Podcast
Law and Chaos
Hosted by Liz Dye; Andrew Torrez · EN
Ignorance of the law is no excuse! That's true for a traffic stop, and it's true if you want to participate in whatever's left of American democracy. If the events since the 2016 election taught us anything, it's that tuning out is not an option. Legal journalists Liz Dye and Andrew Torrez break down the week's most important courtroom stories, so you can keep on top of this crazy news cycle. Whether it's Texas giving two middle fingers to the Supreme Court, or Donald Trump in all the courts at once, we've got you covered.
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Ep 248 — Tariff Man Returns
5d ago01:04:36Tap to summarizeDOCKET ALERTS: After SecDef Hegseth ordered testosterone testing for all troops over 30 and offered hormone replacement therapy to all, Judge Ana Reyes ordered the government to explain how this is different from the healthcare for trans men which they just banned. On Tuesday, a judge in Florida ordered Trump to turn over his financial records to the BBC in his defamation trollsuit. Turns out, when you say you've been damaged to the tune of a $10 billion, they make you show your work! Every House Democrat signed a discharge petition to force a floor vote on Rep. Jamie Raskin's No Corrupt Agreements Requiring Taxpayer Expenditures Benefitting Lawbreakers and Assorted Non-Prosecution Covenants, Handouts, and Emoluments Act, AKA the NO CARTE BLANCHE Act. MAIN SHOW: After his first two attempts to steal Congress's tariff power were blocked in the courts, Trump has now reached back 90 years for the next tool. Sure the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act massively deepened and extended the Great Depression. But Trump is really mad at Canada, so maybe this time it won't massively backfire? Meanwhile, the US Trade Representative announced a new wave of tariffs on 86 countries — putatively to retaliate against countries that sell or import goods created using child labor. Inflation is fun! Nintendo is being sued by customers who bought Switch devices during the first round of illegal tariffs. They figure if the company is getting a refund from the government, they ought to get a refund from the company. The FBI subpoenaed five New York Times journalists over reporting on the president's Qatari bribe jet. Claiming a national security emergency, the DOJ seized their phone records and demanded that they testify before a grand jury. This required prosecutors to disregard binding Second Circuit precedent and the DOJ's own published regulations — but Acting AG Todd Blanche said it was cool. At a hearing on Thursday over the motion to quash, Judge Arun Subramanian told the government to withdraw the subpoenas or he'd quash them. Eventually the DOJ agreed to withdraw, but now the court wants to know how the Justice Department came to tell so many whoppers to him, the magistrate, and opposing counsel. Talbott v. Trump [Trans service members] https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/69583866/talbott-v-trump Judge says Trump must hand over financial records to BBC https://www.politico.com/news/2026/07/21/trum-bbc-lawsuit-finances Trump v. BBC https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/72040010/trump-v-british-broadcasting-corporation/ Raskin HR 7007 [No CARTE BLANCHE Act] https://democrats-judiciary.house.gov/sites/evo-subsites/democrats-judiciary.house.gov/files/evo-media-document/hr7007_ans.pdf Ambassador Greer Issues Statement on President Trump Imposing Section 338 Tariffs on Canada https://ustr.gov/about/policy-offices/press-office/press-releases/2026/july/ambassador-greer-issues-statement-president-trump-imposing-section-338-tariffs-canada Hoffert v. Nintendo [seeking consumer recovery of tariff refunds; docket via CourtListener] https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.wawd.361585/ Nintendo v. USA [seeking corporate IEEPA tariff refund; docket via CourtListener] https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/72373888/nintendo-of-america-inc-v-united-states-of-america/ CIT Rule 25-02 https://www.cit.uscourts.gov/sites/cit/files/Administrative%20Order%2025-02.pdf CIT Rule 26-01 (July 13, 2026) https://www.cit.uscourts.gov/sites/cit/files/Administrative%20Order%2026-01.pdf In re Grand Jury Subpoenas Dated July 10, 2026 https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/73641399/in-re-grand-jury-subpoenas-dated-july-10-2026/ Show Links: https://www.lawandchaospod.com/ BlueSky: @LawAndChaosPod Threads: @LawAndChaosPod Twitter: @LawAndChaosPod
