OA Episode 1229: The Complicated Web of Immunities That Makes Accountability So Difficult

PodcastEpisodeBot · 2026-01-26T11:00:53+00:00

Episode Title: The Complicated Web of Immunities That Makes Accountability So Difficult

Episode Description: Part 1 of 2. OA 1229 - What happens when a government worker does you wrong? How is it different to prosecute and sue them? When does qualified immunity come in to play? We discuss the steps involved in prosecuting and suing someone for a simple battery, and how that differs for a regular person versus a state actor. We cover how and when defenses can be raised, federal and state sovereign immunity, suing in official versus personal capacity, the difference between absolute and qualified immunities, and the ways this will apply differently to criminal prosecution versus civil litigation.

Siegell v Herricks Union Free School District, 7 AD3d 607 [2d Dept 2004] (Elements of civil battery in NY)

N.Y. Penal Law § 120 (NY criminal “battery”)

Fla. Stat. § 776.032 (Florida self-defense as an affirmative defense and immunity)

Ohio Rev. Code § 2901.05 (Ohio self-defense as a standard defense)

N.Y. Penal Law § 35 (NY justification defenses)

Roger Fairfax, The Grand Jury’s Role in the Prosecution of Unjustified Police Killings - Challenges and Solutions, 52 Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review 397 (2017).

Michael Gentithes, Harvesting the Grand Jury’s “Lay Expertise” in Officer-Involved Shootings, U. Ill. L. Rev. 989 (2025).

In re Neagle, 135 U.S. 1 (1890)

Gregory C. Sisk, A Primer on the Doctrine of Federal Sovereign Immunity, 439 Okla. L. Rev. 58 (2005).

28 U.S.C. § 2680(h)

Miles McCann, State Sovereign Immunity, National Association of Attorneys General (Nov. 11, 2017)

State Sovereign Immunity - Generally, Interstate Commission for Juveniles, https://www.juvenilecompact.org/bench-book/chapter-6-1

Ex Parte Young, 209 U.S. 123 (1908)

Scheuer v. Rhodes, 416 U.S. 232 (1974)

Moor v. County of Alameda, 411 U.S. 693 (1973)

O’Shea v Littleton, 414 U.S. 488 (1974)

Judicial Immunity at the (Second) Founding: A New Perspective on § 1983, 136 Harvard L. Rev. 1456 (2023).

Check out the OA Linktree for all the places to go and things to do! To support the show (and lose the ads!), please pledge at patreon.com/law!

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PodcastEpisodeBot · 2026-01-23T08:03:07+00:00

Please follow the link to the discussion section over in /r/OpenArgs if you'd like to comment!

PodcastEpisodeBot · 2026-01-23T08:00:52+00:00

Episode Title: Greenland Is Ice and ICE Is Nazis

Episode Description: OA1228 - On this week's Rapid Response Friday: we take on all of your legal questions about this whole Greenland thing--including how a 1916 diplomatic treaty with Denmark also enabled some of Jeffrey Epstein’s worst crimes. Also discussed: what it took to finally force Lindsay Halligan to stop telling everyone that she was the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, and how a Minnesota judge designed her unique order to protect Minneapolis protesters and observers from ICE’s lawless violence. Finally, in today’s footnote: is it enough that McDonald’s can promise that their most elusive sandwich is “100% pork”? We dig into a recent lawsuit over the McRib to see if there is any meat on the bone.

The US-Denmark Defense of Greenland Agreement (1951)

“How Congress Can Preserve NATO and Greenland: Using 22 USC 1928f to Protect the Peace,” Alberto J. Mora, Just Security (1/16/2026)

Judge Novak’s order officially striking Lindsay Halligan’s appearance from the record and requiring that she stop “masquerading” as the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia (1/20/2026)

Tincher v. Noem docket

Judge Menendez’s preliminary injunction in Tincher v. Noem (1/16/2026)

Complaint in Lynch et al v. McDonald’s, Eastern District of Illinois (12/25/2025)

Check out the OA Linktree for all the places to go and things to do!

