Supreme Court Says Why Prevent Trump Violating the Constitution Before It Even Happens?
Release Date: 08/31/2026
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+...
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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.
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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....
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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...
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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"...
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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...
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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...
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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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From Toga Guy to John Hinckley: A History of Pleading Insanity
Opening Arguments
OA1300 - The “insanity defense” might sound like a relic of a time when mental illness was viewed through the lens of demons and witches, and it turns out it is… but also maybe it’s kind of woke? Jenessa walks us through the history of Old English and Early American iterations of the defense, various tests that are applied today, and what happens afterwards that most people don’t get to see. Cases and sources discussed: Chris Liberati-Conant “” Legal Information Institute of insanity defenses NY Criminal Procedure Law § “” Check out the OA for all the places to...
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He Went to Prison for Bribing Susan Collins. She's... Totally Fine Somehow?
Opening Arguments
OA1299 - This week on Rapid Response Friday: what crimes might Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) have been complicit in, and why won't she ever be prosecuted for any of them? We go deeper into the law behind the facts exposed in ProPublica's outstanding investigation into her SuperPAC's coordination of illegal campaign contributions from a naval defense contractor. We then take a closer look at another damning investigation, this time of the Florida state-run immigration facility formerly known as "Alligator Alcatraz" from a surprising source: the Department of Homeland Security's Office of the...
info_outlineOA1292 - Jenessa takes us through the Supreme Court's 6-3 shadow docket ruling in Trump v. California, which lifted a preliminary injunction blocking Trump's executive order directing the U.S. Postal Service to gatekeep mail-in ballot delivery before the midterms. Is this a procedural technicality or a five-alarm fire for November? And what does it mean that the Postal Service published its final rule on a Friday night, in apparent violation of an injunction, right before the Court's Monday ruling? Jenessa walks through the chaotic docket, Judge Talwani's genius pivot, and why Justice Jackson's 20-page solo dissent might be the most important thing you read this election season.
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