a new light, this examination presents him as a dynamic community leader whose dedication to his people and to the truth inspired the young lawyers of the People's Law Office.
-
-
Terrible narrator for a great story!!!
- By D. Rolland on 11-06-20
By: Jeffrey Haas
-
Her Honor
- My Life on the Bench...What Works, What's Broken, and How to Change It
- By: LaDoris Hazzard Cordell
- Narrated by: LaDoris Hazzard Cordell
- Length: 12 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Judge Cordell, the first African American woman to sit on the Superior Court of Northern California, knows firsthand how prejudice has permeated our legal system. And yet, she believes in the system. From ending school segregation to legalizing same-sex marriage, its progress relies on legal professionals and jurors who strive to make the imperfect system as fair as possible. Her Honor is an entertaining and provocative look into the hearts and minds of judges.
-
-
Great info about legal system
- By Amazon Customer on 08-22-22
-
Shielded
- How the Police Became Untouchable
- By: Joanna Schwartz
- Narrated by: Joanna Schwartz
- Length: 9 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In recent years, the high-profile murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and so many others have brought much-needed attention to the pervasiveness of police misconduct. Yet it remains nearly impossible to hold police accountable for abuses of power—the decisions of the Supreme Court, state and local governments, and policy makers have, over decades, made the police all but untouchable. In Shielded, University of California, Los Angeles, law professor Joanna Schwartz exposes the myriad ways in which our legal system protects police at all costs.
-
-
essential reading for engaged citizens
- By SLD on 02-24-23
By: Joanna Schwartz
-
One Vote Away
- How a Single Supreme Court Seat Can Change History
- By: Ted Cruz
- Narrated by: Timothy Andrés Pabon
- Length: 10 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In One Vote Away, you will discover how often the high court decisions that affect your life have been decided by just one vote. One vote preserves your right to speak freely, to bear arms, and to exercise your faith. One vote will determine whether your children enjoy their full inheritance as American citizens.
-
-
Intellectual and Insightful, so smartly written it became prophetic!
- By Kevin D. on 09-29-20
By: Ted Cruz
-
Conviction
- The Murder Trial That Powered Thurgood Marshall's Fight for Civil Rights
- By: Denver Nicks, John Nicks
- Narrated by: Ron Butler
- Length: 6 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On New Year's Eve, 1939, a horrific triple murder occurred in rural Oklahoma. Within a matter of days, investigators identified several suspects: convicts who had been at a craps game with one of the victims the night before. Also at the craps game was a young black farmer named W. D. Lyons. Political pressure mounted to find a villain. The governor's representative settled on Lyons, who was arrested, tortured into signing a confession, and tried for the murder. The NAACP's new Legal Defense and Education Fund sent its young chief counsel, Thurgood Marshall, to take part in the trial.
-
-
What a piece of history 💕
- By Private on 01-12-21
By: Denver Nicks, and others
-
Gideon's Trumpet
- How One Man, a Poor Prisoner, Took His Case to the Supreme Court - and Changed the Law of the United States
- By: Anthony Lewis
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 7 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A history of the landmark case of Clarence Earl Gideon's fight for the right to legal counsel.
-
-
best book on the subject
- By J.B. Price on 06-12-18
By: Anthony Lewis
-
Theodore Roosevelt for the Defense
- The Courtroom Battle to Save His Legacy
- By: Dan Abrams, David Fisher
- Narrated by: Roger Wayne, Dan Abrams
- Length: 12 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
"No more dramatic courtroom scene has ever been enacted," reported the Syracuse Herald on May 22, 1915, as it covered "the greatest libel suit in history", a battle fought between former President Theodore Roosevelt and the leader of the Republican party. Roosevelt, the boisterous and mostly beloved legendary American hero, had accused his former friend and ally, now turned rival, William Barnes of political corruption. The furious Barnes responded by suing Roosevelt for an enormous sum that could have financially devastated him.
-
-
What is For the Polity What is for the Politician
- By J.B. on 05-27-19
By: Dan Abrams, and others
-
The Daily Laws
- 366 Meditations on Power, Seduction, Mastery, Strategy, and Human Nature
- By: Robert Greene
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders, Robert Greene
- Length: 12 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the world’s foremost expert on power and strategy comes a daily devotional designed to help you seize your destiny.
-
-
Chapters are Busted
- By Colin on 10-12-21
By: Robert Greene
-
Let the Lord Sort Them
- The Rise and Fall of the Death Penalty
- By: Maurice Chammah
- Narrated by: Kevin R. Free
- Length: 11 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1972, the United States Supreme Court made a surprising ruling: The country’s death penalty system violated the Constitution. The backlash was swift, especially in Texas, where executions were considered part of the cultural fabric, and a dark history of lynching was masked by gauzy visions of a tough-on-crime frontier. When executions resumed, Texas quickly became the nationwide leader in carrying out the punishment.
-
-
Very Slanted
- By appreciative reader on 02-07-21
By: Maurice Chammah
What listeners say about Justice in Plain Sight
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Annalisa
- 06-08-22
Narration Undermines Story
Sample this book before you buy it. The story is wonderful but the narrator has a squeaky-ish voice I found less than appealing. Did not finish book. I’ve liked narrators other reviewers dished so you might like it.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!