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What is the job of a County Clerk? In Ulster County, it can mean managing DMV processes, preserving 300-year-old land records, and keeping the legal paper trail of everyday life in order. But earlier this year, that job landed one local official, Taylor Bruck, inside a national constitutional standoff.

Only a few months into his role as Acting County Clerk, Taylor received something unusual: a legal judgment from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, asking him to accept and process it in New York. The judgment involved a New York doctor, telemedicine, abortion medication, and a question that reaches beyond healthcare: Can one state make another enforce its laws?

In this episode, I visit Taylor in his Kingston office to talk about how a routine administrative role quickly became a test case for New York’s brand-new shield law. We talk about constitutional boundaries, state identity, what it means to uphold local law in a national dispute, and how it felt to go from archivist to defendant in a case that could one day reach the Supreme Court.

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"The Jiffy Audio Newsletter Podcast" is an audio documentary zine – the official podcast of The Jiffy – exploring the odd histories, cozy mysteries, and surprising characters of upstate New York. Each episode is a small adventure, told with curiosity, humor, and the occasional text message from a stranger.

New episodes drop every other week. Subscribe, share, and take the scenic route with us.

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