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COURTHOUSE OF HORROR

Opening Arguments

Release Date: 10/31/2025

SCOTUS Made Gerrymandering So Easy, You’d Have to Be a Texas Republican to F It Up show art SCOTUS Made Gerrymandering So Easy, You’d Have to Be a Texas Republican to F It Up

Opening Arguments

OA1209 - Are you done with legal doomerism? Us too. Take some time away from doomscrolling and join Matt and Jenessa for Rapid Response Friday as we consider four stories of legal corruption and authoritarianism failing in the face of honest federal judges, and a footnote about how one brave prison nurse exposed even more corruption in Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell’s special treatment by the Trump administration. , Northern Dist. of NY (7/9/25) in U.S. v. New York (8/4/25)  Judge Mae D’Agostino’s in U.S. v. NY (11/17/25)  , Eastern Dist. of VA (9/25/25) Judge...

info_outline Epstein files reveal he was BFFs with Steve Bannon and offered him USE OF THE ISLAND. and his house. show art Epstein files reveal he was BFFs with Steve Bannon and offered him USE OF THE ISLAND. and his house.

Opening Arguments

VR14 - Part 2 of the Epstein files We continue our first look at some highlights from last week's massive release of more than 20,000 pages of material from the estate of Jeffrey Epstein released by the House Oversight Committee, including Steve Bannon and ASU professor Lawrence Krauss among others. We  also consider Megyn Kelly's appalling response before leaving the last word where it belongs: with the women who have come forward to tell their stories on behalf of themselves and those who will never be able to. held outside the US Capitol (9/3/25) Check out the OA for all the...

info_outline Emails reveal Larry Summers went to Epstein for advice on women. He STILL teaches at Harvard. show art Emails reveal Larry Summers went to Epstein for advice on women. He STILL teaches at Harvard.

Opening Arguments

OA1208 - We go beyond the Trump-related content in the latest round of Epstein disclosures by the House Oversight Committee to explore what we can learn from the many people in Jeffrey Epstein's orbit who flattered, patronized, and enabled him. Part 1 of 2.   Robert Kuttner, The American Prospect (7/13/2020) , Dahlia Lithwick & Susan Matthews, Slate (10/5/2018) , Yale Law Women Board (10/2020) Watch this episode on YouTube here: Check out the OA for all the places to go and things to do!

info_outline Reminder to Congress: Impeachment Exists. And It's the Only Acceptable Response to the Epstein Cover-up show art Reminder to Congress: Impeachment Exists. And It's the Only Acceptable Response to the Epstein Cover-up

Opening Arguments

OA1207 - We record a late-breaking reaction to the recent massive round of documents released from Jeffrey Epstein's estate and discuss how Trump may have just reached his most impeachable moment so far. Matt then shares some incredible news about how the end of Chevron deference has allowed federal judges to frustrate the administration's detention and deportation policies, and Jenessa gets into a lawsuit which challenges RFK Jr's replacement of the CDC’s vaccine advisory board with people who don't advise vaccines. Finally, a footgoat [sic] on how one woman’s quest to keep an unusual pet...

info_outline Kat Abughazaleh - Indicted by Trump's DoJ for Protesting ICE while running for Congress show art Kat Abughazaleh - Indicted by Trump's DoJ for Protesting ICE while running for Congress

Opening Arguments

Kat Abughazaleh spent years reporting on right-wing media and movements, and she is now running to represent Illinois's 9th District in Congress on an explicitly anti-authoritarian platform. Kat joins to talk about her uniquely candid platform and community-based campaign, the state of the Democratic Party, how ICE is terrorizing Chicago during the most intensive urban immigration enforcement operation in US history, and much more. at Media Matters for America

info_outline Turns Out Our Civil Rights Come From... A Parking Garage in Wilmington, Delaware? show art Turns Out Our Civil Rights Come From... A Parking Garage in Wilmington, Delaware?

Opening Arguments

In our continuing Still Good Law series, Jenessa explains how a dispute arising from a parking garage in Wilmington, Delaware became the foundation for one of the most important concepts in civil rights: determining that a private or quasi-public individual or entity is operating “under color of law.” How does this concept help to hold law enforcement and other governmental agencies accountable, and how is it holding up in 2025? , 365 U.S. 715 (1961) , 365 US 167 (1961)

info_outline GOOD THINGS HAPPENS! 100% GOOD NEWS OA DAY! show art GOOD THINGS HAPPENS! 100% GOOD NEWS OA DAY!

