Opening Arguments

Latest Episodes:

People Are Fighting Back Against Trump’s Fascist Agenda in the Courts, and They’re Already Winning Jan 31, 2025

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OA1119 - Trump's executive orders are bad for humanity--and just plain badly written. We survey some of the 20 major legal challenges which have been filed against this nonsense--including two early wins, and a few others which might be wins soon.

Matt then explains a recent proposed Trump enforcement tactic with concerning new potential for integration of local and federal authorities with immigration enforcement which the media seems to have missed. In related news, Trump has announced that a little-known section of the US military base at Guantanamo Bay will be used to house up to 30,000 immigrants facing deportation. We consider the history and legal issues around this far-from unprecedented plan.

Finally, our closing Bigfootnote takes a closer look at a rare intersection between cryptozoology and the law.

OMB memo dated 1/27/25
“Influx of aliens” memo
“Offshoring Human Rights,” International Refugee Assistance Project (Fall 2024)
Trump Litigation Tracker, Just Security (2025)
Bigfoot-Ordinance-69-01.pdf (Skamani County)

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Key Figure Behind Project 2025 Lies His Way Through Confirmation Jan 29, 2025

Show notes

OA1118 and T3BE56 - Russell Vought lied in his confirmation hearing, but who is Vought and why should we care? Lydia gets us up to speed on this capital-d Doozy, with his background, some highlights from his confirmation hearing, and the great reporting that lets us confidently state that he lied in his hearing with the Senate Budget Committee.

Then Heather Varanini joins for the answer to T3BE question 55 and brand new question 56!

Who Is Russell Vought? Probably the Most Important Person in Trump 2.0., New York Times Opinion
“Put Them in Trauma”: Inside a Key MAGA Leader’s Plans for a New Trump Agenda, ProPublica
Undercover in Project 2025, Centre for Climate Reporting

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The Vacancies Act - How Trump Has Used and Abused It, and Might Again Jan 27, 2025

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OA1117 - As Donald Trump’s executive branch nominees continue to work their way through the confirmation process, we welcome Stanford Law professor Anne Joseph O’Connell to learn more about one of the most important legal protections we have against a fully imperial presidency. Professor O’Connell is one of the leading academic experts on the Federal Vacancies Reform Act, the legislation which Trump may or may not have intentionally circumvented in his last term to install acting heads of departments which would otherwise require Senate confirmation, and provides some essential background and context for what we might expect in his second term as his appointments continue to work their way through the confirmation process. Also covered: getting fired by Trump, defending pandas in court, Aileen Cannon and Clarence Thomas’s fringe theory about the unconstitutionality of special counsels, and what Professor O’Connell learned from her time clerking for Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

“Actings,” Anne Joseph O’Connell, Columbia Law Review (2020)
Prof. O’Connell’s Stanford Law bio page
Bluesky post with Prof. O’Connell’s notice of termination from the Trump administration

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Triaging All the Horrible Jan 24, 2025

Show notes

OA1116 - We take stock a few days into the second Trump administration to consider the current state of ICE enforcement, Trump’s blatantly unlawful overrule of the recent Supreme Court decision forcing the divestiture of TikTok, and the President’s new venture in cryptocurrency. Finally, today’s footnote honors the efforts of one person who is doing her part to write history as it happens.

Judge John Coughenour’s injunction against Trump’s executive order on birthright citizenship (1/23/25)
SCOTUS decision in TikTok v. Garland(1/17/2025)
“Application of Protecting America from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications to TikTok,” (1/20/2025)
$TRUMP coin price tracker
“Enforcement Actions At Or Focused on Sensitive Locations” (original ICE “sensitive locations” memo)(10/24/2011)
Final text of the Laken Riley Act (sent to the President 1/24/25)
Judge Amy Berman Jackson’s order on DOJ’s motion to dismiss in U.S. v. Gregory Mijares (1/23/25)

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Trump's Executive Orders Are All Absurd and Horrible. But Which of them Actually Matter? Jan 22, 2025

Show notes

OA1115 - Matt joins for a special Wednesday to provide an initial review of some of the most notable of the 26 executive orders which Donald Trump signed after his inauguration on Monday. We go beyond the headlines to take a closer look at what is actually in these things, and try to sort the routine bluster from the very real threats.

“Undercover in Project 2025,” Center for Climate Reporting (8/15/2024)
Restoring Names That Honor American Greatness – The White House (1/20/2025)
Protecting The Meaning And Value Of American Citizenship – The White House (1/20/2025)
Initial Rescissions Of Harmful Executive Orders And Actions – The White House (1/20/25)
Restoring Accountability To Policy-Influencing Positions Within the Federal Workforce – The White House (1/20/25)
Realigning the United States Refugee Admissions Program – The White House (1/20/25)
Guaranteeing The States Protection Against Invasion – The White House (1/20/25)
Ending The Weaponization Of The Federal Government – The White House (1/20/25)

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We (Disrespectfully) Dissent. Jan 20, 2025

Show notes

OA1114 - “We are now faced, my friends, with the fact that tomorrow is today.” --Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (April 4, 1967)

We begin the second Trump administration exactly where we intend to remain for the next four years: in dissent.