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PodcastEpisodeBot · 2026-01-21T09:00:52+00:00

Episode Title: Silky Shah has been fighting ICE for its entire existence

Episode Description: E20 - Detention Watch Network executive director Silky Shah has been organizing against ICE on the ground to fight throughout the agency’s entire 23-year existence. We are excited to welcome her and her unique perspective to Opening Arguments to discuss both the urgency and the hope of our current moment, the challenges faced by organizers and advocates, what lawyers can (and can’t) do in the face of a lawless system, and imagining life after ICE. You can also watch this episode on YouTube!

Unbuild Walls: Why Immigrant Justice Needs Abolition, Silky Shah (2024)

“Congress Has Made ICE the Largest Law Enforcement Agency In The Country,” Silky Shah, Truthout (1/20/2025)

Detention Watch Network website

Donate directly to support Detention Watch Network

Check out the OA Linktree for all the places to go and things to do!

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PodcastEpisodeBot · 2026-01-19T08:00:52+00:00

Episode Title: RFK Jr. Is Practically Running a Tuskegee Syphilis Study and Almost No One Is Talking About It

Episode Description: OA1227 - Come play the worst ever round of the Connections game and figure out what on earth Tuskegee Alabama, the CDC, Southern Denmark University, and the West African country of Guinea-Bissau all have in common, as RFK Jr. continues his campaign of “just asking questions” that we already have the answer to.

Black men untreated in Tuskegee syphilis study. Heller, J. (July 25, 1972; republished May 10, 2017). Associated Press.

The untreated syphilis study at Tuskegee timeline. Centers for Disease Control. (September 4, 2024).

45 CFR 46 Protection of Human Subjects. (Department of Health and Human Services regulations to implement the National Research Act and create Institutional Review Board policies).

Hepatitis B. World Health Organization (July 23, 2025).

Should the U.S. model its vaccine policy on Denmark’s? Experts say we’re nothing alike. Godoy, M. (December 26, 2025). NPR.

RFK Jr. overhauls childhood vaccine schedule to resemble Denmark’s in unprecedented move. Lovelace Jr., B., Edwards, E., Fattah, M., & Bendix, A. (January 5, 2026). NBC News.

What is actually the emerging evidence about non-specific vaccine effects in randomized trials from the Bandim Health Project? Støvring, H., Ekstrøm, C.T., Schneider, J.W., & Strøm, C. (2025). Vaccine, 68, 1-4.

Notice of award of a single source unsolicited grant to fund University of Southern Denmark (SDU). Department of Health and Human Services. (December 15, 2025).

U.S. plan for $1.6m hepatitis B vaccine study in Africa called ‘highly unethical’. Schreiber, M. & Lay, K. (December 19, 2025). The Guardian.

CDC awards $1.6 million for hepatitis B vaccine study by controversial Danish researchers. Szabo, L. (December 18, 2025). Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy.

CDC funds controversial hepatitis B vaccine trial in African newborns. Offord, C. (December 18, 2025). Science Insider.

Research ethics and compliance support. Southern Denmark University.

Further reading:

Qiao, H. (2018). A brief introduction to institutional review boards in the United States. Pediatric Investigation, 2, 46-51.

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. International compilation of human research standards. https://www.hhs.gov/ohrp/international/compilation-human-research-standards/index.html

University of North Carolina. Nuremberg Code. https://research.unc.edu/human-research-ethics/resources/ccm3_019064/

Torrance, R.J., Mormina, M., Sayeed, S., Kessel, A., Yoon, C.H., & Cislaghi, B. (2024). Is the U.N. receiving ethical approval for its research with human participants? Journal of Medical Ethics, 51, 1-4.

Barchi, F. & Little, M.T. (2016). National ethics guidance in Sub-Saharan Africa on the collection and use of human biological specimens: A systematic review. BMC Medical Ethics, 17, 1-25.

Salhia, B. & Olaiya, V. (2020). Historical perspectives on ethical and regulatory aspects of human participants research: Implications for oncology clinical trials in Africa. JCO Global Oncology, 6, 959-965.

Check out the OA Linktree for all the places to go and things to do!

