Category: 3-LawSometimeCommentary

OA1199 - Voting rights expert Jenessa Seymour takes us through this week’s oral arguments in one of the most important cases before the Supreme Court this term: Louisiana v. Callais, which has the potential to end some of the most important protections in the Voting Rights Act and allow states to openly racially gerrymander their electoral districts. Also discussed: a related New York state case which may be affected by Callais, and a footnote on what one lying Chicago cop was willing to do to get out of dozens of traffic and speeding tickets--and how actual justice has finally caught up with him.

1. Louisiana v. Callais Supreme Court docket

2. Oral arguments in Louisiana v Callais(10/15/2025)

3. 52 U.S.C. § 10301 (Sec 2 of the Voting Rights Act)

4. Thornburg v Gingles, 478 U.S. 30 (1986)

5. Rucho v. Common Cause 588 U.S. 684 (2019)

6. Full text of NY’s John L. Lewis Voting Act

7. Submit a comment on the Election Assistance Commission’s proposal to add a proof-of-citizenship requirement to the federal voting registration form

8. “Chicago Cop Who Falsely Blamed an Ex-Girlfriend for Dozens of Traffic Tickets Pleads Guilty but Avoids Prison,”  Jennifer Smith Richards and Jodi S. Cohen, ProPublica (10/2/2025)

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As we continue to wade into the Supreme Court term, developments are taking place in several cases we are following. Professor Amar’s students are making constitutional news all over the place, it seems; several of them have converged on the tariff case once again, as well as now the unitary executive issues.  A new article made a splash, and it prompts us to harken back to an old one - a 1996 article by Professor Amar, in fact, which has new and possibly crucial relevance.  We begin to address some of these matters as this broad landscape takes us on legal travels that we can only begin to traverse.  CLE is available for lawyers and judges from podcast.njsba.com.

It’s Vapid Response Wednesday, and Thomas, Lydia, and Matt are back to take apart more bad-faith nonsense from some of the worst people in public life. First up: The Atlantic's Caitlyn Flanagan on why it is totally fine that her good friend Bari Weiss is taking over one of the most prestigious news organizations in the United States after running a glorified blog which has been liberated from any reasonable idea of journalistic standards.  MAGA law professor Johnathan Turley then completely fails to explain why capital-A “Antifa”--a set of tactics and ideas which he has previously acknowledged in writing is not actually a “group” and should not be treated as one--is actually a group which should be treated as one. Finally, Newsweek-ruiner Josh Hammer makes his second appearance on Vapid Response Wednesday as he responds to some weird nonsense from Candace Owens.

1. “Don’t Bet Against Bari Weiss,” Caitlin Flanagan, The Atlantic (10/7/25)

2. “They Became Symbols for Gazan Starvation. But All 12 Suffer from Other Health Problems,” Olivia Reingold and Tanya Lukyanova, The Free Press 

3. “Antifa Denial: How a Violent Anti-Free Speech Group Became a Non-Entity in American Politics,” Jonathan Turley, JonathanTurley.org (10/13/2025)

4. “Declaring Antifa A Terrorist Organization Could Achieve Its Anti-Free Speech Agenda,” Jonathan Turley (6/4/2020)

5. “Are Antifa Members Domestic Terrorists? Background on Antifa and Federal Classification of Their Actions,” Congressional Research Service (6/9/2020)

6. “Antiracist Skinheads and the Birth of Anti-Racist Action: An Interview With Mic Crenshaw,” Kelly Hayes, OrganizingMyThoughts.org (4/8/2024)

7. “Josh Hammer Responds Directly to Candace Owens’s Attack on Him,” Youtube (10/10/2025)

OA1198 - In this very special episode, Matt catches up with his Constitutional law professor for the first time in 23 years!  We follow up with our closer look at the science behind Brown v Board (OA1186) with University of Michigan Law professor Michelle Adams, who takes us through the fascinating and ultimately tragic story of how the promise of Brown ended twenty years later in the struggle to overcome de facto segregation in her hometown of Detroit. Professor Adams has literally written the book on this subject, and if you enjoyed this conversation be sure to pick up her recent masterwork The Containment: Detroit, the Supreme Court, and the Battle for Racial Justice in the North. 

1. The Containment: Detroit, the Supreme Court, and the Battle for Racial Justice in the North, Prof. Michelle  Adams (2024)

2. Michelle Adams | University of Michigan Law School

3. Milliken v. Bradley, 418 U.S. 717 (1974)

4. “Mapping Inequality,” University of Richmond (interactive maps of redlining in major US cities)

Check out the OA Linktree for all the places to go and things to do!

Leah, Melissa, and Kate are back in business, breaking down this term’s first week of arguments at SCOTUS, including a challenge to Colorado’s ban on conversion therapy for minors. Also covered: the indictment of New York’s Attorney General Letitia James, the continuing legal fights against Trump’s efforts to send the National Guard into Portland and Chicago, and Attorney General Pamela Jo Bondi’s pugnacious testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Then, Kate and Leah speak with Yale Law Professor John Fabian Witt about his book The Radical Fund: How a Band of Visionaries and a Million Dollars Upended America, which chronicles how philanthropist Charles Garland bankrolled progressive causes through his American Fund for Public Service.

• If you want to learn more about Buck v. Bell (the 1927 case Justice Alito referenced in the Chiles arguments), listen to our deep dive from 2020

Favorite things:

Leah: Protest videos from Portland and Chicago; The Sentimental Garbage podcast on The Life of a Showgirl

Kate: Writers & Lovers by Lily King, Creation Lake by Rachel Kushner; Red Clover Ranch in Wisconsin; wine and cider from Las Mujeres

Melissa: Vision & Justice; Miss Toy Poodle on Instagram

Leah will be in conversation with UCLA Law Professor Rick Hasen at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles on Tuesday, Oct 14, 2025 at 7:30 PM. Details here.

Order your copy of Leah's book, Lawless: How the Supreme Court Runs on Conservative Grievance, Fringe Theories, and Bad Vibes

Get tickets to CROOKED CON November 6-7 in Washington, D.C at http://crookedcon.com

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Troops on America's streets, threats of “plenary powers”, and extrajudicial killings in the Caribbean have prompted members of the military past and present to say that we are in the biggest civil/military crisis since the Civil War. On this week's Amicus, how SCOTUS' immunity decision in Trump v. United States helped deliver us to this scary moment. Dahlia Lithwick speaks to Yale Law School military justice expert Eugene Fidell and former JAG Maj. General Steven J. Lepper about the impossible position the military's been put in by Trump and SCOTUS and how bad that is for all of us. The Crisis in Uniform: The Danger of Presidential Immunity for the U.S. Military.

Want more Amicus? Join Slate Plus to unlock weekly bonus episodes with exclusive legal analysis. Plus, you’ll access ad-free listening across all your favorite Slate podcasts. You can subscribe directly from the Amicus show page on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Or, visit slate.com/amicusplus to get access wherever you listen.

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OA1197 - The National Guard is being federalized and sent into cities that the President doesn’t like against the explicit will of state governors and local populations. Matt covers as much as we know from the legal developments around this ongoing national emergency, and Jenessa shares some good news which is already coming out of NY’s recent recently-enhanced equal protection amendment. Finally, in today’s footnote: how do you ticket a car from a moving violation when no one is driving it?

NOTE: since the time of this recording, a federal judge has found that the Trump administration’s stated reasons for deploying federal troops in Chicago are “simply unreliable” and blocked the deployment of the National Guard. More next week on this vital story.

1. “Department of Defense Security For the Protection of Homeland Security Functions,” The White House (June 7, 2025) 

2. Affidavit of Portland Police Bureau Assistant Chief of Operations Craig Dobson, filed 9/29/2025

3. Judge Immergut’s injunction in Trump v. Oregon dated 10/4/2025

4. 9th Circuit’s order staying Judge Breyer’s injunction dated 6/19/2025

5. Memo from Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth dated 9/28/2025

6. ”For Trump Administration, Fighting Crime Takes a Backseat to Immigration Arrests,” The Marshall Project, Beth Schwarzapfel (10/4/2025)

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We welcome CNN anchor Jake Tapper to discuss his latest book Race Against Terror, a nonfiction legal thriller set in the long-ago world of 2011 in which the U.S. Department of Justice is dedicated to vigorously defending national security through strict adherence to due process and the rule of law. Also discussed: the current state of the media, why the world needed a book about Joe Biden’s mental decline which was released within days of Donald Trump being sworn in for his second term, and why Jake is no longer on speaking terms with the surviving members of Lynyrd Skynyrd.

Check out Jake’s latest book Race Against Terror, out this week anywhere you buy or listen to books!

You can watch this episode on YouTube, too!

1. Race Against Terror: Chasing an Al Qaeda Killer at the Dawn of the Forever War, Jake Tapper (2025)

2. Original Sin: President Biden's Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again, Jake Tapper (2025)

3. Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Uncivil War, VH1 (2002)(hosted by Jake Tapper)

Check out the OA Linktree for all the places to go and things to do!

Tarrifs may be Trump’s favorite word, but it remains to be seen if he has the authority he claims to employ them.  The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in November, and ahead of this, Professor Amar takes you inside the argument.  He offers the history and takes us through an originalist approach, a textual approach, a structural approach, a precedential approach, and presents the case as an advocate might.  Listen to a possible amicus brief in the making; a potential opening argument in outline and in any case, arm yourself with an understanding of the issues in this conceivably momentous case.  CLE credit is available for lawyers and judges from podcast.njsba.com.

OA1196 - This week in our continuing Still Good Law series, Matt and Jenessa take on the 1963 Supreme Court case which is still believed to hold the record for angering the most Americans at the same time: 1963’s Engel v. Vitale. Find out why a decision which even the Warren Court’s conservative justices did not see as particularly controversial to keep New York school administrators from publicly making one 22-word statement to students every morning kicked off a firestorm which is still at the heart of the American culture wars.

1. Engel v. Vitale , 370 U.S. 421 (1963)

2. Engel v. Vitale (New York Supreme Court, 1960)

3. Everson v. Board of Education, 330 U.S. 1 (1947)

4. Massachusetts General Law - Part IV, Title I, Chapter 272, Section 36 (Blasphemy statute)

5. GOD, CIVIC VIRTUE, AND THE AMERICAN WAY: RECONSTRUCTING ENGEL, Corinna Barrett Lain, Stanford Law Review (2015)