Sometimes, These F*ckers Lose

250 years into the American experiment, it's time for all of us to decide. What kind of country do we

“want to be? The founding fathers got a lot of things wrong, but one thing they got right was”

knowing that church and state need to be kept separate. Christian nationalists are trying to destroy that history and take this country down a scary path. Their misusing government power to impose their beliefs, rewrite our history and decide who belongs in America. We refuse to let that happen. Every single day, Americans United is fighting back and holding the line against Christian nationalism with everything we've got. AU has sued the Trump administration

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But with unmistakable clarity, she said, "I ask no favor for my sex. All I ask of our brethren is that they take their feet or far next." Hello, and welcome back to Strix Beauty. Your podcast about the Supreme Court and the legal culture that surrounds it. I'm Melissa Murray, and I will be your host for today, and I am delighted

to be joined by very special guest host. Someone you can always count on to bring the chaos.

That is right. Friend of the pod. Ellie Mastal is here today. Welcome, Ellie. Thank you so much for having me. How was your summer been? It's been pretty great. We've been taking turns on the podcast, so we've all gotten a little bit of a break, but it means that I've kind of missed being with the lady's mist talking to the audience and definitely missed hanging out with you, because I think the last time we hung out

was at the live show in June, and it was pretty fun. Well, my Alexa Con has really improved by leaps and bounds since then, because my kids are off of camp, and I have learned that I am—I don't have enough aura to keep up with my kids. I'm too young for sure, and I'm basically just cheeks when it comes to understanding what my kids are doing, so that's been a

“suggestion for me. I know that you have to be or affirming all the time. I know why you're an”

punk. I don't know what cheeks means. To trash, to trash, to cheeks. Oh my, these kids are savage. Yes. Because I, apparently, also, I'm now too old. The real thing is that I can't beat them and smash brothers anymore. Like, I just can't. Like, trying my hardest, I cannot, and it is a problem. Well, I don't even know what that is. You said words. That just sounded like a word salad to me, so anyway. Alright, listeners, we have a great show for you today. First, Ellie and I will break down

the breaking news from this week, and be prepared. There is a lot of news. And then, as always,

we will wrap up by sharing our favorite things. But before we get into the show, we have some exciting news. If you are a lawyer who listens to strict scrutiny, and I know there are a lot of you,

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Something you already do can now satisfy your professional licensing requirements. I mean, hello, what better option is there? We just launched our first CLE course. It is our scotist term recap episode that came out in the first week of July. And right now, it is approved for CLE credit in California, New York, Texas, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Virginia, and North Carolina, Georgia, Washington, and Oregon. And we will keep you updated as more states are added.

add more episodes in the future. So, let us know how you like it. Head over to cricket.com/strict underscore CLE to learn more and to buy the course. And once you've purchased, head over to our partners at Lawline and accredited CLE provider who's responsible for CLE administration. And you can access the episode there for course credit. So, happy continuing education folks. This is going to be great. Also listeners, watch the space. Meaning, watch the strict scrutiny feed because we've

got the first of our summer bonus series episodes coming out this Thursday. This is going to be the

first of two episodes in a series that we're calling know your rights. And we will have another separate bonus series that's out next month. So, stay tuned. All kinds of great stuff for this summer. But the great stuff starts right now because we are going to start today's show. So, Ellie, shall we begin? Let's do it. All right. Okay. So, let's start off with some legal news. We should talk about the recent primary. So, Tuesday was primary election day in a number of states. And

those contests are going to shape the general election in November, which will determine control of both houses of Congress. And whether the federal legislature will be a meaningful check on

“this president in the second half of his second term. But it's also important to recognize that”

the primaries were also evidence of the long tale of the courts 2022 decision in Dobbs versus Jackson

Women's Health Organization. That's the case that overruled Rovers' Wade and sent the abortion question back to the states. As we've discussed on this podcast before, in a number of states where direct democracy vehicles were available, the people actually did make their voices heard by enacting ballot measures that would secure reproductive freedom statewide in the wake of Dobbs. And despite Dobbs saying explicitly that the abortion question should be decided by the people,

some folks took the whole prospect of actual democracy personally. So, in the year since Dobbs, conservative forces have tried to limit the use of direct democracy as a means of advancing reproductive freedom and other progressive causes. But, happily, sometimes, these motherfuckers

“lose. That's what happened on Tuesday night in Missouri. The Republican controlled state legislature”

insists that Missouri and Ted use ballot measures to pass Medicaid expansion to raise the minimum wage and to legalize marijuana and sports betting to require paid sick leave and to establish a right to abortion, try to make it harder to enact citizen sponsored amendments to the state's constitution. So, we've seen this playbook before. We've talked about it before. Here, the Missouri state legislature specifically proposed a ballot measure that would have amended the state's

constitution to change the threshold for actually enacting an amendment to the constitution. So, this time, it would require a majority in each of the state's eight congressional districts, rather than what had been required before, which was a simple majority statewide. That would have been the highest threshold requirement in any of the 18 states that allows citizens groups to place constitutional amendments on the ballot. And, you know, weirdly, the higher threshold to enact

a measure would not have applied to any measure that the legislature proposed. It would only apply to citizen proposed measures. So, the ones proposed by the legislature would still only require a simple majority to pass. So, I mean, if this doesn't just completely smell of just rank gamesmanship, I don't know what does. It's almost like a legislature that is gerrymandered to ensure Republican control will actually try to control everything. I mean, am I missing something?

“No, that's what they wanted. But, Missourians, the people in the show meets state decide to show”

the Republicans these votes by defeating the measure at the ballot box. That was a big loss for the Republicans in Missouri, and they don't get to take a big win for democracy. Well, yeah, right? I mean, like, that part is crazy. I mean, the state legislature in Missouri was literally trying to shut on democracy, and happily the people in Missouri said, "Fuck that." Not far away in Kansas, there was another election night win. So, listeners, you will recall that in

2019, the Kansas Supreme Court decided a case that established a right to abortion under the Kansas Constitution. And, as a result of that ruling, Kansas is literally the last bastion of reproductive

care in the Midwest, which has become, basically, an abortion desert. And, predictably, the

Republican controlled legislature in Kansas took that personally. So, they have been trying to overturn this 2019 decision for years, including proposing in August 2022, a ballot initiative that would have amended the state constitution to foreclose the right to abortion recognized in that 2019 case. Famously, Kansas, just months after Dobbs, headed to the polls and defeated the ballot measure.

