Category: 3-LawSometimeCommentary

Even though it's summer, there's a lot to catch up on in the legal world! Leah and Melissa talk with Grace Panetta, who co-wrote a piece for Business Insider on the GOP's plans for state constitutional conventions. And then they turn toward Kansas, where voters dramatically turned out to declare that reproductive freedom is an essential part of the state constitution. They're joined by several of the activists behind the victory.

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

• 6/12 – NYC
• 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

Follow us on Instagram, Threads, and Bluesky

So much breaking news, we did an extra episode for you!

The quality of dignity is not strained. Judge Victoria Pratt presided for years over Municipal Court in Newark, New Jersey. Her experiences form the foundation of her book, The Power of Dignity: How Transforming Justice Can Heal Our Communities. In the third of Amicus’ summer season of big-picture conversations, Dahlia Lithwick and Judge Pratt explore what everyone, up to and including Supreme Court Justices, can learn from procedural justice, also known as procedural fairness. You can watch Judge Pratt’s viral Ted Talk here.

Sign up for Slate Plus now to support our show.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If you're anything like me, you've been waiting for the Andrew breakdown of the FBI warrant service on Mar-a-Lago. Well, here it is, PLUS breaking news while we were recording! We didn't yet have the info that it might be nuclear documents, which makes everything Andrew said EVEN MORE right.

Links: 18 U.S. Code § 3109, 18 U.S. Code § 3103a - Additional grounds for issuing warrant, List of attorneys who tried to steal your 2020 vote, What were FBI agents looking for in Trump's Mar-a-Lago? : NPR, Dep’t of the Navy v. Egan, 484 U.S. 518 (1988), Basic Laws and Authorities | National Archives, The FBI Just Raided Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Home, Justice Dept. using grand jury to probe Trump's Mar-a-Lago documents, National Archives had to retrieve Trump White House records from Mar-a-Lago, 44 U.S. Code Chapter 22 - PRESIDENTIAL RECORDS, 44 U.S. Code § 2202, 18 U.S. Code § 1924 - Unauthorized removal and retention of classified documents or material, 18 U.S. Code § 793 - Gathering, transmitting or losing defense information, “Lock Her Up” | Law Offices of P. Andrew Torrez, 18 U.S. Code § 2071 - Concealment, removal, or mutilation generally, Jan. 6 committee tees up 20 witness transcripts for DOJ

Seth Barrett Tillman, ‘Who Can Be President of the United States?: Candidate Hillary Clinton and the Problem of Statutory Qualifications,’ 5(1) British Journal of American Legal Studies 95 (2016) (peer review)

Seth Barrett Tillman, ‘Secretary Clinton Can Relax Because Section 2071 Disqualification Does Not Apply to the Presidency: A Response to Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey and Cause of Action (with a Short Reply from Attorney General Mukasey)’ (2015)

The recent Supreme Court term gave rise to a virtual anointment of originalism, as the Court in case after case declared originalism the approach and method that determined the result.  Professor Amar has spent a career on the study, exposition, and refinement of originalism, and that expertise is employed here to respond to these developments.  We begin a look at the great cases and controversies of American history, and through them, we define an originalism that has a clear method, recognizes its own limits, responds to critiques, and is consistent with a recognizable America - not an America with a Constitution and a jurisprudence for liberals or for conservatives alone.

Listeners will know we have been incredibly hostile to the idea of voting for or running as a third party candidate. Despite that, Matthew Hoh, Green Party candidate for Senate in NC, accepted Andrew's invitation to come on the show. So why is he running? Can we convince him it's a bad idea? Listen and find out!

Leah talks with Lee Kovarsky of the Capital Punishment Center at the University of Texas about the Supreme Court's treatment of death penalty cases.  Before 2020, there hadn't been a federal execution since 2003. In the last six months of the Trump presidency, there were 13. Lee tells us how that came to be, and what the justices' writings signal for future death penalty cases.

• Read Lee's article, "The Trump Executions," in the University of Texas Law Review

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

• 6/12 – NYC
• 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

Follow us on Instagram, Threads, and Bluesky

This is... wow. Just wow. Jones's lawyers accidentally handed over his entire cell phone and didn't remedy it when they could have. Just staggering. Get Andrew's full breakdown of this glorious happening. Also, GOOD NEWS FROM KANSAS! The people of Kansas did a good thing. And Pat Cipollone was subpoenaed by the Justice Dept! All in all just a really good news episode. Links: Hodes & Nauser v. Schmidt, House Concurrent Resolution No. 5003, Justice Dept. Subpoenas Pat Cipollone, Justice Dept. Asking Witnesses About Trump, U.S. v. Nixon, Cassidy Hutchinson kept working for Donald Trump for 9 weeks, Jones video, Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668 (1984)

Events continue to unfold, causing us to look back, forward, inward, and outward.  A new bill is introduced which takes us back 20 years and ahead 18 years.  Professor Amar conducts an unprecedented interview - maybe we shouldn’t use that term - and you are there.  A moot court from 23 years ago reappears in the present.  And lessons from nearly 250 years ago will unfold in the next year - and affect us forever.  Professor Amar unwraps this scroll.

In today's doom coverage, Andrew breaks down Moore v. Harper and how it is completely outrageous that the Supreme Court granted cert. It's bad. It's real bad. But guess what! It's also worse. In the first segment, we talk about the likelihood that the Secret Service texts were lost accidentally. Lots of tech people contacted us about prior coverage.

Links: Cert petition, Amicus by the national Republican redistricting trust, Bush v Gore, McPherson v Blacker, Smiley v Holm, opposition brief