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PODCAST

Law and Chaos

Liz Dye; Andrew Torrez

Ignorance of the law is no excuse! That"s true for a traffic stop, and it"s true if you want to participate in whatever"s left of American democracy. If the events since the 2016 election taught us anything, it"s that tuning out is not an option. Legal journalists Liz Dye and Andrew Torrez break down the week"s most important courtroom stories, so you can keep on top of this crazy news cycle. Whether it"s Texas giving two middle fingers to the Supreme Court, or Donald Trump in all the courts at

government politics

All Episodes

52:54

Ep 249 — DHS Voter Lists?

Law and Chaos ·

2026/07/28

DOCKET ALERTS: The Paramount-Warner Bros. merger is on hold well into next year. The parties stipulated that the merger would not go through pending trial in the antitrust case brought by twelve state AGs, despite massive financial penalties for Paramount if the deal is delayed. Meanwhile, the Writers Guild of America has filed a similar antitrust action, which has also been assigned to Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín. Trump's newest tariff scheme, based on findings of anticompetitive use of

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01:04:36

Ep 248 — Tariff Man Returns

Law and Chaos ·

2026/07/24

DOCKET ALERTS: After SecDef Hegseth ordered testosterone testing for all troops over 30 and offered hormone replacement therapy to all, Judge Ana Reyes ordered the government to explain how this is different from the healthcare for trans men which they just banned. On Tuesday, a judge in Florida ordered Trump to turn over his financial records to the BBC in his defamation trollsuit. Turns out, when you say you've been damaged to the tune of a $10 billion, they make you show your work!

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59:00

Ep 247 — They See Me Trollin'

Law and Chaos ·

2026/07/21

DOCKET ALERTS: Minnesota passed the "Grandparents' Happy Hour" law making it legal to serve wine to grown adults in assisted living. Skol! The DOJ's Civil Division got tossed out of court in Massachusetts because it failed to respond to a motion to dismiss its lawsuit over the state's refusal to issue undercover license plates to ICE. Former Olympian David Hearn moved to dismiss the charge that he vandalized the Reflecting Pool since the government has drained the pool and is now destroying

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53:42

Ep 246 — Blanche and Buc-ee's

Law and Chaos ·

2026/07/17

DOCKET ALERTS: This week, the Senate confirmed Jeffrey Kuntz as a judge in the Southern District of Florida, making him the second former Florida state jurist who did Trump a solid in his trollsuit against the Pulitzer Prize Board and got himself promoted to the federal bench. Also this week, the Senate confirmed Matthew Schwartz to the Second Circuit, making him the third of Trump's personal lawyers to be made appellate judges. This is fine! The Trump administration sued Maryland to stop it

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58:57

Ep 245 — Lindsey Graham: Bad Lawyer

Law and Chaos ·

2026/07/14

DOCKET ALERTS: Todd Blanche will appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee this week as it considers his nomination to be Attorney General. Can he advance without Senator Lindsey Graham, his biggest protector? Judge Tim Kelly in DC reluctantly dismissed the charges against several Proud Boys gang members convicted for their roles in the January 6 assault on the Capitol after the Justice Department walked away from the appeal. Twelve states filed an antitrust suit in California to block

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48:50

Ep 244 — Trump Says SCOTUS Must Reconsider 'IMMEDIATELY

Law and Chaos ·

2026/07/10

DOCKET ALERTS: Trump says he's going to get the Supreme Court to reconsider its birthright citizenship ruling "IMMEDIATELY." (He's not.) He also says he's going to get SCOTUS to reconsider its denial of certiorari in the E. Jean Carroll case, and thus he shouldn't have to pay the $5 million he owes her. (Again, he's not.) Judge Lewis Kaplan ordered the escrowed funds to be disbursed to Kaplan, holding that it was time for Trump to "do equity and pay the judgment." And the Second Circuit

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56:06

Ep 243 — Judgefight

Law and Chaos ·

2026/07/07

DOCKET ALERTS: As Trump tries to get out of paying E. Jean Carroll what he owes her, his supporters have filed a scandalously irresponsible bar complaint against her lawyer Roberta Kaplan. US Attorney Andrew Boutros is in hot water with yet another court. The Chicago prosecutor appears to have violated a court order and publicly discussed a sealed case and has to come in and explain himself to the court. DOOFUS OF THE DAY: Rep. Anna Paulina Luna demands that the GOP investigate the masked

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01:07:56

Ep 242 — SCOTUS Wanders Off For Summer, But State...