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Ep 247 — They See Me Trollin'
1w ago00:59:00Tap to summarizeDOCKET ALERTS: Minnesota passed the "Grandparents' Happy Hour" law making it legal to serve wine to grown adults in assisted living. Skol! The DOJ's Civil Division got tossed out of court in Massachusetts because it failed to respond to a motion to dismiss its lawsuit over the state's refusal to issue undercover license plates to ICE. Former Olympian David Hearn moved to dismiss the charge that he vandalized the Reflecting Pool since the government has drained the pool and is now destroying the evidence. Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín issued a temporary restraining order blocking the merger of Paramount and Warner Brothers in the antitrust case brought by California and eleven other states. DOOFUS OF THE DAY: Senator Darline Graham Nordone who decided she'd like to be a real senator, not just a placeholder for her brother until the election. So now she's ditched her last name and gotten the nod from Trump. MAIN SHOW: Trump's defamation trollsuit against the BBC is going terribly. Who knew he'd have give discovery, not just take it? So now the DOJ is bigfooting in trying to save him. There's a sealed proceeding in DC involving the Alien Terrorist Removal Court, a five-judge panel created in 1996 to hear secret cases against terrorists who need to be removed from the country immediately and without process. It has heard zero cases in the past 30 years, until last week, when the Trump administration tried to use it to deport someone without process. Is this a new ONE WEIRD TRICK the government will use to shove people out of the country? Judge Todd Eddins of the Supreme Court of Hawai'i let loose on the Supreme Court for burning down democracy in an opinion interpreting the Due Process Clause in the state's constitution. State judges are not okay! SUBSCRIBER BONUS: Wired Magazine has published multiple stories about the massive data Madison Square Gardens collects on its patrons. The venue has filed a defamation lawsuit against Wired, its parent company Condé Nast, and journalists Noah Shachtman, Maddy Varner, and Katie Drummond. SLAPP-ity slap! Andrew was a guest on the "Make It Make Sense" podcast with Grant Hermes. Andrew's episode of Make It Make Sense https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/how-john-roberts-broke-the-supreme-court-this-term/id1756553746?i=1000777268503 US v. Massachusetts [Undercover plates] https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/73400637/united-states-v-the-commonwealth-of-massachusetts/ Hearn Motion to Dismiss https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/28498026-hearnmtd/ California v. Paramount-Skydance https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/73606877/the-state-of-california-v-paramount-skydance-corporation/ Trump v. BBC https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/72040010/trump-v-british-broadcasting-corporation/ Granillo v. Hawai'i https://www.courts.state.hi.us/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/SCWC-22-0000740.pdf Granillo v. Hawaii [Supreme Court of Hawaii; majority opinion] chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://www.courts.state.hi.us/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/SCWC-22-0000740.pdf Granillo v. Hawaii [Supreme Court of Hawaii; concurrence] https://www.courts.state.hi.us/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/SCWC-22-0000740con.pdf Madison Square Gardens v. Advance Magazine Publishers [Wired/Shachtman] https://iapps.courts.state.ny.us/nyscef/ViewDocument?docIndex=L6rt5/_PLUS_WLpjJoHCLRczc_PLUS_A== Alien Terrorist Removal Court [docket 2026-TRC-1] https://www.atrc.uscourts.gov/docs/2026-TRC-1-Order.pdf Show Links: https://www.lawandchaospod.com/ BlueSky: @LawAndChaosPod Threads: @LawAndChaosPod Twitter: @LawAndChaosPod
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Ep 246 — Blanche and Buc-ee's
