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Welcome to this episode of Sister sidebar with Barb McQuaid and me, Kim Atkins Storr. If you have a question for us, please email us@sistersinlawoliticon.com or you can tag us on social media and ask your questions there. But don't forget, we don't just have to, you know, take what you type. We can hear what you say. Just record a voice note on your phone and send it to sisters in lawoliticon.com and we may play your question in your voice right here on Sister sidebar. We want to hear you. It's like you're having a conversation with us, so try that as well. So let's get started. Barb, I'm going to start with you with a question from Lindy.
B
Hello, Sisters love the shows. This is Lindy from the Chicago suburbs. My question reflects my confusion about the fifth Circuit Court's rule ruling requiring an in person visit to a healthcare provider to obtain methapristone and the Supreme Court's temporary stay of that ruling. I thought an earlier Supreme Court ruling had limited the lower court's power to issue nationwide injunctions. Could you explain how all this fits together? Thank you, Lindsay. That is such a good question. In fact, when this decision came down, I had the same question myself, which is, wait a minute, I, I thought the Supreme Court has struck down universal or nationwide injunctions. How is that still a thing? But the answer is in that case, that was the CASA case. It was an early iteration of the birthright citizenship case. This procedural issue, what they said is that ordinarily there should not be nationwide or universal injunctions unless they are necessary to provide full relief that is sought by the plaintiffs in that particular case. And so here, this did meet that exception because the state of Louisiana was suing to block the Food and Drug Administration from what it claims is an unlawful regulation. That is the rule that allows the distribution of mifepristone without being present with a doctor or prescriber there in case there's some, you know, emergency that might arise. So this is one of those rare exceptions that the Supreme Court said where it is permissible to have a nationwide injunction. All right, here's a question from Michael, who asks, how did the majority in Calais argue that a showing of effect would be replaced by one of intent? Oh, I love this question. Could that finding be reversed by legislative action? Oh. What do you think, Kim?
A
Oh, man. So, yeah, this is a really, really great question because one of the, one of the parts of the holding in Calais Indeed was that in order to bring a claim under section 2 of the Voting Rights act, which the majority claims they did not actually strike down, you would have to prove that lawmakers intended to discriminate on the basis of race, rather than just a particular gerrymander, had the effect of discriminating on the basis of race and diluting the voting power of black voters. The rationale was based on a previous ruling by the court that we've talked about in a case called Rucho, which held not only that it was not unconstitutional to gerrymander on the basis of partisanship. So, you know, you're trying to boost the number of one party or another, but that courts can't even consider challenges to that, that it's non judiciable. And so the rationale of Justice Alito in Calais was that, well, if. If a state does it for partisan reasons and it has the effect, you know, just the effect of potentially, you know, seeming like it targeted black people, well, that's not. That's not in actionable thing under the Voting Rights act. So you have to actually prove the intent that it was meant to be racial. Now, y' all know, as I've said more than once on this podcast, the Venn diagram of a partisan gerrymander and a racial gerrymander is a circle in most of these cases. So it was basically served as a get out of jail for racial gerrymandering free card in that. But to your next question about if there's anything Congress can do about it, I would say limited, not based on Calais, but based on the shadow docket ruling after Calais, which allowed Alabama to move forward with its case because in Alabama, in the lower court had found it was an intentional racial gerrymander. So in that case, they referred back to Calais to say that because race was considered in remedying that it violated the Constitution. So what the court did not overtly with its full chest in the text of Calais, but quietly in a shadow docket ruling that came afterwards was basically hold that Section 2 is unconstitutional and Congress cannot write a law that changes the Constitution. Sadly, no, I don't think that there is much that Congress can do until or unless we get a Supreme Court that actually reads the law and the Constitution correctly and overturns. Kalai.
