It's Wednesday already, which means we're prepping for our Rapid Response Friday episode. What do YOU want to hear OA break down this week? Comment below and heart the ones you love from other patrons!
Bonus points if it isn't a garbage fire legal story...I know they're hard to come by these days.
2025-04-09 19:35:17 +0000 UTC View PostOA1148 - We interrupt your regularly scheduled T3BE to bring you three stories of why Immigration and Customs Enforcement is the worst. Matt starts off by reporting on how ICE disappeared one of his detained clients shortly before his scheduled bond hearing this week. On that theme, you might have seen the viral video of an attorney confronting deportation officers at his minor client’s home. What in the world was that? Matt has the brekadown. We then try to understand why the Supreme Court...
2025-04-09 08:49:02 +0000 UTC View PostOA1147 - It’s the retrial of the century, and Matt’s bringing his local perspective for the single most-requested story in OA history. Jury selection is underway for the second trial of Karen Read for her alleged responsibility in the death of Boston police officer John O’Keefe in the same Massachusetts courtroom where a mistrial was declared last July, and we’ve got everything you need to know to follow this case which has become a global phenomenon. We review some o...
2025-04-07 08:48:45 +0000 UTC View PostOA1146 - We begin with a quick review of SDNY Judge Dale Ho’s scathing 78-page (!) order dismissing all federal charges against NYC Mayor Eric Adams at DOJ’s request to see how it compared to our recent predictions. Then in our main story, Matt breaks down a true legal nightmare from this week’s news and goes beyond the headlines to explain why ICE’s recent admission that it accidentally sent a man on a one-way ticket to hell with no intention of ever returning him is actually even wo...
2025-04-04 09:52:47 +0000 UTC View PostIt's Wednesday which means it's time to chime in with what you want to hear OA cover for Rapid Response Friday! Drop those requests in the comments below, and don't forget to heart any other ideas in the thread that you want covered!
2025-04-02 17:53:52 +0000 UTC View PostOA1145 and T3BE65 - Lydia joins this Wild Card Wednesday to discuss the awful, inhumane HHS layoffs. Workers were lined up around the block to wait hours to find out if they were fired or not. These are human beings. The people responsible for this should be imprisoned.
(awkward transition) and then it's time for a bar exam question!
If you'd like to play along with T3BE, here's what to do: hop on Bluesky, 2025-04-02 10:28:32 +0000 UTC View Post
OA1144 - Professor Jack Lerner joins us for a follow up to OA1055 as we dive deeper into case law surrounding the usage of rap music in litigation, including discussion of the fight for lyrics to be admitted as evidence in the Young Thug trial in Fulton County, Georgia, and what mechanisms are being explored to address this at the state level in places like New York.
OA1143 - In the past month, Donald Trump has issued a series of truly fascist orders targeting some of the country’s best-known law firms for crimes ranging from hiring people Trump doesn’t like personally to doing some favors for special counsel Jack Smith to flagrantly hiring non-white non-men. What is actually in these orders, and how bad is it that one of leading litigation firms in the country gave in to Trump’s demands without a fight? And what will it ...
2025-03-28 08:37:58 +0000 UTC View PostAnother week, another Rapid Response Friday! But this week we know what we'll be covering. NY Star Attorney Liz Skeen is joining us to break down the the Trump Administration's targeting of law firms - including some insider knowledge that she hasn't even told us yet (!!!), and the anti-lawyer Executive Order that only Fashy McFashies would pretend is in the interest of freedom.
Comment below with the questions you have in this legal realm, and be sure to heart the ones you love i...
2025-03-26 18:00:07 +0000 UTC View Post
OA1142 and T3BE64 - The State Bar of California wanted to save a buck or two, so they switched from paying a company to administer a real bar exam to a company that... didn't do that. It's an absolute fiasco. Heather is pulling double duty today on Wildcard Wednesday (tm) as she is our expert on this nonsense, in addition to giving us the usual Thomas Takes the Bar Exam treatment!