Law and Chaos ·

2026/07/03

DOCKET ALERTS: House Speaker Mike Johnson sent everyone home for vacation rather than deal with a dissident faction in his own caucus that keeps demanding a vote on the vote-suppressing SAVE America Act Trump keeps braying for. A federal judge in New Hampshire became the tenth to dismiss a DOJ lawsuit seeking full, unredacted state voter rolls — or eleventh if you include the Sixth Circuit. In 2024, Florida sued to force DHS to bulk verify citizenship data so states could "audit" their voter

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56:41

Ep 241 — SCOTUS Burns Down The Government For Sport

Law and Chaos ·

2026/06/30

DOCKET ALERTS: From the SCOTUS orders list, petitions for certiorari denied in E. Jean Carroll's defamation suit against Trump and Alan Dershowitz's defamation suit against CNN. Pay up, a-hole! And of course, a big Nelson Muntz HA HA for Dersh. The DC man who followed National Guard troops around while playing the Imperial March from Star Wars has settled his lawsuit against DC cops, but not against the guardsmen who called them. John "Torture Memos" Yoo has been sworn in as a constitutional

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01:00:28

Ep 240 — The Only Consistent Thing About The Supreme...

Law and Chaos ·

2026/06/26

DOCKET ALERTS: The administration says it's going to prosecute anyone who touches the algae-ridden Reflecting Pool at the Lincoln Memorial. So far, that seems to be more bluster than reality. Sadly, what isn't bluster is that Judges Reed O'Connor and Mark Pittman in Texas are handing down extraordinarily long punitive sentences for Antifa protestors to "send a message" not to criticize the government. DOOFUS OF THE DAY: Postmaster General David Steiner, who tried to pass off voter suppression

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56:22

Ep 239 — Slush Fund Funtimes

Law and Chaos ·

2026/06/23

DOCKET ALERTS: Maryland became the ninth state to beat back a lawsuit from the DOJ's Civil Division seeking to seize its full, unredacted voter rolls. In Massachusetts, a judge allowed states to proceed with a lawsuit to block an executive order requiring DHS to maintain a master list of voters and barring USPS from delivering mail-in ballots from anyone on the list. DOOFUS OF THE DAY: Sixth Circuit Judge Amul Thapar, who was featured in a Bloomberg Law story about judges embarrassing

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51:30

Ep 238 — Speech Crimes

Law and Chaos ·

2026/06/19

DOCKET ALERTS: Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville is facing a residency challenge to his gubernatorial campaign. The Justice Department dismissed a case seeking to enforce a moratorium on offshore and onshore windfarm permits. Instead they're buying back leases for windfarms, so that energy companies can develop natural gas plants in the midwest. Murica! The DOJ is trying to take advantage of a half-assed plot to attack Trump's UFC to get the court to let him build his ballroom. Doofus of

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55:57

Ep 237 — A Slush Fund By Any Other Name Would Still Reek

Law and Chaos ·

2026/06/16

DOCKET ALERTS: The Supreme Court issued orders today, opinions coming Thursday. The Wall Street Journal reports that Jeanine Pirro, the US Attorney for DC, is investigating banks for "debanking" conservatives. Judge James Boasberg benchslapped Pirro's effort to magic away his order quashing her abusive subpoena on the Federal Reserve. DOOFUS OF THE DAY: A judge in Mississippi disqualified all the lawyers in a case after finding that both sides cited fake cases hallucinated by AI. MAIN

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52:42

Ep 236 — Is Trump's Newest Lawyer WORSE Than Alina...