B
Yeah, you know, just to put a fine point on it for our listeners, there's this popular view that Chief Justice Roberts likes to espouse that our Constitution is colorblind and the best way to end race discrimination is to stop discriminating on the basis of race. But he ignores the whole concept of strict scrutiny, which is that Congress can find that if there is a compelling governmental interest, like not suppressing the votes of certain groups of voters, then if it enacts a law that is narrowly tailored to achieve that goal, then that is constitutional. And he acts like that's not a thing when it comes to voting, that no intrusion whatsoever that considers race in any way can be constitutional. You know, they call it colorblindness, but if you ask me, it's willful blindness.
A
Boom.
B
What do you think of that?
A
Get it right on the nail, Barb. Thank you. All right, so our next question is from Alan, who asks, is Trump immune from IRS audits forever or just those that are currently ongoing? Well, right now he's not immune at all, but they're trying to make him immune under this new, ridiculous, ridiculous slush fund gambit that we talk about. We really break it down. Make sure you listen to our Sisters in Law episode this week, because we really break that down. But Barb, what do you think?
B
Audits are forever. Was that a James Bond movie? Audits are forever. This is of course referring to the addendum to the settlement, Trump's weaponization fund, grift fund, whatever you want to call it, where in addition to giving him an apology and setting up a $1.7 billion fund for so called victims of weaponization, they also said that the IRS would be precluded from any audit or claim against President Trump forever. However, it was for any issue of which that that currently exists. So as of the date of this document, which is like May 20, 2026, anything from that date or earlier, Donald Trump now has, you know, essentially immunity from an audit forever. That's what Todd Blanche has purported to give him. Maybe this will be challenged and will not be enforceable, but that's it. Now, if on May 21st he commits a brand new tax offense, that's still fair game. So, you know, the guy's 79 years old for the first 79 years of your life. President Trump, we're all good. Forget about it now. Don't go doing anything else because that's outside the scope of this settlement. So, you know, I know there already have been some challenges filed to this thing, so we'll have to see how this holds up. But that's the gist of the agreement that was signed. All right, Kim, here's another one for you. This is from Natalie. Do the justices on the Supreme Court still get along? Has there ever been a more? Oh, I think I think we don't. Has there ever been a more divisive or divided court?
A
So, okay, so in some recent comments, recently at public speaking events, both Justices Amy Coney Barrett and Ketanji Brown Jackson claimed. Claimed that rumors about acrimony between the justices were overblown. So the point that Justice Barrett made was, you know what? The vast majority. The vast majority of the cases that we decide are done unanimously or very lopsided. So there's not a lot of disagreement. It's just a small percentage of cases that are divided along, you know, what people think are ideological lines. Okay, yes, Justice Barrett, that is true. The vast majority of cases they decide about, you know, bankruptcy regulations or ERISA or, you know, what, the Federal Arbitration act are unanimous or nearly so. But the ones that get the blood boiling tend to be the ones that are sharply divided and create the really pointed back and forth between the opinions and the dissents. So I get what you're saying, but that doesn't really answer the question when Justice Jackson was asked outright recently at a school that she was speaking at, what the, you know, what the atmosphere was like among the justices. She said, and I quote, yeah, no, it's fine. And apparently, according to Politico, my friend Josh Gerstein, who was there, said that drew some sort of, you know, skeptical laughter in the crowd where people are like, we just, we just read what you wrote about Alito. Like, come on. And in Jackson's defense, when she came on the court, it was already on fire. I mean, I don't think she, like, she knows nothing about being on a court where Justice Scalia goes on vacations abroad with Justice Ginsburg. She didn't know the court where Justices Sotomayor and Gorsuch were very close, so much so that they did this, like, joint national speaking thing, talking about encouraging people to have better civic education. Right. And they grew close. I don't think they're doing that anymore. So, you know, Jackson came on right after Dobbs, so she is only known this court to be on fire. So maybe compared to that, it was
B
already on fire when she arrived. The house is on fire.
A
It hasn't gotten any worse. But I just can't believe that, you know, Kagan and Alito are having tea. I just, I just, I don't buy it. I know they don't want to. They want to seem like everything's getting along, but I'm skeptical.
