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Opening Arguments — News
Opening Arguments

Opening Arguments is a law show that helps you make sense of the news! Comedian Thomas Smith and lawyer Matt Cameron help you understand not only current events, but also deeper legal concepts and areas! The schedule is M-W-F, with the main show on Monday and Friday and Vapid Response on Wednesday!

Latest Episodes:

Arrested on Her 22nd Birthday. She Didn't Know She Was Undocumented. Mar 11, 2024

Show notes

Episode 1013 Today, we get to meet Azul Uribe. Azul lived most of her life in the US as a devout Mormon, doing her best to get by in a sea of Whiteness. She even made jokes at her own expense about being undocumented. That all changed when she was arrested at age 22 under bizarre and very unlucky circumstances. She was put in ICE detention. Treated terribly. Strip searched multiple times. She then found out those jokes... weren't. Despite being a college student, Azul faced deportation from the only home she'd ever known. Join us as we hear Azul's fascinating and heartbreaking story, in all its raw humanity. And we learn more about our immigration system, and its raw inhumanity.

If you'd like to support the show (and lose the ads!), please pledge at patreon.com/law!

For the time being, any profit over and above the costs of operating the show, will go towards repair and accountability.

Did the Trump Colorado Decision Make You Feel Crazy? You’re Not Alone. Mar 08, 2024

Show notes

Episode 1012 Does anyone else feel like the Supreme Court decided a part of the Constitution just doesn't exist anymore? Perhaps you're like Listener Thomas S, who found this decision absolutely nuts. If so, you're in luck, because in this episode of OA, Thomas throws every argument at actual lawyer Matt Cameron for why this decision sucked. How does the actual lawyer feel? Did SCOTUS get it right actually? Find out!

If you'd like to support the show (and lose the ads!), please pledge at patreon.com/law!

For the time being, any profit over and above the costs of operating the show, will go towards repair and accountability.

T3BE Week 4! Firefighters' Rule and Interstate Commerce Mar 06, 2024

Show notes

Thomas Takes the Bar Exam Week 4! Thomas comes into this week on a HOT, some would say, UNBREAKABLE, streak! 5-0. So, naturally, he aced questions 6 and 7, right? You'll find out! After those answers, we get questions 8 and 9, pictured below! What the hell is the firefighters' rule? And are drycleaners interstate commerce?

If you'd like to support the show (and lose the ads!), please pledge at patreon.com/law!

For the time being, any profit over and above the costs of operating the show, will go towards repair and accountability.

MAGA Fascists Try To Ban Drag and Fail. Repeatedly. Mar 04, 2024

Show notes

Episode 1011 Here's one for everyone who enjoys stories about terrible people losing in court! Casey stops by to review Alito's complaint to America's managers about the devastating cost of marriage equality: the exclusion of anti-LGBTQ bigots from juries. Matt breaks down the total failure of state attempts to ban drag shows and why the actual First Amendment keeps winning over the one that the kinds of people who yell the most about the First Amendment seem to think that they are yelling about. 1. Thomas/Alito statement in 2020 denial of Kim Davis's cert petition (2020) 2. Alito's concurrence in denial of cert in Missouri Dept of Corrections v. Finney (2024) 3. Trial court decision in Friends of Georges v. Mulroy (TN drag show ban) 4. Trial court decision in Florida-ORL v. Griffin (FL drag show ban) 5. Trial court decision in Woodlands Pride v. Paxton (TX drag show ban)

If you'd like to support the show (and lose the ads!), please pledge at patreon.com/law!

For the time being, any profit over and above the costs of operating the show, will go towards repair and accountability.