2025-03-26 09:31:12 +0000 UTC
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Come hang out with Thomas, Lydia, and Matt (and maybe other special guests)!
Wednesday, March 26th, at 3pm Pacific/6pm Eastern!
What to know:
The Zoom link will be posted to Patreon that day
It will be for the top tiers of any of the Serious Pod LLC shows (SIO, WTW, OA, GG). For OA, that means: Premium Member, Sponsor, Friend 2025-03-24 19:25:14 +0000 UTC View Post
Calling all patrons! While the live hangout is reserved for folks at $3 and up tiers, ALL patrons are able to ask questions that will be answered by folks on the OA team!
Post your questions here for the hangout on Wednesday, March 26th at 3pm Pacific/6pm Eastern, and if you want to join us LIVE, be sure to update your patron level!
Lastly, so we give the people what they want, be sure to upvote by hearting the questions you want to hear answ...
2025-03-24 19:22:58 +0000 UTC View PostOA1141 - Are Republican AGs really trying to have some of the most important federal protections for disability rights declared unconstitutional? Attorney Jenessa Seymour joins to explain the history and purpose of Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the pending challenge to a Biden-era regulatory update intended to protect trans health care rights.
OA1140 - The Trump administration has openly defied a court order--and that’s only the third worst thing about today’s main story. Also: what exactly does it mean to “sign” something into law? What is actually in all of these articles of impeachment which Republicans keep filing against federal judges who have defied Trump? And is there a First Amendment right to communicate with monkeys?
Comment below with what you'd like to have us cover on Friday's Rapid Response episode! We have some thoughts in mind, but want to hear from you fine patrons! Be sure to heart the others in the thread that sound like they could use the OA breakdown.
2025-03-19 23:51:57 +0000 UTC View PostOA1139 and T3BE63 - Lydia's back this week to walk us through Trump's very fashy takeover of The Kennedy Center. She watched it unfold in real-time and while it is obviously disturbing, listening to some leaked audio from the first board meeting provides a lot of laughs. It's somehow real, folks.
And we've got Professor Heather Varanini as always to walk us through the answer to T3BE62, and to set up the question for T3BE63!
2025-03-19 10:41:17 +0000 UTC
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OA1138 - Is a federal judge really about to sign off on dismissing the federal corruption charges against New York City mayor Eric Adams even in the face of everything that we now know about the corrupt deal which led to DOJ’s request? Why did appointed attorney Paul Clement recommend dismissing the case with prejudice, and what might it mean for future prosecutions by Trump’s DOJ if Judge Ho agrees? Superstar NYC public defender Liz Skeen returns to go beyond the headlines ...
2025-03-17 09:35:49 +0000 UTC View PostOA1137 - The arrest and detention of U.S. lawful permanent resident Mahmoud Kahlil in direct retaliation for his Constitutionally-protected speech and association as a campus organizer at Columbia University is the single greatest violation of any one individual’s right committed by the second Trump administration to date. Matt explains how an obscure Cold War-era provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act is being used for in one of the only times in modern history to justify the Tru...
2025-03-14 09:01:40 +0000 UTC View PostWell, another week in this Administration, and there continues to be WAY too much going on.
Help us narrow down our coverage for this week's Rapid Response Friday by posting what you want to hear us tackle! Also, be sure to heart other comments in the thread that you think need the OA treatment.
2025-03-12 18:03:30 +0000 UTC View PostOA1136 and T3BE62- Matt swings by a Wednesday episode, and we welcome Dr. Jenessa Seymour as well! Jenessa is a disability voting access advocate and New York attorney, and she's here to break down the SAVE Act. What exactly is it supposed to be "saving" for voting rights, who is going to be most impacted by its provisions, and do we have any chan...