This involved a ballot measure that would have required state Supreme Court justices to be popularly

elected rather than appointed by the governor. And, once again, Kansas did not disappoint. They flooded the polls and they crushed that amendment, the way that cash-potel crushes beer cans against his head. Allegedly, allegedly, that is what I heard. So, yeah, like great news, we talked about this a lot before the primaries. We talked about it on this podcast. I'm so glad that the people came out and just said enough of this nonsense. The biggest primary news on the left

was the big progressive win in Michigan. Abdul Alsaid, a progressive doctor, um, won the primary four Senate. And that is had progressives. That is that people on the left. Yeah, singing Kubayah

and linking hands. And I'm, I'm not there yet, folks, because once again, we have a person running

for Senate on the Democratic side who seems to not understand the importance of court reform. So, for all of these progressive policies of this man wants the fall, let's look at what he actually says about court reform, right? He says that he supports a 10-year term limit, which, okay, we get

“it. Term limits are super popular. You need to cut. But we get why people are all in favor of term”

term limits. But why is it 10 years? Put a pin in that thought, right? Then he also supports some kind of bad guano, Pete Buttigieg. Each president can make a set number of appointments or, or, apparently, nominate the person who is about to get out on a 10-year term limit for, for another 10 years. So, so that would be 20 years. So, what's the point of your term limits? If you can just renominate these people, what if they do a good job? That's what we want. Oh, make sure the

shoe vote the way I want you to vote just as who is almost up for your term limit. Or, also, you're going to be out of a job in three months, or you can be out of a job in another 10 years. Like, how does that even make sense? And the thing is Melissa, like, look, this man is a doctor. All right, he passed or go, I couldn't. Like, he has a different set of skills. But his approach to court reform leaks of a person who has not talked to the experts about it and is instead just out here talking

out of his ass. It's like if I was trying to diagnose my tumor by going a WebMD and chatGPT, right? And I do let's say, if I try to do that, be like, that's not the way he has diagnosed a tumor, son. Well, let me tell you, this is not the way that you diagnose the tumor that is the Supreme Court right now. And I just don't understand how even progressive, allegedly, progressive Democrats

“can't get the memo on this. So I think this is such an important conversation to have. I mean,”

it was an enormous win in Michigan. You know, some people said that, you know, he didn't win by as much as I thought he would given the polling. But so I think it's a really important win. It says a lot about where people are in their dissatisfaction with the status quo. This court is the status quo. And if you're going to be a progressive candidate, you've got to talk about this. You can't talk about Medicaid for all and not reckon with the fact that once a Medicaid for all bill is passed,

and, you know, once that happens, it's going to go to the Supreme Court where these people are going to strike it down. And you look, you have to have a really considered plan. And it has to be again, as you say, like, turbulence is just the tip of the iceberg here. Like, let's really have a more meaningful conversation about what it would require to make the court less of an impediment

to actual democracy. It's the first step. People always want to treat court reform as if it's the

last step. But it's actually the first step, because if you don't reform this Supreme Court, as you just pointed out, unless all of your other plans get punted into the sun by Neil Gorset. Right, Medicaid for all, are you kidding me? Did you not see what they basically did to Obamacare? Yeah. They will have a fight on the right to see who gets to write the opinion,

“punting Medicaid for all into the sun. So you fix the court or you get nothing. And that's what”

even the most progressive, the most lefty, the most democratic socialist, not Pete, they don't get it. But like Ham, can we pause? Socialist Utopia, unless you have Supreme Court reform. All right. So can you just pause and contemplate for a moment that a graduate of Yale Law School and a graduate of Harvard Law School are more to the left of the Democrats of the American Socialist, of America? It's insane. We're like, where is the institutionalist?

And the other thing too, that's so wild about it is that it's not like court reform or even just broaching the topic of court reform and a thicker way is unpopular right now. People actually want to hear you talking about it. So I don't know. But they want to, but they need a real plan, like the 10 year, you know, 10 year term limits, that is something that he pulled out of his ass, because if you really dig into the number, the reason why is usually the number people talk about

“and the reason why is because that's how you make the math work. It won't each present it to have”

two appointments per term, then, and nine justices, then you need 18 year terms. So when he says 10 years, that already tells me that you haven't done the math even on it. You've just pulled the number out of your ass that you think sounds nice and sounds palatable without actually digging in to why the numbers work the way they work. So here's the good news. A couple months until November, there's time to get a better plan and to get a better position on court reform,

and I hope that he and the other candidates who prevailed in these primaries will do so. And let me know if he calls you, right? Because that again, if you're, if you are, he should be calling experts. Let me know if he calls you. Let me know if he calls it Leah. He's from freaking Michigan. He's from freaking Michigan. Oh, yeah. She's right there. She can

“explain it to it. Right? So let me know when you guys get the call. All right. So but like this is not”

to it was good news on primary night. Great news and Missouri, great news in Kansas, but listeners can all be good news on this podcast. So let's now pivot to a standard diet of article two,

shenanigans. So first up, listeners, you all know that one of Donald J. Trump's first acts as president

the second time was to provide clemency to the individuals charged with and convicted of crimes relating to the January 6th insurrection on the Capitol. In response to that action, the Department of Justice or, I guess, the Department of Injustice has taken steps to have those charges against the insurrectionist dismissed. Earlier in July, Judge Timothy Kelly in a very tortured written order, dismissed charges against some members of the proud boys. I say the order was tortured because

Judge Kelly was definitely going through it when he dismissed the charges. So in the order, he conceded that his hands were tied and that the president's views of the Capitol riot, whether based in quote, fact or fiction were well known. He then concluded the order by noting that quote, if this nation's experiment in self-government is to last another 250 years, the American people no matter their partisan preferences will have to act together to preserve, protect, and defend

that miracle through our constitutional framework. And just so we're clear, Judge Kelly is no liberal squish, all right? He is a Trump appointee who previously served as the Chief Council for National Security and the Senior Crime Council to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, Chairman Chuck Resson. I mean, that part to me is why. I mean, when people talk about like Judge Kelly a Trump nominee, I imagine he was probably in the Federalist Society before taking the

“Bental Keys hand-ringing about this. I think. I mean, like, he's hand-ringing about this. This was”

hard for him. And you know, he was not alone in holding his nose and dismissing these charges against known insurrectionist. So last week, Judge Amit Mehta, Kelly's colleague on the district of the District of Columbia Bench, again, at the request of the Department of Justice, dismissed charges against members of the oath keepers, including the leader of the oath keepers, E. Stuart Broth.

So like Kelly, Judge Mehta seemed pained to issue this order. The first three pages of the order

are devoted to recounting and very careful detail, the crimes for which the defendants were convicted. And even as the order concedes the primacy of the executive branch in criminal prosecutions, it concludes with an admonition of the prosecutors seeking the dismissal noting quote, "If it is the prosecutors view that the public interests is served by surrendering convictions for crimes against the country to the gloss of an enduring public record, then that is an

assessment to which this court must yield." Yalsa. I mean, like, that's pretty firm if you're a judge. Right. I mean, and sad. Like, I mean, he's, he's, you can almost hear this ad from bone. As he's writing that, right? This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. You've heard me talk about BetterHelp for a long time, but I don't know that we've ever actually talked about how much people love this service when

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your first subscription order. That's ARMRA.com/strict. And the hits just keep on coming, Melissa. Let's go to your, I know you don't like to admit this, your home state, where you was raised, where you from, I'm not, let's go to Florida. I'm just from Florida. But let's go to Florida. Let's go to Florida. The Department of Justice's campaign to tamp down the centers has included retribution

against the president's perceived enemies, as well as organizations that are concerned with the issues that do not align with the administration's preferred agenda. You know, like advancing racial justice and identifying white supremacists. That's likely why the Southern Poverty Law Center has found itself in the DOJ's crosshairs. In April, the Department of Justice sought and secured an 11 count federal grand jury indictment against the SPLC on grounds of the organization has been

engaged in fraud. There's been a lot of coverage of the impact of the indictment. Obviously, it is made the SPLC very visible and not in a good way. It's likely deterred contributions to the organization's donations, partnerships with other organizations for their work. And to be very clear, the SPLC's work has been to advance racial justice and the South and to oppose violent extremism by doing, among other things, naming hate groups that are committed to, among other things,

“white supremacy. So this has been bad for the SPLC, but it's going to get worse, I think.”

