(WATCH THIS EPISODE ON YOUTUBE) In 1870, a dog named Old Drum is shot and killed by his owner’s neighbor in Missouri. In 1457, a sow and her piglets are put on trial for the murder of a child. In 2016, a parrot repeats the words “Don’t shoot!” in his murdered owner’s voice, and many more...Humans aren't the only ones contributing to chaos in our courtrooms.

Animal (Court)House. Let’s get into it.

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(WATCH THIS EPISODE ON YOUTUBE) **CONTENT WARNING: GRAPHIC DESCRIPTIONS OF TORTURE** On March 15, 2025, President Trump announced the Venezuelan criminal gang Tren de Aragua was conducting "irregular warfare" against the United States and that members would be deported under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798. The Trump Administration quickly began deporting people allegedly affiliated with the gang—without any semblance of due process—via direct flights to a notoriously deadly El Salvadoran prison. A few days later, the Trump Administration told a federal judge it was invoking the "state secrets privilege" to refuse to provide any information to the Courts about these flights, the people they've put on them, or what (if any) evidence they had to support doing so.

As attorneys in this still-ongoing court battle [J.G.G. v. Trump (2025)] fight to stop Trump's unsanctioned deportations under the AEA, new legal questions abound: Is the Executive Branch blatantly violating Judicial orders? Are we in a Constitutional crisis yet? What is the Alien Enemies Act? What is the state secrets privilege? Were Administrations already abusing it before Trump? Can the Trump administration invoke the privilege to "disappear" whoever they choose? What happens now?

Reb gives you everything she knows on all of those topics and more. This is J.G.G. v. Trump (2025), United States v. Reynolds (1953), FBI v. Fazaga (2022), and United States v. Zubaydah (2022).

**IMPORTANT NOTE**: This episode is expected to go live on April 3, 2025, the same day the parties in J.G.G. v. Trump (2025) are set to appear in a hearing before Judge Boasberg on his Order to Defendants to show cause why they did not violate the Court's Temporary Restraining Orders. Judge Boasberg is expected to rule on the DOJ's invocation of the state secrets privilege sometime thereafter. The case is ongoing and any further updates beyond April 2 will not be covered in this episode because Reb cannot time travel. Yet.

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***

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***

0:00 - Content Warning

0:32 - Intro / Necessary Context

6:40 - Background on J.G.G. v. Trump (2025)

8:25 - Secrets secrets are no fun

9:45 - A photo op isn't a secret y'all

13:30 - The Alien Enemies Act of 1798?? Really???

24:18 - Everyone is probably just stupid

27:06 - DRAMA (WITH TIMESTAMPS) OF (LIKELY) COURT ORDER VIOLATIONS

41:15 - Constitutional crisis incoming

42:20 - Trump admin loves to tweet (themselves to hell)

47:52 - The Hail Mary

53:20 - THE STATE SECRETS PRIVILEGE

53:45 - United States v. Reynolds (1953)

58:10 - The state secrets privilege is...messy

1:05:14 - ABUSE OF THE PRIVILEGE POST-9/11

1:11:30 - CIA "black sites" (TORTURE IN POLAND)

1:14:50 - FBI v. Fazaga (2022)

1:15:05 - TORTURE IN POLAND

1:16:50 - United States v. Zubaydah (2022)

1:20:43 - GORSUCH DISSENT IS...FIRE?

1:24:09 - CONTENT WARNING (TORTURE)

1:26:07 - Zubaydah wants to depose his torturers

1:30:00 - His torturers don't STFU about being torturers

1:39:02 - Gorsuch concludes with a BANG

1:42:10 - The wrong administration

1:43:05 - CAN THE TRUMP ADMIN SUCCESSFULLY USE THE PRIVILEGE?

1:46:18 - SIDEBAR: Another Judge CHEWED THEM UP

1:51:14 - REB'S REBUTTAL 

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(WATCH THIS EPISODE ON YOUTUBE) An Alcatraz Island kidnapper is hired by the child he kidnapped 30 years later.

Listen to Reb snatch the (kinda heartwarming but mostly traumatizing?) details of Waley v. United States (9th Cir. 1949).

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CLICK HERE to PREORDER Reb's book: The Book They Throw At You—A Sarcastic Lawyer's Guide* To The Unholy Chaos of Our Legal System, *God No, Not Actual Legal Advice

***

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***

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(WATCH THIS EPISODE ON YOUTUBE) Do cats have free speech rights? How did Blackie the Talking Cat cause this much (legal) trouble?

