Opening Arguments

Opening Arguments is a law show that helps you make sense of the news! Comedian Thomas Smith brings on legal analysts to help you understand not only current events, but also deeper legal concepts and areas! The typical schedule will be M-W-F with Monday being a deep-dive, Wednesday being Thomas Takes the Bar Exam and patron shoutouts, and Friday being a rapid response to legal issues in the news!

Supreme Court Says Why Prevent Trump Violating the Constitution Before It Even Happens? 08/31/2026

Meta Must Pay, Bannon's Judge Pushes Back, and a Dolly Parton Shoutout from the Bench 08/28/2026

Stephen Miller's America First Legal Has a YouTube Show (and it sucks real bad) 08/26/2026

A Mayor Declared a State of Emergency to Save Flock Cameras 08/24/2026

Trump Messed With the Mouse. Now He Gets the Ears. 08/21/2026

Baseball Crank Asks "What Have Refugees Done for Me Lately" 08/19/2026

Police Sued for Blatant Misuse of Facial Recognition. It's NUTS. 08/17/2026

The Tates Seek Release, Super-Duper Promise They Won't Flee 08/14/2026

Ross Douthat Leaves NYT for Bari Weiss. Here Were Some of His Worst Columns. 08/12/2026

Melissa Murray Gives the Constitution Some Strict Scrutiny 08/10/2026

Cornyn and Tillis Negotiate Meaningless Concession from Blanche 08/07/2026

Did Mamdani Wipe Little Italy Off the Map? 08/05/2026

How a Bank Robbery Became a Fourth Amendment Landmark 08/03/2026

The Most Brazen and Corrupt Heist in American History (GG Crossover!) 08/01/2026

LAM1015: Outlaw 07/29/2026

How SCOTUS Paved the Way for Flock Cameras 07/27/2026

Todd Blanche Can Also Lie and Dodge Questions in Writing Too! 07/24/2026

Law on the Spectrum, with Peter O'Neil 07/20/2026

What Happened to You, Todd Blanche? 07/17/2026

Nancy Mace Thinks Anyone With a Foreign Name Is Disloyal 07/15/2026

The MAGA Justices Get Torched by... Amy Coney Barrett?! 07/13/2026

It's Not Just Prairieland and Broadview. More Lives Are Being Ruined by Unjust Prosecutions. 07/10/2026

Ben Shapiro is having AI write his columns, and apparently not even the good models 07/08/2026

Trump Is Once Again Trying to Change the Law With Memos 07/06/2026

Trump Is Once Again Trying to Change the Law With Memos OA1276 - Who could have predicted this? Us! The Trump administration has made their complete disdain for people with disabilities clear since day one. We’ve called it out before, and the natural progression of those efforts came to a head mid-June when they announced their intention to turn over governance of special education to RFK Jr in HHS (least trusted man in America when it comes to the needs of your child with a disability), continue dismantling the Department of Education overall, further reduce their investigations of educational discrimination, and, just two days later, their commitment to overturning major protections against forced institutionalization. What’s happening, how did we get here, why does it matter, and what can anyone do about it? Tune in to find out. OA episode callbacks: 1238 Deep dive on Olmstead 1180 the history of forced institutionalization and “ugly laws”, and the executive order “Ending crime and disorder on America’s streets” 1141 The Section 504 protests 1171 A.J.T. v Osseo area schools (rights to accommodations for students with disabilities) Part 1; attempted dismantling of Olmstead: , 527 U.S. 581 (1999) (d) , 90 Fed. Reg. 35817 (Jul 24, 2025) , 50 Op. O.L.C. __ (June 18, 2026) Part 2; the dismantling of the Department of Education: , 90 Fed. Reg. 13679 (Mar. 20, 2025) Compl., , No. 1:25-cv-10601 (D. Mass. amended 01/09/2026) , 606 U.S. ___ (2025) Between the U.S. Department of Education and U.S. Department of Labor Relating to the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education (OESE) (plus addendums) Christy Wolfe (Dec. 16, 2025), , Bipartisan Policy Center Jennifer Smith Richards & Jodi S. Cohen (Mar. 2, 2026), , ProPublica. U.S. Government Accountability Office (Feb. 2, 2026), . U.S. Dept. of Education (June 16, 2026). . , 605 U.S. 335 (2025) Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973: Individuals with Disabilities Education Act: Check out the OA for all the places to go and things to do! /episode/index/show/openargs/id/41924160

