Category: 3-LawSometimeCommentary

Over the past calendar year, the Supreme Court’s center has shifted to the right and then more to the right, and the justices’ decisions have time and again facilitated Trump’s agenda. But the Roberts majority is not simply focused on what the current president wants; it has its sights set on a larger project: voting. Suppressing and constraining and problematizing the core function of democratic rule. In this episode, Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern reflect on the significant developments at  the Supreme Court over the past year with an eye toward the implications of the court's decisions on democracy, voting rights, and the erosion of checks and balances. Looking back at the past year at One First Street, Dahlia and Mark trace the cases that reveal the court’s long game, with elections coming quickly, and discuss the forces for and against democracy being exerted within and without the high court. Then, they turn to the urgent matter of what you and I can do about it.

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OA1219 - This year we are celebrating Boxing Day by not doing whatever people are supposed to do on Boxing Day and talking about weed instead. Did Donald Trump really just finish out 2025 by doing something good for US drug policy? We hotbox some Time Machine to revisit Matt’s analysis from last May of Joe “Grandaddy Purple” Biden’s announcement that he was initiating the long process to have the federal government to reclassify OG Kush from its current legal status as Green Crack down to the same category as metabolic steroids. We then return to the present to check in on the weirdly unreported story on how Biden’s efforts went from Blue Dream to Trainwreck in the year after his big announcement before evaluating Trump’s chances of turning cannabis policy Panama Red. 

Finally, in a seasonal footnote Matt shares the story of how the city of Boston fired the first shots on the War on Christmas… in 1659.

1. Biden DOJ's analysis of legal questions around plans to redesignate cannabis to Schedule III

2. “Increasing Medical Marijuana and Cannabidiol Research,” The White House (12/18/25)

3. “The Penalty For Keeping Christmas,” Archive.org (Boston, 1659)

Presidential power is abridged, for a change, by the Supreme Court in its shadow docket ruling in Trump v. Illinois.  Rather than ruling in silence, however, this time the Court gives us 25 pages and 4 opinions to chew on.  We examine the history behind issues of deployment of the Army as well as the Guard/Militia on domestic soil, which leads us to discussions of Militia Acts, the Military Amendments, and basic constitutional principles.  Professor Amar discusses the implications for the coming big rulings on tariffs and birthright citizenship he sees in the alignment the Court assumes in this ruling. Just as this is not the Court’s last word in this case, we will have more to say in subsequent episodes, but this discussion will leave you armed, if you will, with the tools to see the issues clearly.  CLE credit is available for lawyers and judges from podcast.njsba.com.

E18 - Congress required the Department of Justice to release (nearly) everything it had from the investigations into Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell by December 19th, so of course they pretended to do that on time on Friday afternoon and then waited until everyone was just about to start heading home for the holidays before actually dumping 30,000 pages of anything resembling actual substance into the record on Tuesday morning. We review and discuss new revelations on how much more time Trump spent on Epstein’s plane than we ever knew, the 30-year-old FBI report that could have changed everything, the astonishing correspondence between the prosecution and the Epstein defense team throughout his 2008 plea negotiations, and so much more.

You can also watch this episode on YouTube!

1. The Epstein Files Transparency Act 

2. Epstein Files database (Camaron Stephenson)

3. DOJ Office of Professional Responsibility report on Epstein plea negotiations (NOV. 2020)

4. Maria Farmer's 1996 report to the FBI

5. Opinion and Order from Judge Kenneth Marra in Jane Doe cases summarizing DOJ’s failure to advise Epstein survivors of the 2008 Non-Prosecution Agreement and plea

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

OA1218 - What happens to your first amendment rights when you work for the government? Do you give it all up when you walk in the door? How do we balance the individual right of the worker to speak, against the government’s need to have a functioning work place? Pickering v Board of Education (1968) sets us up to understand how this all works… and why a teacher criticizing Charlie Kirk on their personal Facebook page probably isn’t a fireable offense.

Patrons got exclusive content at the end of this one, only available at patreon.com/law! Can you apply these principles to eight cases that followed Pickering? Quiz yourself alongside Thomas!

• Pickering v Board of Education, 391 U.S. 563 (1968)

• A summary of the history of criminal defamation law, Robinson, E.P. (2024, July 5). Criminal libel. Free Speech Center at Middle Tennessee State University.

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

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It’s that time of year when Leah, Melissa, and Kate put on their influencer hats and recommend the things that made their days a little brighter in 2025. This year, they’re joined by two special guests: rockstar Strict Scrutiny intern Jordan Thomas to share some of his picks, and former Chair of the Federal Election Commission Ellen Weintraub to discuss two of democracy’s favorite things—independent agencies and the regulation of money in politics. 