Yes, because the blast radius of this prosecution just keeps expanding. Last Monday, Florida AG, James Ubermanch. I'm sorry, that's not his name. James Oathmeyer demanded that Congress initiate an impeachment inquiry into the 11th Circuit Judge Nancy Abudu citing her prior work for the SPLC and the ongoing prosecution of the organization. So again, they're citing the fact that she used to work for her place as a reason to impeach her from her current job. For additional context in

2023, Abudu became the first black woman like I needed to tell you to serve on the 11th Circuit,

which here's appeals from Florida, Georgia and Alabama with its sizable black populations. Prior to her judicial appointment, Abudu served as the SPLC's director for strategic litigation, which according to Uthmeyer means that she was all in on the SPLC's alleged fraudulent conduct. So I want to be really clear about this. It's not obvious that Uthmeyer's demands will necessarily result in an impeachment inquiry. So Congress actually has to decide to take up

this inquiry and investigate it, which is why the midterms continue to be really important, securing control of Congress will not only allow for oversight of this lawless administration,

“it would also I think help prevent the reckless and continued effort to smear and ruin the”

careers of black people in all facets of employment. But I think we have to be really clear about

progressive organizations out of doing the work that they do, which is often suing the government, dumb, holding the allies of this government accountable for what they do sometimes just naming

“the allies of this government as allies. And more importantly, I think this is intended to send a”

message to progressive lawyers about how they spend their time and whether or not they would like

to seek judicial appointments in the future. I mean, it's basically meant to have a chilling effect

on this kind of progressive lawyering full stop, especially if they black, right? This does not happen to judge Nancy James, right? That's not, that's not, you know, Judge Nancy McTirney does not have this happen to. Yeah, so I think one way to sort of think about it is about just this the use of DOJ resources to limit and control efforts to critique, to dissent against the administration's policy, the policies of its allies. It's also, I think, you know,

part and parcel of this campaign against people of color and positions of authority that we've also seen this administration engage in. Which brings me to another facet of this administration.

You know, Ali, I will admit it. I was one of the sweet summer children who thought that

Todd Blantz's confirmation process would be a knock-down drag-out fight because why wouldn't it, right? This is a man who served as Donald Trump's personal defense counsel in a case that resulted in the future, former, whatever president being convicted 34 times by a New York City jury. Todd Blantz is the man who, quote, unquote, interviewed Gillay and Maxwell in prison, and then had very little to say about why the convicted sex offender was subsequently relocated

to a minimum security facility. Todd Blantz was the man who so bungled the release of the Epstein files that survivors were compelled to protest his nomination and confirmation process. He is the man who, at the president's request, agreed to settle a case that the president as a private citizen brought against the IRS, a federal agency that the president as a president oversees. And that's not even all. He's the man who is part of that settlement,

agreed to establish a quote unquote anti-weaponization fund that would disperse taxpayer money to generate sex insurrectionists among others and agreed to give the president, his fail sons, and his company tax immunity. So I would think that all of those things in the aggregate

“would make Todd Blantz the third rail, like genuinely uncomfortable. But what do I know?”

Is he though? Is he genuinely uncontrollable? I really know he's pathetic, bootlicking, Republican senators. Really? Because I just, I, I, I, I thought the sky was like, there's no way. I was like, there's no way the sky's getting through. Like, what, like, what am I smoking? Why am I not vaping? Because you were thinking that he was making it. And, and the, and the thing about Matt Gaetz, that makes him different than most of

these other Republicans. And Matt Gaetz is a frapp paddle turned into a real-life boy. Is that he gave up? Matt Gaetz gave up. Matt Gaetz decided he didn't want that smoke. But if you want that smoke, if you're willing to stand there and be humiliated for long enough in the name of Trump, eventually you'll win. And stamina and staying power, Todd Blantz is willingness to sit up there and be humiliated for days is all it took for him to eventually get

conferred. Well, I think it took a little bit more. It did take outwitting Tom Tillis and John

“Cornan, which I have to say, probably didn't take a lot of work. I know you have to outwit,”

like, you know, a, a, a, a, a bail of cabbage to do that, right? Here's how it went down.

Listeners, as you know, Donald Trump basically ended Tillis and Cornan's political careers

when he backed their primary challengers, right? And so for a while, Tillis and Cornan seemed like they were in full DGA Ahmad, right? When it came to the president, they were in Yolo, though. They, they were like full on furgos, vengeful, like they looked like they were going to bring the noise. And I was here for it, right? And in fact, Tillis and Cornan gave hot blanch the business during the confirmation process, right? Take a listen to Cornan,

pressing blanch on whether the weaponization fund is really dead. I believe you have said that

meaning there is no weaponization fund. The weaponization fund is dead. It's not moving forward.

“Well, I would refer you to the settlement agreement. Do you have to have a copy of that in front”

of you? I do not. Okay. Well, you probably know what's in it. I'm familiar with it. I'm sure you were. On page four, this settlement agreement can be modified only upon the written agreement of the parties. Has there been a written agreement of the parties to modify the settlement fund? No, the settlement fund's just not moving forward. There's not, there's no modification. It's just

it never started. No money went from the treasury to any other account. There's no commissioners.

It's not moving forward. Well, the settlement agreement remains as it was originally, but I hear what you're saying. Is it, is the settlement agreement enforceable as a contract by the parties? Well, yes, it's an enforceable document. So I suppose if President Trump's council sought to enforce it, that they potentially could include including the weaponization fund. Well, they can try to enforce the contract. They can't force that a partner of justice to

move forward with the weaponization fund. They could potentially say that I suppose that we breached by not moving forward. They haven't done that. I'm not aware that they're planning on doing that.

“All right. Let me just like break this down. John Cornan is a lawyer, right?”