Matt's Complete Supreme Court Term Recap 07/03/2026

Matt's Complete Supreme Court Term Recap OA1275 - As June ends and another Supreme Court Season wraps, it is time to look back and survey the damage: significant blows to voting and trans rights, harder times for immigrants throughout the system, and a vast expansion of executive powers. But we also go beyond the headlines to see what has been going on with some of the Court’s more routine business. What can we learn from their more mundane 9-0 decisions--and can we actually find some good news here among the wreckage? Matt does his best. Finally, in today’s seasonal footnote: why the world believed for exactly five minutes that Samuel Alito had closed Supreme Court Season by announcing his retirement on Tuesday, and what we can learn from this weird mistake about how mainstream media covers the Supreme Court. Executive Power / Immigration — 25-365 (June 30, 2026)(birthright citizenship) — 24-1287 (Feb. 20, 2026) (IEEPA tariffs) — 25A312 (June 29, 2026) (Fed removal) — 25-332 (June 29, 2026) (FTC removal) — 25-1083 (June 25, 2026) (TPS) — 25-5 (June 25, 2026) (asylum at the border) — 25-429 (June 23, 2026)(LPRs at the border) — 24-777 (Mar. 4, 2026) (asylum standard of review) Criminal Law — 24-5774 (Jan. 14, 2026) (§924(c)/(j) stacking) — 24-5438 (Jan. 9, 2026) (successive §2255 petitions) — 24-482 (Jan. 20, 2026) (restitution / Ex Post Facto) — 25-112 (June 29, 2026) (geofence / 4A) — 24-1234 (June 18, 2026) (cannabis & 2A rights) — 24-1063 (June 18, 2026) (appeal waivers) — 24-7351 (May 28, 2026) (Batson / AEDPA challenge) — 24-993 (Mar. 20, 2026) — (§1983 rights with prior conviction) — 24-624 (Jan. 14, 2026) (emergency-aid / 4A) — 24-557 (Feb. 25, 2026) (counsel during recess) — 25-52 (Nov. 14, 2025) (habeas / new-trial reversal) Civil/Voting Rights — 23-1197 (June 23, 2026) (RLUIPA damages) — 24-109 (Apr. 29, 2026) (Voting Rights Act §2) — 24-43 (June 30, 2026) (trans student athletes) — 24-1046 (June 25, 2026) (2A concealed carry) — 24-539 (Mar. 31, 2026) (conversion therapy) — 24-621 (June 30, 2026) (1A / campaign finance) Procedural Issues — 24-783 (Apr. 22, 2026) (removal deadline) — 24-808 (Jan. 20, 2026) (Rule 60(b)(4) finality) Other (2025-2026)[PDF] Kelly McBride, NPR (June 30, 2026) Check out the OA for all the places to go and things to do! /episode/index/show/openargs/id/41805830

The New Cover on Alito's TPS Reports Is for Racism 07/01/2026

Worst Dude Hires Even Worse Lawyer to Legally Harass Woman Who Posted About Him 06/29/2026

Prairieland - 30 Years for Moving Magazines. These Are Real Human Lives, Ruined. 06/26/2026

Prairieland - 30 Years for Moving Magazines. These Are Real Human Lives, Ruined. OA1273 - On June 23, 2026, eight people were sentenced in DOJ’s first so-called “Antifa” terrorism prosecution by federal judge Reed O’Connor in the Northern District of Texas to a combined 450 years in federal prison for their participation in a protest held at the Prarieland ICE detention facility on July 4th, 2025. Six of these defendants were charged with what amounted to being present at (or in the vicinity of) the protest, and one who wasn’t even there received 30 years for moving a box of First Amendment-protected publications. In this continuing coverage of one of the most unjust criminal prosecutions of the second Trump administration, Matt goes deep on the government’s case to show just how shoddy the “material support for terrorism” charges really were, and how DOJ used a few text messages, some consumer fireworks shot off on the 4th of July far from any people or property, and $4805.95 in property damage to engineer sentencing enhancements which virtually guaranteed that these protesters would receive harsher punishments than many defendants in the federal system charged with far more serious offenses. What does all of this mean for the future of dissent in the U.S., especially given the national security memo which promised heightened investigation and prosecution of “anti-Americanism, anti-capitalism, [ ]anti-Christianity… and hostility towards those who hold traditional American views on family, religion, and morality” after the assassination of Charlie Kirk? Then in today’s footnote: An Arizona appeals court takes on one man’s truly contemptible email address. (OA interview with Defense Committee member and attorney Xavier de Janon) statute) (Prairieland Support Committee website) (6/23/2026) Arizona Court of Appeals #CA-CV 25-0256 (2/6/2026) Check out the OA for all the places to go and things to do! /episode/index/show/openargs/id/41813770

Why Is Alito Like This? with Peter Canellos 06/22/2026

He's Literally the Worst Dealmaker Ever. EVER. 06/19/2026

Opening Arguments

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