Buh Bye “Big Balls” (Guest Law Professor/Author Leah Litman)

This week's show is sponsored by: EPIC-MRA Public Opinion Research MIRS News Fulton Fish Market 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 Dave Whamond:cagle.com "Big Balls" and all his Doge teenage mutants are on their way out as head Doge Elon Musk slinks to the exits, unhappy with Trump’s pretty much ignoring efforts to cut the federal deficit as the mostly dysfunctional Re¡publican Congress decides if it needs to inflict even more damage on the nation. We’ve got the usual lineup of Trump outrages through the week: handing out pardons like Oprah hands out cars, sending his sons and Vice President to suck up to the crypto kings at their convention, and whining as a three-judge panel tells him he doesn’t have the right to impose his tariffs. We’ve got new polling that points to a Benson-James showdown for Governor, and one of two women going head-to-head with Mike Rogers. But it’s still 15 months until the primary. Donald Trump says he’s open to giving pardons to the ragtag militia members who were planning to kidnap and murder Governor Whitmer. Why not? In the last few days he’s pardoned a half-dozen or more conflict felons, all of whom happen to be MAGA zealots Whitmer keynotes the annual Detroit Chamber policy conference on Mackinac Island talking unity, and drawing appreciative chuckles with references to her budding bromance with Trump. New national polling hints that her working cooperatively with Trump is paying benefits. Attorney General Nessel issues her own scorecard in the ongoing filing of lawsuits against Trump’s most outrageous and illegal actions. Spoiler alert: Nessel and the coalition of Democratic state attorneys general are winning most of the cases MSU could be facing a new financial challenge as Marco Rubio starts a purge of Chinese nationals attending American universities. Another victim could well be the landlords of the most pricey rental units in East Lansing We're joined in the podcast by author, legal commentator and UM law professor Leah Litman. Her book  LAWLESS: How the Supreme Court Runs on Conservative Grievance, Fringe Theories, and Bad Vibes has just been published. Litman teaches and writes on constitutional law, federal courts, and federal post-conviction review. Her research examines unidentified and implicit values that are used to structure the legal system, the federal courts, and the legal profession. In 2023, the American Law Institute named Litman a recipient of its Early Career Scholars Medal, which is awarded every other year to “two outstanding early-career law professors whose work is relevant to public policy and has the potential to influence improvements in the law.” Also in 2023, the American Constitution Society recognized Litman with the Ruth Bader Ginsburg Scholar Award. Leah is is one of the co-hosts and co-creators of Strict Scrutiny, a Crooked Media podcast about the US Supreme Court, which received the 2023 Podcast Academy award (Ambie) for Best Politics or Opinion podcast and a 2023 Anthem Award for its coverage of the Supreme Court overruling Roe v. Wade.  Following her clerkships, she worked at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP, one of the DC law firms targeted by Donald Trump for retribution – something struck down earlier this week by a federal court. The firm said in its lawsuit that Trump was punishing the firm for cases it had taken, noting among other things that it had filed a suit this year challenging Trump’s dismissal of inspectors general and previously represented some of his political opponents. Clay Bennett, Counterpoint Media This episode is sponsored in part by =========================== EPIC ▪ MRA a full service survey research firm with expertise in • Public Opinion Surveys • Market Research Studies • Live Telephone Surveys • On-Line and Automated Surveys • Focus Group Research • Bond Proposals - Millage Campaigns • Political Campaigns & Consulting