Episodes
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OA1135 - Even with everything that Trump has already done to raise consumer prices, contribute to mass unemployment and inflation, and stress-test the market, many people still believe that Trump and MAGA conservatives are âbetter for the economy.â The Groundwork Collaborative is a nonprofit organization which helps to build the kind of messaging that we need to show a better way . Executive director Dr. Lindsay Owens joins to discussâamong many other thingsâwhat we talk about when we talk about âthe economy,â the DOGE crisis, the true causes of inflation, and what the loss of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau means for us all.
Groundwork Collaborative website
U.S. and Plaintiff States v. RealPage, Inc.
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OA1134 - Mere hours after a literal pat on the back from Donald Trump on live TV, U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts delivered a 5-4 decision against him in the emergency litigation over Trumpâs unconstitutional efforts to eliminate foreign aid funding. How much of a win was this really, and why did Samuel Alito spend eight pages in dissent pretending to be âstunnedâ by the majorityâs radical assertion that the federal government should pay out debts incurred by valid acts of Congress? We then turn to a less-noticed recent Supreme Court decision with concerning implications for the future of civil rights litigation before appreciating recent Congressional wins: blue city mayors schooling the House Oversight Committee without ever giving up even a single point in six hours, and Senate Democrats taking a meaningful united stand for trans lives.
U.S. Supreme Courtâs order in Department of State et al v. AIDS Vaccine Coalition (3/5/25)
Lackey v. Stinnie, Supreme Court #23-621 (2/25/2025)
Full video of House Oversight Committeeâs hearing with mayors of Boston, New York, Denver, and Chicago, Associated Press (3/5/25)
Boston Mayor Michelle Wu performs George Gershwinâs âRhapsody in Blueâ with the Boston Pops (9/22/2024)
âSenate Dems Show Spine, and National Sports Bill Dies,â S. Baum, Erin in the Morning (journalist Erin Reedâs Substack)(3/3/25)
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Episodes manquant?
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OA1133 and T3BE61 - Lydia joins today to discuss Trump's 3/4/2025 address to Congress regarding his vision for the next 4 years. Leading up to the evening, there were reports that quite a few Democrats would opt to not attend. We highlight the different approaches folks in the party took to resist in the face of chaos and authoritarianism, and discuss what we might do if we were in that position.
After that, Professor Heather Varanini comes in to share the answer to T3BE60 and present the next question in the Bar Exam!
If you'd like to play along with T3BE, here's what to do: hop on Bluesky, follow Openargs, find the post that has this episode, and quote it with your answer! Or, go to our Subreddit and look for the appropriate t3BE posting. Or best of all, become a patron at patreon.com/law and play there!
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OA1132 - We resume our regularly scheduled rapid response to law in the news, starting with some good news (really) from the Supreme Court! Then: some-not-so-good news from the Supreme Court on the Trump administrationâs efforts to dismantle the US Agency for International Development. Why did a federal judge need to issue an order confirming that he really meant it when he told the new administration to resume paying out the funds that Congress intended, and why does John Roberts seem to be taking this nonsense seriously? Matt then provides some context for a recent announcement regarding the Trump administrationâs intention to require all undocumented people to register with DHS before dropping a footnote with recent developments in the unbelievable story of the most (allegedly) felonious Supreme Court litigator in modern US history.
Glossip v. Oklahoma (Feb. 25, 2025)
Complete docket for Global Health Council v. Trump
Letter to the editor of the New York Times from NY Congressional representative Emmanuel Celler opposing alien registration (May 25, 1925)
Alien Registration Act of 1940
Indictment in U.S. v. Goldstein(1/16/25)
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That's right, we interrupt your regularly scheduled rapid response Friday (sorry...) to give you the first episode in the new Gavel Gavel series!!! And, Gavel Gavel is now PUBLIC!
The legal battle between Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni might feel like just "celebrity gossip," but there is so much here. It has fiercly divided the internet, with one group certain that Justin Baldoni is a sexual harsser, and the other group certain that Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds are devious plotters who lied about an innocent man in order to take over a movie. How are we to know the truth? Well, fortunately there are going on thousands of pages of legal documents to comb through. The answers are there, for the few among us that are willing to actually read them. This series will do just that.
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OA 1130 and T3BE60 - We're so excited to kick off this episode with an interview with Amanda Litman, the co-founder and President of an amazing organization called Run for Something. We discuss who they are and how they support folks in state and local races in all 50 states, answer questions for those who may be listening and considering throwing their hat in the ring to run for political office, and get energized from Amanda's contagious hope for what can very much come in 2026 and 2028 if we put in the work now.