2w ago00:53:42Tap to summarizeDOCKET ALERTS: This week, the Senate confirmed Jeffrey Kuntz as a judge in the Southern District of Florida, making him the second former Florida state jurist who did Trump a solid in his trollsuit against the Pulitzer Prize Board and got himself promoted to the federal bench. Also this week, the Senate confirmed Matthew Schwartz to the Second Circuit, making him the third of Trump's personal lawyers to be made appellate judges. This is fine! The Trump administration sued Maryland to stop it providing in-state tuition to undocumented students. Trump's media company plans to sell early access to his posts to high-frequency traders. DOOFUS OF THE DAY: Trump's teleprompter operator Gabriel Perez got caught betting on what his boss might say on Kalshi. He's negotiating a settlement with the CFTC, but is apparently still employed at the White House. MAIN SHOW: Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche had his confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday. Any Republican defection will tank his nomination to be permanent AG. He got raked over the coals and forced to sit down with the Epstein survivors, but will probably make it through. The beloved service station Buc-ee's is suing everyone and their mother for trademark infringement. But the Buc-ee Beaver may have bitten off more than he can chew picking a fight with Mickey the Moose. SUBSCRIBER BONUS: In December, X/Twitter rolled out new image generation capabilities for its AI Grok, after which users created an avalanche of non-consensual intimate images. The site is facing a class action by minor victims. But it hopes to avoid liability by seeking a ruling from a friendly judge in Texas that the blame lies with the users who generated the images, not the site itself. US v. Maryland [In-state tuition] https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/73629368/united-states-v-state-of-maryland/ White House teleprompter operator made more than $100K betting on Trump's speeches: Sources https://abcnews.com/US/white-house-teleprompter-operator-made-100k-betting-trumps/story?id=134764573 Trump Media to Sell Faster Access to President's Social Posts https://www.wsj.com/tech/trump-media-to-sell-faster-access-to-presidents-social-posts-7a7054e8 xAI LLC v. Harwood https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/73616819/xai-llc-v-harwood/ Doe v. XAI Corp https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/72495765/doe-1-v-xai-corp/ Buc-ee's is on a Rampage and No Mascot is Safe, Wall Street Journal https://www.wsj.com/us-news/law/buc-ees-is-on-a-rampage-and-no-mascot-is-safe-80b7f03d Buc-ee's, Ltd. v. Coles IP Holdings, LLC [2026 docket] https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/72296862/buc-ees-ltd-v-coles-ip-holdings-llc/ Buc-ee's, Ltd. v. Panjwani [2015 docket] https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/72296862/buc-ees-ltd-v-coles-ip-holdings-llc/ Show Links: https://www.lawandchaospod.com/ BlueSky: @LawAndChaosPod Threads: @LawAndChaosPod Twitter: @LawAndChaosPod
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Ep 245 — Lindsey Graham: Bad Lawyer
2w ago00:58:57Tap to summarizeDOCKET ALERTS: Todd Blanche will appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee this week as it considers his nomination to be Attorney General. Can he advance without Senator Lindsey Graham, his biggest protector? Judge Tim Kelly in DC reluctantly dismissed the charges against several Proud Boys gang members convicted for their roles in the January 6 assault on the Capitol after the Justice Department walked away from the appeal. Twelve states filed an antitrust suit in California to block the merger of Paramount and Warner Brothers. DOOFUS OF THE DAY: Patrick Byrne, the former CEO of Overstock.com, who managed to lose a defamation suit against Hunter Biden. MAIN SHOW: South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham passed away this weekend. We'll discuss his failures as a lawyer and the fight to replace him in Congress. Open AI is having a rough week in court. Apple sued it in California under the Defend Trade Secrets Act, alleging that the company stole proprietary information to help it design a new phone-type gadget. And in New York, plaintiffs in a lawsuit accusing Open AI of scraping data in violation of copyright moved for sanctions because of systemic discovery violations. SUBSCRIBER BONUS: Trump's "settlement" with the IRS establishing the weaponization compensation fund for J6 criminals was ruled illegal by the court. Judge Kathleen Williams also referred Trump's lawyers, Alejandro Brito and Daniel Epstein, for bar discipline and sent records of this case to the courts considering discipline of Todd Blanche and Stanley Woodward. US v. Nordean [Proud Boys] https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/59704048/united-states-v-nordean California v. Paramount-Skydance https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/73606877/the-state-of-california-v-paramount-skydance-corporation/ Biden v. Byrne https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/67990012/robert-hunter-biden-v-patrick-m-byrne In re OpenAI https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/69879510/in-re-openai-inc-copyright-infringement-litigation Apple v. Liu https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/73602437/apple-inc-v-liu/ Trump v. IRS [docket via CourtListener] https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/72207870/trump-v-internal-revenue-service/ Show Links: https://www.lawandchaospod.com/ BlueSky: @LawAndChaosPod Threads: @LawAndChaosPod Twitter: @LawAndChaosPod