Favorite things:
 

• WANT
  • Leah: Cozy Earth Bubble Cuddle Blanket, Jones Road Just Enough Tinted Moisturizer
  • Kate: Aventura electric scooter, Grüns Superfood Greens Gummies
  • Melissa: True Botanicals, e.l.f. Camo Liquid Blush
  • Jordan: Tea Tree Leave-In Conditioner, Pink Oil Moisturizer, 
     
• NEED
  • Leah: Peloton stretching classes, Farmhounds dog treats; Badlands Ranch dog food
  • Kate: custom bobbleheads & action figures, Lilly Allen’s tour, Strict Scrutiny’s upcoming West Coast tour
  • Melissa: Caddis readers, Blackwing Matte pencils, As Ever Rosé
  • Jordan: 2026 Evanescence and Korn tours, these headphones
     
• WEAR
  • Leah: Forme Power Bra, Argent, TheRealReal
  • Kate: Strict Scrutiny onesies, Cozy Earth Studio Wide Leg Pant
  • Melissa: Quince yak wool sweaters, Uniqlo White T-Shirt, Clearly Collective Collegiate Scarves, WaySoft Cashmere Beanie
  • Jordan: Crooked Con Merch, Mavi jeans
     
• READ
  • Leah: The Wedding People, Alison Espach; Julie Anne Long’s Pennyroyal Green series; Lisa Kleypas’ Wallflowers series; These Summer Storms, Sarah MacLean; Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil, V. E. Schwab; The God of the Woods, Liz Moore; Book of the Month
  • Kate: The Power Broker, Robert Caro; Who Is Government? Michael Lewis; Character Limit: How Elon Musk Destroyed Twitter, Kate Conger & Ryan Mac; The Radical Fund, John Fabian Witt; Isola, Allegra Goodman; Heart the Lover, Lily King; Martyr! Kaveh Akbar; The History of Sound, Ben Shattuck
  • Melissa: Matriarch, Tina Knowles; Black in Blues: How a Color Tells the Story of My People, Imani Perry; Jane Austen's Bookshelf, Rebecca Romney; Atmosphere, Taylor Jenkins Reid; The Book Club for Troublesome Women, Marie Bostwick; The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny, Kiran Desai
  • Jordan: Lawless, Leah Litman; The Sirens' Call, Chris Hayes; Bad Law, Elie Mystal; Charles Sumner: Conscience of a Nation, Zaakir Tameez; Just Shine! How to Be a Better You, Sonia Sotomayor
  • Ellen: Deanna Raybourn’s Veronica Speedwell Mysteries; Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone, Benjamin Stevenson; The Black Wolf, Louise Penny; Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays the Rent, Judi Dench; This Is Happiness, Niall Williams; Elizabeth Strout; Amor Towles

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

• 3/6/26 – San Francisco
• 3/7/26 – Los Angeles

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

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In mid-March of 2025, ACLU attorney Lee Gelernt and his colleagues started hearing that the Trump administration might attempt a flagrantly lawless publicity stunt, involving migrant men, secret flights to El Salvador, a notorious gulag, and a total disregard for due process. Despite getting word that something was about to happen, and rushing into a Saturday night hearing, and then securing a TRO from DC judge James Boasberg, Lee and his colleagues were unable to prevent more than 250 men from being renditioned from Texas to the CECOT torture prison in El Salvador. The legal cases spawned by the dramatic events of March 15th 2025 haven’t gone away, indeed they are reaching crucial milestones in the courts, raising foundational questions about the abuse of statutes and what it means to defy court orders. On this week’s Amicus, Dahlia Lithwick is joined by the ACLU’s Lee Gelernt who is litigating these cases, to discuss the very high stakes of a set of cases that may have fallen off your radar in the shuffle. 

How these cases play out will dictate much of what happens for the rest of Trump’s term in office by answering democracy-defining questions such as whether the antiquated and radical wartime powers of the Alien Enemies Act can be unleashed on people the government deems enemies domestically, whether court orders are actually directives the Trump DoJ is bound  to follow, whether the district courts can require Pam Bondi’s justice department to assist in the finding of fact, and whether the ancient legal concepts protecting liberty of due process and habeas corpus have the force of law in Trump’s America. 

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We're back to break down a month's worth of shadow docket activity -- three recent summary reversals, plus the stay in the Texas gerrymandering case (Abbott v. LULAC). We also discuss the launch of the SCOTUSblog "interim docket blog."

OA1217 - Well, we recorded a bit late to make sure we caught Trump's "announcement" thingy and it was... nothing. But that's good!

Matt also takes us through more travel bans that are going into effect and have been way underreported on. But The Federalist has a piece saying not only is this all great, but Trump should proudly adopt 1920s immigration policy. There is no quiet part anymore.

But fortunately, Matt has a fun footnote for us to bring us back up!

One of the most promising new faces in the US Congress, Representative Maggie Goodlander, joins us for a wide-ranging discussion, including the recent video assuring our troops that they may not obey illegal orders, and the aftermath of that simple offer of support.  You may not know that this first-term congresswoman has served in our military for 11 years; has clerked for a Supreme Court Justice; has served in the White House; has been senior advisor to both Republican and Democratic Senators; has studied under Professor Amar - and much more.  Hear from her, and see that there are still talented American patriots that seek to defend the Constitution.  CLE credit is available for lawyers and judges from podcast.njsba.com.