He's a lawyer twice over. He has a JD from St. Mary's School of Law and he has an LLM from the

University of Virginia, Wahoo-Wah. He knows that Todd Blanch can't do shit around this settlement agreement. That he cannot unilaterally stop this settlement agreement. Like he's talking about is the settlement and enforceable contract. If it is an enforceable contract, then the parties to the contract are the ones that have to agree not to do it. And that's Donald Trump's failed sons and the Trump organizations. He knows that Todd Blanch cannot independently just

address this and kill the fund dead. This is a man who is not just a U.S. Senator. He is a former justice of the Texas Supreme Court. He knows the law and that whole colloquy with Todd Blanch may clear that he knew that Todd Blanch could not unilaterally kill this fund. And yet he was using it to put his foot up like he wanted. He wanted to bring that out into the public just how dirty this man was. But I think it also shows Melissa something that Republicans only seem to get

when they're out of office or when they're almost out of office that they don't trust the administration as far as they can throw them. Which they should it. Which they shouldn't. But they only

“remember that when they're halfway out the door. All right. So I'm just going to say in this moment”

it seemed very clear that John Cornean knew the score. He was up Todd Blanch's ass and he was not going to go quietly into this. And that was meaningful for Todd Blanch because with the Senate so closely divided, Blanch needs the whole Republican caucus to back him in order to have a chance at confirmation on the Senate floor. So he needs to listen and Cornean to sign off just to get out of the committee. And then get to the Senate floor. So he's got to figure out a way to

modify the concerns that tilless and Cornean have. And as you say Todd Blanch doesn't mind being humiliated. He doesn't mind auditioning and he doesn't mind saying what he has to say. But I think what he didn't count on was that tilless and Cornean would literally fold like folding chairs on an Alabama Riverboat dock. Right. That's a deep cut. A deep cut in order of August 5th. Not everyone will get it, but I'm glad you did. But the ones he did got a nice Easter egg there.

So yeah, so you're you're you're exactly right. But they did fold. No, I mean like right. That's like he wasn't counting on them folding. So the heart wants what it wants and Todd Blanch's heart really wanted to be a attorney general for real for real. And so he decided, I guess, to give tilless and Cornean what they said they wanted or did he right. So early last week

Todd Blanch released two statements. The first, which was a memorandum that Todd Blanch signed,

said that the anti weaponization fund would be rescinded immediately. The second statement, which was unsigned and released by the Department of Justice clarified that the terms of the tax immunity for the president, his fail sons and his companies would be retrospective as opposed to retrospective and prospective, which was originally the concern. So that's an important limit, but all of this is still a significant stop to the president. It also doesn't address the concerns

that John Cornean was airing in that colloquy that Todd Blanch really doesn't have the authority

And you know, who does have the authority, that's president Donald Trump. And it wasn't clear that Blanch had actually asked his daddy Donald Trump and run any of this up the flagpole. Here's the president field and questions about Todd's assurances and the modifications to the settlement terms. This is what he said on one talk Blanch. I didn't look at it. I told I know as a Todd Blanch is great. He's going to do a great job. Everybody knows it. And I understand there's been a sign off. But I don't know what they agreed.

“I think Todd Blanch agreed to reconfirmer things that he's already said. And what he said was, okay,”

because it's good. All right. So this is amazing. Right. He is no idea. And like,

ostensibly he wouldn't have signed off if Todd Blanch had actually done anything to really kill the fund. And he has no idea what's going on. Like, Todd Blanch is basically talking out of his ass. And everyone knows it. Immediately reporters, many of whom do not even have water because he's been pointing out that there are numerous loopholes in the two statements. Some noted that even before the anti weaponization fund was a glimmer in the president's eye, the DOJ had already begun dispersing taxpayer funds to convict it anti abortion protestors Trump campaign allies and others. And that the Department of Justice could continue to negotiate those kinds of taxpayer funded settlements.

Even if there wasn't an anti weaponization fund. So killing the fund probably wouldn't matter. And it was also clear that the statements that Todd Blanch was making were not necessarily legally binding on. The settlement terms were negotiated between the IRS, the president as a private citizen, his fail sons and his company. This was the point of the colloquly with John Cornean. None of this made any sense that Todd Blanch by himself could modify the settlement without the agreements of the parties.

And then there's a whole thing that the quote unquote settlement proceeded from an actual lawsuit that may not have been able to be in federal court in the first instance given that the president was on both sides of the V. So there's still these open questions about whether the effort to settle this case constituted a fraud on the court itself. And yet. Yes, but again, all you had to do was outwit ahead of lettuce, right? Because despite those very serious questions, Blanch's assurances seem to modify Tilason Cornean, both of whom happily cast their votes to advance Blanch's nomination to the full Senate for confirmation.

In case you were wondering, the vote was a party line vote very close, because the Senate is closely divided, but it was 12 to 10. Here's Senator Cornean commenting on his cowardice. I mean on the situation. What I'm saying is recently as yesterday, likes the idea of this fund that he wants to find some way to pay these people.

“Does that concern you as someone who's trying to fight against getting this anti-repanization fund in place?”

Well, there's nothing we could do to to rain in the president when he said he likes the fund and he wishes still exists, but the fact of matter it's dead. And that's all we could do under these circumstances.

All right, you know the problem is what go. I'm sorry, we're talking about it.

Cornean is the guy in pulp fiction who says, "I'm not a hero. I'm just a coffee shop manager." Like he's that guy. He's just a coffee shop manager. He is not a hero. He does not have a spine. He is a coward and he showed us all right there. Again, I come back to like John Cornean knows that these statements that Todd Lanch has made, to modify him and Tom Tillis are basically meaningless. He knows this and he's still voted anyway.

He also knows that one way that they all could have made sure that this fund was dead was for Congress to pass legislation killing the fund, right? Yeah, I mean, they all know that. They all know that. So this whole idea, like there's nothing we can do to rain in this president. Article one, but like a word, what are we talking about? The whole idea of separation of powers would like a word. It's just, it's so gross. It's just so gross.

“But here's the thing, listen, we have to stop thinking that Republicans will ever”

row a spine and stand up to this president, right? Even the ones of the president has humiliated even the ones that the president has kicked out of his inner circle, even the ones as in the case

of Tillis and Cornean that the president has literally taken their jobs away. They'll never

row a spine. If they had a spine, if they had a conscience, if they had decency, they wouldn't be Republicans in the first place, right? You don't become a Republican because you have decency. You don't become a Republican because you have a spine because you have commitment to the people.

and that's who Cornean is, and that's who Tom Tillis is, and that is who they will always be,

“regardless of what this particular president does to them.”

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select frames plus free shipping with code Strix. That's AURAframes.com promo code Strix. And you can support the show by mentioning us at checkout, terms and conditions apply. All right, so that's not even all to say about the prospect of Todd Blanche going from auditioning Attorney General to Attorney General for real, for real. Politico broke a story about a conference call that Todd Blanche participated in. In this conference call, Blanche is reported promised

anti-abortion activist who were part of the group of faith leaders on this telephone conference

“call. He promised them that he would make Dobbs permanent in every state. What does that even mean?”

Given that as we have discussed, Dobbs is supposed to allow political processes, democracy, the people to decide whether to make abortion available in their states. When Blanche seemed to think that he has the authority given Dobbs and the fact that Dobbs committed this question to the people and the states, why does Todd Blanche think he has the authority to do anything here? How would he do this? Well, listeners, luckily, Melissa and I speak for

public. And the reason why Blanche thinks that he can do this is because he's probably envisioning one of two possibilities. One of the things is that he alluded to revisiting the FDA and HHS regulations on mythopristin. Something that he said, he's in the process of doing. And we know that there are cases and issues and attacks on the abortion pill that have been on going since the moment Dobbs dropped. So that's one way to significantly restrict access to abortion. The second

is that he said he was also looking into your favorite law. Whether medical abortion can be distributed via the mail, which is a reference to the Comstock Act, which is still not being repealed despite it being a 19th century law. Right. So the Comstock Act was passed in 1873. It remains on

that the Comstock Act could be used to prohibit the distribution of medication abortion through

the mails, including Justice Thomas in a number of separate writings. He has made mention of this. This seems to be a real bugaboo with Republicans. They talk about it in Project 2025. All that would be required here is a Department of Justice willing to enforce the Comstock Act in this way. You don't need a new Congress to pass a ban. You don't need anything you just need a willing DOJ. It seems that Todd Blanche has stepped up. We should also note that this phone call

is supposedly of the record, but one of the groups who participated posted a recording to their

YouTube website. So some geniuses, like I love it when Pete Hugs at this handling your coms,

“like good stuff. But it's all it shows their humorous. That's what you do when you're winning.”

That's what you do when you're winning and you don't think anybody can stop you. I mean, well, there we are. Speaking of winning and thinking no one can stop you, it's time to talk about our favorite U.S. attorney/box of Francia. While I'm apologizing to all of you about my naivete over Todd Blanche's AG prospects, let the record reflect that I was today years old when I realized that Jeanine Piero might actually be the moral compass of this administration.

We called her a box of wine. She said no bitches. I'm a box of spine. Here's how it went down. I'm sorry, sorry, I'm going. I'm sorry, it's my fault. Here's how it went down. Listeners, as we discussed

“on our live NYC show back in June, the Department of Vintiria never solicited competitive bids”

on the reflecting pool resurfacing project. Instead, the job went to a Trump donor and a Mara Lago neighbor. What could go wrong? Albee? Be what could happen? Apparently a lot. The pool's new surface immediately began peeling and rather than admit that maybe this had something to do with the resurfacing and those in charge of it, the president and his pals insisted that the peeling was the work of vandalizing thugs. And the U.S. Attorney for the District of

the District of Columbia, Jeanine Piero, secured an indictment against former Olympian David Hurn

on charges of vandalizing federal properties. So basically, Hurn was captured on camera,

putting his hand in the pool. And there it was. And then all of a sudden, he catches a federal case. Hurn, who was represented by among others, friend of the pod, Norm Eisen, immediately hit that providing photographic evidence that the pool had been peeling before and after. He stopped and put his hand in the water. I mean, real detective work going on. It's just insane. Hard hitting forensic evidence. And it seems like that kind of detail was enough to get U.S. Attorney Piero

to reconsider whether this was a fight she wanted to have an open court before federal judge that she would likely have to be before again. And again, and again, so Piero laid on a Friday evening when all the hot mess news is released announced that she would be dropping the charges against her. Okay, so to be fair, this is exactly the right outcome. But does Jeanine Piero, as she is becoming a box of spine, know who she works for, because her daddy, the president, was not having

it at all. Take a listen. She, uh, she folded like an umbrella. Such a missed opportunity to use the August 5 folding chair as a metaphor and to reach black audiences. I mean, truly, I folded like an umbrella. It doesn't

“umbrella fold. I mean, it just collapses, I think. You have to finish the analogy, fold it like an”

umbrella in the wind, right? Like, yeah, you have to fold on their own. There's a force there that has, whereas a chair can just fall over, or if too many white people try to gang up on a

Right. I'm told. Um, legally. Right. So Jeanine Piero, collapse like an umbrella in the wind and

kill surprise. There were reports that the president was considering firing her, shocking, I know. Ellie, what do you make of this? Is Piero just over this whole job that you it? She was such a Trump loyalist for so long. Why is she now finding religion? And is she actually going to get fired? Honestly, Melissa, this is the most shocking attack in this week. When you brought this up to me, I, I, I, I, I would not say this actually.

Like listeners, I texted Ellie. We're going to have to talk about the Jeanine Piero thing and Ellie wrote back, did she die? It's like what? It's like we're on it. It's easily more, more likely

that she just killed over than that she actually did the right thing legally, like that, that is shocking.

And so because I am so surprised, I am forced to pull out my 10-foil hat. And, and, and really

“imagine what other things can be going on here. Look, my antenna are raised. The only thing that I can”

think is that she found something real about the reflecting pool. Like there's a deep dark secret at the bottom of the reflecting pool. Like the reflecting pool is the portal to Epstein Island or something. Some issue where she knew that if she pushed it in court, things would cut out. Information would be revealed that like can't be, it's disclosure day or something. I can only imagine that there's something way, way more sinister going on

that she did not want people to find out because the idea that she just independently decided that this was a dog shit case that shouldn't be taken. Like that's not something I see Republicans do. So it's hard for me to accept that it's hard for me to oftentimes razors, razor it, right? This is just accept that the most obvious answer dog shit case don't bring it. Was the answer she arrived to independently enough her own free will?

So again, maybe I am horribly naive. Maybe I'm Kate Shaw. I don't know. But I genuinely just thought she's the US attorney. Like DC is a small legal community. She's got to come before these judges all the time. She can't be trying to convict an Olympian of analyzing the reflecting pool when everybody knows. Like their reflecting pool is hot buttered garbage right now. Like this

“resurfacing was hot buttered garbage. And everyone knows it. That's what I thought. But again,”

I mean, I also love this hell portal to Epstein Island theory. Could all be the case. Yeah.

To put joking aside for a second. At some level,

this is all you want from the Department of Justice. This is all you want. This is all we want in terms of justice. This is all we want in terms of justice. This is all we want in terms of justice. And John Corden, like just like. Right here. Apparently, Janine has all of them. Right, just follow the law. That's all that's all people need. Just do the right legal thing. You're working for Trump. He's going to win most of the time when he's has a case. He's going to lose most of the time.

When he doesn't have a case, just just plate straight. That's all that's all anybody's ever asked. And that that Janine Puro in this one instance may have done that. It shouldn't be so shocking. But it is. I will watch the space to see if our new found box of spine continues to be the U.S. attorney for the District of the District of Columbia. In other news, while the president continues to fight a non-existent battle against the vandalism of public sites, his Department of

Justice continues the administration's assault on the free press last week. In the wake of the Department of Justice withdrawing subpoenas directed to three New York Times journalists. It was revealed that in February, the Justice Department issued a subpoena to a times freelancer in order to compel that journalist reveal confidential sources and conversations

“that underlay a story about a failed top secret mission in North Korea. Now, just to emphasize,”

it is not unusual for the government to issue subpoenas to illicit information from media outlets. Particularly, government investigations of leaks will initially focus on the government agency where the leak likely occurred. After that initial attempt at cleaning your own house, then the government may choose to subpoena the media and they usually direct the subpoena to the media organization, not to the individual journalist responsible for the story. I'm saying all of

this to emphasize that issuing subpoenas directly to journalists and then going to their homes to deliver said subpoenas is a bit agro, right? It's almost like the goal isn't actually...

to get information about leaks or how the media actually came about this information about the

failed North Korea. Mission, it seems like the goal is scaring the shit out of individual journalists and their families and the hopes that that fear will deter the journalists from accurately reporting what the administration is doing and how clumsy they are doing this. Again, this was about a failed mission in North Korea. It's so weird because in a world where barri-wise exists, like the idea that you still have to pressure like the one or two journalists left that aren't

“looking your boots every day. It's just like y'all have already won. Why do you have to go after, you know,”

the one or two people who are still doing actual journalism, right? But that's what they're doing. I also want to note that while the times is providing the freelancer with a legal defense, not every news outlet has the considerable resources of the New York Times or the Wall Street Journal or the Jeff Bezos posts or other big legacy outlets, smaller news outlets will not be able to defend themselves or their people, which means that they will be forced to be more and more

cautious in their coverage of the administration for fear of catching a lawsuit. And this is a strategy

that we know works. I always want to remind people about what happened to Gawker, right? If you look

at what happened to Gawker, if you look at how Peter Thiel destroyed Gawker, it wasn't through the big hull call again lawsuit. That was the proximate cause. The ultimate cause was the threats of the lawsuit. The constant threat we're going to see you for this. We're going to see you for that.

“Remember, when when Peter Thiel forces Terry Bowle, a hull call again to bring that lawsuit,”

they don't think they're going to win. The goal was it to win the lawsuit. The goal was to dream Gawker of resources fighting the lawsuit. And that is the real threat to every non-legacy organization out there. It's not winning or losing the lawsuit. It's the threat of the lawsuit.

I used to work for the blog above the law, which is really great if you haven't read it and

still operating, and it's awesome. But at one point when I was there, my boss says to me, you know, going over one of my stories or whatever, Ellie, we can't get sued. Ellie, we just, we can't get sued. And I was like, boss, I can't promise you that. I can promise you that if we get sued, they won't win. Right? I know defamation law, I know liable law, I can promise you that if we get sued, they won't win. But I can't promise you we won't get sued because this is America. You can

sue anybody for anything. Right. And my boss was like, you don't understand, we can't get sued because we can't afford the insurance liability if we get sued all the time. And that is the chilling effect. That is the, you take that out of your story, you take that out of your, you take, you don't use that quote, right? It restricts what you are able to say, not because you're in the legal wrong, because if you're even in the legal gray area, you can't afford to do. Right.

“Now, it's it's such a good point. And I mean, I think about this. I think about the EOC”

sued against the New York Times. It's not about the times like they don't expect to win against the times. What they want to do is prevent other smaller newsrooms from doing what the times is doing. And in that case, it was sort of trying to insert some kind of gender and racial balance in the newsroom. Mostly for coverage to ensure that stories that mattered to different constituencies were accurately and adequately covered. But again, it's not about the New York Times.

It's just the biggest marker that's meant to be a deterrent to other smaller news organizations to get in line. And, you know, there it is. Well, just look. All right. Folks, it's August. That means school is about to start soon. So that pains me. Well, for the kids, yeah. So I got to go actually teach it. Whoo. I've been on sabbatical. It's going to be a hard reaction for me. No, no. I feel you on the parents. I feel you on the parents. Yeah. I'm with you there. But like,

I also have to go back to school. And after a sabbatical, like, there's going to be a hard reentry for Melissa Murray. I'll just say that. But we need to do a quick pivot to talk about a developing story from legal academia. So listeners, you know that this administration hates DEI. And I should be clear, they hate the old DEI diversity, equity, and inclusion. They actually love the new DEI, which is dudes, ex-husbands, and embezzles, right? In any event, the administrations

professional accreditation organization for the legal profession, to eliminate one of its accreditation requirements for law schools, standard 206. Standard 206 requires law schools in order to be accredited to maintain diverse faculties and to actively demonstrate a commitment to diversity and inclusion

for underrepresented groups. To be very clear, standard 206 can basically be boiled down to

four words. Don't do Jim Crow. That's it. But alas, the Trump administration, and it's zeal to make America great again, or at least white America great again, may be seeking to return to 1953. Since the inauguration, the Department of Education, despite being allegedly dismantled, issues guidance that challenged the legality of this modest commitment to fostering inclusivity in law schools. And it has threatened to limit the ABA's role in accrediting law schools,

accreditation is a big deal because most states require attendance to an ABA accredited law school in order to qualify for the bar exam and professional licensing. And the ABA in an effort to stay out of the administration's crosshairs and maintain its lucrative status as an accreditation organization suspended standard 206 so it could debate its use going forward. And at its recent annual meeting, there was a pitch debate over whether to maintain standard 206 or to scrap it and keep a low

profile with this administration and Steven Miller. ABA's House of delegates ultimately voted

to maintain standard 206, rejecting a proposal that would eliminate it, a growing political and legal pressure. The decision preserves the current rule for now, although the debate over its future is not over. The ABA's independent accreditation council still holds the final authority over accreditation standards and plans to reconsider the issue later this month. Basically,

“the ABA was like, should we be Paul Weiss or not and decided not at least for now?”

I mean, this is just bonkers to me. Again, standard 206 is just like literally, don't be racist. Don't be obviously racist. Let's basically what it is. I mean, I don't know. I just go back to the fact, in 2006 when I was hired at the University of California, Berkeley, I was only the second black woman ever hired on the faculty, right? I mean, in 2006, I mean, it's Berkeley, like a allegedly liberal bastion, like law school faculties are not necessarily hotbeds

of diversity, law schools. Again, many black law professors that you have in law school, three years, two semesters of pH, how many black law professors did you have? I had two. I had three in one was a visitor. I had two in one per year, basically one per year, yeah, one per year. I had to take her, I had to like go seek out her seminar, right? Like the, there was only one that was like naturally served up to me, right? And while I can understand people, why should that

matter? It matters a great deal. It matters a great deal when you are a student trying to learn about some of the racist ass shit. This country has done and you want to ask a question, it matters if you feel like you're going to be able to ask that question in a supportive and

“safe environment, right? When you have to ask a white law professor, why is this case so racist?”

That question hits differently than if you ask it to a black law professor, even if their answers are going to end up being the same, right? Even in most cases, their answers are going to end up being the exact same, right? But it matters a great deal. It matters to me, you know, I've told the start before, but I had Justice Alina Cagan in law school. She was my cip for a professor and I added cip for him. And so, you know, I went to office hours, basically, to complain about how much I hated

their class, which was a choice that I regret. But in her office hours, Cagan used to clerk for a third good martial. And while she was trying to explain to me the importance of civil procedure, she was using stuff from third good martial, which she knew, you know, not incorrectly, I was going to pay a little bit more attention to. I was going to take a little bit more consideration of than if she was quoting me stuff from Hugo Black, right? She understood that.

And that, you know, Cagan obviously not black, but that is the importance of having diversity and inclusion in an educational environment. Different students are going to respond to different things.

“And you should be able to have a law school that addresses everybody, not just wife folks.”

It's a really good point. I think the standard 206 is not long for this world. I never thought

But that's too much, even for these guys. And, you know, it's so weird to watch this assault on

“DEI while you're watching an administration with a cabinet that literally is inferior to stuff”

I would see at IKEA. So, all right, Ellie, before we wrap up the news, I have one final note. As you know, I just got back from vacation. I went to London where I was allowed to talk like this all the time. It was absolutely wonderful. I had best time. And, you know, I talked about my schedule and all of that. So, I loved that part. That was great. The other thing I loved, you know, true highlight of the trip was that I had the opportunity to eat leafy greens and berries with a

abandon secure on the knowledge that I would not be gripped by explosive diarrhea because the

United Kingdom engages in regular food inspection and regulation protocols. So, I love that for them and for me. Anyway, as I was headed back to America and the prospect of no longer being able to eat salad, the news coverage was absolutely fixated on an interview that CNN's Dana Bash conducted with Secretary Burekarkis, slash whale juice, slash raw milk, Robert F. Kennedy, aka Cheryl Hinesis, husband, slash maybe Olivia Nutzi's boo thing, allegedly. Maybe maybe maybe I don't know.

“I think we're a rape. That's maybe maybe I don't know. In any event, Dana Bash asked the secretaries”

some questions about the recent measles outbreaks and his responses were genuinely unhinged. So, I am just seeing this because as we're talking about DEI in law schools and whether standard 206, which is just a modest instruction to not engage in rank discrimination is on the table to be eliminated. This man gets to be the Secretary of Health and Human Services. Take a listen. Before becoming HHS Secretary for years, you have been one of the leading voices questioning

the efficacy of vaccines. Do you accept some responsibility for this measles outbreak?

Absolutely not. First of all, this is an international outbreak.

We're doing better at handling at the any country in the world. Mexico has 15 times the amount of measles per capita that we have. Canada has four times the amount of measles in and has two times the amount of measles that I call as those measles outbreak. You're the most famous and I call 137,000 cases. You're the most famous vaccine skeptic on the planet. Let me tell you because we're actually answering these sounds, she and it's diaries.

Answer some question about why we're having a measles outbreak right now. The reason we're having a measles outbreak because of the COVID lockdowns. All right, thoughts. We're all going to die. We're all going to die.

“And on purpose, right, I always think, can you imagine how people react?”

If RFK Junior was a black man, right, can you imagine how people would react? If that was Terry Cruz talking about measles, just like that. Like people wouldn't stand Terry Cruz. There would be a riot, right? President Hector Liz Elias on the Mountain Dew Camacho would not be allowed to save that without a mass right over our collective health. Yet this beer eaten fool, beer eaten fool, I mean, is out here just wilden on all of our health

and and and and people just stand for it. It's it's insane. It's dangerous. I don't understand how people allow this to happen. You know, my kids the other day asked me what if aliens came to Earth, what would be the thing that they would be most surprised about, right? And it was we in turn into a very deep philosophical conversation, you know, I mentioned racism would like be like you're all Earthlings, how could you be, right? But one of the things that we were able to kind of

hit upon was our lack of care for ourselves in our environment, right? Like I would imagine that an advanced intelligent race would look at our self destruction, you know, as one of the most insane things out there, right? Like I and I told to my kids, like if you think about it, like even guerrillas practice good hygiene, right? Like they they they they take care of each other's

And and that is that is insane. And I think it would be insane to any intelligent species besides

“out. I mean, I think the aliens would want to know like why we decided to entrust our health”

to this man, like who has admitted to snorting cocaine off a toilet seat. Yes, they want to know that and they would want to know what we did to all the right notes, right? Like that. All right. Now it's it's it's it's it's it's a huge problem, but again, like it's it's beyond a health problem now it is it is they straight up political prime. It is what people are voting for when they show up to the polls in November. They're voting for this guy. And they understand that and they

do it anyway. Obviously, there are other people to blame for this. I think we should also blame the Supreme Court. I mean, the the courts bent on deregulation, which has been led largely by Justice Neal or such. I think it's also to blame for why there are irregular inspections of food safety at these large industrial farms. It could also put the blame. I guess on DOJ and I trust for allowing the consolidation of these various farms, which again makes it easier for these broad outbreaks

to happen because they're all coming from like a large source. This is what happens when you deregulate. This is what happens when certain providers have so much market power that they can

basically dictate the terms of regulation and I mean, there's just it's it's just so unbelievable.

“Like you cannot literally eat berries. Right. I mean, could I just I like it was so honestly”

relaxing to be in the UK and not worry about this like to just like I was literally on a fucking cabbage binge just eating every leafy grain I could. I was snorting iceberg lettuce. Like I was like just with a band in like you just full-peed a rabbit. I sure did. Sure did. Can you say I'm not that bad. I'm not as pleased. I'm just like and then I came home and like I'm like roasting all my vegetables like it's just it's like I cannot believe we're in this health

gate anyway. My kids are happy because we're like no no that's just like yeah the kids are like I vote for our okay. Good stuff. I love deregulation like my son is like best decision ever. Loper bright. So listeners, when Elie and I recorded this episode on Thursday morning, we obviously recognize that the Trump administration is going to Trump administration and we would probably be back in the studio to record and update and load and behold on Thursday afternoon,

President Trump signed two executive orders targeting birthright citizenship. Again, this is just weeks after the Supreme Court concluded that an executive order could not be used to unilaterally rescind the 14th Amendment's grant of birthright citizenship. The two new executive orders take a very narrow tack. They focus on what the administration has termed quote unquote birth

tourism. The first order excludes from birthright citizenship children born in the United States

two members of foreign terrorist groups or among others employees working for foreign governments. That might include consular employees and ambassadors or even low-level people working in embassies and consulates. With respect to that latter group, the children of individuals who are employed by foreign governments, foreign ministers, the children of ambassadors and things like that.

“Technically, I think historically, they have already been excluded from birthright citizenship”

under the terms of section one of the 14th Amendment, because section one of the 14th Amendment specifically excludes from birthright citizenship those who are not subject to the jurisdiction

of the United States and historically that has always meant the children of ambassadors or high-level

consular employees. This seems to open the door even more broadly to exclude the children of individuals who work in the consulate, but are not those high-ranking officials who are clearly subject to the jurisdiction of some other foreign entity. Yeah, so I did a shorter YouTube segment on this that will be out and then also a conversation with Rachel Cohen on this. But I wanted to just kind of highlight what you were saying in that what the administration seems to be trying to do

is take a well-recognized but extremely narrow, exception to birthright citizenship and just blow a hole through it and expand it beyond recognition. Because of course, birthright citizenship did not apply to children of foreign ambassadors. And now the administration is saying, well, it doesn't apply to

taken seriously would this mean that the children of someone who I don't know cleans the bathrooms

“at a foreign embassy or the United Nations is not a birthright citizen like that's the question.”