Opening Arguments

OA1205 - It’s another good news Friday! Voting rights expert Jenessa runs down some of the highlights of the off-year blue sweep in this week’s elections, as well as some recent unsung national victories for voting and disability rights. Matt then checks in on the Supreme Court’s oral arguments from the challenge to Trump’s unprecedented tariffs and why it is looking like he might actually lose his administration’s first attempt to defend one of his second administration’s policies on the merits.  Finally, in today’s footnote: Why a federal judge recently decided that a...

info_outline Night of the Living Op-Ed! (A Belated Spooktacular) show art Night of the Living Op-Ed! (A Belated Spooktacular)

Opening Arguments

VR12 - Yes, we absolutely thought this was coming out pre-Halloween. Halloween may be over, but NEVERTHELESS THE SPOOKTACULAR PERSISTED! In this Vapid Response double feature, Thomas, Matt, and Lydia are haunted by two ghoulish takes from the past:  FEATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON: Politico’s insanely longform access journalism piece from August 2024 on how Project 2025 was so totally over, just never happening, nothing to see here EROSSERHEAD: New York Times resident traditional conservative Ross Douthat’s 2015 analysis of why Donald Trump is definitely not a fascist We then...

info_outline What Happens When the House Refuses to Swear in a New Member? show art What Happens When the House Refuses to Swear in a New Member?

Opening Arguments

OA1204 - As House Speaker Mike Johnson continues to pretend that he doesn’t have to seat Democrat Adelita Grijalva well over a month after she was elected to represent Arizona’s 7th Congressional district, we take a closer look at the last time that Congress refused to swear someone in and what the Warren Court had to say about it. Who was Harlem Congressman Adam Clayton Powell, why was the House so intent on excluding him in 1966, and how precedential might Powell v. McCormack  be for the lawsuit which Arizona has filed on Grijalva’s behalf? , 395 U.S. 486 (1969) ) (filed...

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Opening Arguments

OA1203 - Happy Halloween! We take shelter from a year of ghoulish legal news in the COURTHOUSE OF HORROR, a cabinet of macabre legal curiosities including: “SO I TRADEMARKED AN AXE MURDERER”: The historic Lizzie Borden House takes a whack at a nearby coffee shop “THE BONE DETECTOR”: Recent patent bar survivor Jenessa Seymour brings us the unbelievable story of the spookiest--and silliest!--lie detector ever registered by the US Patent & Trademark Office “ATTACK OF THE TORTIOUS CLOWNS”: Can you sue a haunted house for your fright-related injuries?  “THE...

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More Episodes

OA1203 - Happy Halloween! We take shelter from a year of ghoulish legal news in the COURTHOUSE OF HORROR, a cabinet of macabre legal curiosities including:

  1. “SO I TRADEMARKED AN AXE MURDERER”: The historic Lizzie Borden House takes a whack at a nearby coffee shop

  2. “THE BONE DETECTOR”: Recent patent bar survivor Jenessa Seymour brings us the unbelievable story of the spookiest--and silliest!--lie detector ever registered by the US Patent & Trademark Office

  1. “ATTACK OF THE TORTIOUS CLOWNS”: Can you sue a haunted house for your fright-related injuries? 

  1. “THE GREENBRIER GHOST”: The bizarre tale of how a victim’s testimony from beyond the grave helped to convict her killer in an 1896 West Virginia murder trial

  1. “CANDYMAN 5: SUMMARY JUDGMENT”: In a tasty conclusion to last year’s Halloween footnote on consumers disappointed with the spookiness of their seasonal treats, a Florida federal judge finds as a matter of law that there is no wrong way to make a Reese’s.

Finally, we close on a serious note with Jenessa’s guide to how every registered voter can do their part next week to change the plot of our ongoing American horror story.

  1. Order in Ghost Adventures LLC v. Miss Lizzie’s Coffee, LLC, No. 23-2000 (1st 

Cir.)(Selya, J.)(11/15/2024)

  1. “Federal Judge Known for Polysyllabic Prose Dies at 90,” Trip Gabriel, The New York Times, (3/21/2025)

  2. “Would You Confess Your Criminal Misdeeds to This Skeleton?,” Cara Giaimo, Atlas Obscura (5/16/2017)

  3. “Apparatus for Obtaining Criminal Confessions and Photographically Recording Them,” Patent #1749090, H.A. Shelby (filed 8/10/1927)

  4. “The Greenbrier Ghost Reexamined,” Greenbrier Historical Society, Arabeth Balseko (1/20/2022)

  5. Summary judgment order in Munoz v. Six Flags St. Louis LLC (10/12/2022)(Wallach, J.)

  6. Order granting motion to dismiss in Vidal et al v. The Hershey Company, FLSD No. 24-60831 (9/19/2025)(Damian, J.)

  7. “Your Cheat Sheet To The 2025 General Elections,” Daniel Nichanian, Bolts (10/1/2025)

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