Law and Chaos
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 down the week's most important courtroom stories, so you can keep on top of this crazy news cycle. Whether it's Texas giving two middle fingers to the Supreme Court, or Donald Trump in all the courts at once, we've got you covered.
Episodes
DOCKET ALERTS:
The administration says it's going to prosecute anyone who touches the algae-ridden Reflecting Pool at the Lincoln Memorial. So far, that seems to be more bluster than reality.
Sadly, what isn't bluster is that Judges Reed O'Connor and Mark Pittman in Texas are handing down extraordinarily long punitive sentences for Antifa protestors to "send a message" not to criticize the g...
DOCKET ALERTS:
Maryland became the ninth state to beat back a lawsuit from the DOJ's Civil Division seeking to seize its full, unredacted voter rolls.
In Massachusetts, a judge allowed states to proceed with a lawsuit to block an executive order requiring DHS to maintain a master list of voters and barring USPS from delivering mail-in ballots from anyone on the list.
DOCKET ALERTS:
Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville is facing a residency challenge to his gubernatorial campaign.
The Justice Department dismissed a case seeking to enforce a moratorium on offshore and onshore windfarm permits. Instead they're buying back leases for windfarms, so that energy companies can develop natural gas plants in the midwest. Murica!
The DOJ is trying to ta...
DOCKET ALERTS:
The Supreme Court issued orders today, opinions coming Thursday.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Jeanine Pirro, the US Attorney for DC, is investigating banks for "debanking" conservatives.
Judge James Boasberg benchslapped Pirro's effort to magic away his order quashing her abusive subpoena on the Federal Reserve.
DOCKET ALERTS:
Will Trump's name come off the Kennedy Center in time for the court-ordered deadline?
New York congressional candidate Brad Lander was acquitted of charges related to a peaceful protest inside the federal building where ICE is warehousing immigrants.
The House failed to reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. We'll explain what this ...
DOCKET ALERTS:
Doofus of the Day: George Santos, who is clearly trying to get himself back into jail. NPR reported that the former congressman bet against his own appearance at the State of the Union in February. After NPR reported that Kalshi had frozen his accounts and referred him to the CFTC and DOJ, Santos called up journalist Bobby Allyn and threatened him with "a gun in your face."
DOCKET ALERTS:
A federal judge in Colorado enjoined the National Science Foundation from shutting down the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder. APA, FTW!
The DC Circuit ruled that Pete Hegseth's policy kicking out all trans service members and barring enlistment by anyone who ever had a diagnosis of gender dysphoria is rooted in animus and cannot stand. But the remedy was na...
DOCKET ALERTS:
Joe Dye begins a series on the second phase of the redistricting wars at his Substack.
Multiple states are threatening to tax payouts from Trump's slush fund at 100 percent.
The Trump Administration is suing Massachusetts for failing to give "confidential," hard to trace license plates to ICE and CBP.
DOCKET ALERTS:
Judges in Maine and Wisconsin hand DOJ two more losses as they sue to get access to state voter rolls to check for non-existent election fraud.
Associate Attorney General Stan Woodward is back with another batsh*t ballroom filing.
DOOFUS OF THE DAY:
Attorney D. Hayden Fisher, who filed a bumptious SLAPP suit against locals in Norfolk who dared to...
DOCKET ALERTS:
Congressional Republicans abstain courteously from blessing Trump's ICE/CBP allocation after Trump torpedoes several sitting GOP politicians and demands cash for the ballroom and the $1.8 billion J6 slush fund. They're heading home until June, TYVM.
DOJ indicts former Cuban leader Raúl Castro, age 94, for shooting down two flights of dissident exiles dropping leaflets back in ...
DOCKET ALERTS:
The Supreme Court stayed a lower court decision out of Texas banning doctors from dispensing the abortion drug mifepristone.
The Colorado Supreme Court barred Children's Hospital from cutting gender-affirming care, calling it a denial of treatment on the basis of sex and gender identity.
The DOJ is suing the DC Bar to stop it disciplining upstanding gove...
DOCKET ALERTS:
As Trump rants at "Neil and Amy" for betraying him in the IEEPA tariffs case, the next tariff battle is already taking shape.
Reuters legal reporters analyzed court stats in Minnesota and proved that federal prosecutions cratered during the immigration surge. So much for "cleaning up" crime.
Doofus of the Day: Pete Hegseth, who is vowing to put Senator Mark Ke...
DESCRIPTION:
Kash Patel is not as think as you drunk he is … again. And if you tell someone about it, he'll strap you to a polygraph.
The DC Circuit seems likely to side with Senator Mark Kelly in his lawsuit against Pete Hegseth for trying to steal his pension.
The DOJ subpoenaed a hospital in Rhode Island for medical records of kids receiving gender affirming care. ...
DOCKET ALERTS:
Sadly, recurring L&C segment "Justin Baldoni Teaches CivPro" is canceled. He and Blake Lively settled their civil suit today. Now we'll just have to rely on Trump and his minions to show us how law does not work.
The DOJ subpoenaed a Rhode Island hospital for patient records on gender affirming care. When the hospital failed to respond (oh no!), the DOJ moved to enfo...
DESCRIPTION:
Elon Musk discovers that filing a lawsuit against Sam Altman and sh*tposting about it on social media is a lot more fun than testifying
Alex Jones is back on his BS. He managed to delay a proposed deal to license InfoWars assets to the satirical news outlet The Onion. Again.
The judge presiding over Trump's shakedown case against the IRS for the wrongful disclosur...
DOCKET ALERTS:
Never one to let a good crisis go to waste, Republicans are insisting that the lone gunman at the White House Correspondents Dinner means that Trump can — in fact, must! — build his illegal ballroom. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche tweeted out a demand for the National Historic Trust to drop its lawsuit. The Trust told him to get bent.
Trump's sh...
DESCRIPTION:
Capitol police officer Shauni Kerkhoff has sued Glenn Beck's outfit The Blaze for defamation after they said she "kinda walked like a criminal" – and she's brought out the big guns. The Trump administration funneled another $1.25 million in taxpayer dollars to campaign stooge Carter Page. The Fifth Circuit hit us with another terrible decision, this one permitting states to force publ...
DESCRIPTION:
The Onion's plan to take over Infowars looks to have succeeded at last.
A judge in Rhode Island became the fifth to reject the DOJ's voter roll grab. But Harmeet Dhillon, head of the DOJ's Civil Rights Division, is undeterred. Now she's trying to snatch ballots from Wayne County, Michigan.
Trump's Justice Department is negotiating with Trump's lawyers to ...
DOCKET ALERTS:
The lady who wore a penis costume to a No Kings protest in Fairhope, Alabama was acquitted of disturbing the peace.
DNI Tulsi Gabbard referred the Ukraine Whistleblower and former Intelligence Community Inspector General to the DOJ for criminal prosecution. Crime: TBD.
US Attorney for DC Jeanine Pirro continues to harass the Federal Reserve. This time she sent...
The Fifth Circuit is crossing out laws just for sport. This time it's a 140-year-old ban on making homebrew hooch, because YOLO.
Trump's lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal and Rupert Murdoch over an article describing his creepy birthday card to Jeffrey Epstein was dismissed. But … that dismissal was without prejudice, so he can take another swing at it. The trollsuit against the BBC is stil...
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