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Ep 244 — Trump Says SCOTUS Must Reconsider 'IMMEDIATELY
3w ago00:48:50Tap to summarizeDOCKET ALERTS: Trump says he's going to get the Supreme Court to reconsider its birthright citizenship ruling "IMMEDIATELY." (He's not.) He also says he's going to get SCOTUS to reconsider its denial of certiorari in the E. Jean Carroll case, and thus he shouldn't have to pay the $5 million he owes her. (Again, he's not.) Judge Lewis Kaplan ordered the escrowed funds to be disbursed to Kaplan, holding that it was time for Trump to "do equity and pay the judgment." And the Second Circuit summarily refused his "emergency" request for an administrative stay of the disbursement order. Pay up, a-hole! The DC Circuit rebuffed Trump's petition to get his name slapped back on the Kennedy Center pending appeal of the ruling that it was illegal to put it there in the first place. Olympian David Hearn was arraigned today in DC Superior Court on felony charges for having vandalized Trump's janky Reflecting Pool remodel. Former Wisconsin judge Hannah Dugan was given a $5,000 fine but no jail time after being convicted of obstructing ICE by letting an immigrant defendant exit the courtroom using the jury door. The government had sought an eight to ten-month custodial sentence. DOOFUS OF THE DAY: Ken Paxton, who separated from his wife two years ago, and still continues to use his former marital home as his address for voting purposes, according to ProPublica. MAIN SHOW: The Eleventh Circuit upheld an injunction blocking much of Florida's Stop WOKE Act (get it? get it?), which barred university professors from taking a position on "controversial" ideas like systemic racism. The state's theory is that professors are government employees, and employers can regulate speech, and thus teachers are just like Walmart greeters who can be given a strict script. The judges did not agree. In Georgia, a federal judge quashed a subpoena for a vast trove of data on every person who worked on the 2020 election. Judge William Ray reasoned that any "crime" committed would be outside the statute of limitations, and so he need not reach the propriety of the subpoena to quash it. According to a recently filed lawsuit, the Trump administration has been violating its own policies and handing Iranian asylum seekers over to the Iranian government — even after we started bombing the country. Maine senatorial candidate Graham Platner has dropped out — sort of. We'll discuss the legal implications and what happens going forward. SUBSCRIBER BONUS: Update on the "Judgefight" from Ep. 243. Judge Sparkle Sooknanan in DC says that the Trump administration cannot use the Social Security database to bulk-verify state voter rolls. Judge T. Kent Wetherell in Florida says that they must. Now what? Carroll v. Trump [SDNY docket] https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/65895581/carroll-v-trump Carroll v. Trump [Second Circuit docket] https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/73589905/carroll-v-trump/ Beatty v. Trump [Kennedy Center, DC Circuit docket] https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/73477160/joyce-beatty-v-donald-trump US v. Dugan https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/70255566/united-states-v-dugan Ken Paxton Vowed to Crack Down on "Illegal Voting." He May Have Violated Texas Election Law. https://www.propublica.org/article/ken-paxton-voter-registration-election-law Pernell v. Commissioner of the FL State Board of Education [11th Circuit Stop WOKE] https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.ca11.80813/gov.uscourts.ca11.80813.11014486517.1.pdf Iranian American Legal Defense Fund v. Rubio [docket via CourtListener] https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/73581390/iranian-american-legal-defense-fund-v-rubio/ Maine Revised Statutes, Title 21-A, §374-A [candidate dropping out statute] https://legislature.maine.gov/statutes/21-a/title21-Asec374-A.html League of Women Voters v. DHS (DC Cir appeal) [docket via CourtListener] https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cadc.43348/ League of Women Voters v. DHS (Sooknanan SAVE docket) [docket via CourtListener] https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/71499795/league-of-women-voters-v-us-department-of-homeland-security/?order_by=desc State of Florida v. DHS (Wetherell SAVE docket) [docket via CourtListener] https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/69271601/state-of-florida-v-department-of-homeland-security/?order_by=desc Show Links: https://www.lawandchaospod.com/ BlueSky: @LawAndChaosPod Threads: @LawAndChaosPod Twitter: @LawAndChaosPod
