Category: 3-LawSometimeCommentary

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 administration’s 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 administration’s 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)

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!

Leah, Melissa, and Kate once again wade through the latest malevolence from the Trump White House in a segment they’re now calling “Pod Save the Separation of Powers.” Then, they turn to what’s going on at One First Street, covering some new opinions, as well as this week’s arguments, including a case about “reverse discrimination.”

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 past week has seen firings at the Pentagon, an Executive Order targeting a private law firm, the installation of a podcaster and January 6 denialist as #2 at the FBI, and an incident in which an audience member at an Idaho townhall was wrestled to the ground and led away in zip ties by private security that answer to no lawful police entity. Is this what happens when the lawyers, police officers, military officials and other law enforcement organizations who are meant to keep us all safe, are sidelined or conscripted into lawless behavior? 

On this week’s episode of Amicus, Dahlia Lithwick speaks to Asha Rangappa, a former FBI special agent, editor at Just Security and author of the substack The Freedom Academy with Asha Rangappa. Asha explains what happens when people who are hellbent on using the law to break the law achieve positions of power, and whether the safeguards still in place can hold.

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.

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

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.

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!

Back in the studio after a couple of fun live shows, we discover that the Court has finally given us too much to talk about. We discuss the new Trump Administration's first shadow docket adventure, a number of interesting solo opinions from the orders list, the decline in summary reversals, and the overall quality of oral advocacy before the Court. We then take a deep dive into the Court's opinion in Glossip v. Oklahoma, a capital case with many factual, jurisdictional, and remedial complexities. 

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! 

We are joined by Professor Steven Calabresi, the co-founder and co-president of the Federalist Society, for three big topics.  First, he offers insights for this fraught moment in our history with a new book on a key figure from an earlier era.  Second, he finds himself on the other side from our current president on an important constitutional issue of the day.  And third, he and Professor Amar explore aspects  of unitary executive theory, where they find themselves diverging on key cases that have profound implications for many of the more controversial actions of the new administration.  All in all, it adds up to something you don’t see that often these days: a prominent conservative and a scholar often on the side of the Democrats having civil discussion and finding common ground as well as principled disagreement.  Professor Calabresi speaks for himself in this podcast, and not on behalf of the Federalist Society.  CLE credit is available for lawyers and judges at podcast.njsba.com.

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 Trump’s 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

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!

Melissa, Leah, and Kate are joined by Professor Kate Masur of Northwestern to talk about just how illegal and off-the-wall Trump’s executive order on birthright citizenship is. Then, the hosts cover the multitude of other horrors coming out of the executive branch, preview February’s SCOTUS cases, touch base with the wackos at the Fifth Circuit, and ask the all-important question: are the mens okay?

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

President Donald J Trump’s administration has been invoking a conservative legal theory as justification for his claim to possess king-like presidential powers. This new supercharged version of the “unitary executive theory” may just be extreme enough to stick in the craw of some conservative judges, but will it find a warm welcome when it inevitably lands at the Supreme Court, and should we brace for the overturning of 90 years of precedent in the form of Humphrey’s Executor? Dahlia Lithwick’s guest this week is Deepak Gupta, former senior counsel at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and founding principal of Gupta Wessler LLP, who is now fighting for his former colleagues' jobs in court. Gupta is also representing Gwynne A Wilcox, the Chair of the National Labor Relations Board who was fired via late night email in a case that is likely headed to SCOTUS. 

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.

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