OA1209 - Are you done with legal doomerism? Us too. Take some time away from doomscrolling and join Matt and Jenessa for Rapid Response Friday as we consider four stories of legal corruption and authoritarianism failing in the face of honest federal judges, and a footnote about how one brave prison nurse exposed even more corruption in Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell’s special treatment by the Trump administration.

1. Complaint in United States v. State of New York, Northern Dist. of NY (7/9/25)

2. New York’s motion to dismiss in U.S. v. New York (8/4/25) 

3. Judge Mae D’Agostino’s order granting plaintiff’s motion to dismiss in U.S. v. NY (11/17/25) 

4. Indictment of James Comey, Eastern Dist. of VA (9/25/25)

5. Judge William Fitzpatrick’s order granting disclosure of grand jury materials in U.S. v. Comey (EDVA)(11/20/25)

6. Judge Jeffrey Brown’s order in LULAC v. Abbot, Western Dist. of TX (11/18/25)

7. Decision on the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s motion to dismiss in 9/11 litigation, Southern Dist. of NY (8/28/25)

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VR14 - Part 2 of the Epstein files

We continue our first look at some highlights from last week's massive release of more than 20,000 pages of material from the estate of Jeffrey Epstein released by the House Oversight Committee, including Steve Bannon and ASU professor Lawrence Krauss among others. We  also consider Megyn Kelly's appalling response before leaving the last word where it belongs: with the women who have come forward to tell their stories on behalf of themselves and those who will never be able to.

1. Epstein survivors press conference held outside the US Capitol (9/3/25)

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OA1208 - We go beyond the Trump-related content in the latest round of Epstein disclosures by the House Oversight Committee to explore what we can learn from the many people in Jeffrey Epstein's orbit who flattered, patronized, and enabled him. Part 1 of 2.

1. Searchable database of Epstein records released by Courier 

2. Falling Upward: The Surprising Survival of Larry Summers, Robert Kuttner, The American Prospect (7/13/2020)

3. Investigation at Yale Law School, Dahlia Lithwick & Susan Matthews, Slate (10/5/2018)

4. Report on Sexual Harassment at Yale, Yale Law Women Board (10/2020)

Watch this episode on YouTube here: https://youtu.be/2NX71EJ8nJc

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OA1207 - We record a late-breaking reaction to the recent massive round of documents released from Jeffrey Epstein's estate and discuss how Trump may have just reached his most impeachable moment so far. Matt then shares some incredible news about how the end of Chevron deference has allowed federal judges to frustrate the administration's detention and deportation policies, and Jenessa gets into a lawsuit which challenges RFK Jr's replacement of the CDC’s vaccine advisory board with people who don't advise vaccines. Finally, a footgoat [sic] on how one woman’s quest to keep an unusual pet in Wyoming is running cover for some of the worst people on Earth. 

1. Google Drive link to House Oversight Committee's release of documents from the Epstein estate (11/12/25)

2. Massachusetts federal court's class certification in Guerrero Orellana

3. Matter of Yajure-Hurtado 26 I&N Dec. 2016 (BIA 9/5/25)

4. Complaint in Bontadelli v. City of Powell (D.WY 11/4/25)

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Kat Abughazaleh spent years reporting on right-wing media and movements, and she is now running to represent Illinois's 9th District in Congress on an explicitly anti-authoritarian platform. Kat joins to talk about her uniquely candid platform and community-based campaign, the state of the Democratic Party, how ICE is terrorizing Chicago during the most intensive urban immigration enforcement operation in US history, and much more.

1. Kat Abughazalah's campaign page

2. Kat Abughazaleh's author page at Media Matters for America

In our continuing Still Good Law series, Jenessa explains how a dispute arising from a parking garage in Wilmington, Delaware became the foundation for one of the most important concepts in civil rights: determining that a private or quasi-public individual or entity is operating “under color of law.” How does this concept help to hold law enforcement and other governmental agencies accountable, and how is it holding up in 2025?

1. Burton v. Wilmington Parking Authority, 365 U.S. 715 (1961)

2. Monroe v. Pape, 365 US 167 (1961)

3. 42 USC 1983

OA1205 - It’s another good news Friday! Voting rights expert Jenessa runs down some of the highlights of the off-year blue sweep in this week’s elections, as well as some recent unsung national victories for voting and disability rights. Matt then checks in on the Supreme Court’s oral arguments from the challenge to Trump’s unprecedented tariffs and why it is looking like he might actually lose his administration’s first attempt to defend one of his second administration’s policies on the merits. 

Finally, in today’s footnote: Why a federal judge recently decided that a lawsuit brought by the man whose penis was once featured on the cover of the most important albums of 1990s smelled like summary judgment. 

