Opening Arguments

It's a breakdown I've been begging Andrew to do for months and it's finally here! The case for why the House should start impeachment proceedings for Clarence Thomas. Links: Ginni's texts, Trump v. Thompson, Ginni apologized to clerks, Justice Samuel Chase - Impeachment, How Ginni Thomas jockeyed for influence in Trump's orbit

It is absurd to say "point to where in the Constitution it says you have a right to an abortion." Legally speaking, there's something a lot deeper and more basic going on. As we all already know, this leaked decision makes a mockery of the law. Andrew has some further deep-diving for us on how the court, a mere 20 years ago, ruled in the opposite direction on similar legal questions. Many of the same Justices were a part of that ruling. Listen and learn! Links: Court press release, Draft Dobbs opinion, Abortion Policy in the Absence of Roe | Guttmacher Institute, Hodes & Nauser v. Schmidt, 87(R) SB 8, Arkansas SB 149 (2019), Lawrence v. Texas, Bowers v. Hardwick, 478 U.S. 186 (1986), Carey v. Population Services Int'l, 431 U. S. 678 (1977)

Just stunning. Despite OA warning you about this for years, it still is, and should be, utterly shocking to see in print. Andrew has somehow already read the opinion and has a preliminary breakdown. This is an emergency, unfiltered, unedited, uncensored episode.

Andrew Seidel joins us to commiserate over both how much the Supreme Court is butchering State-Church Separation, and also how irresponsibly The Daily podcast covered the case involved. The NYT decided to devote an entire episode to a man who a Bush-appointed federal judge called out for being dishonest in his presentation of facts. Please yell at them with us, because this is garbage and we should expect better.

We continue the fascinating deep-dive into the NOT FINAL deal for Musk to buy Twitter. This part goes more into the financing and highlights even more ways the deal might not go through. Then, we've got some updates in key stories! Trump has been held in contempt! And briefs for the MTG case are due today. Links: Musk Loses $32 Billion in Tesla Wealth, proxy statement (shareholders vote), TrumpContemptOrder4_26_22

The answer may surprise you! When it was announced that Elon Musk bought Twitter, I had a billion and one questions for Andrew about it. Andrew being Andrew, he commenced deep-diving and turned up a ton of interesting info about this deal and the legality around deals like this. And to his surprise... it's FAR from a done deal! Listen in for the dive so deep that it actually will require a surprise bonus episode! This is part 1, part 2 will be out as soon as thomasly possible to edit and release it! Links: Surely We Can Do Better Than Elon Musk, Elon, you have no idea what the hell you're talking about, 15 US Code Chapter 2B - SECURITIES EXCHANGES, 17 CFR Part 240, 17 CFR § 243.100 - General rule regarding selective disclosure, 17 CFR § 243.101 - Definitions, Form 8-K, 17 CFR § 240.10b-5 - Employment of manipulative and deceptive devices, Basic, Inc. v. Levinson, 485 U.S. 224 (1988), Twitter's 8k, material agreement with Musk

Past OA guest Sarah Henry is running for the Florida House in the 38th district! We talk about the absolute hell that is Florida Republicans, and what she intends to do about it. Then, a breakdown of the civil contempt motion against Donald Trump for never complying with anything. Will he get those Alex Jones type contempt fines? Find out! Links: Make sure to support Sarah! Trump contempt motion, SECOND SUPPLEMENTAL VERIFIED PETITION, AG James Files Motion to Hold Donald J. Trump in Contempt

As you've no doubt already heard, a totally unqualified, Trump appointed, 34 year old Florida Judge has completely destroyed the national travel mask mandate with the stroke of a pen. Andrew breaks down how dumb the opinion is, and Thomas laments that Democratic leaders are somehow still pretending we live in a society. After that, we've got a deep-dive into bankruptcy, inspired by both Alex Jones and the Health Care Sharing Ministry Sharity. Sharity declared bankruptcy leaving 10,000 members holding the bag for $50 million in unpaid bills. Who could have possibly predicted this except oh yeah see OA497: Christian Health Sharing Is a Scam. Links: 86 Fed Reg 8025, The Opinion, 42 US Code § 264, Kathryn Kimball Mizelle, Sharity Leaves 10K Families with Millions in unpaid bills, Infowars Bankruptcy Petition, Infowars form 202, Jones thinks he set up a trust, 28 US Code § 1334 - Bankruptcy cases and proceedings, 28 US Code § 1452 - Removal of claims related to bankruptcy cases, CT bankruptcy removal,

In these troubled times, we cling tightly to the small amounts of good news we get. One source of good news who keeps on giving is Alex Jones. He is so unambiguously screwed that it’s our pleasure to cover the screwage in even more depth today. This time, it’s about a few new cases against him, as well as his obviously illegal plan to try to hide his assets from the plaintiffs who absolutely deserve his money more than he does. Before that, we have some very significant news on the Jan. 6th front — very proud boy Charles Donohoe seems to be cooperating and his “reduced” sentence is still satisfyingly high. Listen for the details! Links: Donohoe plea agreement, level 27 70-87 months, statement of offense, default judgment against Jones 11/15/21, response to motion to recover the $75k, motion for extension of time, new TX fraud case, Texas Uniform Fraudulent Transfer Act, Heslin v Alex Jones

It's a question a lot of you posed after Texas banned abortion by completely cheating the Constitution: what if a liberal state did the same thing but for gun control? Well, CA has done exactly that. Hear the breakdown and Andrew prediction for what will happen to this bill. After that, we've got really bad news. Remember how Democrats had almost forced a level playing field nationally by gerrymandering aggressively in Maryland and New York? Well, some fair minded judges just undid that. Links: 36 QAnon candidates, QAnon supporters running for Congress, How QAnon Became Obsessed With 'Adrenochrome,', MD Redistricting injunction, revised map approved, NY order stayed in the 4th appellate division

Frequent OA guest, Professor Randall Eliason recently wrote an article for the Washington Post called "Forget what you heard. The DOJ's Jan. 6 probe is moving at a good pace." So, we thought we'd have him on the show for a conversation around just that. Is justice for Jan 6 taking too long? Are prosecutors being "chicken shits?" Will Trump get away with everything?

