Episode notes
DOCKET 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…
Podcast
Law and Chaos
Liz Dye; Andrew Torrez · News · English
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 dow
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E252 · 7 Aug 2026 · 55 min
Ep 252 — Blanche, Boutros, and Buc-ee's
DOCKET ALERTS: Todd Blanche advanced out of the Judiciary Committee and faces a vote by the full Senate on whether to confirm him as Attorney General. Will Republicans defy—JK,LOL. Journalist Katie Phang's lawsuit against Blanche for failing to disclose all documents required under the Epstein Files Transparency Act hit a snag when the government just plum forgot to file an answer to her complaint. The DOJ also failed to provide unredacted documents to Judge Emmet Sullivan for review in chambers. Judge Sullivan ordered Blanche to personally appear in court on August. 13. DOOFUS OF THE DAY:…
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E251 · 4 Aug 2026 · 57 min
Ep 251 — You Whack The Guy, You Don't 86 Him
Andrew is flying solo today. He's got three stories about the petty incompetence of this administration. First, we start off with the likely impending confirmation of Todd Blanche as Attorney General after the DOJ finally put in writing that the $1.8 billion "Anti-Weaponization" slush fund is dead. The Trump tax giveaway is still alive, though, and that means so is Judge Williams's investigation as to whether the President committed a fraud on the court. Next, we delve into the unraveling of DC US Attorney Jeanine Pirro's ham-handed efforts to try and indict a former Olympian for vandalizing…
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E250 · 31 Jul 2026 · 1 hr 6 min
Ep 250 — Trump Corruption-palooza (Ft. Zach Everson)
It's our semiquincentennial! And we're celebrating with a long-form interview with Zach Everson, research director of the Trump Accountability Project. Zach joins us to discuss how cryptocurrency powered Donald Trump's massively successful grift of billions of dollars, and what we can do about it. Along the way, we also discuss the proposed CLARITY ACT , and how the fake ethics provisions added by Republicans were so bad that the bill itself is likely to die on the vine. Thank you for being with us for 250 episodes! CLARITY ACT- HR 3633…
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E249 · 28 Jul 2026 · 53 min
Ep 249 — DHS Voter Lists?
DOCKET ALERTS: The Paramount-Warner Bros. merger is on hold well into next year. The parties stipulated that the merger would not go through pending trial in the antitrust case brought by twelve state AGs, despite massive financial penalties for Paramount if the deal is delayed. Meanwhile, the Writers Guild of America has filed a similar antitrust action , which has also been assigned to Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín. Trump's newest tariff scheme, based on findings of anticompetitive use of forced labor by our trade competitors, drew multiple legal challenges . Learning Resources v. US ,…
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E248 · 24 Jul 2026 · 1 hr 5 min
Ep 248 — Tariff Man Returns
DOCKET 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…
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E246 · 17 Jul 2026 · 54 min
Ep 246 — Blanche and Buc-ee's
DOCKET 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…
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E245 · 14 Jul 2026 · 59 min
Ep 245 — Lindsey Graham: Bad Lawyer
DOCKET 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…
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E244 · 10 Jul 2026 · 49 min
Ep 244 — Trump Says SCOTUS Must Reconsider 'IMMEDIATELY
DOCKET 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,…
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E243 · 7 Jul 2026 · 56 min
Ep 243 — Judgefight
DOCKET 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!…
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E242 · 3 Jul 2026 · 1 hr 8 min
Ep 242 — SCOTUS Wanders Off For Summer, But State Judges Keep Delivering
DOCKET 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…
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