VR16 - This week on Vapid Response: it’s the Hat and the Hammer, with the return of both New York Times token religious conservative columnist Ross Doot-hat and Newsweek editor-at-large Josh Hammer. We begin with a savory amuse douche in which a Christian influencer preaches against making policy based on “toxic empathy” before reading  Josh Hammer taking her up on the joke by explaining why the U.S. military has the absolute right to kill anyone Josh Hammer wants dead. Finally, Ross Douthat stops in from whatever planet he has been living on with some advice for the Trump administration on how to be better Christians.

OA1214 - As the end of 2025 approaches, we are finding real cause for hope in how federal courts have been handling the Trump administration’s unprecedented assault on the rule of law. In the first of what will be at least two parts, Matt and Thomas speedrun through just a few of the many wins--both big and small--that we have seen in a wide range of categories.

1. Just Security’s Litigation Tracker 

2. Farewell Messages by Recent DOJ Alumni

3. “The Unraveling of the Justice Department,” Emily Bazelon, The New York Times (11/16/25)

4. Docket for J.G.G. v. Trump (Alien Enemies Act and related contempt litigation)

5. Judge William Young’s decision in AAUP v. Rubio (9/30/25)

6. Injunction blocking Trump asylum EO in RAICES v. Noem (7/2/25) 

7. Injunction blocking ICE from enforcement in certain churches in Philadelphia Yearly Meeting v. Noem (2/24/25)

8. Injunction in Center for Taxpayer Rights v. IRSblocking IRS from sharing taxpayer information with ICE (11/21/25)

9. Injunction in Rhode Island v. Trump blocking EO which would have dismantled the Institute for Museums and Libraries and several other federal agencies (11/21/25)

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OA1213 - Thomas is back for an action-packed Rapid Response Friday! This week: we compare the letter that just earned the former President of Honduras a pardon of his conviction for definitely being involved with narcotrafficking against the Trump administration’s excuses for murder on the high seas of Venezuelans suspected to be involved with narcotrafficking--and if House Speaker Mike Johnson actually has a point in blaming Barack Obama for all of this. Matt then takes a quick look at Steve Bannon’s petition for review of his conviction for contempt of Congress by the Supreme Court and explains how “safe third country” agreements now give ICE the power to deport asylum seekers to Central America without a hearing on their claims.

Finally in today’s footnote, Matt shares an incredible story from his week: an astonishing beyond-Kafkaesque legal argument the government has ordered his client to respond to that you will have to hear to believe.

1. “Double-Tap Warfare: Should President Obama be Investigated for War Crimes?” Florida Law Review (Jan. 2017)

2. Steve Bannon’s cert petition to the U.S. Supreme Court in Bannon v. US (10/15/2025)

3. U.S. v. Helen Bryan, 339 U.S. 323 (1950)

4. Matter of C-I-G-M & L-V-S-G-, 29 I&N Dec. 291, (BIA 10/31/2025)

5. Asylum Cooperative Agreement with Honduras, Federal Register (7/8/2025)

6. ACA with Guatemala, Federal Register (7/15/2025)

7. “The Night Raids,” Lynzy Billing, ProPublica (12/15/2022)

8. Juan Orlando Hernandez letter to Trump seeking pardon, New York Times (12/2/2025)

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Today on Vapid Response Wednesday: weeks after designating “Antifa” a “domestic terror organization,” the White House hosted a panel of MAGA luminaries to update the President on the not-at-all-made-up threat to the nation posed by a thing which demonstrably does not exist. We begin with a short amuse douche, in which Tennessee Senator Marsha Blackburn is concerned about the extremely real Portland “Antifa hit list”--a thing which definitely exists exactly as described! Matt then explains why the war on “Antifa” is a threat to all of our civil liberties before we take a seat at the Antifa Round Table.

1. The White House “antifa round table”, Youtube (10/7/25)

2. The alleged Portland “antifa hit list”

3. White House claims "more than 1,000%" rise in assaults on ICE agents, data says otherwise, NPR (10/10/25)

4. Attacks on ICE up 1,000%? Trump administration claim not backed up by court records, Los Angeles Times (12/1/25)

5. “Countering Domestic Terrorism and Organized Political Violence,” NPSM-7 (9/25/25)

6. “Designating Antifa as a Domestic Terror Organization,” The White House (9/22/25)

7. “Extremist File: Jack Posobiec,” Southern Poverty Law Center

OA1212 - What’s a cop to do when he stumbles onto a crime, and the evidence points to someone he knows all too well? In today’s deep dive, friends become suspects, concerned parents become FBI agents, and laptops become lost jungle detritus. This criminal case out of the US District Court of the Northern Mariana Islands (a US territory in the Pacific) may not have reached the Supreme Court, or have any particularly important precedent, but what it lacks in prestige it makes up for with a fact pattern seemingly written by a law professor specifically to test your knowledge of criminal procedure and evidence. Come for the caper, stay for the OA midterm!

• U.S. v. Weindl, (D.N. Mar. Is. 2012)

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OA1211 - For this special Thanksgiving episode, we take a break from the news for Matt to share his gratitude in short interviews with just a few of the staff, attorneys, and partners who make his Boston immigration law firm's work possible. Stop in to meet everyone from George the office emotional support dog to Matt's long-time friend and law partner Nicole as we discuss the daily work of deportation defense in 2025 and how everyone is looking out for their mental health throughout this unprecedented crisis. Finally in today's footnote: Matt's former student and current research assistant Olivia joins to discuss the serendipitously-timed email which brought her to OA and what it takes to prepare to have an unscripted but informative conversation about complex topics. 

Thanks again to everyone listening, and most especially those who have joined the community and support the show at patreon.com/law!

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OA1210 - This week we welcome journalist and author John J. Lennon, who is calling in from New York’s Sing Sing Correctional Facility where he is serving 25 years to life for murder. Lennon’s extraordinary new book The Tragedy of True Crime: Four Guilty Men and the Stories that Define Us tells his own story alongside that of three other men whose crimes were sensationalized by the media--including Manhattan “Preppy Killer” Robert Chambers--after they were convicted for murders which they unquestionably committed. It challenges us to consider what life is like for the subjects of these documentaries and re-enactments after the credits have rolled, and to ask what our national obsession with true crime is costing them--and all of us.

1. The Tragedy of True Crime: Four Guilty Men and the Stories that Define Us, John J. Lennon (2025)

2. The New York Times review of The Tragedy of True Crime, Pamela Colloff (9/23/25)

3. “A Convicted Murderer’s Case for Gun Control,” John J. Lennon, The Atlantic (8/21/2013)

4. “The True Crime Stories You See on TV Are Leaving Out Something Big,” John J. Lennon, Slate (10/13/2025)

5. “When Your Crime Becomes a Dick Wolf Show,” John J. Lennon, Rolling Stone (7/19/2025)

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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