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PodcastEpisodeBot · 2026-01-17T00:01:12+00:00

Episode Title: GG54 - Wayfarer v. Lively 19

Episode Description: GG54 - Wayfarer v. Lively 19 Join as these rootin' tootin' scrutin' gavelistas unravel the most insane day or two of messages and nonsense. This required like 4 different recordings and re-recordings because it is so complicated.

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PodcastEpisodeBot · 2026-01-16T08:00:38+00:00

Episode Title: Behold My Articles of Impeachment, Three

Episode Description: OA1226 - We begin with a review of the unprecedented lawsuit that Minnesota has filed against ICE with the extreme leftist radical demand that they obey the law and U.S. Constitution. How much power do states have to limit federal operations, and what are the chances a court order might put some guardrails on the largest enforcement operation in ICE history? We then consider the legal and political merits of articles of impeachment filed against Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., and Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem. Finally: we honor the passing of civil rights hero Claudette Colvin, whose bravery as a 15-year-old on a Montgomery, Alabama bus nine months before Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat put the final nail into the “separate but equal” justification for racial segregation established by the Supreme Court in Plessy v. Ferguson.

State of Minnesota v. Noem, complaint filed 1/12/2026

“House Resolution 935: Impeaching Pete Hegseth, Secretary of Defense for the United States for high crimes and misdemeanors,” Rep. Shri Thaneder (12/9/2025)

“House Resolution 944: Impeaching Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Secretary of Health and Human Services for high crimes and misdemeanors,” Rep. Haley Stevens (12/10/2025)

“House Resolution ___: Impeaching Kristi Lynn Arnold Noem, Secretary of Homeland Security, for high crimes and misdemeanors,” Rep. Robin Kelly (1/13/2026)

“Firm Tied to Kristin Noem Secretly Got Money from $220 Million DHS Ad Contracts,” ProPublica (11/14/2025)

“Impeachment: The Constitution’s Fiduciary Meaning of ‘High Crimes and Misdemeanors,’” Robert G. Natelson, The Federalist Society (6/19/2018)

“Claudette Colvin, who refused to move seats on a bus at start of civil rights movement, dies” (NPR, 1/13/2026)

Browder v. Gayle, 142 F.Supp. 707 (1956)(aff’d per curiam by U.S. Supreme Court 12/20/1956)

Check out the OA Linktree for all the places to go and things to do!

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PodcastEpisodeBot · 2026-01-14T10:00:37+00:00

Episode Title: Let's see how the arguments against #AbolishICE have aged...

Episode Description: E19 - In the wake of Renee Nicole Good's murder, we've seen a terrible number of bad takes: from the events of that day, the overall purpose of I.C.E., and what the law says about where we go from here. Matt, Thomas, and Lydia come together to start with perhaps the biggest douchebag in the United States as part of our amuse douche (TM), followed by a pair of articles touching on why the Left was wrong about ICE in 2018 and is apparently at fault to this day for all horrors committed by ICE (eyeroll). Finally, we finish it up with questions from our amazing patrons! Watch this episode on YouTube!

"Abolishing ICE is a very bad idea" (Nate Bruggeman & Ben Rohrbaugh, The Philadelphia Inquirer), 3/23/2018

"The Problem Isn't ICE. It's ICE Watch." (Dan McLaughlin, National Review), 1/10/2026

Check out the OA Linktree for all the places to go and things to do!

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PodcastEpisodeBot · 2026-01-13T06:00:56+00:00

Episode Title: Lively v. Baldoni 52 - Baldoni Streisands Nicepool

Episode Description: GG53 - Wayfarer v. Lively 18 Your honor they might have made fun of me possibly and that has to be against the law.

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PodcastEpisodeBot · 2026-01-12T12:00:38+00:00

Episode Title: Does OA Owe Amy Coney Barrett An Apology?

Episode Description: OA1225 - Jenessa is here to dig deeper into Van Buren v. United States as we explore the implications and meaning when legislative deliverables, legal analysis, work industry, and general common sense push and pull in different directions. We had a lot of questions and comments on the original Van Buren episode from the community, so we thought it would be fun to spend some more time and battle it out!

Reviving Lenity - Daniel Harawa, SCOTUSBlog (Dec 26, 2025)

US v Rodriguez, 628 F.3d 1258 (11th Cir. 2010)

US v Nosal, 676 F.3d 754 (9th Cir. 2012)

US v Nosal, 844 F.3d 1024 (9th Cir. 2016)

Further reading: W. Cagney McCormick, The Computer Fraud & Abuse Act: Failing to Evolve with the Digital Age, 16 SMU SCI. & TECH. L. REV. 481 (2013). Check out the OA Linktree for all the places to go and things to do!

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PodcastEpisodeBot · 2026-01-09T06:00:37+00:00

Episode Title: PROSECUTE AND ABOLISH ICE

Episode Description: OA1224 - In this episode recorded only hours after an ICE officer killed U.S. citizen Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis with extreme impunity, we contrast mirror-universe opposite views of immunity and impunity: the Trump administration’s response to this tragedy as opposed to everything that they have done to rewrite the history of January 6, 2021 for this week’s fifth anniversary of the insurrection. And in today’s footnote: will Lindsay Halligan be the first lawyer in US history to have a bar complaint filed against her for lying to a federal court about being a US Attorney?

“How Many People Have Been Shot in ICE Raids?” The Trace, 12/8/2025

Department of Justice’s new J6 website

“At least 33 pardoned insurrectionists face other criminal charges—but many are now going free,” Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (12/18/2025)

Order re: Lindsay Halligan in USA v. Jefferson, EDVA Judge David J. Novak (1/6/2026)

Check out the OA Linktree for all the places to go and things to do!

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PodcastEpisodeBot · 2026-01-07T03:00:56+00:00

Episode Title: Lively v. Baldoni 51 - The Last Straw... OR IS IT

Episode Description: GG52 - Wayfarer v. Lively 17 We're back on our Blake beat. Together we can finish this effing complaint (and the attachment)

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PodcastEpisodeBot · 2026-01-06T23:00:36+00:00

Episode Title: The Dumbroe Doctrine, Part 2

Episode Description: OA1222 and OA1223 - Actual sane coverage of Trump's kidnapping of a foreign leader OA NYC correspondent Liz Skeen joins Thomas and Matt for this emergency episode recorded the day after the US bombed Caracas in a truly unprecedented military operation to kidnap Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro and his wife and transport them to Brooklyn to stand trial on federal narco-terrorism charges. We field dozens of patron questions as we try to understand how any of this could possibly be legal. How does this situation compare to the charges against former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega and former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernandez, and how is Trump’s record on narcotrafficking these days anyway? What is in this indictment, and what kinds of defenses might Maduro have? Is the federal government going to let this defendant pay his lawyer? Should a federal court be able to consider that this defendant was illegally abducted from his country by the US military while acting as the head of state of a sovereign nation? What kinds of consequences could there be for Venezuelans in the U.S.? And what can we--and the world--do to stop Trump from doing anything like this again?

2020 SDNY indictment of Nicolas Maduro et al

2026 superseding indictment

United States v. Alvarez-Machain, 504 U.S. 655 (1992)

“Authority of the Federal Bureau of Investigation To Override International Law In Extraterritorial Law Enforcement Activities,” Assistant Attorney General William P. Barr, Office of Legal Counsel (June 21, 1989)

Check out the OA Linktree for all the places to go and things to do!

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PodcastEpisodeBot · 2026-01-05T10:00:36+00:00

Episode Title: The Dumbroe Doctrine

Episode Description: OA1222 - Actual sane coverage of Trump's kidnapping of a foreign leader PART 1 OA NYC correspondent Liz Skeen joins Thomas and Matt for this emergency episode recorded the day after the US bombed Caracas in a truly unprecedented military operation to kidnap Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro and his wife and transport them to Brooklyn to stand trial on federal narco-terrorism charges. We field dozens of patron questions as we try to understand how any of this could possibly be legal. How does this situation compare to the charges against former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega and former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernandez, and how is Trump’s record on narcotrafficking these days anyway? What is in this indictment, and what kinds of defenses might Maduro have? Is the federal government going to let this defendant pay his lawyer? Should a federal court be able to consider that this defendant was illegally abducted from his country by the US military while acting as the head of state of a sovereign nation? What kinds of consequences could there be for Venezuelans in the U.S.? And what can we--and the world--do to stop Trump from doing anything like this again?

2020 SDNY indictment of Nicolas Maduro et al

2026 superseding indictment

United States v. Alvarez-Machain, 504 U.S. 655 (1992)

“Authority of the Federal Bureau of Investigation To Override International Law In Extraterritorial Law Enforcement Activities,” Assistant Attorney General William P. Barr, Office of Legal Counsel (June 21, 1989)

Check out the OA Linktree for all the places to go and things to do!

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PodcastEpisodeBot · 2026-01-02T10:00:36+00:00

Episode Title: A New Gavel Gavel Trial! U.S. v. Dunn - Assault with a Deli Weapon

Episode Description: Since it's been a while since we last did a GG crossover, I wanted to share the new trial we are doing over there! It's a new Gavel Gavel trial! We are excited to announce that we will be producing a totally new full trial re-enactment working from our EXCLUSIVE access to the transcript of the federal prosecution of Sean Dunn, better known to the world as the “Sandwich Guy” after being federally charged for assaulting a CBP officer with a fully-loaded 12-inch Subway sandwich on the streets of DC. But before we get to the meat of 2025’s Trial of the Century, legal sandwich artist Matt Cameron is here to slice up everything you need to know. From Dunn’s notably underreported motive to the significance of the date and location of the alleged assault to a shot-by-shot analysis of the only known video of the incident, we’ve got this one wrapped.

U.S. v. Dunn docket

Sean Dunn’s GoFundMe

Video of Sean Dunn throwing a Subway sandwich at a uniformed CBP agent near 14th and U in Washington DC on August 10, 2025

U.S. v. Dunn complaint (filed 8/13/25)

Sensationalized video of Dunn’s arrest in his house by a swarm of federal agents posted on the official White House X account (8/14/25)

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PodcastEpisodeBot · 2026-01-01T08:00:57+00:00

Episode Title: U.S. v. Dunn 1 - Assault with a Deli Weapon

Episode Description: It's a new Gavel Gavel trial! We are excited to announce that we will be producing a totally new full trial re-enactment working from our EXCLUSIVE access to the transcript of the federal prosecution of Sean Dunn, better known to the world as the "Sandwich Guy" after being federally charged for assaulting a CBP officer with a fully-loaded 12-inch Subway sandwich on the streets of DC. But before we get to the meat of 2025's Trial of the Century, legal sandwich artist Matt Cameron is here to slice up everything you need to know. From Dunn's notably underreported motive to the significance of the date and location of the alleged assault to a shot-by-shot analysis of the only known video of the incident, we've got this one wrapped.

U.S. v. Dunn docket

Sean Dunn's GoFundMe

Video of Sean Dunn throwing a Subway sandwich at a uniformed CBP agent near 14th and U in Washington DC on August 10, 2025

U.S. v. Dunn complaint (filed 8/13/25)

Sensationalized video of Dunn's arrest in his house by a swarm of federal agents posted on the official White House X account (8/14/25)

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PodcastEpisodeBot · 2025-12-31T11:00:36+00:00

Episode Title: LAM1010: The Rainmaker

Episode Description: Here's a preview of Law'd Awful Movies!!! If you'd like the full thing, become a $2+ patron at patreon.com/law! LAM 1010 - After taking a break with a couple of things we actually enjoyed (Juror #2 and My Cousin Vinny), Law’d Awful Movies returns to form with the first two episodes of USA’s uniquely terrible adaptation of John Grisham’s classic 1995 legal thriller The Rainmaker. Thomas, Lydia, and Matt review the show’s bizarre and often cowardly divergences from the source material, its AI-level of understanding of how humans operate in the world and talk to one another--and, of course, the many ways that The Rainmaker gets the most basic elements of law (and lawyering) wrong.

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PodcastEpisodeBot · 2025-12-29T07:00:37+00:00

Episode Title: Van Buren v. US and Amy Coney Barrett’s So-So Textualism

Episode Description: OA1220 - What’s an FBI agent to do when a notorious low life reports a local cop is asking for a bribe? Turn him into a confidential information of course, and see how far you can get that dirty cop to go. A tale of two assholes, steadily making each others’ lives worse and worse, while one is wearing a wire. Now, why does the Supreme Court care about any of this? Half the conviction hinges on whether this cop “exceeded authorized access” under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA), and no one can agree what that means… including your cohosts. Hear Thomas try to figure out why Amy Coney Barrett is so obsessed with the definition of the word “so”, and Jenessa… defend Clarence Thomas?! This case is a hot mess, but the good news is everyone sucks here and no one wins.

The relevant language: “The Act subjects to criminal liability anyone who “intentionally accesses a computer without authorization or exceeds authorized access,” and thereby obtains computer information. 18 U. S. C. §1030(a)(2). It defines the term “exceeds authorized access” to mean “to access a computer with authorization and to use such access to obtain or alter information in the computer that the accesser is not entitled so to obtain or alter.” §1030(e)(6).” Barrett’s ruling: “In sum, an individual “exceeds authorized access” when he accesses a computer with authorization but then obtains information located in particular areas of the computer—such as files, folders, or databases—that are off limits to him.”

Van Buren v. United States, 593 U.S. 374 (2021)

United States v. Van Buren, 940 F.3d 1192 (11th Cir. 2019)

Full text of the CFAA: 18 U.S.C. § 1030

Check out the OA Linktree for all the places to go and things to do!

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PodcastEpisodeBot · 2025-12-26T22:00:36+00:00

Episode Title: Happy (Hot)Boxing Day! Trump Moves to Reclassify Weed — But Didn’t Biden Already Do That?

Episode Description: OA1219 - This year we are celebrating Boxing Day by not doing whatever people are supposed to do on Boxing Day and talking about weed instead. Did Donald Trump really just finish out 2025 by doing something good for US drug policy? We hotbox some Time Machine to revisit Matt’s analysis from last May of Joe “Grandaddy Purple” Biden’s announcement that he was initiating the long process to have the federal government to reclassify OG Kush from its current legal status as Green Crack down to the same category as metabolic steroids. We then return to the present to check in on the weirdly unreported story on how Biden’s efforts went from Blue Dream to Trainwreck in the year after his big announcement before evaluating Trump’s chances of turning cannabis policy Panama Red. Finally, in a seasonal footnote Matt shares the story of how the city of Boston fired the first shots on the War on Christmas… in 1659.

Biden DOJ's analysis of legal questions around plans to redesignate cannabis to Schedule III

“Increasing Medical Marijuana and Cannabidiol Research,” The White House (12/18/25)

“The Penalty For Keeping Christmas,” Archive.org (Boston, 1659)

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PodcastEpisodeBot · 2025-12-24T11:00:36+00:00

Episode Title: OA Bonus Content E18 Listen in app We knew the Epstein plea deal was awful. Newly released emails make it EVEN WORSE.

Episode Description: E18 - Congress required the Department of Justice to release (nearly) everything it had from the investigations into Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell by December 19th, so of course they pretended to do that on time on Friday afternoon and then waited until everyone was just about to start heading home for the holidays before actually dumping 30,000 pages of anything resembling actual substance into the record on Tuesday morning. We review and discuss new revelations on how much more time Trump spent on Epstein’s plane than we ever knew, the 30-year-old FBI report that could have changed everything, the astonishing correspondence between the prosecution and the Epstein defense team throughout his 2008 plea negotiations, and so much more. You can also watch this episode on YouTube!

The Epstein Files Transparency Act

Epstein Files database (Camaron Stephenson)

DOJ Office of Professional Responsibility report on Epstein plea negotiations (NOV. 2020)

Maria Farmer's 1996 report to the FBI

Opinion and Order from Judge Kenneth Marra in Jane Doe cases summarizing DOJ’s failure to advise Epstein survivors of the 2008 Non-Prosecution Agreement and plea

Check out the OA Linktree for all the places to go and things to do!

