Category: 3-LawSometimeCommentary

On December 5, 2022, the Court heard oral argument in 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis, concerning public accommodation laws, compelled speech, and religious liberty as they relate to a website designer who stated it would be against her faith to design wedding announcement websites for same-sex couples.

Join us to hear from Prof. Dale Carpenter as he breaks down the background of the case and the oral argument.

We continue our discussion with Professor Roosevelt of his new book, The Nation That Never Was. We revisit our debate on the Declaration of Independence and specifically, the meaning of “all men are created equal.” This has profound implications, it turns out, for evaluating the 1788 transition from Articles of Confederation to U.S. Constitution, the 1861 secession, and the great Reconstruction moment of the later 1860’s.  Were these all secessions of a sort?  Were they extra-legal?  Were they treasonous?  And finally, what sort of national narrative can we coherently draw from all this?  Profound implications, especially when one considers the arguments and claims of the recent 1619 project, emerge.

Today, Liz and Andrew break down a number of stories, all of which are bad news for Donald Trump, and we put all of them into the context of Trump's crimes. We also preview the forthcoming release of part of the Fulton County, GA special purpose grand jury report. Phew!

First, Liz continues to update us on the E. Jean Carroll litigation, this time focusing on Trump's post-discovery stunt in which he now is willing to offer his DNA. Find out why this is a disingenous stunt and find out all the law explaining why.

Then we learn more -- much more -- than you ever wanted to learn about Trump's document retention and destruction policies. Hint: it involves nightlights and toilets, and no, we are not making that up.

Notes Carroll II Docket https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/65895581/carroll-v-trump/?order_by=desc

Jan 6 Committee Report https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-J6-REPORT/pdf/GPO-J6-REPORT.pdf

Feb 10 Trump "Truth" https://truthsocial.com/users/realDonaldTrump/statuses/109844321125474837

McBurney order https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/23608438/2022-ex-000024-ex-parte-filing-12.pdf

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On December 5, 2022, the Court heard oral argument in MOAC Mall Holdings v. Transform Holdco, which concerns appellate jurisdiction under Bankruptcy Code Section 363(m). Join us to hear from Prof. Thomas Plank as he breaks down the background and oral argument of the case.

In today's episode, Liz and Andrew break down all the developments in the two federal criminal investigations pending about former President Donald Trump that have been delegated to Special Counsel Jack Smith.

First, in the documents case, Liz and Andrew discuss why -- all of a sudden -- Trump's team seems to be voluntarily turning over documents, along with a grand jury appearance by Trump's lawyer, Evan "the Cork" Corcoran. Is this normal? (No.)

Then, Andrew and Liz break down the bombshell news that Mike Pence has been subpoenaed to appear before Smith's grand jury, presumably to discuss 1/6-related issues. Liz brings her journalistic instincts to bear and Andrew tells us all about that other executive privilege case involving a certain former President who also definitely was not a crook.

Notes CNN Trump handover of docs https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/10/politics/trump-classified-records-laptop/index.html

18 USC § 793 https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/793

Washington Post on Judge Howell https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/12/08/trump-contempt-mar-a-lago-records/

Trump Subpoena Issued https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/feb/12/trump-was-issued-subpoena-for-folder-marked-classified-evening-briefing-discovered-at-mar-a-lago

OA13 https://openargs.com/oa13-hillary-clintons-damned-emails/

NYT Article on Pence Search ​​https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/10/us/politics/pence-fbi-home-search.html

Bloomberg article on Evan the Cork testifying https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-02-11/trump-lawyer-in-mar-a-lago-search-appeared-before-grand-jury

Washington post on Trump’s hiring of Evan the Cork https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/08/23/trump-records-mar-a-lago-fbi/

Order appointing Jack Smith - Appointment Order 5599-2022 https://www.justice.gov/opa/press-release/file/1552896/download

Pence subpoenaed https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/09/us/politics/pence-subpoena-trump.html

US v. Nixon, 418 U.S. 683 (1974) https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=5132513257326080850

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Leah and Kate talk to Jessica Valenti, writer of the Substack newsletter “Abortion, Every Day,” which documents the rapidly changing landscape of abortion rights in the U.S. after Dobbs. Plus, they highlight a federal court opinion that would allow people facing domestic violence orders to possess guns, and President Biden’s (brief) State of the Union comment about vetoing any national abortion ban legislation. 

• Listen to "How SCOTUS gutted our gun laws," about the Supreme Court's recent ruling that the constitutional right to carry a gun extends beyond the home
• Listen to "What the Fight After Roe Actually Looks Like," which recapped the first two months of a post-Dobbs world
• Listen to "Roe is dead. Now what?," which captured our immediate reaction to the Supreme Court opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization

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We revisit the leak investigation, catch up on recent news, and then take a deep dive into the recent dispute in United States v. Texas  (starting at 37:56) over the scope of courts' power to vacate administrative rules and the related controversy over so-called "nationwide" injunctions. 

Wisconsin’s State Supreme Court heard one of the landmark cases of the 2020 presidential election. During oral arguments in Trump v Biden in December 2020, Justice Jill J Karofsky participated in proceedings via Zoom from her office inside the state capitol in Madison. Outside her office window, she could see armed protesters gathered in what she later viewed as a dry run for January 6th. In a 4-3 decision, with one Republican justice siding against Trump, the Wisconsin Supreme Court voted to uphold Biden’s victory in the state. On this week’s Amicus, Justice Karofsky speaks for the first time about the fallout from that case: Fallout in her personal life, for herself and loved ones. Fallout in her professional life, with an investigation and the threat of sanction for her line of questioning in oral argument. And beyond all that, the fallout for democracy—and for the role of jurists within that democracy. 

In this week’s Amicus Plus segment, Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Slate’s Mark Joseph Stern to discuss the originalist Second Amendment ruling that puts women’s lives at risk, the looming prospect of a potential nationwide ban on a widely used, FDA-approved, abortion pill, and how the future of jurisprudence appears to be competing time machines. 

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Today's episode begins with a brief mention of the breaking news about Mike Pence that we will be covering in depth as soon as we know more!

Then, we look at a couple of lawsuits and learn why Liz isn't always a fan of the OA "read the complaint backwards" method. Does she convince Andrew? Listen and find out!

We break down the latest conspiracy counterclaims from One America Network News, while learning the difference between the conservative persecution complex worldview -- that Big Tech is censoring conservatism because reasons -- and the reality: that big companies are funding and propping up garbage conservative outlets like OANN.

After that, we move on to arguably the Worst People in the World: anti-vaxxers. Specifically, we look at a lawsuit by RFK, Jr. and a whole bunch of weirdos against All the Media for kicking them off YouTube and Twitter. It's... something, all right. But! At least we learn a little something about the Trusted News Initiative anti-trust and the media along the way.

Notes

SOTU Fact-check https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/08/us/politics/fact-check-biden-state-of-the-union.html

Dominion complaint against OAN https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.234315/gov.uscourts.dcd.234315.1.0.pdf

OAN California Lawsuit https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/21410177/oann-lawsuit.pdf

RFK lawsuit https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.txnd.371829/gov.uscourts.txnd.371829.1.0.pdf

Liz Backgrounder at Wonkette https://www.wonkette.com/antivaxx-loons-rfk-jr-jim-hoft-other-idiots-sue-news-outlets-for-booting-them-off-twitter

J.W. Howard Attorneys: We Have A Big Pirate Ship! https://jwhowardattorneys.com/

Trusted News Initiative https://www.bbc.co.uk/beyondfakenews/trusted-news-initiative/

Associated Press v. United States, 326 U.S. 1 (1945) https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=12116214944985887583

Today, Liz and Andrew have two stories for us, each touching on executive privilege.

We begin with a quick fun Liz story where what comes around, goes around, particularly in Georgia.

Then, for the first main story, Liz gives us a detailed update in the E. Jean Carroll litigation, where Trump has finally replaced Alina Habba with an actual lawyer. How's that going to go for him? Hint: probably still not great.

After that, Andrew picks up a story involving the January 6th Committee, the New York Times, Politico, Judge Beryl A. Howell, executive privilege, and the world's longest minute order. It's a deep dive and a breaking news story all in one!

Notes It's okay to vote while black in Georgia! https://www.gpb.org/news/2023/02/08/black-volunteers-passing-out-water-at-2020-albany-voting-site-cleared-of-wrongdoing

Facts about Georgia's restrictions https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2021/mar/29/josh-holmes/facts-about-georgias-ban-food-water-giveaways-vote/

Clinton v. Jones, 520 U.S. 681 (1997) https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=1768307810279741111 The world's longest minute order https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/65636836/application-of-the-new-york-times-company-and-charlie-savage-for-access-to/?order_by=desc Fed. R. Crim. Pro. 6 https://www.law.cornell.edu/rules/frcrmp/rule_6 McKeever v. Barr, 920 F.3d 842 (D.C. Cir. 2019) https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=3726944855474329424&q=mckeever+v+barr&hl=en&as_sdt=2006

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