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At Least One Disney Lawyer Needs to Be Launched Into the Sun

Opening Arguments

Release Date: 08/16/2024

Tommy Teepell Gets Publicly Owned, and the Worst Cornell 7 Take Yet show art Tommy Teepell Gets Publicly Owned, and the Worst Cornell 7 Take Yet

Opening Arguments

VR48 - Today on Vapid Response Wednesday: the extremely believable backstory of some guy named Tommy who got publicly owned by Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, and the single worst take on the Cornell 7 case from within the Ivy League. Finally, we take our minds far, far away from Cornell to enjoy a galactically bad 1983 take on the most beloved film series in world history from one of America's crankiest critics. Cases and sources discussed: at a town hall in Caro, Michigan (Oct. 17, 2026) The Sundial (Oct 13, 2026) from the editorial board of the Columbia Political...

info_outline Can You Sue a Drug Company When You Don't Know Which One Made the Pill? show art Can You Sue a Drug Company When You Don't Know Which One Made the Pill?

Opening Arguments

OA1306 - We're on a winning streak! ...because we picked the winners. This week we cover two cases where the little guy comes out on top against the big corporation, and learn some key torts concepts along the way. Maybe your neighborhood billboard personal injury attorney isn't such a bad guy after all. Sources: on ICE at the polls The reporting method Check out the OA for all the places to go and things to do! To support the show (and lose the ads!), please pledge at ! $2+ patrons also get a new Law'd Awful Movies every month.

info_outline NY Defense Attorney Calls the Tompkins County DA's Cornell Decision NY Defense Attorney Calls the Tompkins County DA's Cornell Decision "Truly Stunning"

Opening Arguments

OA1305 - Matt's under the weather, so no normal Friday show this week. But don't panic, because we've got a treat instead: a crossover from Gavel Gavel where criminal defense attorney Liz Skeen joins Thomas to talk about the Cornell case, and she is PISSED. Liz has real, on-the-ground New York experience with how the system treats people who aren't privileged kids from an Ivy League school, and it shows. If you want the backstory first, Thomas and Lydia already went through the complaint in the previous two Gavel Gavel episodes. To support the show (and lose the ads!), please pledge at ! $2+...

info_outline What the Media Are Getting Wrong About the Ilhan Omar Raid show art What the Media Are Getting Wrong About the Ilhan Omar Raid

Opening Arguments

VR47 - Federal agents raided Ilhan Omar's house this week, possibly over a decades-old conspiracy theory. Matt Explains what the media are getting wrong about the incident. Along the way we hear from Russian foreign correspondent Benny Johnson and his "deep research." Check out the OA for all the places to go and things to do! To support the show (and lose the ads!), please pledge at ! $2+ patrons also get a new Law'd Awful Movies every month.

info_outline This Guy Beat Qualified Immunity Twice, in Two Different Circuits show art This Guy Beat Qualified Immunity Twice, in Two Different Circuits

Opening Arguments

OA1304 - Qualified immunity does not strike again! In a case out of the 10th circuit, with the same plaintiff from last week's Rosales v. Lewis/Terrell, the court once again refuses qualified immunity to an officer who was wildly out of line. Learn about immunity for municipalities and standing rules, the multi-factor tests for excessive use of force against an armed civilian, and a unique alternative perspective on how qualified immunity should work from the concurrence. Cases and sources discussed: Check the deadlines and criteria to request a . Check the dates and times of . , (10th Cir....

info_outline Florida Judge Says Congress Can't Make Noncitizen Voting a Federal Crime show art Florida Judge Says Congress Can't Make Noncitizen Voting a Federal Crime

Opening Arguments

OA1303 - Rapid Response Friday kicks off with two major under-the-radar stories that you may not hear anywhere else about major federal decisions out of Florida and Massachusetts which may remove two important tools from Trump's fascist toolbox. We also explain how the subject of Matt's exclusive OA report from the front lines of deportation defense last July on how ICE was trying to rewrite the law of mandatory ICE detention has just become the single most important immigration case in the Supreme Court's coming term. Finally, Matt goes gorilla mode for today's footnote to share the story of...

info_outline Samuel Alito's Victory Lap and Douglas Murray's Deportation Jetpack Fantasy show art Samuel Alito's Victory Lap and Douglas Murray's Deportation Jetpack Fantasy