2025-03-12 09:38:12 +0000 UTC View PostOA1135 - Even with everything that Trump has already done to raise consumer prices, contribute to mass unemployment and inflation, and stress-test the market, many people still believe that Trump and MAGA conservatives are “better for the economy.” The Groundwork Collaborative is a nonprofit organization which helps to build the kind of messaging that we need to show a better way . Executive director Dr. Lindsay Owens joins to discuss–among many other things–what we talk about w...
2025-03-10 09:57:17 +0000 UTC View PostOA1134 - Mere hours after a literal pat on the back from Donald Trump on live TV, U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts delivered a 5-4 decision against him in the emergency litigation over Trump’s unconstitutional efforts to eliminate foreign aid funding. How much of a win was this really, and why did Samuel Alito spend eight pages in dissent pretending to be “stunned” by the majority’s radical assertion that the federal government should pay out debts incurred by valid acts ...
2025-03-07 09:55:27 +0000 UTC View PostIt's Wednesday which means it's time to chime in with what you want to hear OA cover for Rapid Response Friday! Drop those requests in the comments below, and don't forget to heart any other ideas in the thread that you want covered!
2025-03-05 18:54:44 +0000 UTC View Post
OA1133 and T3BE61 - Lydia joins today to discuss Trump's 3/4/2025 address to Congress regarding his vision for the next 4 years. Leading up to the evening, there were reports that quite a few Democrats would opt to not attend. We highlight the different approaches folks in the party took to resist in the face of chaos and authoritarianism, and discuss what we might do if we were in that position.
After that, Professor Heather Varanini comes in...
2025-03-05 11:11:53 +0000 UTC View PostOA1132 - We resume our regularly scheduled rapid response to law in the news, starting with some good news (really) from the Supreme Court! Then: some-not-so-good news from the Supreme Court on the Trump administration’s efforts to dismantle the US Agency for International Development. Why did a federal judge need to issue an order confirming that he really meant it when he told the new administration to resume paying out the funds that Congress intended, and why does John Roberts seem to b...
2025-03-03 09:45:48 +0000 UTC View PostOA1131 - That's right, we interrupt your regularly scheduled rapid response Friday (sorry...) to give you the first episode in the new Gavel Gavel series!!! And, Gavel Gavel is now PUBLIC!
The legal battle between Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni might feel like just "celebrity gossip," but there is so much here. It has fiercly divided the internet, with one group certain that Justin Baldoni is a sexual harsser, and the other group certain that Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds are devious...
2025-02-28 11:36:09 +0000 UTC View PostHelp us narrow down what things we need to be covering this week for you all! Chime in below with what legal news has been on your mind that could use some good OA analysis. Don't forget to heart any other ideas in the thread that you want covered!
And while I have you, be sure to submit a question on the 2025-02-26 19:26:26 +0000 UTC View Post
OA 1130 and T3BE60 - We're so excited to kick off this episode with an interview with Amanda Litman, the co-founder and President of an amazing organization called Run for Something. We discuss who they are and how they support folks in state and local races in all 50 states, answer questions for those who may be listening and considering throwing their hat in the ring to run for political office, and g...
2025-02-26 10:13:36 +0000 UTC View PostCalling all patrons! While the live hangout is reserved for folks at $3 and up tiers, we wanted to open up the ability to ask questions for all you fine folks!
Post your questions here for the hangout on Wednesday, February 26th at 3pm Pacific/6pm Eastern, and if you want to join us LIVE, be sure to update your patron level!
Lastly, so we give the people what they want, be sure to upvote by hearting the questions you want to hear answered! 2025-02-25 00:46:32 +0000 UTC View Post
OA1129 - From the Department of Justice to DOGE to elected officials around the US, attorneys who swore to uphold and defend the law are working overtime on the bureaucratic front lines of Donald Trump’s campaign to actively degrade and destroy it. But what if those lawyers knew that there could be real consequences for their ability to practice law in the future for illegal, bad faith, and/or unethical conduct?
That question is at the heart of the 65 Project, a non-profit organized t...
2025-02-24 09:56:40 +0000 UTC View Post