Opening Arguments

Hey folks, this is more of an SIO, but I recorded a solo show because I have to debunk this myth about Kamala losing 10-15m Democratic votes. The truth is not at all that. I also have a million other thoughts that I really just want to get out there and that I hope will be helpful.

Matt and I will be back on Friday. Also, I'm not charging Patreon for this one since it's on SIO. Thanks.

Hey folks, it's bad. MAGA is on track to win everything. Matt and I got on for some unfiltered, unedited talk.

OA1083 - the last episode before the election! So Matt thought it would be a great time to give a final round up of the actual policy differences between Trump and Harris. Are these two candidates really any different?

Yes. Obviously yes. What a stupid question. First day on Earth or something?

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OA1082 - Donald Trump recently promised that he and House speaker Mike Johnson have a “little secret” about how they are going to win next week’s election. Is he just trolling, or have Republicans identified real vulnerabilities in our federal election system? We assess the legal realities surrounding one particularly doomerist prediction in The Nation to try to understand just how concerned we really should be.

The Washington Post has just revealed that Elon Musk has his own little secret: his numerous past violations of federal immigration law. How much does this matter, and what would happen if ICE received this information about someone who didn’t happen to be the world’s wealthiest person? 

Finally, for our dessert course Matt has the scoop on a tasty footnote from this week’s news about how the Librarian of Congress just helped to fix the ice cream machine at your local McDonald’s.

• “That “Little Secret” Between Trump and Johnson? Here’s What It Could Mean,” Elie Mistal  The Nation (10/29/2024)

• “Election certification under threat,” Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (8/12/2024)

• “Elon Musk, enemy of ‘open borders,’ launched his career working illegally,” Maria Sachetti et al, The Washington Post (10/26/24)

• “Melania Trump modeled in US prior to getting work visa,” AP News (11/4/2016)

• “They Hacked McDonald’s Ice Cream Machines—and Started a Cold War,” Andy Greenberg WIRED (4/20/2021)

• “Exemption to Prohibition on Circumvention of Copyright Protection Systems for Access Control Technologies,” U.S. Copyright Office Docket No. 2023-5 (10/28/2024)

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It's OA Bar Prep with Heather! First we get the answer to last week's Mario Kart easement question, and then we get question 46 - The Fraudulent Flight to Florida

Right now, the best place to play (if you aren't a patron...) is at reddit.com/r/openargs!

If you’d like to support the show (and lose the ads!), please pledge at patreon.com/law!

OA1081.

We're taking a broad survey of the 2024 elections, starting with the many, many 2020 election deniers who are still in--and seeking--public office. How many of these people are still around, and how many are up for re-election? What kinds of threats to democracy are still built into the system and how could we do better? What would real reform look like, and what is it going to take to get there? 

• “The Story of Election Denial in America," ElectionDeniers. org

• SCOTUS decision in FEC v. Cruz for Senate (2022)

• “Interactive U.S. House Election Map,” 270towin. Com

• “At least 30 election deniers and 2020 fake electors serving as Trump electors this year,” CNN (10/17/2024)

• Fifth Circuit’s decision in Lamb v Wetzel (10/25/24)

• “A Comprehensive Look at the Freedom to Vote Act,” Jonathan Diaz, Campaign Legal Center (9/17/21)

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

If you’d like to support the show (and lose the ads!), please pledge at patreon.com/law!

OA1080 - As a weary nation watches the world's richest man try to buy a federal election in plain sight, we stop to consider the question which has so long plagued Elon Musk: There's gotta be a crime here, right? Somewhere?

There has been plenty of debate this week about the legality of Musk’s $1 million daily lottery for registered US voters in swing states, but there is something far more insidious going on in this story beyond the headlines. Matt explains how the Federal Elections Commission has recently taken the Supreme Court’s perfectly good joke way too far before we consider what the rapidly evolving rules around super PACs could mean for the future of fair elections in the United States. 

Finally, we drop a seasonal footnote to discuss how some Massachusetts 8th graders recently helped to close out a 332-year-old criminal case.

• “Judge Aileen Cannon, who tossed Trump's classified docs case, on list of proposed candidates for attorney general”  ABC News (10/22/2024)

• “Elon Musk’s Big Business and Conflicts of Interest With the U.S. Government” The New York Times (10/20/2024)

• “A Democrat, Siding With the G.O.P., Is Removing Limits on Political Cash at ‘Breathtaking’ Speed,” Shane Goldmacher  The New York Times (6/10/2024)

• The Illusion of Independence: How Unregulated Coordination is Undermining Our Democracy, and What Can Be Done to Stop It, The Campaign Legal Center (11/30/2023)

• FEC Advisory Opinion 2024-01 (3/20/2024)

• FEC Vice Chair Ellen Weintraub’s dissent from Advisory Opinion 2024-07 (addressing Lindsay Graham campaign’s question re: super PAC campaign fundraising coordination)

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

If you’d like to support the show (and lose the ads!), please pledge at patreon.com/law!

It's OA Bar Prep with Heather! First we get the answer to last week's pizza predicament, and then we get question 45 - the case of the uneasy easement!

Right now, the best place to play (if you aren't a patron...) is at reddit.com/r/openargs!

If you’d like to support the show (and lose the ads!), please pledge at patreon.com/law!

OA1079 - An OA Spooktacular! But also a normal episode.

We continue our ongoing series on fascism and the law with a fresh perspective on a familiar American legal horror story. Matt explains the terrifying legal context surrounding the 1692 Court of Oyer and Terminar which sentenced dozens of innocent Massachusetts colonists to hang for the extremely real felony of practicing witchcraft--and an unexpected defense strategy which could have spared them. What can the most terrifying run of wrongful executions in US history teach us about the dangers of governance by rumor, paranoia, and conspiracy theories 332 years later?

SOURCES: 

• In the Devil’s Snare: The Salem Witchcraft Crisis of 1692, Mary Beth Norton (2003)

• “Salem Witchcraft Trials Research Guide,” Congregational Library (2024)(links to primary sources)

• 18 USC 611 (voting by aliens)

• Order granting preliminary injunction against Oklahoma’s anti-Sharia law amendment in Awad v. Ziriax et al, W.Dist. of OK (2010)(later upheld by 10th Circuit

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OA1078 - The Supreme Court is back from their vacation and is set to ruin a bunch of lives again! They start off with Glossip v. Oklahoma, another opportunity for the Republican ghouls on the Court to execute a potentially innocent man.

But not to worry, Matt's Footnote Fetish(tm) will bring us wayyyy back into happy territory, as a favorite character from OA past is in the news in the best way!

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

If you’d like to support the show (and lose the ads!), please pledge at patreon.com/law!