Opening Arguments

Latest Episodes:

The More We Learn About the Ilhan Omar Raid, the Worse It Looks Oct 23, 2026

Show notes

OA1307 - Matt's got an update on the Ilhan Omar search warrant saga. We get into the genuinely bizarre citizenship limbo they're trying to put her in. In other news, FEMA told Congress this week that it just doesn't want to do its job anymore. And we close out with a 1962 oldies song that somehow broke the Supreme Court.

Cases discussed:

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Tommy Teepell Gets Publicly Owned, and the Worst Cornell 7 Take Yet Oct 21, 2026

Show notes

VR48 - Today on Vapid Response Wednesday: the extremely believable backstory of some guy named Tommy who got publicly owned by Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, and the single worst take on the Cornell 7 case from within the Ivy League.

Finally, we take our minds far, far away from Cornell to enjoy a galactically bad 1983 take on the most beloved film series in world history from one of America's crankiest critics.

Cases and sources discussed:

Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul Al-Syed answers a question posed by Tommy Teeple at a town hall in Caro, Michigan (Oct. 17, 2026)
“The Cornell 7 Is Really About Liberalism,” The Sundial (Oct 13, 2026)
Condemnation of The Sundial ’s publication of “The Cornell 7 Is Really About Liberalism” from the editorial board of the Columbia Political Review,
“Now It’s Really About Liberalism,” The Sundial, Shoshana Aufzien (10/18/2026)
“Star Wars Nightline Discussion,” ABC News (1983)

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Can You Sue a Drug Company When You Don't Know Which One Made the Pill? Oct 19, 2026

Show notes

OA1306 - We're on a winning streak! ...because we picked the winners. This week we cover two cases where the little guy comes out on top against the big corporation, and learn some key torts concepts along the way. Maybe your neighborhood billboard personal injury attorney isn't such a bad guy after all.

Sources:

Election Protection Hotline
Brennan Center statement/information on ICE at the polls
The SALUTE reporting method
Civil litigation statistics
Sindell v. Abbott Laboratories
Mobil v Ellender

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NY Defense Attorney Calls the Tompkins County DA's Cornell Decision "Truly Stunning" Oct 16, 2026

Show notes

OA1305 - Matt's under the weather, so no normal Friday show this week. But don't panic, because we've got a treat instead: a crossover from Gavel Gavel where criminal defense attorney Liz Skeen joins Thomas to talk about the Cornell case, and she is PISSED. Liz has real, on-the-ground New York experience with how the system treats people who aren't privileged kids from an Ivy League school, and it shows. If you want the backstory first, Thomas and Lydia already went through the complaint in the previous two Gavel Gavel episodes.

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What the Media Are Getting Wrong About the Ilhan Omar Raid Oct 14, 2026

Show notes

VR47 - Federal agents raided Ilhan Omar's house this week, possibly over a decades-old conspiracy theory. Matt Explains what the media are getting wrong about the incident. Along the way we hear from Russian foreign correspondent Benny Johnson and his "deep research."

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This Guy Beat Qualified Immunity Twice, in Two Different Circuits Oct 12, 2026

Show notes

OA1304 - Qualified immunity does not strike again! In a case out of the 10th circuit, with the same plaintiff from last week's Rosales v. Lewis/Terrell, the court once again refuses qualified immunity to an officer who was wildly out of line. Learn about immunity for municipalities and standing rules, the multi-factor tests for excessive use of force against an armed civilian, and a unique alternative perspective on how qualified immunity should work from the concurrence.

Cases and sources discussed:

Check the deadlines and criteria to request a mail-in ballot.
Check the dates and times of early voting.
Rosales v. Bradshaw, (10th Cir. 2023)
Governmental immunity by state

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To support the show (and lose the ads!), please pledge at patreon.com/law! $2+ patrons also get a new Law'd Awful Movies every month.

Florida Judge Says Congress Can't Make Noncitizen Voting a Federal Crime Oct 09, 2026

Show notes

OA1303 - Rapid Response Friday kicks off with two major under-the-radar stories that you may not hear anywhere else about major federal decisions out of Florida and Massachusetts which may remove two important tools from Trump's fascist toolbox. We also explain how the subject of Matt's exclusive OA report from the front lines of deportation defense last July on how ICE was trying to rewrite the law of mandatory ICE detention has just become the single most important immigration case in the Supreme Court's coming term.

Finally, Matt goes gorilla mode for today's footnote to share the story of how the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service went ape on a Mexican zookeeper in one of the wildest cases of federal entrapment in American history.

Cases discussed:

Opinion and Order in Maria L and Nancy M. v. Mullin (9/30/26)
SDFL judge David Bernstein’s order dismissing U.S. v. Cox (10/1/2026)
Order in Barbosa de Cunha v. Freden, (2nd Cir., 4/28/26)
“ICE Just… Decided that Millions of People Are Ineligible for Bail. This is Bad. Like, Really Bad.” Opening Arguments, OA1174 (July 18, 2026)
“U.S. Agent in Gorilla Suit Catches Primate Smugglers,” LA Times (1/27/1993)

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Samuel Alito's Victory Lap and Douglas Murray's Deportation Jetpack Fantasy Oct 07, 2026

Show notes

VR46 - This week on Vapid Response Wednesday: A Bari Weiss double feature! We kick off with an amuse douche from CBS News's chill hang with a cool guy from Trenton. Samuel Alito grew up with a dream: doing incalculable damage to women's healthcare by destroying the Constitutional abortion rights previously guaranteed by Roe v. Wade, apparently because no one was really using them anyway? Does Samuel Alito even hear himself talk anymore?

We then take up the closest thing the Trump era has seen to an intellectual case for mass deportation from one of its poshest warriors: "intellectual dark web" alum Douglas Murray, who outlines a completely new strategy so brilliant, so internally consistent, and so obviously rushed to print without a second thought for what he was actually trying to say that it could only have been published in The Free Press.

Cases and sources discussed:

“Extended Interview: Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito,” CBS News, Oct 5, 2026
“How the West Lost Its Will to Reverse Mass Migration,” Douglas Murray, The Free Press (9/24/2026)

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To support the show (and lose the ads!), please pledge at patreon.com/law! $2+ patrons also get a new Law'd Awful Movies every month.

The 5th Circuit Denied a Cop Qualified Immunity, So We Might Be in the Afterlife Oct 05, 2026

Show notes

OA1302 - Qualified immunity can be overcome! In the fifth circuit?! Come hear the good news, and learn some fourth amendment traffic stop rules along the way.

CHECK YOUR VOTER REGISTRATION. Deadlines for your state can be found here.

Cases discussed:

CHECK YOUR VOTER REGISTRATION. Deadlines for your state can be found here.
Rosales v. Terrell, 25-30650 (5th Cir. 2026)
Dashcam footage from the Rosales case
Milligan v Lewis
Reporting on trial of Lewis for alleged misconduct
Rosales v. Bradshaw, (10th Cir. 2023)

USPS v. California et al.

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To support the show (and lose the ads!), please pledge at patreon.com/law! $2+ patrons also get a new Law'd Awful Movies every month.

DOJ Wants Every Federal Judge in Minnesota Recused (Good Luck With That) Oct 02, 2026

Show notes

OA1301 - IT'S FASCISM RESPONSE FRIDAY, and it's a lot. DOJ just filed a complaint trying to get every single active federal judge in Minnesota booted off immigration cases, and the "evidence" is a judge telling the New York Times the truth. The Supreme Court just let deportations to countries people aren't even from happen again. And we cannot stop laughing about the executive order that just declared this the "era of superintelligence." There's good news too, but you'll have to listen for that.

Cases discussed: