Absentee Ballots, Asylum, and Too Many A**holes to Count

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"I ask no favor for my sex." All I ask of our brethren is that they take their feet all far next. Hello and welcome back to strict scrutiny. Your podcast about the Supreme Court and the legal culture that surrounds it. Were your hosts? I'm Kate Shaw. I'm Leo Littman, and I'm Melissa Murray, and today we're going to preview the cases that the court will hear during the March

City, and then we'll briefly chat about some legal news. So the March City is a two-week sitting jam-packed with big cases. The most discussed case of the term, Trump vs Barbara, which is a challenge to the birthrights' citizenship executive order, will be heard on Wednesday, April 1st. No, that's not an April Fool's joke. That day also happens to be Sam Olito's birthday.

That, too, is not an April Fool's joke, although he might be. But the first week of the

sitting has some significant cases that we want to pay close attention to. Like Watson vs Republican National Committee. It's a pretty harrowing electoral landscape out there, and it is that electoral landscape that is the backdrop for Watson vs. R&C. The president, as you know, has tried to strong arms states to tilt the electoral map in his favor. We know that at the court, Louisiana vs. Kelly may hamstring the remnants of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, and depending on

the court's timing, in that case, it may actually have an impact on the 226 mid-terms. We've also seen the president continue to push for the passage of the save act, which is now at the Senate. That act would likely overhaul in dramatically limit, who can vote. So that's the landscape. It's all pretty grim. Okay, so Melissa said the stage, and now enter Watson vs. R&C. The case challenges the long-standing practices regarding the counting of ballots that are

cast by election day, but received after election day. Now, for years, Republican seemed pretty agnostic about absentee ballots. Maybe because absentee ballots actually favored the GOP at least in some cases. So, for example, enlisted military personnel, a group that historically tends to lean Republican have long been entitled under federal law to use absentee ballots when they're deployed during an election cycle. But COVID in the 2020 election cycle really

upended things. So, you will remember election night 2020 when very early on. It seemed like

as many voting rights experts predicted, the red wave was really a red morage. Once absentee

ballots were actually counted, the picture really began to shift. However, because it took a while to count all of those absentee ballots, the election wasn't called for Joe Biden until the weekend. And that lag between election night, the counting of the ballots, a McCollink of the election fueled the GOP's fantasies of a stolen election and led to attacks on absentee ballots.

“I have to say the moment the election was called for Biden, I still remember we were out for”

a bike ride. And we just heard the local community banging pots and pans. And we knew that what it was for then called for Biden exactly. It is for those where you obviously knew where you were, I mean, we were upstate and like on this long like autumnal walk in the woods with some friends and then started getting text messages when we came back into range. But we missed the like pot banging and kind of like euphoria in New York City. We were in the Bay Area and like,

let's just say Oakland was hella excited. Yeah. Remember when it felt like to sort of experience joyful joy. Yeah. Electrical joy. Big recollection. What is the electoral joy? That's the butterfly me again. And is this electoral joy? I don't know. Speaking of not electoral joy, this case Watson. So currently 16 states permit absentee ballots to be counted if election officials received them within a certain period of time after election day. So long as the absentee ballots

“are postmarked and thus cast on or before election day. Mississippi where this case originated allows”

five business days for absentee ballots postmarked by election day to arrive at the local election offices where they will then be kept in. So in this lawsuit, the Republican National Committee argues that the Mississippi law that Leo is just describing violates a federal statute that the RNC says requires all absentee ballots to be received by election day, not just postmarked on or before election day. As again, has been the longstanding practice in many states.

But here is the thing. If you look at the relevant federal statutes, the one the RNC is grounding their argument in, there's nothing about the plain meaning of the word day or election or in the concept of election day that requires that an absentee ballot be counted by a local official by election day. In fact, the much better reading of the statute seems to be that if the ballot is cast by election day, the federal law requiring that voting be complete

“on election day is satisfied. And other federal statutes, including recently enacted statutes,”

reflect that view. So in the uniformed and overseas citizens absentee voting act, which was enacted in 1986, Congress required that absentee ballots be made available to overseas and military voters in a way that would allow them to return their ballots by the deadline prescribed in their states. And when Congress enacted that law, it knew that some states allowed absentee ballots to be returned after election day as long as they were cast and postmarked by that date.

Likewise, when Congress in 2009 enacted the military and overseas voter empowerment act move, it added supplementary rules to facilitate absentee voting again among military and overseas voters. And it did so with the state's long standing ballot counting practices in month. So again, nothing in the statute required or even suggested that absentee ballots had to be counted

by election day. That wasn't the practice and the statutes reflected the flexibility. And finally,

there is the Electoral Count Reform Act of 2022, a bipartisan compromise negotiated in the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election. So in that law, Congress added a new definition of election day and that new definition recognized that in-person voting at polling places could continue past midnight on election day if but only if certain strict conditions were met. Now when Congress adopted this compromise provision on the extremely limited extension of election day voting,

it was thoroughly aware of the various state practices regarding the deadlines for the arrival of absentee ballots cast on or before that date. After all, this happened in the 2020 presidential election that the 2022 act was responding to. And so it kind of beggars belief to suggest that Congress as part of this painstakingly negotiated by partisan compromise in response to the 2020 presidential election intended silently to disturb all of these existing state practices concerning absentee

voting. It seems rather much more likely that Congress intended the ECRA to leave intact the long standing understanding that the meeting of election day in federal law permits states to count absentee ballots cast on or before election day and postmarked by then even if those ballots arrived

after election day. And a group of senators fell in amicus brief that basically says, hey,

we know the RNC wants you to think that ECRA people were for to as ECRA changed everything but we were there, we voted for the law and we understood that we were not changing anything to require absentee ballots to be counted on or before election day without saying a word about disrupting

zeal for textualism against their zeal for ensuring the electoral fortunes of the Republican party.

“And all of this hand-ringing would be amusing if it weren't actually grim and really consequential.”

We all know that in the context of the made up major questions doctrine as it applies to democratic presidents and their policies, this court loves to insist that Congress has to say what it means plainly and clearly in the text of the statute. You can't intuit what Congress means. You can't do a vibe check on Congress unless of course the vibe check involves disenfranchising millions of absentee voters whose ballots haven't arrived on or before election day. So it's going to be a

toss-up. You really cannot rule out the possibility of a vibe check in these election law cases. Think back to, for example, Bernavige versus DNC, where the court reported to interpret section two of the voting rights act in vote denial claims that is where state laws prevent people from voting

not redistricting cases. And they are the court basically did a vibe check and engaged in what

“Justice Cagan called a law-free zone that just left the text behind. And basically said these”

amendments to the voting rights act that had been intended to overrule Supreme Court case and thereby prevent more state laws actually created a safe harbor for discriminatory practices that existed at the time. Now of course if Bernavige was correct that Congress doesn't lightly displace state laws, you would think that logic would also mean that this federal law wouldn't displace all of these state practices and yet unclear if one Sam Toledo, the author

of Bernavige would hold true to that principle here. Now absentee voting, not perfect, but in

person voting, isn't always easy lines can be long and that is a species of voter suppression

because it often discourages electoral participation. And there are also voters who aren't physically present in their communities to vote on election day. So there are many aspects of voting that already make it hard to make your voice count and this effort in Watson to limit the counting of absentee ballots would only exacerbate those pressures, which I'd be the point. So that's essentially what's the issue in Watson. Maybe let's just note since I don't think we have that the fifth circuit

panel opinion that bought this, I think, pretty insane theory that the RNC is pushing was the rare Stuart Kyle Duncan, Jim Ho, Andy Oldham special. I mean, that's three Amigos. Luckily that alignment happens only so often but this was one of the cases in which we saw it and I remember seeing

the panel draw, when this always just feels weird. Yeah. And you're just kind of like democracy,

it was nice knowing you. Exactly, democracy with danger girl. Because I'm obviously like despite the many years of having it kind of beaten out. I'm still sort of naively optimistic. I was like even this trio of psychos cannot possibly accept this theory. They sounded a little sane during

“the argument. So that's maybe why we remember that. For the opinion itself. Indeed. Anyway,”

the other thing to note just about the kind of configuration and players in this case is that this is the state of Mississippi saying this theory is nuts and we do maybe Mississippi. That was me. The one who wants women to die in parking lots, that must be the one. If this is too much even for them. I mean, obviously I wouldn't put you to rule out the possibility. This is the problem is that like the disenfranchising that adopting this kind of theory might do might sweep

in the kinds of voters that the Mississippi, you know attorney general wants to vote and they'd be okay. But those are the white ones. Yeah. The white voters. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I think the white ones. Did I say white or did I say white? One hard to tell sometimes. Strix scrutiny is brought to you by quits. These days, I'm all about quality over quantity, especially in my closet. If it's not well made in versatile, it's just not worth it to me. And that is part of

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strict for up to 20% off. That's code strict for up to 20% off. And if you get a post-purchase survey, be sure to mention you heard about cozy earth right here. Experience the craft behind the comfort and make everyday feel intentional. Let's turn to the next big case. We're going to be watching this week and that is still captioned, known. I'll I guess the captionable change if Moan is confirmed we will get to

“our secretary designate later in the hour. But anyway for now the case is called known versus”

auto throw a lot though. And that's a case that's going to have major implications for asylum seekers and it's being argued at a time when avenues for asylum have already been severely curtailed. So the question in this case is the meaning of the phrase quotes arrives in the United States in the Immigration and Nationality Act which provides that an alien quote who is physically present in the United States or who arrives in the United States whether or not at a designated

port of arrival may apply for asylum. So under the law, non-citizens who arrive at a port of entry and indicate they want to see asylum are inspected and screened by border officials there than channeled into the asylum system. But the specific question in this case is can officers essentially block individuals at ports of entry and refuse to entertain their asylum applications by deeming them not to have arrived in or saying they're not someone who

arrives in a port of entry because they are physically located on the Mexico side of the U.S. Mexico border. So here's the backdrop of this case in 2016 in response to a surge in the number of Haitian immigrants seeking asylum in San Isidro which is outside of San Diego the Department of Homeland Security initiated a policy known as metering. So customs and border patrol officials would turn back asylum seekers before they entered the United States. So again,

sort of timing and limiting the number of people who could come over and then turning back others who were outside of that system. Altro Lotto, an immigrant rights group, and 13 asylum seekers filed suit in a California district court challenging that metering policy. And while the litigation was ongoing, the federal government adopted a regulation which is known as the

asylum transit rule that generally required people traveling through a third country to apply

for asylum in that third country before then seeking asylum in the United States. For many asylum seekers who had already been turned away under the metering policy, the impact of the asylum transit rule was to effectively bar them from qualifying for asylum if they were ever able to apply. So the district court declared that the metering policy was illegal and then as part of the

who had been turned away under the metering policy. So the court also ordered the government to

unwind past denials of asylum to those individuals. Now at some point the government rescinded the metering policy, but because the government was appealing the district court's remedy and because the remedy turned on the legality of the metering policy, the legality of the metering policy was a question on appeal. And by a vote of two to one, the United Circuit agreed that non-citizens were turned away at the border had, quote, arrived in the United States and were therefore eligible

to apply for asylum. Writing for the panel majority, Judge Michelle Friedland explained that, quote, "the phrase arrives in the United States encompasses those who encounter officials at the border which ever side of the border they are standing on." Moreover, she continued an asylum

“secret who arrives at the border must then be inspected and processed. The government predictably”

sought and was granted on-bong review. There a deeply divided on-bong night circuit to claim to reconsider the case. And in a dissent, joined by 11 other judges, Trump appointee Judge

Daniel Bress, wrote a dissent that basically served as the blueprint for the Trump administration's

petition for scotist review. In that sort of petition, Slister General John Sauer argued that the night circuit's ruling quote defies the plain text of the governing statutes. An ordinary English a person arrives in a country only when he comes within its borders. An alien thus does not arrive in the United States while he is still in Mexico. Trump, like, it's not plain English, it's immigration law which is like brave with terms of art and technicalities. I'm sorry, just those sentences were

mild and triggering to me. Again, like in the context of foreign relations, the idea that when you go to an embassy, it's in France, but it's really the United States. And all of this. And all

“us whole clothes, right, as always. But also as the ultra-labo brief makes clear, what the government is trying to do here is”

literally pluck the word "in" out of its context. Like, yeah, I guess if literally the one word we're

looking at is in, that does probably mean, like, not just outside of, but actually physically present in. But in the full context, even just of the language, let alone history, purpose, understanding all the other things that should inform our reading of a statutory phrase. Of course you are arriving in when you are at a port of entry, but they just love to yank words out of context in the kind of version of textualism that they do. And so, yeah, I'm very nervous about this case.

Well, the challenges here counter that, quote, "because the government rescinded the metering policy years ago, the question that the Trump administration has actually put before the court has, as they put it, almost no present implications and likely no future implications. So they're trying to provide the court with an off-ramp here. And maybe that's an avenue for avoiding doing some really dastardly shit. It doesn't matter if the court is going to avoid the opportunity

to do that. Well, I mean, they put a reason context. They've avoided it by not granting review, but exactly. I mean, I just think I worry that the birthright citizenship case they are going to view is giving them a ton of cover, including for this case, which is flying out of the radar. You know, I guess that's all. So the next case is for you. Be high. That's the bankruptcy high. So as if she was in, deeply in her center, center, center, center. Exactly.

As she was in, deeply versus buddy iris construction is a question about judicial staple of civil claims and that sounds sexy. There's some more Beyonce and everything you own like in the bankruptcy court. Let's just act, please, keep them. We're going to start calling it "Big Court." So generally, in "Big Court" when you file for bankruptcy, you are supposed to disclose all assets and potential assets that might be used to satisfy your creditors claims,

but what happens if you don't disclose potential civil claims from what you might recover, should you be barred or what's called a stopped from bringing the claim at a later time? All I think was it's getting good. Hey, you pay my bills. You're going to be a crook of cartbills.

“Exactly. The creditors bills. Yeah, you need to pay the bills. Beyonce, so all of this coming”

decades ago. Now on this issue of a stop-up, most bankruptcy courts have said, yes, if you don't disclose potential civil claims from what you might recover, you are barred from bringing the claim at a later time. But the courts apply different approaches to determining when to a stop a future claim. Some courts do a totality of the circumstances test that is intended to get at whether the debtor intended to mislead the court, whereas other courts treat the failed disclosure

as something like an immediate bar to filing the future claim regardless of the debtor's intent. So in this case, Keith Lee, the debtor, who's Thomas Keith Lee, filed for bankruptcy in 2019, and more than a year after the bankruptcy plan was approved, he was involved in a series accident that required surgery and physical therapy and reduced his ability to earn a living. He told his bankruptcy lawyer about the accident, but the lawyer didn't disclose it to the bankruptcy

to argue that Keith Lee should be barred from suing them for the accident, and the lower courts

“applying the fifth circuit's relatively strict disclosure standard agreed. In the Supreme Court,”

the debtor is asking the court to adopt a totality of the circumstances approach that's used in the majority of circuits to determine which claims and when the claims are stopped. Interestingly, the United States dropped the think of Beyonce Hook here, but I can't, but Melissa, I feel free to jump in if something. Interestingly, Jay-Z decided to get on this trap. A.K.A. the United States federal government, or the trustee, is that as goes, if you will,

G.2 is O.V. Oh, I mean, is the part of the federal government that he's not a business man, and he's a business man, that's actually maybe true. Exactly. That's the case. The trustee has actually administered the bankruptcy regime. The federal government is also the nation's largest creditor, so they have real interest in the

outcome of this case. The government is arguing that the fifth circuit's rule is unduly narrow. It doesn't account for innocent mistakes that a debtor might make in disclosure requirements, and it wants the court to remand the case to the bankruptcy court to apply the totality of the circumstances standard, Melissa, land this plan. What else is there to say? It's a hard knock life. I mean, this might be the one time, you know, maybe I'm rooting for the federal government.

“Like, I think it's like intervened here on behalf of this hapless debtor, and against a”

rule generated by the fifth circuit. Yeah. Yeah, seems like these are these are these are tough choices, but I think in this case, we're probably going with the federal government. All right. Listeners, we've got a little throwback for you. You'll recall that two years ago, the court decided bisonet versus lapage bakeries park street. In that case, the court concluded that an exemption to the federal arbitration act for, quote, any class of workers engaged in foreign

or interstate commerce did not apply only two workers in the transportation industry to apply more broadly. Well, that case was brought to you by lapage bakeries, which is the distributor for flower foods, the company that makes wonder bread among other things. Well, it seems that flower foods has additional questions about the scope of the FAA. And this time, it is presented in new case, flower foods versus Brock, which asks whether workers who deliver locally

“without ever crossing state lines are, quote, unquote, engaged in interstate commerce”

for purposes of that FAA exemption. Below the term circuit, agree that those workers are engaged

in interstate commerce. And basically, the court, they're focused on the fact that the products

that are being delivered move between states, even if the delivery personnel work within the state. The distributor is now challenging that ruling. As with the bisonet case, heard two years earlier, this new challenge is significant in that it will determine whether workers can bring claims in federal court or whether they'll be forced to have their grievances resolved through arbitration under the federal arbitration act. We also got one opinion from the court in Olivier versus

City of Brandon. The case was brought by a Christian evangelical street preacher who challenged a Mississippi ordinance restricting where protests may occur. Olivier had previously been convicted of violating the law and according to the city, that meant his lawsuit was borrowed by a previous Supreme Court decision heck versus Humphrey decided in 1994, which held that these civil rights suits couldn't be used to collaterally attack convictions or sentences.

The city argued that Olivier's suit seeking to enjoy in the ordinance in the future was effectively a lawsuit that would call into question the validity of his earlier conviction under the ordinance. The Supreme Court disagreed unanimously ruling in favor of the street preacher, writing for the court, Justice Kagan said that heck did not bar suits seeking purely perspective relief, except maybe in a narrow set of cases that weren't presented here.

Now, Olivier did not overrule the great man's opinion in heck. That great man of course, Justice Scalia, but instead, Justice Kagan said that language in heck and specifically the language on which the city and the lower courts relied might have swept too broadly and was not meant to reach suits like the petitioners that sought future-oriented relief only. Olivier connects to Fred Smith's work on absension doctrine. I just want to highlight this for

listeners and those who are interested in federal courts. Fred of course is a professor at Stanford

Law School has written two really interesting pieces. The first is absension in the time of

Ferguson, which is published by the Harvard Law Review. He also has a new piece out called younger and older abstention, which is out in the Michigan Law Review. Both of these pieces point out how civil rights plaintiffs often face a timing vice, so the timing vice works like this.

harm is too speculative. But if you sue while state criminal proceedings are ongoing, courts can

“invoke younger abstention and say, hands off, you have to let the state courts complete their”

judication. However, if you sue after a criminal conviction, then heck versus Humphrey kicks in and creates yet another barrier to bringing your case. Here, the court's unanimous opinion in Olivier ostensibly refuses to extend heck that far, and thus serves as an important pushback. We'll also note, however, that this is one of those cases where like the interests really did converge. Here, we had strange bad fellows in the Republican appointees who care a lot. I think about

Christian evangelical preachers and the Democratic appointees who care a lot about getting civil rights plaintiffs into court. So I love when that happens, but not sure if the plaintiff were different if we get a different kind of result. So we shall see. I'm going to hopefully write a piece in the Supreme Court review about this case, and I actually think that the fifth circuit's rule was just

“pretty indefensible. Anyways, we'll see how it gets red. Always make sense to benchmark the fifth circuit.”

Yes. So, and now to the legal news, we are going to kick off this round up of legal news with a look at the lower courts. And Leah is so excited about this. I just want to tell you, she's you have no idea. Literally vibrating right now. No idea. Okay. Many notes about how we were not

adequately hyping up this first case. Yes, you did. Yes, you did. There's many caps, full sentences in

all. Yes. Yeah, dropped into the show note, but you'll hear her. Oh, yeah. It's also going to appear my favorite things. Like, it will go on. All right. Well, as with everything, good. Let's begin a new jersey. As linman, well, Miranda told us once everything is legal in New Jersey or is it. As we know, a federal judge determined that Alina Habas appointment as the U.S. attorney for the District of New Jersey was unlawful. And two weeks ago, a federal judge determined that the three

person leadership team that the DOJ installed to replace Haba was also unlawful. So, the question

“remains, who exactly is running things in the New Jersey U.S. attorney's office? That's what judge”

Zade Karashi in the District of New Jersey wanted to know last week. The question surface in a hearing involving a defendant who is pleading guilty in a child pornography case. Indeed, for months, federal courts around the country have warned that the administration's failure to properly appoint U.S. attorneys has posed public safety risk because the prosecutors, if they are illegally appointed, then cannot bring these charges and the cases have to be thrown out, even in cases where the

charges are pretty bad, like child pornography. Well, come on. The law and order administration. Yes. So, we're going to make it safe for everyone. Let's remember. Yeah. I mean, it's literally the case that the combination, the heady brew of malevolence and incompetence, specifically in their designations of kind of the heads of U.S. attorney's offices, like literally threatened to allow all kinds of people charged with very serious crimes to walk free. So, anyway, let's let's move on,

Leah's been patient. So, the particular plea agreement at issue here, you know, the one that drew the judge's attention, offered the defendant a sentence that was significantly more lenient

than the sentencing guidelines advised, we will come back to the specifics on that in a second.

So, Judge Karashi proceeded to question the line prosecutor who is in court accompanied by a Mr. Mark Koyn, a veteran of the office and a supervisor, but someone who had not filed a formal appearance in the case. When Koyn attempted to answer on behalf of the more junior line prosecutor, the judge was not having it. He told Koyn that while Koyn could offer the line prosecutor, moral support and could even pass notes, he could not directly address the court.

That summary is not doing a justice. So, the first few pages of this transcript had me levitating because at the very beginning of the hearing, the judge says, Mr. Koyn, did you file a notice of appearance to which Koyn says I did not? And then the judge says, are you here for moral support? Because you're not going to speak like right off of that. I loved it. Okay, do a leapa. The judge then proceeded to question the very junior line prosecutor

about the details of the plea agreement, which apparently had been negotiated without having all of the relevant evidence on hand. And then he also proceeded to interrogate the very junior line prosecutor about the leadership structure in the office. And the TLDR of that line of

questioning basically was, who is running this ship? When the judge specifically asked the line prosecutor

if Alina Haba was continuing to run the office, the younger lawyer replied, "I saw goodie Haba dancing with the president in the pale moonlight." Just kidding, crucible stands that did not happen

disclaim Haba's involvement in the office. And at that point, the judge was absolutely

over it and threatened to throw Koyn out of the courtroom. Security was called, but Koyn left of his own volition, taking the shards of his dignity with him. Again, summary, not beginning

“to today. It was summary. It was fine, but you need to read it for yourself. So I'm going to offer”

you a read dramatic piece of summary. I reject that. Sit down, Mr. Koyn. If you speak again, I'm going to have you removed. I already told you not to speak. You didn't file a notice of appearance. You don't get to blind side of the court into whatever it is you guys want to do. So if you continue to speak, you can leave. And then you continue to speak, which you don't do when the judge tells you to SDFU. And then the judge says, "I'm directing the court security

officers to remove Mr. Koyn." And only then does the guy leave. I really got the impression that for the judge, maybe this wasn't just about Koyn talking. You know, it definitely wasn't. And I think we are going to get into some other stuff going on in this case. Yeah. So let's do that. So Judge Kroshi, then after Mr. Koyn departed, continued questioning the line prosecutor about both the insane details of the plea, which it appears the federal

government offered before actually looking at the horrifying evidence in the case, and also pressing the line prosecutor about whether Haba was influencing the office's operations. At this point, the judge said that before he would proceed with sentencing the defendant, which he was giving the government the opportunity to ask to delay. And for reasons, I actually just still don't at all understand the government kept saying, "Nope, let's go forward,

“no, let's go forward." I think it's because this is a really junior line prosecutor. Like,”

I don't think he's super experienced. I don't know. In any event, the courts that I know you're not asking, but I am going to pause and before proceeding with sentencing this defendant, I'm going to call the offices three ostensible leaders, Philip Lemborello, Jordan Fox, and Ari Fontecchio, to testify under oath about the office's operations. Again, wanting to make sure that there is a legal leadership structure in place before imposing

sentence. But again, cannot recommend reading the full transcript enough. We've alluded to how the judge was concerned that the prosecution had negotiated the plea agreement here in the absence of all of the evidence. So we didn't actually say what the missing evidence was. So the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of New Jersey agreed to a plea deal with a specified sentencing range for the defendant before actually completing a search of the defendant's phone. And when they actually

“searched the defendant who was charged under a child pornography statute, what did they find?”

More pornography, child pornography, child sexual abuse material. I am sure Josh Hawley is outraged by the administration. I mean, it's just astonishing conduct. And the judge makes clear, this is just like young, just like absolutely horrifying. It doesn't get into details, but just is so appalled that the U.S. Attorney's Office seems to be taking as lenient a posture as it is to this kind of context. Similar context as an order here, it's my understanding that

Judge Crossie prior to taking the bench had been a prosecutor in this office. So he knows this office really well. He knows the procedures. And I think he's asking about the leadership structure because something has gone terribly wrong. If this kind of plea agreement is being negotiated in the absence of a consideration of the really horrifying evidence here. And this triumvirate is signing off on

it. And it's just like a shit show. And he basically says that. And at the conclusion of this

incredibly fraught hearing, Judge Crossie advised the embattled young prosecutor to go back to the office and warn his colleagues that quote, "You have lost the confidence and trust of this court. You have lost the confidence and the trust of the New Jersey legal community. And you are losing the trust and confidence of the public." Boom. I just want to underscore that Leia's earlier urging, like, just maybe sit down and read this transcript in its entirety. We have given you

I think a pretty good account, but it's also worth just reading for yourself. It's times has it on. It's website. We'll put in the shown notes. Strix scrutiny is about to you by Zbiotics. This year, I'm committed to reclaiming my mornings. Seriously, I'm old and mornings are also my most productive time, whether for exercise or for work. So, I don't want to give up any mornings. And a night of fun shouldn't cost me an entire day of

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before a night out. Let's be real. Usually a Friday night out means a Saturday morning spent canceling my workout class, but since I started incorporating pre-alcohol, my glass of wine

doesn't disrupt my morning flow. Remember to head to zbiotics.com/strict and use a code

strict at checkout for 15% off. Strictness is brought to you by bookshop.org, where you shop for books matters. When you purchase from bookshop.org, you're supporting more than 2,500 local

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you are waiting for. So use code strict 26 to get 10% off your next order at bookshop.org. Let's shift gears to lower court rulings. Actual rulings, right? Not just, you know, this kind of dressing down at status hearing, but rulings against the administration. So listeners, cast your memory back to that time when the Trump administration tried to dismantle the voice of America. The venerable longstanding public radio outlet that the government established during

World War II to counter propaganda in Nazi occupied regions around the world. So that's the origin. During the Cold War, the agency expands to provide news to countries that lacked a free press. In many ways, the voice of America served as a model of what journalism could look like in a pluralistic democracy, incorporating dissenting views, and critiques of the government, and also right, to be fair, trying to so pro-American goodwill around the world.

But this was at a time when America was actually pretty decent, at least in comparative terms, obviously things look pretty different today. Anyway, it does feel as though these days, we America, United States could use our VOA reminding us of what, you know, the media in a pluralistic democracy could look like. We're getting ahead of ourselves. So the administration sought to dismantle the voice of America because it thought that dissenting views were too woke, or maybe,

you know, anti-Nazi is our too woke. But jokes on them, about a month ago, Judge Lamberth, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled that Cari Lake, the Trump appointee who was running voice of America, had unlawfully assumed authority over the agency, and that her actions since joining as senior advisor to the agency were invalid.

“What is it with these guys and illegal appointments?”

Unclear. But last Tuesday, Lamberth weighed in, again, ruling that Lake had violated the law on additional grounds. The court concluded that Lake had failed to take into account Congress's intent in setting aside money for the agency and the network, or to consider the implications of effectively shutting it down. Here for it, sounds great. Again, I'm sure Cari Lake was like, what is Congress again?

Because they basically rolled over for this one. I'm glad Judge Lamberth was here to assert

Congress's positives. Also, in the District of Columbia, Chief Judge James Bozberg of the U.S. District Court is back on his hustle. Basically, telling Judge Karashi to "pold my beer," playboy. This time, Judge Bozberg issued a ruling quashing the government's efforts to subpoena members of the Federal Reserve's Board of Governors. As Bozberg explained in his ruling, there was, quote, "a mountain of evidence," suggesting that, quote, "the government

served these subpoenas on the board to pressure its chair," that is, Jerome Powell, into voting for lower interest rates or resigning. And that's kind of basically what everyone's been thinking. I'm glad he just said it. Among the mountain of evidence that Judge Bozberg cited

done it again. He is too late and actually too angry, too stupid, and too political to have the

job of fed chair." Put another way, too late is a total loser in our country is paying the price. Thank you for your attention to that. I feel like his nickname game has really declined. Oh, yeah. Oh, my gosh. There's no a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little

“little, no, yeah. Shifty shift was pretty good, I think. And you though, a little more than”

a little bit. Little more goes, yeah. Two late Powell, anyway. Okay, but back to Bozberg. His ruling notes that the president and his deputies have made at least 100 statements, attacking Powell and trying to pressure him into lowering interest rates. So while there is, on the one hand,

ample evidence to support the view that this investigation is a personal attack aimed at getting

Powell to dance to the president's tune. On the other hand, the federal prosecutor's produced according to Bozberg, essentially zero evidence to suspect that chair Powell had committed a crime. So indeed, the administration's claims were, quote, according to Bozberg, so thin and unsubstantiated, that the court can only conclude that they are contextual. Correct. The point? Yes. Bozberg wrote that the investigation into Powell was consistent with what he termed a pattern of conduct by

the DOJ against the president's perceived adversaries, refreshing to just see it all laid out. In other news, which, for sure, is totally unrelated. Chief Judge Bozberg announced a new policy in the district concerning indictments, specifically a grand jury's decision not to indict. So Chief Judge Bozberg ordered the administration to notify the courts when a grand jury rejects the administration's attempts to secure a grand jury indictment. This, of course, follows a grand jury

issuing a no bill in response to the administration's efforts to charge six members of Congress for making social media videos, advising military officers that they are not obliged to carry out illegal orders. This policy that Bozberg announced also requires the government to disclose when a prosecutor decides to drop a case. The administration had some thoughts and feelings about Judge Bozberg's ruling. So, in one response, a box of Francia. I mean, US attorney for

the district of Columbia, Janine Pirro, called Bozberg's ruling on Powell, quote, "wrong and without legal authority," and claimed it was, quote, "untethered to the law." She also had this to say, from a presser. Oh, cut it out. Do you know how many convictions we've cut it out? You're in one lane. We have cleaned up this city. Yes, historic. Really? I'll tell you what's historic. What's historic is that I prosecute everything other than 10 percent of the cases where

“the United States attorney before me didn't prosecute 67 percent of the cases. That's what's”

historic. I'm willing to take a not guilty. I'm willing to take a no-true bill because I'll take all the crimes of put a man. Thank you. I don't even know what she's saying. It's just nuts. Anyway, the president also had a response. He posted on truth social, a lengthy statement, which we're going to exert for you. You may think us in the comments. One truth began, as follows,

quote, "The court's treat Republicans and me so unfairly, always seeming to protect those who

should not be protected." At this point, the ladies of Strixie shirt me stare in the immunity opinion. What's her anyway? The post then continues, complaining about the terrible federal reserve Chairman Jerome Tulate Powell and the horrible job he does and the quote, "Wacky nasty crooked and totally out of control, Judge Bozberg, who according to the president, quote suffers from the highest level of Trump derangement syndrome." I didn't realize it had levels. It's like stage one stage two or what?

I mean, of course, it had red yellow, but exactly. The truth and somehow with a rant about quote, prosecutor deranged Jack Smith and the unfortunate and unwarranted terror decision. Like, how did Jack Smith get? He's like, "I've got no strength." I'm like, "I'm like, I'm in a post about how the court's treat Republicans unfairly, right? It's just too too much." But that's not all. The president obviously had more to say about terrorists and so in an extra long truth.

That was not an extra long truth. I was like, "You know, this one was even longer."

“Yeah. This one began. I did not even read the whole thing. That's how long it was.”

I lost steam. Okay. I did you all a solid and I did. And this one began, quote, "The decision that mattered most to me was terrorists." Once again, we are staring in the immunity opinion. The president insisted that quote, "The court pointed out that I had the absolute right to charge terrorists in another form." Backtrack, not true. The president did say he wanted to quote, "Thank justices, Alito Thomas and Kavanaugh for their wisdom and courage because other Republicans

And quote, "Then maintain that the terrorist decision ransacked the country and then in a brief shunning moment of clarity, the president added, quote, "The Supreme Court has become little more than a weaponized and unjust political organization." And quote, "The sad thing is they will only get worse. They are a murderer country and will continue to do so. Thank you for your attention to this matter." Indeed, sir, we are on it. We've said this for a while.

On the past Revelation, on the bus. Welcome to the pod, Mr. President. Yeah. Oh my God.

And so when the president of the United States basically gets up and shit talks your whole

institution in a truth post, what do you do if you're one John G. Roberts? Well, kind of struggling. Right exactly. Drug emoji. No. Anyway, the Chief Justice could barely muster up our response. At a forum last week, he had this to say, quote, "Judges around the country work very hard to get it right and if they don't, their opinions are subject to criticism, but personally directed hostilities dangerous and it's got to stop." What a true hero of

our times the brave institutionalists who couldn't even mention Donald Trump's name or Chief Judge Boggswerg's to defend him? Hear me out. Is he talking about the president or is he talking

about that? Talking about us. Well, this is the thing. He's like the generalized language. Basically

preserves his ability to both sides this and suggest that critics of the court are doing the exact same thing as Donald Trump instigating violence against these judges who are ruling against him. You know, it did make me know. Well, I'll just agree with everything. I'm just like sort of thinking out the terms. I don't know that we are personally directing our hostility. We're mad at the decisions.

“I think we're pretty decent and definitely talk about it. There are some personal bars. They're”

really more adjacent and more about intellect. Right. Like Brett Kavanaugh's intellect. I'm new. You're going to say his name. But, you know, exactly. I'm willing to say names. The Chief Justice is not. But, you know, sir, it's not even June and I promise you it's only going to go up from here. So keep listening. Keep listening. Yeah. Okay. So Roberts response was pretty milk toast. That's pointing. But there actually were last week some kind of real responses from federal

judges and we wanted to kind of lift those up as, you know, sort of a counterpoint to Roberts response. So last Thursday a group of federal judges publicly denounced the rise and threats against them and their colleagues, including hateful messages aimed at a judge who ruled against part of President Trump's immigration agenda. So this event actually featured five judges appointed

“by both Democratic and Republican presidents. This was a virtual event. I think this is sort of”

part of the new organization that Judge Esther Solis has been really kind of instrumental in getting off the ground. So these judges recounted receiving disturbing emails, wishing them dead. Mysterious pizza deliveries. We've talked about that before. Those arrive at private homes. And the judges essentially said that these are the reasons we cannot remain silent. And so there was a lot of additional detail. I just wanted to highlight some comments made by Judge Anna Reyes in DC.

So she said that she had received messages that said, quote, "I hope you lose your life by lunchtime. You worthless whore." This was in an email directed to Judge Reyes. She was, you know, a Biden appointee. She's openly gay. She has been targeted in some of the vitriolic kind of messages for being gay. She's also Uruguayan born. And that too has come up in some of the vitriol directed at her. She said that some of the, quote, most painful threats

came from individuals who said, quote, "You're being unamerican. You're being undemocratic.

“You're an immigrant. You should go back to your country." So I just appreciated this sort of”

candor and detail that these judges brought. I meant also the degree of alarm that they broadcast. The sort of threats to judges are real and terrifying. And it's really important to talk about them. In other news of things that are terrible and need to stop, we have another installment of our recurring segment. Water is wet and the fifth circuit is terrible. On Thursday, the fifth circuit issued another ruling in the ongoing saga that is known as Ford vs. McKesson. Listeners, we actually

began covering this case way back in the day when we were a baby podcast. And here's the just of it. In 2016, Duray McKesson, who was a well-known activist and a host of Pod Save The People, joined hundreds of others in Baton Rouge, Louisiana to protest the police killing of Altan Sterling. During the protest, John Ford, then an officer with the Baton Rouge Police Department,

was hit with an object that was thrown by third party, not McKesson. Ford, however, sued McKesson,

quote-unquote, should have known that the protest would become violent as other similar riots

“had become violent. That's his language. Now to be clear, Ford did not claim that McKesson”

authorized the throwing of the object and indeed to this day, no one knows who threw the object that hit Ford. But he nonetheless continued to press this suit against Duray McKesson. It's just so insane. So the case has had a long and tortured history, as Melissa mentioned, going through the district court where McKesson initially prevailed to the fifth circuit where he did not to the Supreme Court and the Louisiana Supreme Court. Anyway, last Thursday, the fifth

circuit decided to write yet another chapter in this story, ruling that the lower court aired in finding that McKesson cannot be held liable for the unlawful conduct of other protesters. So if this seems bananas, it feels that way to us, but this decision does open the door for a trial to proceed to determine McKesson's potential liability for actions again,

“committed by individuals, yet nothing to do with. All he did was organize our protest.”

And as summarize that way, it should be immediately clear why this decision is a huge

threat to the First Amendment, the idea that participating in or organizing a protest,

somehow makes you liable for any illegal conduct that happens at the protest, makes protesting illegal. And it's inconsistent with the Supreme Court's earlier decision and NAACP versus Clayburn Harbor, which we won't get into. But you know, one judge of the fifth circuit seemed just absolutely breathless at the prospect of a jury trial. And this case moving forward against Duray McKesson, writing for the two judge majority, Judge Edith Jones, seemed to have moved on from

one professor Steve Vladick, as public enemy number one, to deray McKesson. As she wrote, quote, eight years of pretrial litigation are enough. It is time for officer Ford to have a jury assess his claim that Duray McKesson's negligence in leading a violent protest caused him to suffer injuries at the hands of rioters. It's just a point here, like note, she can't even call him Mr. McKesson, even though she's calling Ford, officer Ford,

the fact that she's calling protesters rioters. I mean, it's just like, yes, it's all right there. Yes. You know, she continued, quote, given McKesson's television interview, refusing to condemn the use of violence. It is unsurprising that he did nothing to discourage protesters from assaulting police officers, looting a store and engaging in other lawless acts and, quote, again, not your duty to train absolutely everyone who appears at a protest with you. Well, you know,

maybe McKesson could have done something, maybe he could have issued a statement along these lines. We can't play into the hands of these people. We have to have peace. So go home. We love you. You're very special. You've seen what happens. You see the way others are treated that are so bad and so evil. I know how you feel, but go home and go home at peace.

What kind of thing always seems to appease violent protesters? And if it doesn't work,

if you're the president, you can always pardon them. So there's that. But who's going to tell Judge Jones that she's out of the running for the lady spot on the Supreme Court? This audition was all in vain, girl. All in vain. Correct. Okay. Don't worry, though. There is other bad news to report. First, we wanted to mention that a Georgia woman named Alexia Moore has been charged with murder for taking abortion pills. We have seen, of course, the criminalization of the acquisition and

provision of abortion pills, but the actual charging of murder breaks entirely new and horrifying ground. If the state prosecutors do decide to move forward with this charge, this, again, would be

one of the first instances of actual charges against an individual for terminating a pregnancy in

Georgia in the seven years. It's been since Georgia passed a law banning most abortions and obviously in the wake of the court's job decision removing constitutional protections. Just to note, any of these homicide statutes, whether it's murder or manslaughter, all are predicated on the idea that a person has been killed. So this is another push on this fetal personhood thing. And we need to call it out for what it is. Absolutely. And another development in very similar

vein, a Kentucky student, was also indicted last week. In this case, for first degree, manslaughter,

“allegedly because police said they found an, quote, infant, I think in her closet,”

the reporting is sort of still developing here, but at least according to Jessica Valente's abortion every day, newsletter, it seems like there is every possibility that that kind of reference to an infant in the charging materials could refer to a fetus. And so this too, like the new

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especially as you age. You can get an additional 15% off their 90-day subscription starter kit by going to Fatty15.com/strict, and using code strict at checkout. . Now, the cost-lost tests on Shopify.de. Let's shift gears a little bit. More familiar, bad news. Things we've talked about before. So, we're going to follow up listeners on matters that we have covered in earlier episodes. As you

know, we recently covered the new maga. Make America grift again. A deep dive into the Trump administration's stunning corruption business. Well, you know what they say, folks, Astric scrutiny goes, so goes the nation, or at least the New York Times, which only doesn't New York Times, but the New York Times ran a profile of Secretary of Homeland Security, nominee Mark Wayne no spaces, Mullins, stock dealings. And I'll just say what Mullin lacks in spaces.

He makes up foreign stock trades. This guy, according to the Times, is one of the biggest stock traders in Congress. So, the piece opens with an anecdote describing how Mullin, a few days after Christmas 2025, decided to buy a shit ton of shares in Chevron. The only major American company producing oil in Venezuela. Weird. And then weirdly, so, so strange, five days later, the president of the United States invaded Venezuela and demanded that the country give U.S. oil

companies better terms. And then Chevron stock price has jumped. What a grift or gift, I mean, for Mr. Mullin. This is a perfect example of the deal dough, as we described last episode. I'm glad that's sticking around. Oh, yeah. Sticking. Personal hostility has no place on this podcast. General hostility on the other hand. Exactly. So, listeners, another sort of important

“development in the Mark Wayne Mullin story. So, you may remember that in our West Coast live shows,”

we noted that Mullin would be headed to a hearing. Call him by his name. Oh, Mark Wayne no spaces,

So, he spaces, but a time and a place is, yeah. Do you remember what he says? You're going to want to keep working here, keep working. There's something, there's something to it. Anyway, stay tuned. Anyway, so we mentioned that he would be heading to hearing in front of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, shared by one Senator Rand Paul, who is the guy Mullin called a "snake" and said deserved the ass kicking that he had received from a neighbor. Well,

listeners, said hearing took place last week and it did not disappoint. Let's first remind you

“of Mullin's general vibe here. So, this is a time, this is a place. If you want to run your mouth,”

we can be to consenting adults. We can finish it here. And in this quarter, we had neighborly, Rand Paul, and in that corner, we have Mark Wayne, no spaces, Mullin. People, let's get rid of the rumble. Yeah, I've been waiting all day to do that. All day. Roll the tape, Melody. Pain was such that I could only sit up and bed by tying a rope to the foot of the bed and pulling myself up. But even then, the pain was that of a thousand knives. Over the year of recovery, I began

to cough up blood, and I went removal of part of my lung. Complications led to an infection in

the space between my lung and chest wall. I spent a week in the hospital having the infection

enlarged every six hours through a chest tube. You told the media that I was a freaking snake and that you completely understood why I had been assaulted. I was shocked that it would justify and

“celebrate this violent assault that caused me so much pain in my family so much pain. I just wonder”

if someone who uploads violence against their political opponents is the right person to lead an agency that is struggled to accept limits to the proper use of force. You went on to brag that you'd already told me to my face that you completely understood and approved of the assault. Well, that's a lie. You've got a chance today. You can either continue to lie or you can correct the record.

You have never had the courage to look me in the eye and tell me that the assault was justified.

So today you'll have your chance. So the hearing also gave us this week's Manisfier clip, which is the response from Mr. Mark Wayne No Space, a time and a place bullet. In the days after the fight, you did many interviews in which you justify the violence as historically justified by precedence, such as caning and dueling. Is it today, your opinion, that the caning of Charles Sumner was not only justified, but argues still for resolving our political differences with

violence? What I was simply pointing out is some of the rules that still apply to this body for instance, Dueling with two consenting adults is still there. I was pointing out what is still for 170 years. There's no precedent for legal dueling. I have to say I had no idea Senator Paul had been injured so badly in the assault. Well, you know, you know what else is also surprising to me. At one point during the hearing, Rand Paul took Mark Wayne No Space's Mullen to task,

because Mullen apparently did not vote to rescind funding for certain social welfare programs. And I almost kind of felt like maybe I should be on Mark Wayne Mullen side. Right. I know. I know. That was a tough moment. It was a tough moment. Yeah. Because I was with Paul, obviously, for that, for the portion of his part, just taking Mullen to task. And I too, I had not realized like this was a very serious assault, long recovery, like huge, huge deal.

I mean, he had a part of his lung removed. Yeah. Yeah. Multiple broken ribs, et cetera. Anyway, so he was understandably incensed at Mullen's sort of making light of slash actually seeming to support the attack on him. But then, but he was also really mad about the lot of the goodwill. Right. Yeah. He was like, oh, yeah. I'm really a libertarian. No social programs for you. Yeah. Yeah. Listeners, if you, like us, worry that our politics have become too divisive,

don't worry. Mark Wayne No Space's Mullen is here to help. We can all take a lesson from this man. Because if you were watching the hearing, you might have noticed a familiar face sitting behind the nominee. No, I'm not referring to Mrs. No Space's Mullen, although she was there. I'm referring to none other than Mr. Sean O'Brien, the head of the teamsters and the individual. He wants challenge Senator No Space's to name a time and a place cowboy. It seems listeners

of the boys are no longer fighting. Let's take a listen. Sean is someone that has become a close

“friend. We talk all the time. I've been on his podcast. We talked through this. That's how you”

handle your differences, not like this chairman. The kids call this podcast diplomacy and I think

been on each other's podcast. This seems like a deal-do. And speaking of deal-do's or at least

“attempted deal-do's, we have some news about community p and slash sex jet sex past, Corey Lu and”

Dowski. So I get banned it. Many many nicknames. NBC News reported about alleged negotiations between the GO group of private prison conglomerate and Juan Cori Lu and Dowski, who was allegedly in charge of DHS for some uncertain period of time, or at least effectively running it in charge of some parts of it. Technically, he was a quote special government employee, wink, wink, um, I for one very special, I really like to get a federal judge to do some questioning about who

the F is running or was running that shabang being the expert. I used that word. I used that word. Yeah, you did. You did. Some federal judge picks this up. That would be great. NBC maintains that Lewandowski told the GO group founder that he wanted to be paid in exchange for protecting and expanding GO group's contracts with DHS, which has obviously been very private prison forward. According to NBC, when Gio offered to pull Lewandowski on retainer, Lewandowski said no,

he wanted compensation based on contract secured with DHS. Only quit pro quo, only quit pro quo. Yep. And then, reportedly, GO group's federal contracts shrank and Gio thinks it is because they did not agree to submit to Lewandowski's proposed deal, though. I mean, this is a deeply reported story. It is deeply disturbing. It describes rank, quid pro quo, paid to play corruption, where even the private prison company was down to go quite as good broke. What was Lewandowski

seemed to me? You've lost the private prison. No, no, really. Too much even for us. I mean, too much for Mississippi, too much for private prisons. Right, the story of the Trump administration. Absolutely. That is a perfect distillation. Anyway, it requires not just addressing down by a federal judge, but congressional hearings. You know, maybe all of the above, but like this is a really important story that it's, you know, we cannot just let go despite the kind of whirlwind that is this new cycle.

All right. That was very much not one of our favorite things. But let's end by mentioning some

angle first. Yeah. I'm going to mention a couple things. I read it last week. Oh, I did finish.

“Hail Mary Project, which is, I think the movie's coming out this week. Yes. It's really fun.”

I found it. I'm a candle. Oh, I read it. Yeah. It's really a fun. It's a fun. It's, I mean, you know, it's that there are genre kind of moves that I don't love, but I think it's like pretty great storytelling. And that's like kind of fun science. Anyway, people will feel differently about it. I really enjoyed it. Okay. And more seriously, I finally read Zach Beachams, how to stop a dictator, along piece that he wrote for Vox media a couple of weeks ago. And it just, it's a very,

very good deep dive on some of the literature on not just how to diagnose, but how to stop democratic backsliding. And it's like, there's much less on the how to stop than how to see or kind of diagnose sort of side of the ledger, but a very, very good piece I highly recommend. And I also want to recommend an episode from a week or so ago of the Daily, the case of Christy

Medkath. Medkath is like an amazing character and just the complete destruction of the enforcement

of civil rights and our federal government is devastatingly told by both Christy and Sarah Kaneig, who is of course the host of cereal, now part of the New York Times, and it is just in in raging and raging 30 minutes of podcasting, highly recommended. So my favorite things, I already previewed one of them, which is the transcript in the New Jersey case. So we will provide a link in the

“show notes. This is very easy and accessible for you to read and you should read it.”

Second is Hillary Duff Locker something album. So you all probably remember or not, whatever, I recommended mature, which is the single, single off of that album. When the rest of it was released, I, you know, I wasn't sure and now it all hits. Like I love weather for tennis. I love adult size medium. I like the release one. I like the release one. I like the release one. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I like it. But now it really does. I like the trip and

song is just one on there that I'm like not totally into, but anyways, totally got into that album

and third and finally my favorite things are the t-shirts that I designed for one Melissa Murray's

fourth coming book, The United States Constitution, a comprehensive and annotated guide for the modern reader. So we are running a giveaway now through Sunday the 29th. That's March 29th. If you pre-order

reader, you can enter to win the merch that I made. So we will provide a link to that giveaway in the show notes. It will also be posted on our socials on blue sky and Instagram. So again, pre-order the book, enter to win some sick merch. It's designed and approved by Melissa, which means it is high order stuff. I don't fire like many fire emojis. Yes. I just occurred to me Melissa, but the 4th of the modern reader has almost like a Bridgerton. Yes. I totally, I hadn't quite

appreciated like it has gentle reader. Exactly. Yeah. It's sort of, which is like very on brand. I love how many lady was it down bitches? If you want us to, we will. Leah doing this merch

giveaway for me, which again is entirely of her creation. I would never have been able to do this

independently is one of my favorite things this week. So thank you, Leah. Kate. I'm going to

“come up with some other, my comparative advantage is not in T-shirt design. As I think we all know,”

I figure out other ways to show my love. Girl, I'll be here. It's okay. I have already pre-ordered multiple copies. Thank you. That's a, you know, my small part. I'm also a favorite thing like order for your friends for everyone. So my favorite things this week. One, I'm so grateful to the Stricti who listened to last week's show and sent to me a link to the Spotify Love Story playlist with all of the songs from Love Story. Thank you so much. That is one of my favorite things this week.

This week, I also started watching Paradise featuring Sterling Kate Brown. I will just say, this is kind of, this is taking me back because nobody knows this, but back in the day when I was a last student, Sterling Kate Brown used to hang out with us because he was friends with a guy. I went to law school with they knew each other from college. Sometimes we'd have parties and he'd be there. And I just remember he was trying to make it as an actor in New York and a bunch of us were kind of like

“do, like maybe you should just go to law school. Like, get a job. And jokes on it and joke on us.”

Exactly. In addition to Paradise, which again is dystopic and kind of amazing. I'm also enjoying

Aziza Meds, risk and resistance, how feminist transformed law and the science of AIDS, which just came out from Cambridge University Press. And she's been working on this book for a long time. It's so fantastic and deeply, deeply researched, just absolutely a plus. All right. We have some housekeeping to get to before we leave. We do. And first item involves merch. So we are, as you know, gearing up for the midterms, literally, with merchandise from the

crooked store that does the yelling for you. You can yell, but you can have your yelling amplified. Or if you don't want to yell, just have it done entirely by the merch. So you can grab a due process freak t-shirt and get ready to fight for the basic rights that Trump is bent on destroying. And, you know, might be due process. Might be something else that gets you out of bed and into a phone bank shift. But whatever it is, the crooked store has merchandise to help you

spread the message. So peruse the entire catalog at crooked.com/store. You can shop there.

Second piece of housekeeping is also about gearing up for the midterms, because we are less than

nine months away from the midterms. And we have a lot of work that you can do right now. November will decide control of Congress. And if Trump maintains his right public end, trifecta. And our friends at Voteva, America are here to help. They'll give you tips on how, when and where to donate to make sure your money goes to furthest, how to confidently talk to the people in your life about midterms and key issues and opportunities to take action

with your community in real life. Go to VoteSaveAmerica.com and sign up to be part of the work this year. Then send the sign up link to five friends. This was paid for by VoteSaveAmerica. Learn more at VoteSaveAmerica.com. This ad has not been authorized by any candidate or candidates committee. strict scrutiny is a quick and media production hosted and executive produced by Leo Lipman, Meme, Melissa Murray and Kate Shaw. Our senior producer and editor is Melody Raule.

Michael Goldsmith is our producer. Jordan Thomas is our intern. Our music is by Eddie Cooper and we get production support from Katie Long in Adrian Hill. Matt DeGroat is our head of production. And we're really grateful for our video team. Ben Hethcote and Tohana Case. Our production staff is proudly unionized with the writer's Guild of America East. And if you have an already, be sure to subscribe to strict scrutiny in your favorite podcast app and on YouTube at

“strict scrutiny podcasts, so you never miss an episode. And if you want to help other people find”

the show, please write in review us. It really helps. I'm Teresa and my own experience at all entrepreneurs started a choppy-fi erfolgreich durch.

I have a lot of problems, but the platform is not one step away.

“I have the feeling that choppy-fi is their platform continually optimized.”

Everything is super simple, integrative and balanced. And the time and the money

that I can never invest in there. Everything is in the box.