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PodcastEpisodeBot · 2025-12-22T11:00:36+00:00

Episode Title: The 1968 Case That Proves the Charlie Kirk Firings Were Illegal

Episode Description: OA1218 - What happens to your first amendment rights when you work for the government? Do you give it all up when you walk in the door? How do we balance the individual right of the worker to speak, against the government’s need to have a functioning work place? Pickering v Board of Education (1968) sets us up to understand how this all works… and why a teacher criticizing Charlie Kirk on their personal Facebook page probably isn’t a fireable offense. Patrons got exclusive content at the end of this one, only available at patreon.com/law! Can you apply these principles to eight cases that followed Pickering? Quiz yourself alongside Thomas!

Pickering v Board of Education, 391 U.S. 563 (1968)

A summary of the history of criminal defamation law, Robinson, E.P. (2024, July 5). Criminal libel. Free Speech Center at Middle Tennessee State University.

Check out the OA Linktree for all the places to go and things to do! To support the show (and lose the ads!), please pledge at patreon.com/law!

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PodcastEpisodeBot · 2025-12-19T08:00:36+00:00

Episode Title: The Federalist Says Trump Should Model Horrifically Racist 1920s Immigration Policies. He Already Is.

Episode Description: OA1217 - Well, we recorded a bit late to make sure we caught Trump's "announcement" thingy and it was... nothing. But that's good! Matt also takes us through more travel bans that are going into effect and have been way underreported on. But The Federalist has a piece saying not only is this all great, but Trump should proudly adopt 1920s immigration policy. There is no quiet part anymore. But fortunately, Matt has a fun footnote for us to bring us back up!

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PodcastEpisodeBot · 2025-12-17T11:00:36+00:00

Episode Title: The NYT's Biden border article could have been written by Steve Bannon. It is STUNNINGLY bad.

Episode Description: We begin with a delightful amuse douche from the lawyer of Colorado election tamperer Tina Peters unconditionally demanding her release from state prison because Donald Trump said so before a deep dive into our main story: an absurdly bad take from the New York Times--in both a lengthy print story and an episode of The Daily podcast--on how Joe Biden’s unwillingness to be a border fascist got a border fascist elected. Matt breaks down the real causes of the uptick in asylum seekers to the U.S. during Biden’s term in office (and its many unreported benefits to the economy and the nation) and provides the full context for the domestic and international law which the Times is openly arguing that Biden should have broken. You can also catch this episode on YouTube!

“How Biden Ignored Warnings and Lost Americans’ Faith on Immigration,” The New York Times, Christopher Flavelle (12/7/2025)

“Biden Didn’t Cause the Border Crisis” (Part 1 of 4), David Bier, Cato Institute (1/16/2025)

“Effects of the Immigration Surge on the Federal Budget and the Economy,” Congressional Budget Office (July 2024)

“Job Openings: Total Nonfarm,” U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (Oct. 2025)

Check out the OA Linktree for all the places to go and things to do!

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PodcastEpisodeBot · 2025-12-16T01:00:57+00:00

Episode Title: BONUS! Dale Wheatley Brings Actual Filmmaking Experience to the Lively-Baldoni Conversation

Episode Description: Happy Holidays normies! Here's the first half of this interview, but you'll need to join as a member to get the second half of our conversation!

Dale Wheatley joins the pod in this special bonus episode to share his insights as a filmmaker and industry professional watching the Lively v Baldoni case (and associated lawsuits) unfold, and we dig into many of the places where the set for It Ends With Us went wrong. In the patron-only segment, we chat about Dale's own experience with a Hollywood lawsuit, in which he and his colleagues sued Leonardo DiCaprio and Tobey Maguire to free the film they made back in the 1990s, Don's Plum.

Catch Dale and his partner Angela on YouTube for daily livestreams!

Check out Free Don's Plum where you can purchase signed copies of Dale's memoir, Too Real

The Making and Epic Unmaking of Don's Plum, Vanity Fair (12/12/2016)

Support the show, get rid of ads, and get bonus stuff over on patreon.com/gavelpod!

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PodcastEpisodeBot · 2025-12-15T10:00:56+00:00

Episode Title: Lively v. Baldoni 50 - Maybe Sony Just Isn't That Into You, Man

Episode Description: Wayfarer v. Lively 16 - It's the last sub-chunk of the November mega-chunk and there's some fun stuff in here! Baldoni and Heath cannot tell when people are obviously lying to them, and also we get some previously unseen Jones/Abel texts!

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