Category: 3-LawSometimeCommentary

We watched the newly-released final episode of HBO’s The Case Against Adnan Syed, and we have questions.  Are the producers really trying to pin the murder of Hae Min Lee on a Black man with obvious mental health issues who was already cleared as a suspect--and did they really need to show the world a fully-nude photo of him to make that case? What is the story that they are trying to tell here, and just how far off is it from the truth? From the libelously deceptive cold open to the slyly deceptive summary of Syed’s post-Serial legal proceedings and beyond, Matt brings his post-conviction expertise to make the case against The Case Against Adnan Syed.

FOOTNOTES

1. SIO354: “Serial's Adnan Syed Conviction Reinstated--What Happened? (w/Matt Cameron) (4/4/2023)

2. OA1067: “Adnan Syed Remains a Convicted Murderer” (9/9/2024)

3. State’s Attorney Ivan Bates’s memorandum in support of his Motion to Withdraw the previously-filed Motion to Vacate Judgment

4. 85-page Court of Appeals decision in Lee v. State reinstating Adnan Syed’s conviction (3/28/2023)

5. State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby’s Sep 14, 2022 motion to vacate Adnan Syed’s conviction

6. Judge Phinn’s September 19, 2022 order on motion to vacate

7. Attorney General Brian Frosh’s statement re: SA Mosby’s motion to vacate

8. Attorney General’s fiery response to Adnan Syed’s motion to disqualify AG’s office from representing the state of Maryland in this appeal

9. More on the feud between the Attorney General and Baltimore City State’s Attorney over the Adnan Syed conviction: “Maryland AG questions integrity of process used to exonerate Adnan Syed,” Maryland Daily Record (10/25/2022) 

10. Full transcription of prosecutor’s handwritten note which Mosby alleged constituted Brady evidence and more information in this Baltimore Banner story: “Was Adnan Syed Note Misinterpreted?” Baltimore Banner, (11/1/2022) 

11. Appellant Young Lee’s brief in Lee v. State 

12. Defendant Adnan Syed’s brief in Lee v. State

13. 2019 Court of Appeals decision finding ineffective assistance of prior counsel in Adnan Syed’s case, but not enough prejudice to justify a new trial: State v. Syed :: 2019 :: Maryland Court of Appeals Decisions 

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Born Equal is being read - by academics, pundits, historians, and citizens.  Reaction has begun to pour in, and discussion has begun.  In this episode, we bring you some of the very best flavor of such discussion - an academic symposium held at Penn Carey Law School on the book.  Professors Kate Shaw and Kermit Roosevelt each read the work with great care and deliver extensive remarks on the book, pointing out themes and insights - and raising questions.  Oh, so many questions.  Professor Amar then responds in the moment, and students in the audience pose their own queries.  The constitutional conversation continues, and is never complete.  But this one in particular will go on, as there were so many important questions raised that they could never be answered in this short interval.  But you will thrill to deep engagement and fascinating perspectives from this all-star panel of great thinkers.  Meanwhile, we also have a bonus for you: the great historian Gordon Wood has weighed in having read the book, and his extended remarks can be found at akhilamar.com/podcast.  CLE credit is available for lawyers and judges from podcast.njsba.com.

OA1192 - This week in Still Good Law: Katz v. U.S., the 1967 Warren Court case which on its face decided that the Fourth Amendment may apply to a public phone booth. But that’s hardly all: the federal prosecution of nationally-famous bookie Charles Katz also completely changed the entire framework for how U.S. courts understand and interpret the law of searches and seizures and completely upended the concept of Fourth Amendment privacy as it had been understood up until that time. Matt provides the background on Katz and how this case made it to the Supreme Court, Jenessa considers the mental health benefits of being left alone by the government, and we talk through how important this vital holding might still be at a time when we have all given up so many of our privacy rights just by living in 2025.

1. Katz v. U.S. (1967)

2. Goldman v.US (1942)

3. Silverman v. US (1967)

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Leah is joined by guest co-host Skye Perryman, president & CEO of Democracy Forward, to discuss the week’s news, including the continued pushback on the shadow docket from the lower courts and Trump’s boundless abuse of Article II. Then Kate, Melissa, and Leah — along with special guest Sherrilyn Ifill — take a look at the impact of Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, three years into her time on the Supreme Court.

Favorite things:

• Skye: Sierra Ferrell
• Leah: The Summer I Turned Pretty (Amazon); Charlie Kirk, Redeemed: A Political Class Finds Its Lost Cause, Ta-Nehisi Coates (Vanity Fair); Miolin Bakery, Brooklyn; L’Appartement 4F, Brooklyn & Manhattan 
• Kate: Pennsylvania Supreme Court election (get involved at Vote Save America)

Get tickets for STRICT SCRUTINY LIVE – The Bad Decisions Tour 2025! 

• 10/4 – Chicago

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

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Dahlia Lithwick talks to First Amendment law professor Mary Anne Franks to explore the inversion of free speech in America this past week, and to trace the ways our assumptions about the First Amendment helped to tip us into this upside-down. Dr. Franks, author of Fearless Speech: Breaking Free from the First Amendment, explains the contradictions inherent in free-speech absolutism, the role of government in suppressing dissent, and the impact of media and entertainment on public discourse. What are we to make of a movement that screamed “jawboning” and “censorship” for a decade, but when handed power enthusiastically enacts actual governmental speech suppression and censorship? And what does the First Amendment mean if the powerful are consistently afforded maximum power in the “marketplace of ideas”?

