It's OA Bar Prep with Heather! We get the answer to last week's hot firefighter question, and then a new question involving pizza and promised payment!
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In Trump v. United States, we have said that the Court went far astray from the Constitution and from its duty, endangering the nation in the short and long terms. Many have shared this opinion and these fears, and reaction has been profound. In the New York Times, two law professors take up the pen and offer a number of suggestions that purport to restrain and direct the Court towards Congress’ will, assuming that Congress agrees with the authors, that is. Senator Schumer in a recent bill took a similar though not as extreme direction. We identify the flaws with these approaches, and offer an alternative that would be constitutional, and has an actual chance of being effective, based upon history and constitutional structure. We also take up some fascinating readers’ questions, including one which might matter for some overseas voters. CLE credit is available for lawyers and judges from podcast.njsba.com.
The MAGA movement has just taken a hard turn to the extreme right with openly fascist messaging from Donald Trump about “migrant crime,” “occupied cities,” and “bad genes.” We take a moment to absorb this alarming reality before Matt also explains how US immigration policy has always been the leading edge of American protofascism--and why Adolf Hitler personally admired it--before taking a look at Trump’s actual 2024 immigration promises and what keeping them would mean for us all.
After covering some breaking news, Kate, Melissa and Leah recap last week's oral arguments at the Supreme Court, including cases about civil rights, ghost guns, and the death penalty. Come for the palpable tension between Justices Alito and Kagan, stay for SG Prelogar gently explaining to Justice Alito how a gun isn’t like an omelet.
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“Prosecutors elicited perjury and a man's gonna go to his death. We can't allow that to happen.” – Paul Clement, October 9th, 2024.
This week the US Supreme Court heard arguments in the latest chapter in the complex and prolonged legal battle involving Richard Glossip, who has been on Oklahoma's death row since his conviction for a 1997 murder-for-hire. Following two independent investigations into allegations of prosecutorial misconduct, suppression of material evidence, and a history of inadequate defense counsel, Oklahoma’s Attorney General took the bold step of confessing to constitutional error in the case and supporting a new trial. But Oklahoma’s State Supreme Court is pressing on with Glossip’s execution, and so, on Wednesday morning, the High Court heard a case long on the appearance of process and short on actual justice. Don Knight, Richard Glossip’s attorney of almost 10 years, provides insights into the flawed process, and the shocking revelations from newly discovered evidence boxes. This case highlights broader questions about justice, fairness, and trust in the American legal system…. Leading us to an update from the latest inductee to the Lady Justice Hall of Fame – Amicus listener Barbara Hausman-Smith, and her one-woman protest at One First Street. Listen to the end of the show to find out what links this 76-year-old grandmother from Maine to the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and SCOTUS’s landmark decision to legalize equal marriage in Obergefell in 2015.
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OA 1076: In the wake of the devastation left by hurricanes Helene and Milton, we examine the state of FEMA’s Congressional funding. Has disaster relief actually become a “partisan” issue, or is this really just a Republican thing? How are these funds distributed, and why can’t Congress ever seem to fully fund anything? Matt explains why the current state of Congressional appropriations has him looking for flights to Denmark. Then: Why is Ron DeSantis’s Department of Health threatening to bring criminal charges against local TV stations airing pro-choice ads in support of Florida’s proposed Amendment 4?
Finally, we drop a footnote to check in on the current state of the longest-running criminal trial in Georgia history and listen in on what the judge most recently assigned to the Young Thug RICO case has had to say to Fani Willis’s office about how they are handling it.
It's T3BE43! First, Heather gives us the answer to last week's question about the 6th amendment right to a jury trial, and then we get a fun question involving an issue not talked about enough: discrimination against hot firefighters.
The Supreme Court has, through its recent follies, managed to bring the status of ex-presidents into the spotlight. How appropriate, then, that perhaps America’s greatest ex-president reaches a milestone this past week: Happy Birthday, President Carter. The ex-presidents, it turns out, have told a myriad of stories through the centuries. America largely avoided succession crises until recently, but as far back as Alexander Hamilton, the potential for mischief was seen and feared. Professor Amar, one of the few who have studied ex-presidents in any detail, treats us to a master class in this unusual but suddenly vital group of Americans. CLE credit is available from podcast.njsba.com.
Leah, Melissa, and Kate kick off with a look at Jack Smith’s unsealed brief on Trump’s election interference case before digging into some cases the court is hearing this week, including one centered around ghost guns–unserialized guns that can be put together from component parts. Then, Melissa and Leah speak with Doha Mekki and Jonathan Kanter of the DOJ’s Antitrust Division about how antitrust law can be a vehicle for progressive social change.
Listen back to our 2023 interview with one of Richard Glossip's lawyers
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Is it okay to call Trump a “fascist”? Is our democracy itself really on the line next month? And what might our legal system look like after a second Trump term? We look behind the headlines to begin to examine the nuances of these questions in this first of several planned episodes on the current state of the American right.