Foxcast Legal Listening

Episode 70

Fireside Chat With Rachel Barkow and Casey Michel

Recorded at our 2025 White-Collar Symposium earlier this month, this special episode gives guests Rachel Barkow and Casey Michel an opportunity to address the issues explored in each other’s books. With host Matt Adams as moderator, Rachel — an author, law professor and former clerk for Justice Antonin Scalia — and Casey — an investigative journalist and Director of the Combating Kleptocracy Program at the Human Rights Foundation — explore the common themes in criminal law that connect their works. Rachel and Casey dig into how constitutional rights, judicial interpretation of those rights and legislative statutes influence both mass incarceration and foreign lobbying. Their conversation weaves together turning points and pivotal figures in U.S. history — Richard Nixon and Bob Dole, the Gilded Age and the 1960s — and identifies how those moments and individuals have shaped today’s realities.

Episode 69

Unpacking Cashless Bail: Equity vs. Public Safety

The debate over cashless bail has intensified following the August Executive Order calling for its nationwide elimination. In this episode, host Matt Adams moderates a conversation featuring dueling perspectives on the cashless bail issue from guests Chanel Rhymes and Ken Good. Chanel is the Director of Advocacy for the Northwest Community Bail Fund, which provides cash bail to those for whom it's not accessible, and fights against the cash bail system. Ken Good is a board member of the Professional Bondsman of Texas, author, podcaster and lawyer who represents the cash bail industry. Chanel and Ken highlight the merits and drawbacks of both cash and cashless bail, rooted in their personal and professional experiences with both systems.

Episode 68

The Legacy and Lessons of Guantanamo Bay: A Defense Attorney’s Perspective

More than two decades have passed since the doors of Guantanamo Bay were opened to house alleged terrorists. Those doors remain open, though the number of detainees has dwindled to 15. In this episode, Mark Denbeaux, Professor Emeritus and Director of the Center for Policy and Research at Seton Hall University School of Law, shares his personal experiences representing Guantanamo Bay prisoners and looks at the lessons learned, and the lives and liberties lost, in America’s war on terror. Mark, who visited the facility more than 100 times over the course of his representations, joins host Matt Adams to discuss how the road to Guantanamo was paved with the legacy of America’s internment of people of Japanese descent, most of whom were American citizens, during the Second World War. Mark and Matt also weave the historical threads leading to the current administration’s detention facilities for individuals accused of entering the country illegally and its approach to habeas corpus — a legal recourse against unlawful detention.

Episode 67

Shattering the Myth of Rational Justice

The American justice system is based on incorrect assumptions about the rationality and logic of human behavior. That’s according to Drexel University Law Professor Adam Benforado, the New York Times bestselling author of Unfair: The New Science of Criminal Injustice. Using the disciplines of psychology and social science upon which he based his book, Adam and host Matt Adams explore the systemic blind spots of the criminal justice system in the investigation, adjudication and punishment stages. They also examine the potential to rebuild and reform the system using a more realistic model set of human behavior.

Episode 66

Tariff Uncertainty and Compliance Risks for Businesses

The Trump administration’s fluctuating tariffs pose major compliance risks for businesses operating in the U.S. Dive into the challenges they pose to businesses that rely on imported goods and services as Marina Gentile joins host Matt Adams to break down the complex aspects of global transfer pricing. A Partner and Lead of the Global Transfer Pricing Strategies Practice at the accounting and advisory firm Withum, Marina draws on 30 years of experience to explain how businesses seeking to mitigate the cost of tariffs can inadvertently engage in tax manipulation. You’ll learn what businesses need to do to stay ahead of the compliance curve and discover what could be coming next for global trade.

Episode 65

The Power of Interpretation: Constitutional Meaning in the Modern World

The Constitution takes center stage in this latest episode with legal scholar Erwin Chemerinsky, Dean of UC Berkeley Law, who is renowned for his studies of constitutional law and federal civil procedure. He and host Matt Adams dig into how the Constitution is interpreted, and occasionally misunderstood, by elected and appointed federal government officials. They also discuss U.S. Supreme Court rulings issued from the Warren court to today in cases involving constitutional law. They explore how the concept of “originalism” has influenced decisions involving civil rights, executive immunity, election campaigns and more. This intriguing episode also touches on whether it’s time to draft a new, more modern Constitution. This episode of The Presumption of Innocence was recorded days before the Supreme Court ruled in Trump v. CASA, Inc., restricting federal courts’ ability to issue nationwide injunctions, an outcome our guest examines prospectively in the first half of the podcast.

Episode 64

Cages We Built: The Making of Mass Incarceration in America

The U.S. imprisons a larger percentage of its population than any other country in the world. How did we get here? Rachel Barkow, Charles Seligson Professor of Law and Faculty Director of the Zimroth Center on the Administration of Criminal Law at New York University School of Law, returns to the podcast for an in-depth discussion on that very topic with host Matt Adams. Rachel’s second book, Justice Abandoned: How the Supreme Court Ignored the Constitution and Enabled Mass Incarceration, centers the conversation, highlighting six key Supreme Court cases. Rachel asserts that, had the justices ruled differently, their decisions would have created an American society where incarceration rates remained similar to other Western democracies. Rachel and Matt also discuss the financial, societal and practical costs of rising incarceration trends, and whether it’s possible to reverse the trajectory.

Episode 63

Enforcement Priorities of the Second Trump Administration: The False Claims Act

The Deputy Attorney General of the United States has made it clear that the Department of Justice intends to enforce the False Claims Act (FCA) in a way it never has before: in the pursuit of civil rights fraud. Listen as host Matt Adams is joined by his Fox colleagues Jana Volante Walshak and Kevin Raphael to break down the DOJ's internal memo, titled “Civil Rights Fraud Initiative,” and explain how this new enforcement focuses on “illegal DEI” and impacts businesses and universities that accept federal funds. Matt, Jana and Kevin provide a history of the FCA from its origins in the Reconstruction Era up to present day. They also explore how the act’s traditional compliance emphasis compares to the current administration’s priorities, and detail the incentives to encourage whistleblowers. Additionally, they forecast how the FCA may be used to enforce other administration priorities in the coming years.

Episode 62

The Tragic Toll of Conspiracy Theories: The Seth Rich Story

A violent, unsolved murder of an up-and-coming young professional in our nation’s capital. A grieving family in the Midwest. And conspiracy theories both ignited and inflamed by politics. Listen in as investigative journalist Andy Kroll returns to the podcast to dive into his book, “A Death on W Street: The Murder of Seth Rich and the Age of Conspiracy.” Andy and host Matt Adams take us back to the 2016 election year to examine why and how conspiracy theories took flight after the death of Seth Rich. You’ll hear how a family in mourning sought — and got — justice against a narrative of falsehoods and how the court system continues to hold the line to facts.

Episode 61

A Call to Service: From Public Duty to Spiritual Advocacy

Father Joseph Ciccone's mission to serve the public has been an unwavering and guiding force throughout his life. He’s held many titles over the years: Police Officer. Teacher. Detective. Bergen County Sheriff. Priest. But the title that brings him to the podcast today is that of convicted felon. Father Joe joins host Matt Adams to detail his life of public service, from his early days as a beat cop in the 1980s to his foray into elected public office — which ultimately led him to become the target both of hate crimes and of the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office. After pleading guilty, Father Joe dedicated his life as a priest to advocacy for criminal justice reform. This thought-provoking episode also touches on how Father Joe’s personal life as a gay man and his progressive social initiatives as a cop, detective and county sheriff impacted the trajectory of his life.