Today’s Inauguration Day counter-programming features two of the most powerful dissenters in modern American history: Supreme Court Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

We begin with commentary on Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s defiantly inspiring July 1, 2024 dissent as read from the bench in the Supreme Court’s immunity decision, and conclude with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s powerful call for a “revolution of values” to end “power without compassion, might without morality, and strength without sight.”

Audio of Supreme Court decision announcements for July 1, 2024 (Sotomayor dissent begins as 42:00)
Full text of Trump v. US (7/1/2024)(including Roberts majority, Coney Barrett concurrence, and Sotomayor and Jackson dissents)
“Hear Me Roar: What Provokes Supreme Court Justices to Dissent from the Bench?” Timothy R. Johnson et al, Minnesota Law Review (2010)
Martin Luther King, Jr. “Beyond Vietnam: A Time To Break Silence” (April 4, 1967)

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We've Had One Jack Smith Report, Yes. But What About Second Report? Jan 17, 2025

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OA1113 - Special counsel Jack Smith recently resigned and turned final reports in each of Donald Trump’s federal cases to Attorney General Merrick Garland. We examine the enigma of the man and the complexity of his mission before reviewing his final conclusions and charging decisions. How does this compare to the Mueller Report? Why was Trump never charged under the Insurrection Act? And will Aileen Cannon really get away with keeping the second volume on Trump’s illegal retention of classified documents from ever reaching the four (4) people the AG has decided should be allowed to read it?

Finally, Matt drops a rare PSA footnote to explain why sometimes the very best thing that we can do to support our local immigrant communities is nothing at all.

“Final Report on the Special Counsel's Investigations and Prosecutions: Volume One,” Office of Special Counsel Jack Smith (1/7/25)
“False reports of immigration sweeps in California spread social media, cause panic “ Mathew Miranda, Sacramento Bee (1/13/2025)

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Democratic Senators Faced Their First Test in the Trump 2.0 Era - the Hegseth Confirmation Jan 15, 2025

Show notes

OA1112 and T3BE55!

But who will watch the doozy watchers? We will. We watched Pete Hegseth's confirmation hearing, but our focus might have been a bit different than elsewhere. Here at Doozywatch(tm) HQ our concern wasn't with Hegseth as much, because every single one of us and them already knows he isn't fit to be Secretary of Defense. Our focus, and the focus on today's OA is - how did the Democrats do? We've been quite nervous about to what extent the Democrats will obey in advance. So what did this hearing tell us? Lydia Smith is here and lordy there are tapes! Then, it's Thomas Takes the Bar Exam 55! That means we've got the answer to last week's question, as well as a fresh new one. Heather Varanini is in the house!

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We Watched the Eastman Documentary Trump Screened at Mar-a-Lago Jan 13, 2025

Show notes

OA1111 - The Eastman Dilemma: Lawfare or Justice?

We're giving everyone half of this Law'd Awful Movies! We watched John Eastman's... documentary? Whatever it is, a strange nonprofit called the Madison Media Fund produced it, and held the premiere at Mar-a-Lago ahead of its, you guessed it, January 6th release date. You'll hear straight from Eastman, Alan Dershowitz, Jeff Clark, and...Lawrence Lessig regarding Eastman's election "theory." Special Guest Lydia joins us to tackle the folks behind the making of this film, and you won't believe the stuff she's uncovered.

John Eastman’s first “draft” memo (12/24/20)
John Eastman’s second memo (early 2021)
The 65 Project’s complaint re: John Eastman to the CA bar (7/28/22)
Record of John Eastman CA disbarment proceedings (6/12/23)
CA Bar Court Judge Yvette Roland’s recommendation in John Eastman’s disbarment proceedings (3/27/24)

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Trump Has His Own Entire Genre of Law Now Jan 10, 2025

Show notes

OA1110 - For the first time in US history, an American President (both former and future) is facing criminal sentencing. We review Judge Juan Merchan’s most recent ruling on Donald Trump’s motion to dismiss his conviction for 34 felony counts of falsifying business records and the difficult balance that Merchan has struck in trying to weigh the jury’s verdict and the rule of law itself against the fact that the defendant will be ten days away from regaining the nuclear codes as of the time of his scheduled hearing.

We also review Aileen Cannon’s recent probably-illegal desperate order to try to stop special counsel Jack Smith’s report on Trump’s many federal crimes from going public before trying to understand why Democrats would even consider signing on an extremely hard-right immigration bill which can only help to fuel Trump’s mass deportation machine. How will the Laken Riley Act allow undocumented people to get away with nearly any theft offense, and give state AGs broad power over national immigration policy? Matt then drops a quick footnote on the questionable state of Rudy Giuliani’s physical, mental, and legal health as two different federal judges consider just how contemptuous he has become before we circle back for some late-breaking updates in both of this episode’s Trump stories.