B
I think this is an idea for a Saturday Night Live sketch. Can you see it now? I totally like it. Everything's fine. We get along and then you know, the language and the opinion. Like her opinion is naive and ridiculous. Lawless keeps getting worse and worse.
A
Yeah. Then they have to show up at a holiday party.
B
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B
Our next question is an audio question from Kristen. My name is Kristin and I'm from Salem, Oregon. I am so fed up with this gerrymandering situation that we all find ourselves in. Is there anything at the federal level that would prevent states from developing an at large system for organizing congressional districts? It seems we could just randomly assign citizens to a particular district representative and leave it at that. Is there anyone else working on this problem?
A
Thanks, Kristin. That is a great question. I too am very disheartened by all of the shenanigans with respect to the Supreme Court striking down the Voting Rights act and so many voter protections that seem to be going by the wayside and about how the future of congressional apportionment will look. As to your question, no, there is nothing that. Well, let me start it this way. There's nothing that the federal government can really do to change the way that the power of the states in apportioning the law that's set by the Constitution, except for some minor regulation that Congress can do with respect to federal elections. By and large, election administration is up to the state. So if a state has the will and wants to do apportionment fairly, regard whether it's by using a randomization like yours. I worry a little bit about pure randomization because it matters for representation that you do that. You keep communities together because people in communities share interests. They share a lot of commonalities that would be lost if somebody from one district is hundreds of miles away or if you pocket everybody up. That might end in the same kind of dilution that you're trying to fix. But there are ways. Listen, we have computer programs that can keep communities together that can make sure that people are more evenly spread throughout the state. That can really do a lot of things that would ward out things like racial targeting and other stuff that the Voting Rights act used to do. So if states have the willingness to do that, they have the power to do that. States like Michigan that set up independent redistricting boards in order to handle that. Taking it out of the, you know, the fire and the, the partisan, you know, fog of state houses. That's a good idea. But there's nothing that Congress can do to stop states right now. Let's hope that, you know, we don't get a Supreme Court case where the high court says otherwise. But the Constitution is pretty clear there. So that's why I always advocate that voting is important, not just in the federal elections here in Washington, D.C. but in your local and state election. Local officials and state officials are the ones that carry out your election. So if you want your elections to remain free, fair and open, make sure you elect candidates in your community and in your state that are going to ensure that that happens. That's more important now than ever. All right, our next question is from Sam Barb, who asks why was some potential evidence found on Luigi Mangione? Is it Mangione? Am I saying that right?
B
It's Mangione.
A
Mangione. Okay. I want to say it right.
B
I guess I'm not sure. I've never met the man.
A
Well, that's okay with me. Why was some potential evidence blocked from use but not others? Isn't knowledge of it enough to bias a jury?
B
Oh, great, Great question, Sam. And there's. There's kind of two parts to your question here. So first, why, why was some of this evidence suppressed? So you may recall the facts of this case. He was spotted in a McDonald's in Pennsylvania. And some, you know, kid working behind the counter calls the police, like, oh, my God, Luigi's here. And the police come. And there are certain exceptions to the warrant requirement that allow you to seize evidence even without a warrant. And one of them that they relied on was search incident to arrest. And that search doctrine allows officers to search things to prevent an individual from harming the police officer. So you can look in their pockets, you can look at anything within their immediate vicinity. But what they did is they grabbed. They grabbed the backpack. Now it's not in his vicinity anymore. And they take a bunch of stuff out, including a cell phone and a wallet and some other kinds of things. They later get a warrant for the other contents of the backpack, including, crucially, this notebook that contains what some have described as a confession. You know, he talks about taking out a CEO and some other kinds of things. So ultimately, I think the evidence they need will stay. One interesting fact is that this exact same motion was also filed in the federal case. This is the state case. You know, the state has charged him with murder. And then there's a federal case for anti stalking and murder in connection with stalking. And the federal judge admitted all this stuff and said all of this was properly within an exception to the warrant requirement, but nonetheless, the New York law enforcement authorities said, you know what? We're good. We just want to move on with this