Opening Arguments

VR46 - This week on Vapid Response Wednesday: A Bari Weiss double feature! We kick off with an amuse douche from CBS News's chill hang with a cool guy from Trenton. Samuel Alito grew up with a dream: doing incalculable damage to women's healthcare by destroying the Constitutional abortion rights previously guaranteed by Roe v. Wade, apparently because no one was really using them anyway? Does Samuel Alito even hear himself talk anymore? We then take up the closest thing the Trump era has seen to an intellectual case for mass deportation from one of its poshest warriors: "intellectual dark web"...

info_outline The 5th Circuit Denied a Cop Qualified Immunity, So We Might Be in the Afterlife show art The 5th Circuit Denied a Cop Qualified Immunity, So We Might Be in the Afterlife

Opening Arguments

OA1302 - Qualified immunity can be overcome! In the fifth circuit?! Come hear the good news, and learn some fourth amendment traffic stop rules along the way. CHECK YOUR VOTER REGISTRATION. Deadlines for your state can be found . Cases discussed: CHECK YOUR VOTER REGISTRATION. Deadlines for your state can be found . , 25-30650 (5th Cir. 2026) from the Rosales case on trial of Lewis for alleged misconduct , (10th Cir. 2023) Check out the OA for all the places to go and things to do! To support the show (and lose the ads!), please pledge at ! $2+ patrons also get a new Law'd Awful Movies...

info_outline DOJ Wants Every Federal Judge in Minnesota Recused (Good Luck With That) show art DOJ Wants Every Federal Judge in Minnesota Recused (Good Luck With That)

Opening Arguments

OA1301 - IT'S FASCISM RESPONSE FRIDAY, and it's a lot. DOJ just filed a complaint trying to get every single active federal judge in Minnesota booted off immigration cases, and the "evidence" is a judge telling the New York Times the truth. The Supreme Court just let deportations to countries people aren't even from happen again. And we cannot stop laughing about the executive order that just declared this the "era of superintelligence." There's good news too, but you'll have to listen for that. Cases discussed: (filed under 28 U.S.C. § 351) (Supreme Court stay on third-country...

info_outline John Yoo Wrote the Torture Memos and Never Paid for It. At All. show art John Yoo Wrote the Torture Memos and Never Paid for It. At All.

Opening Arguments

VR45 - Today on Vapid Response: 25 years after the terror attacks of September 11, 2001, we look back on the Forrest Gump of monstrously bad legal takes: former DOJ lawyer and current UC Berkeley law professor (!) John Yoo. We go back to the primary sources to show how the Office of Legal Counsel explicitly authorized torture, indefinite detention in Guantanamo Bay, and warrantless surveillance of U.S. citizens before giving Secretary of State Marco Rubio a chance to explain why the world should never hold the United States accountable for any of it. Cases and sources discussed: Jonathan...

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OA1060

This week Matt breaks down four very different legal actions: 

1. Donald Trump is suing the United States--yes, the same United States that he is running to be the President of--for $100 million based on the FBI’s alleged violation of the Florida common law tort of “intrusion upon seclusion” in executing a valid search warrant on Mar-A-Lago two years ago. Is Trump just spiking the legal football after his big win in front of federal judge Aileen Cannon in Jack Smith’s documents case, or is there actually something worth talking about here?

2. Is the Walt Disney Corporation actually arguing that signing up for a 30-day trial of its Disney+ streaming service protects them from the tragically fatal consequences of negligence at a restaurant in its Disney Springs shopping center? Could that really be a thing that licensed attorneys wrote down, printed, reviewed, signed, and filed with a court? We consider what might be one of the most bizarrely evil defenses ever raised in a wrongful death suit.

3. Soul singer Isaac Hayes’s family has joined the dozens of artists who have spoken out against their music being used at Trump rallies, issuing a cease-and-desist letter to the campaign alleging that it has used  Hayes’s song “Hold On! I’m Coming” at least 134 times even after being asked to stop. To what extent do artists have “moral rights” under US intellectual property law, and what alternatives are available to them when they don’t? We  riffing on a particularly interesting failure to harmonize copyright and antitrust law.

4. French authorities have announced that they will investigate claims of cyberbullying against Olympic boxing champion Imane Khelif, a ciswoman from Algeria who was harassed online by J.K. Rowling, Elon Musk, Donald Trump, and many more of the world’s finest people with completely baseless claims that she was not a biological woman. We debate the merits of this uniquely European approach to criminalizing speech and marvel at the unmatched powers of TERF ideology to rot the human brain (and soul).