Reb finds out in Miles v. City Council of Augusta, Georgia (11th Cir. 1983).

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Huge shoutout to Alyssa, our new Rebuttal Podcast editor!

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0:00 - Intro

2:35 - CASE BEGINS

6:16 - Blackie's lore

12:40 - Blackie takes CASH ONLY

16:23 - Blackie supports the family<3

18:55 - THE LAW

20:03 - THE LAWSUIT

21:11 - Pets need free speech :(

22:00 - Court's Analysis (BARS!)

29:50 - Freak flags deserve to fly<3

31:37 - Court's Holding

32:01 - Wait...what can the court consider?

34:14 - THE BEST JUDGE FOOTNOTE EVER

37:17 - Famous last words :'(

38:14 - REB'S REBUTTAL

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(WATCH THIS EPISODE ON YOUTUBE) The FBI threatens to put innocent people on the No Fly List unless they agree to become unpaid FBI informants spying on their (also innocent) communities. Why? Because the FBI pretty much guarantees that random, erroneous, overinclusive, islamophobic nominations to the No Fly List will be approved, and since the process is cloaked in secrecy, there wasn't a clear way to stop them. Until now.

Fikre v. FBI (2013) and Tanzin v. Tanvir (2020) are only two of many cases challenging the No Fly List’s erroneous overinclusion and the FBI’s islamophobia. Learn about more:

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***

0:00 - Intro

1:12 - Case begins

4:11 - YONAS FIKRE v. FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION (2013) (SCOTUS Opinion 2024)

4:35 - The FBI threatens Muslim citizens with the No Fly List

9:16 - SCOTUS does something correct for once

12:31 - WHAT IS THE NO FLY LIST?

15:02 - What CAN’T you do on the No Fly List?

15:54 - Everything goes back to 9/11, y’all

21:05 - OPAQUE, OVER-INCLUSIVE, INACCURATE

23:00 - Islamophobia in our FBI (pretends to be shocked)

23:27 - Kyle Rittenhouse, Jan 6ers, etc. = "white Christians" = not on the No Fly List...?!

30:26 - Watchlists are…QUOTAS?!

31:51 - WHAT????????!!!!!!!

36:04 - How can we respect the Watch Lists?!

39:32 - More cases pending (like TANZIN V. TANVIR (2020))

42:20 - REB’S REBUTTAL

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(WATCH THIS EPISODE ON YOUTUBE) What do Henry Ford's Model-T car, banning alcohol in the United States, and the FBI have in common? We needed all three to (1) catch American gangster John Dillinger and (2) make it federally legal to steal planes...FOR 26 YEARS.

Learn how to legally steal a plane in 1926 and destroy evidence in 2007! Don't believe it? Well, the U.S. Supreme Court already does!

Listen to Reb fly the skies and dump some fish in McBoyle v. United States (1931) and Yates v. United States (2015).

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***

0:00 - INTRO/DISCLAIMER (RECENT AVIATION DISASTERS)

5:48 - Jailbreak

7:40 - Dillinger gets whacked over….one cop car?!

9:02 - Our first car, our first FBI, our first Amendment banning alcohol

11:39 - The Dyer Act

13:35 - STEAL A PLANE WITHOUT BREAKING THE LAW

14:48 - Summary of events because what the hell is going on

17:35 - Evidence against McBoyle (more questions, no answers)

28:39 - The Dyer Act indictment

29:05 - We love a self-propelled vehicle

34:41 - Supreme Court time

35:25 - RULE OF “LENITY” IN THE COURTS

36:48 - It’s veHICLES, baby

38:06 - SCOTUS OPINION

44:50 - If it were 1931, you’d probably be good

49:07 - DESTROY EVIDENCE WITHOUT BREAKING THE LAW

53:36 - SCOTUS says fish are friends not paper

58:32 - REB’S REBUTTAL IS FIRE THIS WEEK ACTUALLY

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(WATCH THIS EPISODE ON YOUTUBE) At 10:27PM on December 3, 2024, South Korea's President Yoon Suk Yeol went live on television while his country was sleeping to declare martial law. His country fought back. After all was said and done, Yoon's martial law proclamation lasted only 6 and a half hours.

Hawaii's lasted three years.