Amazon workers in Staten Island overcame extensive union busting efforts and won a vote to unionize! This is great news, and we can only hope it has a snowball effect. Listen as Andrew breaks down the journey, the conditions that led to the effort and the disgusting lengths Amazon went to to punish the employees who started organizing. In the A segment, we get a delightful little Alex Jones update. He finally showed up for a deposition! Links: Docket, Jones moves to purge contempt, small wrinkle, NLRB order on bogus Amazon election, Smalls fired, Exhibit 13, Amazon racist comments, 29 US Code § 157 - Right of employees as to organization, 29 US Code § 158 - Unfair labor practices

The devastating consequences of Texas HB 8 and the Supreme Court's cowardly shadow docket ruling on it are reverberating not just through Texas, but around the country. Not to be outdone, Republicans in Idaho produced a copycat bill. Andrew gives the breakdown and we discuss some truly shocking NPR coverage of how Republicans are ruining lives. But it's not all bad news! In the B segment, Andrew takes us through the Equality Florida Lawsuit, a well-argued lawsuit attempting to fight back against the Don't Say Gay Bill. Also, we're not bothering to cover Trump's idiotic flop of a lawsuit against Hillary. Links: Hazelwood School Dist. v. Kuhlmeier, US v. Alvarez

The court has nothing BUT contempt for Alex Jones. Like, half a million dollars worth of contempt. He has dodged depositions for an eternity and Thomas's new favorite judge ever has had enough of it. Get the breakdown! Links: docket, Knowledge Fight 649, Ex A and B, motion for contempt, offer of compromise, conn. gen. stat. 52-193, plaintiffs rejected, oral argument on contempt motion, court grants, motion to reconsider, court denies THAT EVENING, motion for emergency stay, appeal to cr supreme court, Puff v. Puff, eastman not appealing

If you're a regular listener you've heard us break down the ongoing weirdness between DFEH and EEOC over the Activision-Blizzard misconduct. It's been... unprofessional, and bad for basically everyone involved. Unfortunately, it looks like the pitifully inadequate settlement that EEOC negotiated with Activision-Blizzard is going to go through. Get the details, and what if anything can still be done about it. Before that, Andrew gives us an update on Eastment. He's still slow walking the documents, but now wants early discovery? What? Get the breakdown! Links: Eastman motion for early discovery, Chapman opposition, Eastman reply brief, DFEH motion to intervene denied 12/20/21, 1/4/22 amended decree substantively the same, 1/18 DFEH objections, 3/4 employee moves to intervene, attachment C to amended decree, 3/22 motion to intervene denied, 3/22 order on PACD

Will Smith slapped Chris Rock onstage at the Oscars. On live television. It's less than a day old and yet you've likely already been inundated with hot takes about it. BUT, we offer you zero more annoying hot takes. This podcast takes you through the actual legal implications, both criminal and civil, of an event like this. Chris Rock might not be "pressing charges," but does that matter? If he sued civilly, what would happen? Find out the actual, researched answers to these questions in a free bonus pod, just because we love you!

Our main segment today is a breakdown of Google's massive scheme to keep tons of documents privileged inappropriately. It's a fun deep-dive full of bad documents! Before that, we quickly go over the disgusting attempts to discredit KBJ by Senate Republicans. And, believe it or not, a GOOD NEWS segment about Lia Thomas! Links: Hawley Refutation, Trump v Clinton, Utah HB 11, Indiana HEA 1041, Google antitrust complaint, google status report, Google's Communicate with Care, Google response

After accidentally suing themselves and then re-filing, some anti-vaxers then went on to file a complaint that, I can't believe I'm saying this, is actually something we need to take seriously. It may be the new blueprint for anti-vax grift and we need to call it out. Andrew has the full breakdown! Links: complaint, Jefferson W. Gross, Davillier Law Group, LLC, 86 FR 61555, background to Biden v. Missouri / OSHA, Biden v. Missouri, Vaccine: Mandate for Health Care Settings (deadlines vary by state), Great Barrington Declaration

It's a CNN headline that the MAGA Media is jumping all over. Is this a vast conspiracy to persecute the "political prisoners" of 1/6? Or... is it a normal thing? Get the breakdown. ALSO - man buys Tom Brady's "final" touchdown ball for $518k. Brady unretires THE NEXT DAY. Does the man have any legal recourse against anyone? And finally, an update on John Eastman's never ending quest to not turn over his insurrectiony documents. Links: Brady auction, All About Bidding with Lelands, Prosecutors admit they violated a Capitol rioter's rights CNN, actual filing, govt response to motion to release, United States v. McLendon

It's time to cover these disgusting 'Don't Say Gay' Bills. There's some small good news, though. None of them are actually law YET. Find out what they are about, and which ones will and won't likely become laws. Then, Andrew breaks down how one Republican sought to show how elections are fraudulent by... committing an absurd amount of election fraud. Then, because we've earned it, a nice uplifting wildcard segment! Links: Florida don't say gay bill, GA SB 613, Idaho HB 675, Missouri HB 1677, Peters Indictment, FL goon squad bill, Sidney Powell bar complaint, p 37 of Dominion's defamation lawsuit, Exhibit 6