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Ep 243 — Judgefight
3w ago00:56:06Tap to summarizeDOCKET ALERTS: As Trump tries to get out of paying E. Jean Carroll what he owes her, his supporters have filed a scandalously irresponsible bar complaint against her lawyer Roberta Kaplan. US Attorney Andrew Boutros is in hot water with yet another court. The Chicago prosecutor appears to have violated a court order and publicly discussed a sealed case and has to come in and explain himself to the court. DOOFUS OF THE DAY: Rep. Anna Paulina Luna demands that the GOP investigate the masked dorks from Patriot Front who marched around DC this weekend. She's pretty sure they're really antifa! MAIN SHOW: Trump and his allies have engaged in forum shopping for years. They're currently parking all kinds of administrative and criminal cases in Texas, no matter where the "violation" occurred, because they know they can get in front of a handful of friendly judges. Now they're ginning up conflicts between those "friendly" judges and other courts. Case in point: the Federal Trade Commission is trying to manufacture a case against WPATH, the World Professional Association for Transgender Health, for "consumer fraud" — by which they mean an article summarizing best practices for gender-affirming care. After Chief Judge James Boasberg in DC quashed their subpoenas on the organization, the FTC tried to get Judge Reed O'Connor in Texas to issue identical ones. This provoked rounds of dueling non-suiting motions, until Judge O'Connor backed down and agreed not to start an internecine judicial war. Meanwhile in Florida, the state sued the Biden administration in 2024 for failing to allow it to bulk-verify voters for citizenship. When Trump came back to the White House, he entered into a settlement — or "settlement" — with Florida and the other plaintiff states promising to check their voter rolls. But then Judge Sparkle Sooknanan in DC enjoined that verification process as a violation of the Privacy Act and the Social Security Act. So now Florida is asking Judge T. Kent Wetherell to force DHS to comply with the "settlement" and violate Judge Sooknanan's order. SUBSCRIBER BONUS: Obviously Trump's Great American State Fair was a debacle. But was it illegal? (Yes.) Carroll v. Trump https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/65895581/carroll-v-trump US v. Torres https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/73572960/united-states-v-torres/ Judge orders U.S. Attorney Boutros into court over 'potential violations' of seal order https://chicago.suntimes.com/politics/2026/07/03/judge-orders-u-s-attorney-boutros-into-court-over-potential-violations-of-seal-order WPATH v. FTC https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/72295218/world-professional-association-for-transgender-health-v-federal-trade/ FTC v. WPATH https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.txnd.421590/ Florida v. DHS https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/69271601/state-of-florida-v-department-of-homeland-security/ League of Women Voters v. DHS https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/71499795/league-of-women-voters-v-us-department-of-homeland-security/ From Vanity to Insanity: How the White House Cheated the American People Out of Their 250TH Birthday https://democrats-naturalresources.house.gov/imo/media/doc/freedom250_oversight_report2.pdf Inside America's Ugly Birthday Battle https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/2026/06/trump-250-great-american-state-fair/687456/ Show Links: https://www.lawandchaospod.com/ BlueSky: @LawAndChaosPod Threads: @LawAndChaosPod Twitter: @LawAndChaosPod
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Ep 242 — SCOTUS Wanders Off For Summer, But State Judges Keep Delivering
