Category: 3-LawSometimeCommentary

Amicus is coming to you with an extra episode because of the five-alarm threat to the balance of power in the wake of Monday and Tuesday’s memos from the White House Office of Management and Budget freezing vast tranches of federal funding. As agencies, states, and nonprofits scramble to figure out if they can make payroll or even keep the lights on, a hugely significant legal battle is brewing over what, if any, actual restraint remains on this administration’s vision of presidential power. Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Professor Stephen Vladeck of Georgetown University Law Center to understand the ramifications of a flimsy memo that threatens the very structure of government as we know it in the United States. 

The Impoundment Crisis of 2025 - by Steve Vladeck

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Post-inauguration, the Trump administration is wasting no time issuing a flurry of heinous executive orders. Melissa, Kate, and Leah walk through them and then take a look at last week’s SCOTUS arguments. Finally, they answer some listener questions about the Court’s TikTok decision and share some rare but real good Supreme Court news. 

Here’s the DEI explainer from the Meltzer Center on Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging at NYU Law. 

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

• 6/12 – NYC
• 10/4 – Chicago

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OA1117 - As Donald Trump’s executive branch nominees continue to work their way through the confirmation process, we welcome Stanford Law professor Anne Joseph O’Connell to learn more about one of the most important legal protections we have against a fully imperial presidency. Professor O’Connell is one of the leading academic experts on the Federal Vacancies Reform Act, the legislation which Trump may or may not have intentionally circumvented in his last term to install acting heads of departments which would otherwise require Senate confirmation, and provides some essential background and context for what we might expect in his second term as his appointments continue to work their way through the confirmation process. Also covered: getting fired by Trump, defending pandas in court, Aileen Cannon and Clarence Thomas’s fringe theory about the unconstitutionality of special counsels, and what Professor O’Connell learned from her time clerking for Ruth Bader Ginsburg. 

• “Actings,” Anne Joseph O’Connell, Columbia Law Review (2020)

• Prof. O’Connell’s Stanford Law bio page

• Bluesky post with Prof. O’Connell’s notice of termination from the Trump administration

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It’s barely been a week and the torrent of horrible coming from the pens and mouth of President Trump is staggering. Many of the executive orders signed this week focus on immigration, and that is where we have our eyes trained as well. This week, to help us make sense of the whirlwind that threatens to upend the lives of millions of people Dahlia Lithwick talks to Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, Senior Fellow and former policy director at the American Immigration Council, a pro-immigrant nonprofit aiming to defend immigrants through litigation, advocacy, and more. Not all executive orders are created equal, and so Aaron leads us through what’s constitutionally possible, legally probable, and already swinging into action from Trump’s immigration edicts. 

Aaron’s post about Bishop Mariann Edgar-Bunne: https://bsky.app/profile/reichlinmelnick.bsky.social/post/3lgdojbbjvk2y

Amicus’s October episode on the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 with Katherine Yon Ebright, 

American Immigration Council: After Day One: A High-Level Analysis of Trump's First Executive Actions

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OA1116 - We take stock a few days into the second Trump administration to consider the current state of ICE enforcement, Trump’s blatantly unlawful overrule of the recent Supreme Court decision forcing the divestiture of TikTok, and the President’s new venture in cryptocurrency. Finally, today’s footnote honors the efforts of one person who is doing her part to write history as it happens.

• Judge John Coughenour’s injunction against Trump’s executive order on birthright citizenship (1/23/25)

• SCOTUS decision in TikTok v. Garland (1/17/2025)

• “Application of Protecting America from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications to TikTok,” (1/20/2025) 

• $TRUMP coin price tracker

• “Enforcement Actions At Or Focused on Sensitive Locations” (original ICE “sensitive locations” memo)(10/24/2011)

• Final text of the Laken Riley Act (sent to the President 1/24/25)

• Judge Amy Berman Jackson’s order on DOJ’s motion to dismiss in U.S. v. Gregory Mijares (1/23/25)

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OA1115 - Matt joins for a special Wednesday to provide an initial review of some of the most notable of the 26 executive orders which Donald Trump signed after his inauguration on Monday. We go beyond the headlines to take a closer look at what is actually in these things, and try to sort the routine bluster from the very real threats. 

• “Undercover in Project 2025,” Center for Climate Reporting (8/15/2024)

• Restoring Names That Honor American Greatness – The White House (1/20/2025)

• Protecting The Meaning And Value Of American Citizenship – The White House (1/20/2025)

• Initial Rescissions Of Harmful Executive Orders And Actions – The White House (1/20/25)

• Restoring Accountability To Policy-Influencing Positions Within the Federal Workforce – The White House (1/20/25)

• Realigning the United States Refugee Admissions Program – The White House (1/20/25)

• Guaranteeing The States Protection Against Invasion – The White House (1/20/25)

• Ending The Weaponization Of The Federal Government – The White House (1/20/25)

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The last days of the Biden administration have come and gone, and with them, some controversy in the form of a presidential statement on ERA ratification, and some more controversial pardons.  Then came the inauguration of President Trump, and an inaugural speech some found dark and atypical, if unsurprising. The many events that followed will be fodder for future podcasts, but here we look at Presidents attempting to insert themselves in various ways that seem outside the norm, including a role in constitutional amendments.  And the norm-buster Trump sounded several themes in the inaugural that we highlight.  The speech and what followed were an avalanche of controversy, and perhaps that’s the idea, but we make a start.  CLE credit is available for lawyers and judges from podcast.njsba.com.

Some very clear themes are already emerging from President Donald Trump’s executive orders; cruel, chaotic, and fear-stoking - yes, but also - they’re rife with shoddy drafting (is that you, ChatGPT?), sloppy lawyering, and some are wildly unconstitutional. In an extra episode of Amicus for plus members, Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern begin the work of parsing a few of the many, many executive orders raining down on America in the hours since Trump assumed office for the second time. 

This episode is member-exclusive. Listen to it now by subscribing to Slate Plus. By joining, not only will you unlock weekly bonus episodes of Amicus—you’ll also 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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Some very clear themes are already emerging from President Donald Trump’s executive orders; cruel, chaotic, and fear-stoking - yes, but also - they’re rife with shoddy drafting (is that you, ChatGPT?), sloppy lawyering, and some are wildly unconstitutional. In an extra episode of Amicus for plus members, Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern begin the work of parsing a few of the many, many executive orders raining down on America in the hours since Trump assumed office for the second time. 

This episode is member-exclusive. Listen to it now by subscribing to Slate Plus. By joining, not only will you unlock weekly bonus episodes of Amicus—you’ll also 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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OA1114 - “We are now faced, my friends, with the fact that tomorrow is today.” --Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (April 4, 1967)

We begin the second Trump administration exactly where we intend to remain for the next four years: in dissent. 

Today’s Inauguration Day counter-programming features two of the most powerful dissenters in modern American history: Supreme Court Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

We begin with commentary on Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s defiantly inspiring July 1, 2024 dissent as read from the bench in the Supreme Court’s immunity decision, and conclude with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s powerful call for a “revolution of values” to end “power without compassion, might without morality, and strength without sight.” 

• Audio of Supreme Court decision announcements for July 1, 2024 (Sotomayor dissent begins as 42:00)

• Full text of Trump v. US (7/1/2024)(including Roberts majority, Coney Barrett concurrence, and Sotomayor and Jackson dissents)

• “Hear Me Roar: What Provokes Supreme Court Justices to Dissent from the Bench?” Timothy R. Johnson et al, Minnesota Law Review (2010)

• Martin Luther King, Jr. “Beyond Vietnam: A Time To Break Silence” (April 4, 1967)

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