case. We don't want to delay it with an appeal. We've got everything we need. We'll go forward. But the other question you ask, which is a very good one, is, isn't knowledge of this evidence enough to bias a jury? And potentially, yes. Now, in a case like this that has been quite well covered by the media, it will be important that there be some very rigorous jury selection done. You know, most. Most cases, members of the public have never heard of the case or the parties, and so you can select the jury without any problem. But in a case like this, I imagine there will be extensive questioning of the jurors about what they know about the case. Now, you can't say, did you read the thing about the evidence being suppressed from his backpack? But people will be asked, have you heard, you know, evidence coverage? Here's one thing that always surprised me as a prosecutor. You will be amazed at how many people have never even heard of this case or heard of this guy. There are people who live in New, certainly not you dear listeners, who are very engaged and tuned in what's going on in the world, but there are a lot of people out there who are just busy running their lives and their families, and they don't pay attention to the news. Like, I've never heard of this guy. I don't know anything about it. Yes, I can be fair. The other thing to know is it isn't necessary that a person never have heard any of this. What they have to commit to is that they will decide the case based only on the evidence they hear in court and not on anything they might have heard outside of court. And if they can make that promise, then that's sufficient as well. But no doubt there will be some extensive screening because of the pretrial publicity of this case about this issue, as well as many others.
A
Yeah, that happens all the time. I mean, I'm thinking about the Boston Marathon bomber case, you know, that was tried right there in Boston, and they were able to get jurors that were able to deliver a verdict. So it's more possible than you think that it is, because no case in the history of at least my lifetime in Boston was more covered than that one.
B
Yeah. Especially with a jury from the Boston area.
A
Yeah, yeah, right there.
B
Were you there at the time. Were you there at the time of the bombing?
A
I was. I was working for a Boston news organization. But I was not there. I was here in D.C. but man, you really. It's like the ground shifted after that case happened. It was something for sure.
B
Our next question comes to us from Walter, who asks, is the statute of limitations always a get out of jail free card? Are there any famous post limitation confessions? Kim, what do you think about that?
A
Ooh, this is really interesting. So I would not say that the run of the statute of limitations was. Is always a get out of jail free card. Some things can happen, such as tolling, which means that in some circumstances, the time that a statute is running might be paused based on circumstances such as the person leaving the country or leaving the jurisdiction for a period of time, particularly if they're trying to evade prosecution under the statute. A judge may rule that that statute was told until they are able to get that person back, for example. But after the statute has run, for the most part, it forecloses, particularly criminal prosecutions. But there's also sometimes when justice in other forms can be had. If you recall, in New York State, they issued this temporary period where people who were minors and suffered sexual abuse could bring civil actions. Not just minors, people who had suffered previous sexual abuse. And the statute of limitations had run, but there could be sufficient evidence to show that they could bring civil orders. And we saw a lot of people brought to justice out of that, people like Harvey Weinstein and Sean Diddy Combs and others. So even though those statutes had run in a lot of those cases, there was still some accountability. But in terms of famous cases where people have confessed after the statute has run, the most high profile one I can think of is Joseph James DeAngelo, who was the Golden State Killer, confessed after the statute of limitations had run. Now, he had been convicted of murder, but there were all kinds of assaults that he had committed for which the statute of limitations had run. And he apparently gave up information about those. It's horrific.
B
It's awful.
A
But yeah, it's really something. I am. I understand the purpose of a statute of limitations. You don't want to have stale evidence and, you know, weakened memories of what happened and risk people being sent to jail on flimsy evidence as time has passed. But I do think that for some really, really horrific crimes, and I would include awful sexual assault in that. I think often in jurisdictions, the statute of limitations on sexual assault is too short, and maybe there need not be some. Often there's not one for things like murder. But I would be in favor of extending at least the statute of limitations on some of the Other really serious crimes for which victims would be disincentivized from coming forward, or it may just take them a long time to process it. And that can actually work against justice as opposed to for it.
B
And, you know, that is a trend. I think at least it was during the MeToo era. Maybe that era is over.
A
Remember that? Remember me, too. That was great.