4w ago01:07:56Tap to summarizeDOCKET ALERTS: House Speaker Mike Johnson sent everyone home for vacation rather than deal with a dissident faction in his own caucus that keeps demanding a vote on the vote-suppressing SAVE America Act Trump keeps braying for. A federal judge in New Hampshire became the tenth to dismiss a DOJ lawsuit seeking full, unredacted state voter rolls — or eleventh if you include the Sixth Circuit. In 2024, Florida sued to force DHS to bulk verify citizenship data so states could "audit" their voter rolls. In 2025, DHS entered into a "settlement" with Florida, Iowa, Ohio, and Indiana agreeing to do it, and handing power to a Trump-appointed judge in Florida to ensure compliance. But that database has now been enjoined by a judge in DC for violating the Privacy Act of 1974, so Florida is moving to enforce the settlement in Florida. And in DC, Judge Emmet Sullivan barred the Post Office from complying with Trump's executive order requiring the mailman to claw back ballots from any voter not on an approved list. This order violates a 2021 settlement the government made with the NAACP after Trump's last postmaster general tried to mess with mail-in ballots. A judge in Louisiana has dismissed a lawsuit against several academics associated with the now-shuttered Stanford Internet Observatory. The online wingnut plaintiffs alleged that they had been "censored" by scholars who pointed out that they were violating Facebook's TOS. Former CIA Director John Brennan is suing Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche in DC, seeking an injunction forcing prosecutors investigating him to retain all records. He hasn't been indicted yet, but, with Trump's minions planning a giant conspiracy indictment in Florida, he wants an order to preserve evidence for an eventual motion to dismiss for vindictive prosecution. Prosecutors trying to convict a former US Attorney in Florida for emailing herself a copy of Special Counsel Jack Smith's report on the stolen documents case were forced to admit that they'd done the exact same thing, sending copies of it to defense counsel in discovery disclosures. MAIN SHOW: The Supreme Court issued its final opinions of the term. In Trump v. Barbara, a narrow majority upheld birthright citizenship, refusing to invent some kind of exception to the plain terms of the 14th Amendment. The conservative justices continued to tear down barriers to corruption in politics, invalidating the Federal Elections Campaign Act's bar on campaigns coordinating spending with outside committees in NRSC v. FEC. And in West Virginia v. BPJ/Little v. Hecox, the six conservatives allowed states to ban trans athletes from sports. Finally, we discuss a new class action lawsuit challenging labor practices at the online gaming platform Roblox for violating child labor laws. US v. New Hampshire Secretary of State [Voter rolls] https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/71453646/united-states-v-nh-secretary-of-state/ State of Florida v. DHS [SAVE voter verification database] https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/69271601/state-of-florida-v-department-of-homeland-security Hines v. Stamos [Stanford Internet Observatory] https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/67310145/hines-v-stamos NAACP v. US [Mail-in ballots] https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/17461792/national-association-for-the-advancement-of-colored-people-v-united-states Brennan v. Blanche https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/73562893/brennan-v-blanche/ SCOTUS Trump v. Barbara (14th Amdt birthright citizenship) https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25pdf/25-365_4hdj.pdf NRSC v. FEC (PAC Coordination/campaign finance) https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25pdf/24-621_h315.pdf West Virginia v. BPJ/Little v. Hecox (trans athletes) https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25pdf/24-43_2b35.pdf Doe B.D. v. Roblox Corp. [docket via CourtListener] https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/73332976/doe-bd-v-roblox-corporation/ Eurogamer, Roblox Studio boss: children making money on the platform isn't exploitation, it's a gift [April 4, 2024] https://www.eurogamer.net/roblox-studio-boss-children-making-money-on-the-platform-isnt-exploitation-its-a-gift Show Links: https://www.lawandchaospod.com/ BlueSky: @LawAndChaosPod Threads: @LawAndChaosPod Twitter: @LawAndChaosPod
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Ep 241 — SCOTUS Burns Down The Government For Sport