After our chat with Amanda, Thomas meets up with Professor Heather Varanini to reveal the answer to T3BE59, and tackle the next question! Be sure to stick around for our T3BE winners and patron shoutouts!
If you're feeling inspired and hopeful after today's show, consider making a donation to Run for Something to help elevate progressive leaders in state and local elections across the country! And if you're thinking you might Run for Something, check out their resources to help you along every step of the way!
If you'd like to play along with T3BE, here's what to do: hop on Bluesky, follow Openargs, find the post that has this episode, and quote it with your answer! Or, go to our Subreddit and look for the appropriate t3BE posting. Or best of all, become a patron at patreon.com/law and play there!
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OA1129 - From the Department of Justice to DOGE to elected officials around the US, attorneys who swore to uphold and defend the law are working overtime on the bureaucratic front lines of Donald Trumpâs campaign to actively degrade and destroy it. But what if those lawyers knew that there could be real consequences for their ability to practice law in the future for illegal, bad faith, and/or unethical conduct?
That question is at the heart of the 65 Project, a non-profit organized to introduce real consequences to the kind of lawyering which is greasing the skids in our long slide into authoritarianism. Managing Director Michael Teter joins to explain how the Project came together, how they decide whether misconduct merits a bar complaint, and how their mission has changed since the 2024 election.
Donation page for the 65 Project
Ethics complaints filed by the 65 Project
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OA 1128 - First: an urgent question from a patron on Trumpâs latest executive power grab. Matt explains the history of the âunitary executive theoryâ and the Federalist Society-backed movement to give the President more power than an actual king.
Then: Rutgers Law professor Katie Eyer studies, teaches, and litigates the law of anti-discrimination with a specialty in LGBTQ rights. She joins to discuss the current state of the law in the shadow of the Supreme Courtâs forthcoming decision in U.S. v. Skrmetti and the wake of Donald Trumpâs recent anti-trans executive orders. Which, if any, of these orders should we actually be concerned about? What does it mean that the fight for trans lives is now becoming a federal issue? Can Trump really just instruct the federal government to ignore the Supreme Courtâs extension of employment protections to LGBTQ employees in Bostock v. Clayton County? Professor Eyer takes up these questions and many more as we find reasons both for concern and for hope.
âEnsuring Accountability for All Agencies,â (2/18/25)
âInterrogating the Historical Basis for a Unitary Executive,â Daniel D. Birke, Stanford Law Review (Jan. 2021)
Professor Katie Eyer (Rutgers Law bio)
Anti-Transgender Constitutional Law, 77 Vanderbilt L. Rev. __ (2024) (forthcoming)
Transgender Constitutional Law, 171 U. Pa. L. Rev. 1405 (2023)
Bostock v. Clayton County, 590 US ___ (2020)
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OA1127 + T3BE59!
Our breakdown of the Thursday Night Massacre continues, with Liz Skeen. Then, it's T3BE time!
If you'd like to play along with T3BE, here's what to do: hop on Bluesky, follow Openargs, find the post that has this episode, and quote it with your answer! Or, go to our Subreddit and look for the appropriate t3BE posting. Or best of all, become a patron at patreon.com/law and play there!
Check out the OA Linktree for all the places to go and things to do!
To support the show (and lose the ads!), please pledge at patreon.com/law!
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OA1126 - Law'd Awful Boves
We interrupt your regularly-scheduled LAM for readings and commentary on the documents at the heart of what has quickly become one of the most shocking events in the 155-year history of the U.S. Department of Justice: the openly corrupt dismissal of all charges against New York City mayor Eric Adams in exchange for his cooperation with Donald Trumpâs immigration crackdown. Gavel Gavel contributor Liz Skeen joins to share her perspective as both a New York City lawyer and resident as we work through the dueling letters which have been publicly released so far from former US Attorney for SDNY Danielle Sassoon, Acting Deputy AG Emil Bove, and former Assistant US Attorney Hagan Scotten together with DOJâs motion to dismiss.
Former U.S. Attorney for SDNY Danielle Sassoonâs letter offering her resignation if DOJ continues to move forward with filing a motion to dismiss the federal criminal case against New York City Mayor Eric Adams (2/12/25)
Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Boveâs response to Danielle Sassoonâs letter (2/13/25)
Former Assistant US Attorney Hagan Scottenâs letter of resignation (2/14/25)
DOJâs Rule 48(a) motion seeking to dismiss all pending charges against Eric Adams (2/14/25)
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OA1125 - (NOTE: Acting US Attorney for SDNY Danielle Sassoonâs resignation letter and DOJ acting deputy Emil Boveâs acceptance of that letter were published while we were recording this episode, and hours before the Trump administration was enjoined by a DC federal judge from suspending international aid. The news hose never stops!)
For this Rapid Response Friday, we do our best to answer some of your questions about waves hands in the general direction of DC.
Why is the media reporting the illegal attempts to fire (among others) the head of the Office of Special Counsel and 17 investigators general like a normal federal HR issue? Did FEMA really just straight-up steal $80 million from New York Cityâs bank account? Is it now legal to bribe foreign companies abroad and act as an unregistered foreign agent at home? Why are we sending Venezuelan asylum seekers with no criminal records or gang affiliations to Guantanamo Bay just weeks after DHS Secretary Kristi Noem promised that it would only be housing the âworst of the worstâ? And just where exactly is the âGulf of Americaâ anyway? These and other questions from the weekâs news are answered within.
Memo from AG Pam Bondi outlining DOJ enforcement priorities (2/5/25)
RI federal judgeâs order finding Trump administration in violation of his previous injunction against the federal spending freeze (2/10/25)
âAir Jordan Tattoo Prompts ICE to Send Venezuelan Migrant to Guantanamo Bay,â Pablo Manriquez, Migrant Insider (2/9/25)
âFirst They Came For the Venezuelans,â Matt Cameron, DEPORTNATION (2/12/25)
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OA1124 and T3BE58 - Emil Bove drafted an insanely stupid and corrupt memo ordering SDNY to stop prosecuting the case against the insanely stupid and corrupt (and guilty) Mayor Eric Adams. This is absolutely a scandal and we have lost the ability to properly articulate how much of a scandal this is in light of all the other nonstop scandals. But, unlike mainstream media, AT LEAST WE'RE TRYING. We've brought in the big guns - Liz Skeen (and Matt joining on a Wednesday!)
Then, it's the usual Thomas Takes the Bar Exam, with Heather Varanini! Question 58.
If you'd like to play along with T3BE, here's what to do: hop on Bluesky, follow Openargs, find the post that has this episode, and quote it with your answer! Or, go to our Subreddit and look for the appropriate t3BE posting. Or best of all, become a patron at patreon.com/law and play there!
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OA1123 - Insurrection enthusiast Donald Trump sure seems to be looking for an excuse to invoke the Insurrection Act of 1807 in a little-noticed section of one of his flurry of Inauguration Day executive orders. We review the history of how the Constitution and subsequent acts of Congress were written specifically to keep the President from deploying troops on US soil without a very good reason, and how and why the Act has been invoked 30 times in US history. When does civil disorder become an âinsurrectionâ and when, if ever, can the President send in troops that a state hasnât requested? And why is Trump so determined to declare an insurrection on the border?
10 USC 251-255 (colloquially known as âThe Insurrection Actâ)
âThe Presidentâs Authority to Commit Troops Domestically Under the Insurrection Act,â Harold Hongju Koh & Michael Loughlin, American Constitution Society (September 2020)
âPolicy Brief: The U.S. Military May Be Used to Secure the Border,â Ken Cuccinelli & Adam Turner (3/24/24)
Insurrection Act of 2024 (IA updates proposed by Democrats)
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OA1122 - Weâre not even three weeks into the second Trump administration and already well into our first Constitutional crisis. How was the worldâs richest man given access to the nationâs checkbook and the total authority to shut down a $40 billion federal agency with 10,000 employees--and can he be stopped? After a quick review of some recent good news, we try to understand how Donald Trump and Elon Musk are illegally reshaping the federal government before closing out the news sandwich with a big L for the Proud Boys.
D.C. District Court judge Royce Lambertâs order in Doe v. McHenry protecting trans prisoners (2/4/25)
Trumpâs executive order establishing the Department of Governmental Efficiency (1/20/25)
âThe Trump-Musk power grab has happened before--in Hungary,â Zach Beauchamp Vox (2/5/25)
âU.S. Agency for International Development: An Overview,â Congressional Research Service (1/6/25)
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OA1121 and T3BE57 - Senator Bill Cassidy is one of the few remaining Republicans in national politics that resembles a normal human being. He is a doctor, and is very pro-vaccine. And he had a critical hand in RFK Jr.'s confirmation process. There seemed to be a decent chance he might not vote for the brain worms that run RFK Jr.'s flesh suit, but in the end, he did. How did he get there? How did he justify it? It's an interesting story and it says a lot about where we are right now.
If you'd like to play along with T3BE, here's what to do: hop on Bluesky, follow Openargs, find the post that has this episode, and quote it with your answer! Or, go to our Subreddit and look for the appropriate t3BE posting. Or best of all, become a patron at patreon.com/law and play there!