A Tale of Two Dons in Criminal Court Mar 01, 2024

Show notes

Episode 1010 It was the worst of Dons, it was the worst of Dons. Eagles singer Don Henley was not taking it easy in a New York City courtroom this week in his testimony against three memorabilia-collecting desperadoes who had to bring their alibis to face charges of conspiring to sell stolen (?) legal pads filled with Henley's drafts of "Hotel California"-era lyrics. Will the court find that these defendants are hiding their lyin' eyes, or is the Manhattan DA's case against them already gone? New kid in town Matt takes his legal analysis to the limit one more time. We move on to some Trump updates, including the Supreme Court's decision to take his extremely unserious claims of Presidential immunity for all crimes seriously and complications to the defense's effort to disqualify Fani Willis from the Fulton County prosecution. Oh also, Trump doesn't want to pay any money and is complaining to the court on account of "I don't like this."

If you'd like to support the show (and lose the ads!), please pledge at patreon.com/law!

For the time being, any profit over and above the costs of operating the show, will go towards repair and accountability.

T3BE Week 3! Drugs and Hearsay Feb 28, 2024

Show notes

Thomas Takes the Bar Exam! It's time for the answers to last week's questions, plus two more!

If you'd like to support the show (and lose the ads!), please pledge at patreon.com/law!

For the time being, any profit over and above the costs of operating the show, will go towards repair and accountability.

Project 2025 Is Terrifying Feb 26, 2024

Show notes

Episode 1009 The Heritage Foundation's Project 2025 has been making headlines with its promises to set the next Republican president up with a full staff of loyal civil servants and a 920-page executive branch playbook--but what is actually in this thing, and what can we learn from it? Matt takes us through some disturbing echoes of 1933 Germany, which was a famously chill and cool time, showing us how the legal system has historically been used to turn democracies into autocracies. We learn that laws with the most boring names are often the scariest, and about the administrative violence of a well-timed memo. 1. Heritage Foundation's Mandate for Leadership (2023) 2. Presidential Personnel Database (Project 2025 job application) 3. Nazi Telegram with instructions for Kristallnacht (Nov 10, 1938)

If you'd like to support the show (and lose the ads!), please pledge at patreon.com/law!

For the time being, any profit over and above the costs of operating the show, will go towards repair and accountability.

Embryos Are People, My Friend Feb 23, 2024

Show notes

Episode 1008 Today we are serving up a tasteful pairing of radically destructive activism from one supreme court with a refreshing adherence to basic Constitutional law from another. We start in Alabama, where the state's highest court just found with no any apparent legal, factual, or moral justification whatsoever that a few hundred frozen cells are legally equivalent to a "child"--because God, probably? Unclear! We then review a recent example of the U.S. Supreme Court doing exactly what it is supposed to do: reviewing and unanimously reversing an obvious Constitutional violation, in this case one which put a man who had been acquitted on mental health grounds at risk of the death penalty. 1. Alabama Supreme Court's decision in LePage v. Center for Reproductive Medicine, P.C. 2. Ketanji Brown Jackson's decision for a unanimous court in McElrath v. Georgia, 601 U.S. ____ (2024) [PDF] 3. Free downloadable version of the Century Schoolbook typeface

If you'd like to support the show (and lose the ads!), please pledge at patreon.com/law!

For the time being, any profit over and above the costs of operating the show, will go towards repair and accountability.

T3BE Week 2! Feb 22, 2024

Show notes

Thomas Takes the Bar Exam! It's time for the answers to last week's questions, plus two more!

If you'd like to support the show (and lose the ads!), please pledge at patreon.com/law!

For the time being, any profit over and above the costs of operating the show, will go towards repair and accountability.

The Fani Willis Hearings - Your Comprehensive Guide 2 Feb 21, 2024

Show notes

Episode 1007 It's Part 2! Fani testifies! It is high drama. Not only that, we hear from an incredible Cohen Brothers movie character for some reason. We also hear from Fani Willis's dad, someone who has led a fascinating life. Then finally, they put Wade's ex-partner Bradley on the stand and... try to make him talk for like 4 hours. It also takes a very dark turn.

If you'd like to support the show (and lose the ads!), please pledge at patreon.com/law!

For the time being, any profit over and above the costs of operating the show, will go towards repair and accountability.

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