4w ago00:56:41Tap to summarizeDOCKET ALERTS: From the SCOTUS orders list, petitions for certiorari denied in E. Jean Carroll's defamation suit against Trump and Alan Dershowitz's defamation suit against CNN. Pay up, a-hole! And of course, a big Nelson Muntz HA HA for Dersh. The DC man who followed National Guard troops around while playing the Imperial March from Star Wars has settled his lawsuit against DC cops, but not against the guardsmen who called them. John "Torture Memos" Yoo has been sworn in as a constitutional "advisor" to the farcical conspiracy investigation in South Florida being led by conspiracy-flogging lawyer Joe diGenova. We discuss our post on the NRA trying to sue itself into oblivion. DOOFUS OF THE DAY: Mehmet Oz MAIN SHOW: Journalist Katie Phang sued the Justice Department to make it release the remaining Epstein files, and she won! Associate Attorney General Stan Woodward told a federal judge in Virginia to get bent in the slush fund case. Big fail! The Supreme Court rules that states can accept ballots that are postmarked by election day and arrive a few days late. But SCOTUS went on to gut the administrative state in a case called Trump v. Slaughter, overturning a seminal 1935 case that allowed Congress to protect federal agencies and ensure partisan continuity by barring the president from firing agency heads and board members. The Court did carve out an exception for the Federal Reserve in Trump v. Cook, which is different for, uh, REASONS. SUBSCRIBER EDITION: We'll break down the Supreme Court's ruling in Chatrie v. US, a case involving geofencing warrants for cellphone location data. SCOTUS orders list https://www.supremecourt.gov/orders/courtorders/062926zor_1bn2.pdf O'Hara v. Beck https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/71730267/ohara-v-beck/ Yoo to advise diGenova on probe into inquiries of Trump's 2016 campaign and Russia https://www.politico.com/news/2026/06/28/yoo-to-advise-digenova-on-probe-into-inquiries-of-trumps-2016-campaign-and-russia-00979585 The NRA Is Suing Itself In All The Courts At Once https://www.lawandchaospod.com/p/the-nra-is-suing-itself-in-all-the Phang v. Blanche https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/73246595/phang-v-blanche/ Floyd v. DOJ [Slush Fund] https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/73383692/floyd-v-department-of-justice/ Watson v. RNC [late ballots] https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25pdf/24-1260_g3cn.pdf Trump v. Cook [Federal Reserve Board] https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25pdf/25a312_5468.pdf Trump v. Slaughter [FTC] https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25pdf/25-332_qn12.pdf Chatrie v. US https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/slipopinion/25#:~:text=Chatrie%20v.%20United%20States Show Links: https://www.lawandchaospod.com/ BlueSky: @LawAndChaosPod Threads: @LawAndChaosPod Twitter: @LawAndChaosPod
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Ep 240 — The Only Consistent Thing About The Supreme Court
Jun 2601:00:28Tap to summarizeDOCKET ALERTS: The administration says it's going to prosecute anyone who touches the algae-ridden Reflecting Pool at the Lincoln Memorial. So far, that seems to be more bluster than reality. Sadly, what isn't bluster is that Judges Reed O'Connor and Mark Pittman in Texas are handing down extraordinarily long punitive sentences for Antifa protestors to "send a message" not to criticize the government. DOOFUS OF THE DAY: Postmaster General David Steiner, who tried to pass off voter suppression efforts to not distribute ballots as just "best practices" for the USPS. Fortunately, Judge Indira Talwani in Massachusetts permanently enjoined that part of Trump's plan to steal the midterms and ordered declared Trump's executive order unconstitutional and void. MAIN SHOW: It was a rough week at the Supreme Court, with SEVEN decisions all reaching extreme right-wing outcomes, all by the exact same 6-3 margin, and using contradictory legal "reasoning" to get there. The Supreme Court prevented victims of human rights abuses from suing the US company Cisco, while permitting Exxon Mobil to sue the Cuban government. US v. Song [antifa protestors, docket via CourtListener] https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/71912958/united-states-v-arnold/ California v. Trump [post office injunction, docket via CourtListener] https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.mad.298518/ Exxon Mobil v. Corporation CIMEX [Supreme Court suits against Cuba] https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25pdf/24-699_f204.pdf Cisco Systems v. Doe [Supreme Court human rights suits] https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25pdf/24-856_kjfm.pdf Landor v. Louisiana Dep't of Corrections [Supreme Court Rastafarian religious liberty] https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25pdf/23-1197_h3ci.pdf Blanche