Internment camps, forced labor, military tribunals, and a pause on all constitutional and due process liberties. Curfews, blackouts, barbed wire covering the beaches. Death penalties and forced blood donations. Thousands of Japanese residents were rounded up and put behind barbed wire, while every Hawaiian was forced to live under total, merciless military control.

"It's too expensive to ship them somewhere," U.S. Secretary of Navy Frank Knox remarked. "Just make the islands an internment camp."

This is Duncan v. Kahanamoku (1946).

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***

0:00 - Intro

3:46 - Martial law drama (South Korea edition)

7:20 - WHAT GRINDS REB'S GEARS

19:24 - Martial law drama (South Korea edition) cont.

28:47 - Democracies are fragile! <3

34:24 - MARTIAL LAW IN THE USA

35:44 - Harry White's arrest

37:09 - No one knows WTF "martial law" means

39:34 - 1941 HAWAII UNDER MARTIAL LAW

44:53 - Why was martial law so bad?

50:00 - Japanese internment tales

56:44 - NO RIGHTS, NO JUSTICE

57:13 - Insane punishments

58:33 - Saffrey Brown Murder

1:02:08 - SUPREME COURT CLOCKS IN (kinda)

1:09:55 - Reb's Rebuttal

1:13:15 - BONUS! HOW THE U.S. STOLE HAWAII

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(WATCH THIS EPISODE ON YOUTUBE) Out of nowhere, your front door explodes. You see a man with a gun run through your door and up the stairs, firing shots at the police chasing after him. Luckily, you run for cover before a SWAT team begins their "protocol" to flush him out - explosives, toxic gasses, grenades, BearCat armored tanks, robots, and chemical weapons hit every inch of your home.

Eventually, the situation is secure. The neighborhood is safe. Police followed "all necessary protocol."

Your house? Destroyed. Your personal belongings? Melted by explosives. Your cat? Blind and deaf from the events.

And you? Hopefully financially stable. Because neither insurance nor the courts will help you. In fact, a judge says that the City police department doesn’t owe you a dime.

This is Baker v. City of McKinney (2020) (cert. denied 2024).

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* * *

0:00 - Intro

3:01 - Baker v. City of McKinney (2020)

7:20 - A 15 year-old hostage in tow

10:06 - Tomfoolery begins / SWAT blow a house to smithereens

21:06 - Not the first nor the last!

30:12 - Lech v. City of Greenwood Village (2015) / Two Belts, One Shirt

38:56 - Cops lie in police reports (pt. 47982347372492)

41:10 - SWAT team turns Lech's house into chemical weapons target practice and I'm not even joking

42:53 - The goddamn robots

53:49 - Victims galore

56:28 - Varlitskiy v. County of Riverside, CA, et al. (2024)

1:02:06 - Reb's Rebuttal

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(WATCH THIS EPISODE ON YOUTUBE) Reb hits you with rapid fire summaries of 13 lawsuits filed in 2003 that are unhinged enough to make it on Rebuttal (the legal sanctuary of chaos and calamity, of course).

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0:00 - Intro / Life update

4:16 - The Docked Dog Tail Case

8:55 - The Condom Soup Case

10:48 - Port-A-Potty Prison

12:32 - Depose The Parrot

13:59 - Suing The Casino Instead of Your Husband

15:43 - Convicted Felon Wants His Playstation Back

17:18 - BREAKING: Lightning Loves Cars

18:16 - Kid Sues High School For $50 Million

19:49 - Lion Beats Your Crappy Bullet (Yay!)

21:05 - Dancing With The Scars

22:03 - Don't Record Your Local Grandma

23:14 - She's Just Not That Into You

24:15 - Black Pepper Throws Hands

26:52 - Reb's Rebuttal

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(WATCH THIS EPISODE ON YOUTUBE) A chicken farmer, World War II, and 150 suicidal chickens were the only ones up to the task to answer this question for the Supreme Court. No, I'm not joking.

This is United States v. Causby (1946).

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***

0:00 - Intro

00:40 - Case begins

3:00 - The Takings Clause

3:30 - The Causbys and their crime scene coop

7:26 - The Causbys get a (good) lawyer / Lower court case

10:00 - US Supreme Court arguments

17:41 - Supreme Court's analysis + holding

26:46 - After Causby...seriously, who owns it? / Drones are a problem y'all

37:43 - Wait, what about the Causbys?

37:52 - Reb's Rebuttal

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