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OA1120- This episode was first published on our sister show, Gavel Gavel, and has been made available at no charge for our wonderful Opening Arguments patrons!
Folks, we and you deserve a little treat. And let me tell you, this is a treat. Mwuah! Chef's kiss. Here's a triple episode for ya!
Rudy Giuliani is such a piece of shit that the last real lawyers he could find quit. And so, enter... some guy from Staten Island. He gave us, and the world, truly one of the stupidest, worst written legal documents in recorded history. And in such a serious case, as well! We spend the entirety of this recording digging into it. Come for the weird typos and endless sentences, stay for the lecture on the evils of liberal democracy and wildly unnecessary references to the judgeâs father! Superstar public defender Liz Skeen joins us to draw from her past life as a NY litigator to provide the local and legal context for⊠whatever this is.âDefendantâs Memorandum of Law in Opposition to Plaintiffsâ Motion to Hold Defendant in Civil Contempt and Impose Sanctions,â Ruby Freeman & Wanshae Moss v. Rudolph W. Giuliani (12/19/2024)(SDNY)(todayâs reading)
Plaintiffâs summary judgment brief (10/2/24)
Plaintiffsâ request for sanctions (10/29/24)
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OA1119 - Trump's executive orders are bad for humanity--and just plain badly written. We survey some of the 20 major legal challenges which have been filed against this nonsense--including two early wins, and a few others which might be wins soon.
Matt then explains a recent proposed Trump enforcement tactic with concerning new potential for integration of local and federal authorities with immigration enforcement which the media seems to have missed. In related news, Trump has announced that a little-known section of the US military base at Guantanamo Bay will be used to house up to 30,000 immigrants facing deportation. We consider the history and legal issues around this far-from unprecedented plan.
Finally, our closing Bigfootnote takes a closer look at a rare intersection between cryptozoology and the law.
OMB memo dated 1/27/25
âInflux of aliensâ memo
âOffshoring Human Rights,â International Refugee Assistance Project (Fall 2024)
Trump Litigation Tracker, Just Security (2025)
Bigfoot-Ordinance-69-01.pdf (Skamani County)
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OA1118 and T3BE56 - Russell Vought lied in his confirmation hearing, but who is Vought and why should we care? Lydia gets us up to speed on this capital-d Doozy, with his background, some highlights from his confirmation hearing, and the great reporting that lets us confidently state that he lied in his hearing with the Senate Budget Committee.
Then Heather Varanini joins for the answer to T3BE question 55 and brand new question 56!
Who Is Russell Vought? Probably the Most Important Person in Trump 2.0., New York Times Opinion
âPut Them in Traumaâ: Inside a Key MAGA Leaderâs Plans for a New Trump Agenda, ProPublica
Undercover in Project 2025, Centre for Climate Reporting
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OA1117 - As Donald Trumpâs executive branch nominees continue to work their way through the confirmation process, we welcome Stanford Law professor Anne Joseph OâConnell to learn more about one of the most important legal protections we have against a fully imperial presidency. Professor OâConnell is one of the leading academic experts on the Federal Vacancies Reform Act, the legislation which Trump may or may not have intentionally circumvented in his last term to install acting heads of departments which would otherwise require Senate confirmation, and provides some essential background and context for what we might expect in his second term as his appointments continue to work their way through the confirmation process. Also covered: getting fired by Trump, defending pandas in court, Aileen Cannon and Clarence Thomasâs fringe theory about the unconstitutionality of special counsels, and what Professor OâConnell learned from her time clerking for Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
âActings,â Anne Joseph OâConnell, Columbia Law Review (2020)
Prof. OâConnellâs Stanford Law bio page
Bluesky post with Prof. OâConnellâs notice of termination from the Trump administration
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OA1116 - We take stock a few days into the second Trump administration to consider the current state of ICE enforcement, Trumpâs blatantly unlawful overrule of the recent Supreme Court decision forcing the divestiture of TikTok, and the Presidentâs new venture in cryptocurrency. Finally, todayâs footnote honors the efforts of one person who is doing her part to write history as it happens.
Judge John Coughenourâs injunction against Trumpâs executive order on birthright citizenship (1/23/25)
SCOTUS decision in TikTok v. Garland (1/17/2025)
âApplication of Protecting America from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications to TikTok,â (1/20/2025)
$TRUMP coin price tracker
âEnforcement Actions At Or Focused on Sensitive Locationsâ (original ICE âsensitive locationsâ memo)(10/24/2011)
Final text of the Laken Riley Act (sent to the President 1/24/25)
Judge Amy Berman Jacksonâs order on DOJâs motion to dismiss in U.S. v. Gregory Mijares (1/23/25)
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