Special Weapons and Tactics | Season 3, Ep. 10

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1. 

   15 Apr 2026 · 1 hr 20 min

   Rooker and Feldman and Treason | Season 4, Ep. 1

   Next week, the Supreme Court is going to hear a huge civil rights case that no one is talking about—because the legal issue before the Court is the Rooker-Feldman doctrine, an obscure and slightly treasonous doctrine that lets federal judges throw worthy cases out of court without reaching the merits. On this episode, we examine the doctrine’s impact as well as its origins, including the life and times of the litigants for whom it is named, William Rooker and Marc Feldman. Rooker was a big shot Indiana lawyer who represented lynching victims and Klansmen. And Marc Feldman was a professor of…

2. 

   S3 · E14 · 14 Oct 2025 · 1 hr 12 min

   Indian Country | Season 3, Ep. 14

   In our final episode of the season, we head to Indian Country and survey several strands of Supreme Court precedent that prevent Native Americans from putting their property to peaceful and productive use. Click here for transcript. United States v. Kagama Cobell v. Norton

3. 

   S3 · E13 · 16 Jun 2025 · 1 hr 13 min

   Neat Takings Tricks | Season 3, Ep. 13

   The Fifth Amendment says that the government must pay just compensation when it takes private property for public use, a command that, regrettably, is often treated as a mere suggestion. On this episode, we take a look at a variety of gambits and flim-flammeries that let the government take property without paying for it. Click here for episode transcript. Agins v. Tiburon First English v. County of Los Angeles

4. 

   S3 · E12 · 24 Apr 2025 · 46 min

   Trust But Verify | Season 3, Ep. 12

   In 1973, federal narcotics agents raided a pair of homes in Collinsville, Illinois by mistake. They didn’t find any drugs, but they did terrorize two innocent families. The incident sparked nationwide outrage, and in response Congress passed legislation crafting a legal remedy for victims of federal law enforcement abuses. Over the years, however, lower courts have chipped away at the law to the point where it has essentially been repealed: Last year, a federal appeals court rejected claims from an innocent family, the Martin family, who were held at gunpoint after the FBI mistakenly raided…

5. 

   S3 · E11 · 30 Jan 2025

   Everything You Eat, Drink, and Wear | Season 3, Ep. 11

   Government officials must obtain a warrant before forcibly entering a home (absent consent or an emergency). That rule goes back to the Founding. But in a series of cases, culminating in Camara v. San Francisco in 1967, the Supreme Court announced an ahistorical exception, holding that the Fourth Amendment is less protective when it is a health inspector, rather than a police officer, knocking at the door. On this episode, we hear from Marshall Krause, who argued Camara on behalf of the ACLU of Northern California. And we head to Pottstown, Pennsylvania, where a challenge to the borough’s…

6. 

   S3 · E9 · 30 Aug 2024 · 1 hr 14 min

   Punishment Without Crime | Season 3, Ep. 9

   Civil forfeiture is a civil rights nightmare, allowing police and prosecutors to seize billions of dollars’ worth of property annually—cash, cars, houses, bank accounts, and more—without charging anyone with a crime, let alone obtaining a conviction. On this episode, we trace the rise of the modern forfeiture regime in the 1970s and 80s, and we look at forfeiture’s historic roots. Click here for episode transcript. Miller v. United States The Palmyra Bennis v. Michigan

7. 

   S3 · E8 · 21 Jun 2024 · 1 hr 5 min

   Public Purpose | Season 3, Ep. 8

   In 2005, in the case of Kelo v. New London , the Supreme Court allowed officials to seize and raze an entire neighborhood of well-maintained homes and businesses in the hopes that someone else could build fancier homes and businesses. According to the dissenters, the majority’s opinion effectively deleted the provision of the U.S. Constitution requiring that takings be for a “public use.” On this episode, we ask: what, if anything, is left of the prohibition on using eminent domain to take property from Person A merely to give it to Person B? And we look at some current litigation that can…

8. 

   S3 · E7 · 7 Jun 2024

   The Despotic Power | Season 3, Ep. 7

   On this episode: Berman v. Parker , the Supreme Court’s decision in 1954 to abandon previous constitutional limits on the government’s power to take property from Person A to give it to Person B. The decision greenlit the era of urban renewal, which saw over a thousand cities across the country seize and bulldoze entire neighborhoods en masse. Click here for episode transcript. Berman v. Parker Schneider v. D.C.

9. 

   S3 · E6 · 26 Apr 2024 · 45 min

   This is Mine | Season 3, Ep. 6

   On this episode, we take a break from case law and go way back to the beginning to examine the origins and justifications of private property. Click here for episode transcript. Tyler v. Hennepin County

10. 

    S3 · E5 · 5 Apr 2024 · 1 hr 2 min

    The Blessings of Quiet Seclusion | Season 3, Ep. 5

    On this episode we return to the subject of zoning. With the doors to federal courthouses barred shut, advocates for reforming zoning have turned to state courts and state constitutions. Most famously, in 1975, the New Jersey Supreme Court took a look at a zoning ordinance that made it illegal to build low- and moderate-income housing in the township of Mount Laurel and said in no uncertain terms: enough . But the story of the Mount Laurel doctrine, which calls for municipalities to do their fair share to meet the regional demand for affordable housing, is not all milk and honey.…