B
But this idea that, you know, if you were a child victim and there was this five year statute of limitations, you know, it. It might take you more than that to kind of piece together what happened and get yourself in a place where you're strong enough to want to pursue these kinds of actions. And so that's been a trend to say there's no statute of limitations for child sexual assault, murder. I'd support that in certain kinds of things. But, you know, Walter's question makes me wonder if Walter isn't maybe wanting to get something off his chest. Walter, if you've got something to confess to, you can let us know. As long as the statute has run. Most crimes have a five year statute of limitations. So if the statute has run, you can always come on the show and get it off your chest.
A
Hey, Barb. Yeah. I checked this book out of the Boston public library in 2000, 26 years ago.
B
Oh, I think you're good. What's the book?
A
What's the Power broker?
B
Oh, get out. Hilarious. Well, I can understand why you're still not through it. That is a long book. You're probably at, like, you know, page 1000, and you still have a few more to go, so.
A
I probably violated at least some ordinance in the city of Boston. I'm so sorry.
B
The statute is probably run. I think it's your book.
A
All right. I feel so much better.
B
You are to be forgiven. That book's just too long, you know, I think you bring it back when you finish it.
A
I'm not even sure they wanted that.
B
Finally finished it.
A
I'm gonna do that next time I'm in Boston. I'll be like, here you go. Thanks. It was great.
B
They'll say, you know, the last person who checked it out took 45 years, so well done. Well, thank you for listening to Sister Sidebar with Kimberly Atkinstor and me, Barbara Quaid. Keep sending in more great questions for next week's show, and if you send in a voice memo, we'll try to play your question during our next episode. Follow Sisters sidebar and Sisters in Law. Wherever you listen. And please give us a five star review. It really helps others to find the show and please show some love to this week's sponsors, Fast Growing Trees and IQ Bar. The links are in the show notes. Please, please support them because they make this podcast possible. Don't forget to pick up SistersInLawmerch and other goodies@politicon.com merch and see you every week on Wednesdays and Saturdays for new episodes of SistersinLaw and Sisters. Sidebar See you next week with another episode. Sister Sidebar.
A
I'm a scoff law, y'. All.
B
Statute of limitations my clients is is, but it was beyond the statute of limitations. Ah,
A
with verbo care, help is always ready before, during and after your stay. We've planned for the plot twists, so support is always available because a great trip starts with peace of mind.
Episode 307 | Date: May 27, 2026
Hosts: Barb McQuade & Kimberly Atkins Stohr
Podcast by: Politicon
In this lively “Sister Sidebar” episode of #SistersInLaw, Barb McQuade and Kimberly Atkins Stohr respond to listener legal and political questions with their signature mix of expertise, candor, and wit. Topics range from recent high-profile Supreme Court decisions around voting rights and access to medication, to Trump’s ongoing legal maneuvering, the inner workings of the Supreme Court, gerrymandering, statutes of limitations, and (comically) overdue library books. The hosts dissect complex legal issues, share personal commentary, and sprinkle in memorable quips, all aiming to pull back the curtain on how America’s legal and governmental systems work.
(00:54–02:05)
(02:47–05:32)
Barb adds: Chief Justice Roberts’s “colorblind Constitution” argument ignores strict scrutiny and Congress’s ability to pass narrowly tailored laws for compelling governmental interests like anti-voter suppression.
(06:26–07:47)
(07:47–11:33)
(18:29–21:23)
(21:53–25:17)
(25:59–30:07)
(30:07–32:08)
Kim on VRA jurisprudence:
“The Venn diagram of a partisan gerrymander and a racial gerrymander is a circle...” (04:13)
Barb on Roberts’s colorblind Constitution:
“They call it colorblindness, but if you ask me, it’s willful blindness.” (06:15)
Barb, riffing on Trump’s audit deal:
“Audits are forever. Was that a James Bond movie?” (07:04)
Kim on Supreme Court comity:
“I just can’t believe that, you know, Kagan and Alito are having tea. I just, I just, I don’t buy it.” (11:20)