Opening Arguments
OA1110 - For the first time in US history, an American President (both former and future) is facing criminal sentencing. We review Judge Juan Merchan’s most recent ruling on Donald Trump’s motion to dismiss his conviction for 34 felony counts of falsifying business records and the difficult balance that Merchan has struck in trying to weigh the jury’s verdict and the rule of law itself against the fact that the defendant will be ten days away from regaining the nuclear codes as of the time of his scheduled hearing. We also review Aileen Cannon’s recent probably-illegal desperate...
info_outline The Hysterical Victimhood Complex of John EastmanOpening Arguments
OA1109 and T3BE54 - John Eastman is many things: a hack, a liar, a disgraced law school dean, a failed Wikipedia editor, and a mostly-disbarred, twice-indicted traitor to the Constitution on a desperate PR campaign to distance himself from the violent insurrection of January 6, 2021 which he set in motion with his patently bad-faith legal advice to the Trump campaign. But did you know that he also isn’t even a person? Our Profiles in Fascism series continues with a have-to-hear-this-to-believe-it reading from the pages of the Claremont Institute’s deranged American Mind....
info_outline The Lawyers Behind 1/6 Are Trying to Rewrite History. We Can't Let Them.Opening Arguments
OA1108 - A Coup in Search of a Legal Theory We commemorate the fourth anniversary of the January 6, 2021 insurrection by remembering the two elite lawyers who bear significant personal, moral, and legal responsibility for one of the single worst days in US political history. The bad-faith legal cover Kenneth Chesebro and John Eastman provided for the “Stop the Steal” movement in the months leading up to MAGA’s violent insurrection would ultimately result in nine deaths, hundreds of injuries, and the initiation of more than 1500 federal criminal cases--but Eastman and his MAGA allies are...
info_outline SCOTUS Fast-Tracks TikTok Case; Trump Files Nonsense Amicus BriefOpening Arguments
OA1107 - Chief Justice John Roberts has used his annual end-of-the-year report to remind us that federal judges should not accept luxury vacations from billionaires, fly insurrectionist flags on any of their properties, or ever be criticized for any reason. Or, you know--at least one of those things. We also answer a patron question about what happens if Republicans can't get their House in order by the time that electoral votes are supposed to be certified on January 6th before getting to today's main story: the very real possibility that TikTok may not live to see the first day of the second...
info_outline A Law for Christmas, and a Happy New Year!Opening Arguments
OA1106 and T3BE53 The Law'd Awful Movies this month was so much fun, I wanted to give everyone the first ~30 minutes of it. After that, it's the usual Thomas Takes the Bar Exam answer to Q52 and the new Q53. If you are one of the lucky patrons who has already heard LAM1006, feel free to skip to 31:04. If you'd like to play along with T3BE, here's what to do: hop on Bluesky, , find the post that has this episode, and quote it with your answer! Or, and look for the appropriate t3BE posting. Or best of all, become a patron at and play there! Check out the OA for all the places to go...
info_outline Lawrence Lessig Thinks the Supreme Court Will End SuperPACsOpening Arguments
... and he might actually be right! Listen in and hear why. OA1105 - Harvard Law professor and anti-corruption advocate Lawrence Lessig is almost certainly the only person on Earth to have had a personal relationship with both visionary hacker Aaron Swartz and former Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia. We warmly welcome Professor Lessig back to OA to share--among many other things--his experiences with each of these very different people, why he remains optimistic about campaign finance reform going into the second Trump administration, and the originalist argument against Super PACs. ...
info_outline Rudy Giuliani Has Lost Everything, Including His Own LawyersOpening Arguments
OA1104 - America's Dismayor, and other great stories to help close out 2024 on a positive note! Rudy Giuliani’s long, greasy slide from the heights of New York power seems to be ending in the same Manhattan federal courthouse in which he made his career as the US Attorney for the Southern District of NY. We take a closer look at the often hilarious lengths America’s former mayor has gone to in the past year to avoid paying the $148 million judgment he earned by casually defaming two hardworking Georgia election volunteers. Also discussed: why the House Ethics Committee decided to release...
info_outline Ok, but Would AI Judges Really Be Any Worse?Opening Arguments
OA1103 - Is human intelligence necessarily more rational and just than artificial intelligence? How involved should AI be in our law and government? Professor Aziz Huq of the University of Chicago School of Law joins for a fascinating conversation about everything from the “right to a human decision” to the dystopian terrors of Tinder. “ (2020) “ Huq (2024) Steven Chen, South China Morning Post (2021) Check out the OA for all the places to go and things to do! If you’d like to support the show (and lose the ads!), please pledge at !
info_outline Luigi Mangione Being Charged as a Terrorist Is Borderline Prosecutorial MisconductOpening Arguments
OA1102 - Why is the state of New York charging Luigi Mangione as a terrorist? And why have federal charges been filed in this case at all? We consider before moving on to try to locate any actual legal basis in the Georgia Court of Appeals decision removing Fulton County DA Fani Willis from the prosecution of Donald Trump and his alleged conspirators in Georgia. Finally, we dig into 11th Circuit judge Kevin Newsom’s surprisingly defensible argument that judges and lawyers should occasionally consult with ChatGPT, and Matt drops a footnote involving judges being weird about food. ...
info_outline Pete Hegseth Is Finally Going to Make the US Military Less WokeOpening Arguments
OA1101 - You know... that super woke institution... the US Military... well, NO LONGER! Trump's man for the job is a real piece of work. And if you don't believe us, take it from his own mom. As usual, Lydia gives us the doozy breakdown, and also how Hegseth fits right into the Project 2025 design. Then, it's T3BE 52! Check out the OA for all the places to go and things to do! If you’d like to support the show (and lose the ads!), please pledge at !
info_outlineOA1091 - We are honored to welcome Somali-American author and advocate Abdi Nor Iftin for the first of a 2-part Thanksgiving episode dedicated with gratitude to the incredible efforts that so many naturalized Americans have made to be a part of this country. Abdi has recorded the full story of his life in his book Call Me American, in which he details the long journey from his escape from being forced into service as a child soldier in war-torn Somalia to his years as a refugee in Kenya before winning the U.S. diversity visa lottery and building a thoroughly American life in one of the last states you might expect. In this extended interview we get to know Abdi as he shares his story and his unique perspective on what the current American moment means for him and his community.
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Call Me American: A Memoir,: Abdi Nor Iftin (2018)
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“Now is the time to buckle up and fight, not to flee,” Abdi Nor Iftin, The Forecaster (11/19/24)
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“Abdi and the Golden Ticket,” This American Life (7/3/2015)
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