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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OA1191 - In today’s Rapid Response Friday, we examine some of the legal questions raised as the Trump administration throws as much political capital as possible behind the recent assassination of Turning Point USA leader Charlie Kirk and their implications for the future of the First Amendment rights they claim to revere Kirk for championing. Is there any legal basis for Trump to designate a “domestic terrorist group,” let alone one that even his FBI has previously admitted doesn’t exist? Matt looks back to the first Trump term to try to understand what is coming. We then examine how the states are getting around the FDA’s limitations on the COVID-19 vaccine and the latest in Trump’s litigious war on the media before closing things out with a fun footnote on the only other time in US history that a US President has sued someone for libel.

Independent media matters more than ever now that mainstream media is compromised beyond any ability to report the truth about this administration. Support the show, join the community, and enjoy bonus content and ad-free listening at patreon.com/law! Don't forget to leave a 5-star review and share the show with your friends!

1. Tyler Robinson indictment (filed 9/16/2025)

2. 18 USC 2331 (federal definition of “domestic terrorism”)

3. “Memorandum on Inadmissibility of Persons Affiliated with Antifa Based on Organized Criminal Activity” (1/5/2021)

4. “Documents Show Trump Officials Used Secret Terrorism Unit to Question Lawyers at the Border,” Dara Lind, ProPublica (5/14/2021)

5. “Migrant Caravan in Tijuana with ties to El Paso Texas,” DHS Field Information Report (10/18/2019)

6. “Trump v. New York Times Company” (complaint filed 9/15/2025)

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VR 7 - Part 1 of 2. Vapid Response Wednesday has been blessed with a surplus of truly awful takes in the days following the murder of MAGA luminary Charlie Kirk. After a brief reminder of who this man actually was in his own words, we go on to see who has achieved honors in categories ranging from Worst Obituary to Most Pretentious Response and beyond. (Next up: more of the worst, but also some of the best responses to this moment.)

You can also watch this episode on YouTube!

1. “Charlie Kirk: The American Socrates,” Owen Anderson, The Blaze (9/14/25)

2. “Je Suis Charlie Kirk,” The Editors, The Free Press (9/12/25)

3. “Charlie Kirk’s Assassination Should Herald the End of the American Left,” John Daniel Davidson, The Federalist (9/12/25)

4. “He May Have Pulled the Trigger But Charlie Kirk’s Suspected Killer Didn’t ‘Act Alone’,” M.D. Kittle, The Federalist (9/12/25)

5. “We must not posthumously sanitize Charlie Kirk’s hateful life," Erin Reed, The Advocate (9/11/25)

6. “Charlie Kirk’s Legacy Deserves No Mourning,” Elizabeth Spiers, The Nation (9/12/25)

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Happy Constitution Day!  And Happy Born Equal Publishing Day!  The book tour is underway, and we treat you to an event held live at Princeton University.  Professor Amar speaks about the bridge from the last book to this one, and in doing so, the importance of the uniquely grand sweep of his project becomes apparent - as themes from The Words That Made Us merge crucially with the new revelations of Born Equal to shed light on some of the most important constitutional questions in American history.  The audience gets involved, too, with questions that might well be your questions.  And this is just the beginning, as some amazing events have already taken place that will fill our podcasts with debate and insight in the weeks and months to come.  CLE credit is available for lawyers and judges from podcast.njsba.com.

OA1190 - “You have the right to remain silent.” Anyone who grew up on American crime dramas can recite the rest of these famous warnings from memory, but do you know the whole story of Miranda v. Arizona (1966)? In today’s entry in our “Still Good Law” series Matt and Jenessa voluntarily waive their rights, cautiously accept a cigarette and a Styrofoam cup of bad coffee from an alcoholic cop with a dark past, and spill everything they know about the most important criminal case in Supreme Court history. Matt provides the background on Ernesto Miranda’s literal life (and death) of crime and the circumstances of his arrest, interrogation, and appeal to the Warren Court while Jenessa breaks down the science of false confessions and why not just having but knowing our Fifth and Sixth Amendment rights is so important for all of us.

1. Oral arguments and decision in Miranda v. Arizona (1966)

2. Miranda: The Story of America’s Right to Remain Silent, Gary Stuart (2008)

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Our fearless hosts continue to slog through this sh*tty shadow docket summer, covering an order from the Court okaying racial profiling by ICE officers, some ominous administrative stays, Amy Coney Barrett’s ongoing press tour through right wing media, and the lower courts’ continuing frustrations with this Supreme Court. Then, Leah and Kate speak with special guest Symone Sanders Townsend, co-host of MSNBC’s The Weeknight, about how the Supreme Court is carrying out key parts of Project 2025, and enabling and facilitating other parts of the government to do the same. 

Hosts’ favorite things:

• Leah: The Guatemalan Children’s Case and the Judicial Learning Curve, Anna Bower (Lawfare); What Should a Lower Federal Court Judge Do When SCOTUS Plays Calvinball? By Michael Dorf (Dorf on Law). 
• Kate: Bonus 177: A Closer Look at Justice Kavanaugh's ICE Raids Opinion, Steve Vladeck (One First); Zohran Mamdani’s ‘Stop Sending Us Money” TikTok
• Melissa: “Trump’s Treasury Secretary Threatens to Punch Housing Official in the Face,” Maggie Haberman and Shawn McCreesh (Washington Post)

Get tickets for STRICT SCRUTINY LIVE – The Bad Decisions Tour 2025! 

• 10/4 – Chicago

Learn more: http://crooked.com/events

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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