v. Lau [Supreme Court lawful permanent residents] https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25pdf/25-429_h3ci.pdf Mullin v. Al Otro Lado [Supreme Court asylum applications] https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25pdf/25-5_86qd.pdf Mullin v. Doe [Supreme Court TPS] https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25pdf/25-1083_f204.pdf US v. Southern Poverty Law Center [criminal indictment of SPLC; docket via CourtListener] https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/73223865/united-states-v-southern-poverty-law-center-inc/?filed_after=&filed_before=&entry_gte=&entry_lte=&order_by=desc Show Links: https://www.lawandchaospod.com/ BlueSky: @LawAndChaosPod Threads: @LawAndChaosPod Twitter: @LawAndChaosPod
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Ep 239 — Slush Fund Funtimes
Jun 2300:56:22Tap to summarizeDOCKET ALERTS: Maryland became the ninth state to beat back a lawsuit from the DOJ's Civil Division seeking to seize its full, unredacted voter rolls. In Massachusetts, a judge allowed states to proceed with a lawsuit to block an executive order requiring DHS to maintain a master list of voters and barring USPS from delivering mail-in ballots from anyone on the list. DOOFUS OF THE DAY: Sixth Circuit Judge Amul Thapar, who was featured in a Bloomberg Law story about judges embarrassing themselves by trying to get nominated for SCOTUS if/when Justice Alito announces his retirement in July. Thapar, who is 56, started a Substack to talk about how his fitness regimen means he's really only 43. MAIN SHOW: In Minnesota, Chief Judge Patrick Schiltz quashed DOJ subpoenas for Gov. Tim Walz, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, AG Keith Ellison, and several other state officials. The court held that the subpoenas were plainly levied for an improper purpose, namely to punish state officials for refusing to cooperate with Trump's immigration raids. That's a violation of the Tenth Amendment. Also in Minnesota, charges were dropped against yet another protester from the winter immigration surge into the Twin Cities. ICE/CBP conduct here was egregious, and the US Attorney claims to be investigating. Since the satirical newspaper The Onion is planning to launch an InfoWars parody on July 2, we revisit all of the bankruptcy court shenanigans to date and talk about what might happen next in court. Finally, we check in on the Trump insurrectionist slush fund and the administration's continued refusal to actually promise in court, under oath, that it won't resurrect the idea. In the Eastern District of Virginia, the administration simply refused to file declarations ordered by the presiding judge. And in the original lawsuit Trump filed against the IRS in Florida, 35 eminent judges filed their reply brief urging the judge to reopen the case and inspect the settlement. In the Subscriber Bonus, we break down a lawsuit filed by the Ford Motor Company against a law firm in California that has an… aggressive approach to trying to get its attorneys' fees reimbursed for representing consumers who get their cars replaced under the state's "Lemon Law." US v. DeMarinis [Maryland voter rolls] https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/71980724/united-states-v-demarinis/ League of Women Voters v. Trump [Mail-in ballot EO] https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/73133197/league-of-women-voters-of-massachusetts-v-trump/ In re Subpoenas [MN subpoenas quashed] https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/73512670/in-re-subpoenas/ US v. Johnson [MN protester, charges dropped] https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/72200628/united-states-v-johnson/ Judges Jockey for Potential Trump Supreme Court Appointment https://news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/judges-jockey-for-potential-trump-supreme-court-appointment Floyd v. DOJ [lawsuit challenging Slush Fund; docket via CourtListener] https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/73383692/floyd-v-department-of-justice/ Trump v. IRS [docket via CourtListener] https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/72040010/trump-v-british-broadcasting-corporation/?order_by=desc Ford Motor Company v. Quill & Arrow LLP [fee-shifting in Lemon Law cases; docket via CourtListener] https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/73503023/ford-motor-company-v-quill-arrow-llp/ Show Links: https://www.lawandchaospod.com/ BlueSky: @LawAndChaosPod Threads: @LawAndChaosPod Twitter: @LawAndChaosPod
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