Law and Chaos ·

2026/06/12

DOCKET ALERTS: Will Trump's name come off the Kennedy Center in time for the court-ordered deadline? New York congressional candidate Brad Lander was acquitted of charges related to a peaceful protest inside the federal building where ICE is warehousing immigrants. The House failed to reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. We'll explain what this has to do with Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte. MAIN SHOW: Doofus of the Day Alejandro Brito,

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01:00:42

Ep 235 — The Only Thing Bigger Than The UFC Claw Is...

Law and Chaos ·

2026/06/09

DOCKET ALERTS: Doofus of the Day: George Santos, who is clearly trying to get himself back into jail. NPR reported that the former congressman bet against his own appearance at the State of the Union in February. After NPR reported that Kalshi had frozen his accounts and referred him to the CFTC and DOJ, Santos called up journalist Bobby Allyn and threatened him with "a gun in your face." Also seeking a pardon: Sam Bankman-Fried. Judge Leo Sorokin in Massachusetts blocked Trump's attempt

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01:13:53

Ep 234 — Holy Grand Jury, Batman!

Law and Chaos ·

2026/06/05

DOCKET ALERTS: A federal judge in Colorado enjoined the National Science Foundation from shutting down the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder. APA, FTW! The DC Circuit ruled that Pete Hegseth's policy kicking out all trans service members and barring enlistment by anyone who ever had a diagnosis of gender dysphoria is rooted in animus and cannot stand. But the remedy was narrowly cabined to the plaintiffs in this case, and only those who are currency active duty. The Supreme

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01:09:34

Ep 232 — The Vindictive DOJ

Law and Chaos ·

2026/06/04

DOCKET ALERTS: Joe Dye begins a series on the second phase of the redistricting wars at his Substack. Multiple states are threatening to tax payouts from Trump's slush fund at 100 percent. The Trump Administration is suing Massachusetts for failing to give "confidential," hard to trace license plates to ICE and CBP. A panel of federal judges in Alabama once again rejected the state's congressional map as an illegal racial gerrymander. The state has appealed to SCOTUS. Don Lemon moved

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48:19

Ep 231 — Abrego Garcia Wins Again

Law and Chaos ·

2026/06/04

DOCKET ALERTS: Judges in Maine and Wisconsin hand DOJ two more losses as they sue to get access to state voter rolls to check for non-existent election fraud. Associate Attorney General Stan Woodward is back with another batsh*t ballroom filing. DOOFUS OF THE DAY: Attorney D. Hayden Fisher, who filed a bumptious SLAPP suit against locals in Norfolk who dared to disparage a MAGA-coded brewery for perceived anti-LGBTQ+ bias. MAIN SHOW: We'll revisit the implosion of the Broadview 6

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01:05:22

Ep 230 — DOJ Tiptoes Around The Sh*tpile!

Law and Chaos ·

2026/06/04

DOCKET ALERTS: Congressional Republicans abstain courteously from blessing Trump's ICE/CBP allocation after Trump torpedoes several sitting GOP politicians and demands cash for the ballroom and the $1.8 billion J6 slush fund. They're heading home until June, TYVM. DOJ indicts former Cuban leader Raúl Castro, age 94, for shooting down two flights of dissident exiles dropping leaflets back in 1996. Is this a prelude to Bay of Pigs 2? Officials in Florida and Tennessee discover that the First

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57:32

Ep 229 — Judicial Warfare

Law and Chaos ·

2026/06/04

DOCKET ALERTS: The Supreme Court stayed a lower court decision out of Texas banning doctors from dispensing the abortion drug mifepristone. The Colorado Supreme Court barred Children's Hospital from cutting gender-affirming care, calling it a denial of treatment on the basis of sex and gender identity. The DOJ is suing the DC Bar to stop it disciplining upstanding government lawyers like Ed Martin and Jeff Clark. The case has been assigned to Judge Richard Leon!!! Elon Musk lost his lawsuit

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315 results

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