1. Supreme Court oral arguments in Learning Resources, Inc  v. Trump (11/5/2025)

2. The International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) of 1977

3. “Regulating Imports with a Reciprocal Tariff to Rectify Trade Pratcies that Contribute to Large and Persistent Annual United States Goods Trade Deficits,” The White House (4/2/2025)(executive order on tariffs)

4. Solicitor General John Sauer’s brief in Learning Resources 

5. Plaintiff’s second amended complaint in Elden v. Nirvana LLC et al

6. D.C. federal judge Coleen Kollar-Kotelly’s opinion in combined litigation challenging Trump’s executive order on citizenship requirements for voting (10/31/25)

7. DC federal judge Amir Ali’s order in National Association of the Deaf v. Trump  (11/4/25)

8. Order granting defendants’ motion for summary judgment in Elden v. Nirvana, LLC (9/30/2025)

VR12 - Yes, we absolutely thought this was coming out pre-Halloween. Halloween may be over, but NEVERTHELESS THE SPOOKTACULAR PERSISTED!

In this Vapid Response double feature, Thomas, Matt, and Lydia are haunted by two ghoulish takes from the past: 

1. FEATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON: Politico’s insanely longform access journalism piece from August 2024 on how Project 2025 was so totally over, just never happening, nothing to see here

2. EROSSERHEAD: New York Times resident traditional conservative Ross Douthat’s 2015 analysis of why Donald Trump is definitely not a fascist

We then screen a short horror film recently shot at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

1. “The Inside Story of How Project 2025 Fell Apart,” Ian Ward, POLITICO (8/2/2024)

2. Project 2025 Tracker - Home

3. “Opinion | Is Donald Trump a Fascist?,” Ross Douthat,  The New York Times  (12/3/2015)

OA1204 - As House Speaker Mike Johnson continues to pretend that he doesn’t have to seat Democrat Adelita Grijalva well over a month after she was elected to represent Arizona’s 7th Congressional district, we take a closer look at the last time that Congress refused to swear someone in and what the Warren Court had to say about it. Who was Harlem Congressman Adam Clayton Powell, why was the House so intent on excluding him in 1966, and how precedential might Powell v. McCormack  be for the lawsuit which Arizona has filed on Grijalva’s behalf?

1. Powell v. McCormack, 395 U.S. 486 (1969)

2. Adam by Adam; the autobiography of Adam Clayton Powell, Jr ,  Adam Clayton, Powell Jr. (1972) (Internet Archive)

3. 2 USC Sec 25

4. Complaint in Arizona v. House of Representatives (filed 10/21/25)

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OA1203 - Happy Halloween! We take shelter from a year of ghoulish legal news in the COURTHOUSE OF HORROR, a cabinet of macabre legal curiosities including:

1. “SO I TRADEMARKED AN AXE MURDERER”: The historic Lizzie Borden House takes a whack at a nearby coffee shop

2. “THE BONE DETECTOR”: Recent patent bar survivor Jenessa Seymour brings us the unbelievable story of the spookiest--and silliest!--lie detector ever registered by the US Patent & Trademark Office

1. “ATTACK OF THE TORTIOUS CLOWNS”: Can you sue a haunted house for your fright-related injuries? 

1. “THE GREENBRIER GHOST”: The bizarre tale of how a victim’s testimony from beyond the grave helped to convict her killer in an 1896 West Virginia murder trial

1. “CANDYMAN 5: SUMMARY JUDGMENT”: In a tasty conclusion to last year’s Halloween footnote on consumers disappointed with the spookiness of their seasonal treats, a Florida federal judge finds as a matter of law that there is no wrong way to make a Reese’s.

Finally, we close on a serious note with Jenessa’s guide to how every registered voter can do their part next week to change the plot of our ongoing American horror story.

1. Order in Ghost Adventures LLC v. Miss Lizzie’s Coffee, LLC, No. 23-2000 (1st 

Cir.)(Selya, J.)(11/15/2024)

1. “Federal Judge Known for Polysyllabic Prose Dies at 90,” Trip Gabriel, The New York Times, (3/21/2025)

2. “Would You Confess Your Criminal Misdeeds to This Skeleton?,” Cara Giaimo, Atlas Obscura (5/16/2017)

3. “Apparatus for Obtaining Criminal Confessions and Photographically Recording Them,” Patent #1749090, H.A. Shelby (filed 8/10/1927)

4. “The Greenbrier Ghost Reexamined,” Greenbrier Historical Society, Arabeth Balseko (1/20/2022)

5. Summary judgment order in Munoz v. Six Flags St. Louis LLC (10/12/2022)(Wallach, J.)

6. Order granting motion to dismiss in Vidal et al v. The Hershey Company, FLSD No. 24-60831 (9/19/2025)(Damian, J.)

7. “Your Cheat Sheet To The 2025 General Elections,” Daniel Nichanian, Bolts (10/1/2025)

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