And, you know, the exception for people born to parents who are, you know, members of a foreign terrorist organization that's obviously extrapolating from the exception for people born to, you know, occupying or invading armies. And the person who invited the administration to do this, say his name, it's Brett Katfina, who wrote that separate opinion in Trump for his barbra saying, well, of course, the Constitution's principles have to be applied to new circumstances. And that

means not just the rules themselves but also their exceptions. And that is what the administration is doing.

So the second executive order you mentioned there are two, the second one is entailed

ending birth tourism. It excludes from birthright citizenship, the children of, quote, birth tourists that is individuals who visit the United States while pregnant for the

“purpose of delivering the child on U.S. soil. So the child will be eligible for U.S. citizenship.”

The first order also excluded children of non-citizens who enter into a surrogacy agreement, like a green card holders use a surrogate. Is there a child potentially? Not as citizen like, it's just truly deranged on-hinge stuff. Which means it came from the mouth of, I don't know, senior White House advisor, Deputy White House Chief of Staff, Steven Miller, who was present at the signing of the Executive Order and had this to say upon their announcement.

The president is using his authority as commander and chief to sign first an executive order using the new rule in the Supreme Court issued to expand the definitions of people who are ineligible for birthright citizenship. That includes, for example, alien enemies of the United States, members of foreign terrorist organizations, and large categories of people who love the enact of a half of foreign governments. And so with taking this action, it ensures that large

numbers of people who, wrongly, would be getting birthright citizenship will no longer be eligible for those benefits. So just for some context listeners about the so-called birth tourism,

around 3.6 billion babies are born in the United States each year, according to the Centers for Disease

Control and Prevention. In 2024, fewer than 10,000 babies were born in the United States were born

“to foreign residents. So obviously, this is a problem that, I guess, is important enough for this”

administration, but it doesn't seem like it's the kind of massive influx of people that they're making it out to be. Certainly, it doesn't seem like it's as important as other challenges facing us right now. Like the Iran War, our water supply, the ability to eat, dire real ones with the band. I was going to say, and you know, the state of Hormuz would like a word. So there's that. Many things. You know, speaking of the kind of additional developments, you know, the Trump administration

and the federal courts were definitely going to Trump admin in federal courts, because also since

you recorded, the DC circuit came out with their decision, in which they said, buy a two-to-one vote,

because this is the federal court. It's that, of course, the president destroying the White House, aka the People's House in order to build a ballroom without congressional authorization is illegal. The majority opinion said, quote, "We are aware of no instance in American history in which a president unilaterally and using privately-collected funds demolished substantial portions of the White House that Congress authorized to be built and American taxpayers paid for

until now." And, quote, "Decision 2-to-one," of course, a Trump appointee to the DC circuit, one Naomi Rao, descended since additions for a Supreme Court seat are still ongoing, even though there is not as of yet. Hey, they can see. The DC circuit stayed their opinion for several days to allow the administration to run off to daddy Supreme Court to ask for a stay on the shadow dock at the president's set-on truth social. They would be doing so. We will see whether that materializes.

One other development in the federal courts, a Trump appointed judge declined to dismiss the indictment against the Southern Poverty Law Center, which had argued the indictment was brought against them, vindictively and selectively. The Trump appointed judge even denied the request for discovery that is the ability to ask questions, collect evidence, and look into whether this indictment was sought selectively and vindictively. So that is an unfortunate

development, and we will see how that case plays out. That case, of course, is related to the Florida Attorney General's demand for an impeachment inquiry into 11-circuit judge Nancy Abu Dhu, which Ellie and I talked about earlier in this episode. So that is a full rundown of the news. Thank you, Leah, for joining us. We are going to take a break. And when we come back,

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“the empty void created by the absence of Leah and Kate. I think you did admirably here.”

We always close out our show by offering our listeners something uplifting our favorite things

things that we look forward to things that we experience that brought us joy that might bring them joy. So I'm going to invite you to share with us what your favorite things were from this week. Oh, you shouldn't have asked me. All right. So the Supreme Court grant its cert in a case called Jopi versus Alaska. And I love this case. Jopi is an Alaskan bush pilot meaning that he owns and operates his own private air services, his own plane flying people to

weird ass places across. Let's not forget our nation's largest state Alaska, right? Now, some of the counties in Alaska are dry counties, which means you cannot sell or transport alcohol to them, something something cured in something I don't really understand it, right? Long story short, one of his passengers, one of Jopi's passengers brought a six pack, like literally just a six pack of beer to one of these dry counties, right, on Jopi's plane.

A trial court ruled that Jopi could have or should have noticed the six pack. And that

“therefore he was in violation of the county's dry laws, so that Jopi could be fine, right?”

So the jury- Wait, we cast a question. Yeah. What did the passengers like walk on with a six pack or was it in his carryout? Apparently and don't ask me why I know this because I really went deep on this case. So apparently that it was like in the passengers carry on bad, but the carryon bag wasn't fully zipped, so you could have seen as you're getting on to the plane. If you looked at this bag, there was like a six pack kind of sticking out of the carryon package and look,

unlike the Supreme Court, I'm going to take the trial court's rule as fact, right? I'm going to do what you're supposed to do and say there was a whole trial here and a jury said he should know that there was a six pack on his plane. Okay, so you get a fine for that, right? So the fine is $1500. Yeah, it's a perfectly reasonable fine. It's a deterrent. Now you're checking all the bags before

“you load your bag. If you want to hold people accountable, $5000, all right? But part of the”

violation here includes taking away the man's plane. All right, so the punishment that the district court imposed was to give him a $1500 fine and to take away his plane. And to take away his plane.

boom. Jumpy appealed the ruling against him on an 8th Amendment rule in unusual punishment challenge

“and the Supreme Court actually granted cert on this case. So sometime next year, we're going to”

hear this case and man, I hope he win. Because like in my mind, Jopy is now like Han Solo, right? He is he is just out here. He is just doing his job. He is smuggling rap thars and six packs. And now you're going to take away his Millennium Falcon on some bullshit, right? But the other thing that's really interesting here is that Neil Gorsuch is an 8th Amendment hard ass. He doesn't think the 8th Amendment applies to like he will, he will string you up by your generals if under the 8th

Amendment. He isn't care. So how is a person like Gorsuch who also loves the West and loves freedom and loves liberty? Like how is Neil Gorsuch going to deal with a freedom loving American having his plane taken away by the government over a six pack of beer versus his epitope towards the 8th Amendment. I could not be more excited for this goddamn case. Wait wait. So are you optimistic about Jopy's chances because I'm not? No, no, I'm not optimistic. I'm not optimistic given

giving the makeup in this court. But I want to see him do it. I want to see these conservative Republican libertarian ass people take away in this man's plane because because they want to finally open the ability to kill people. I want them to have to to go through that thought process. I want to kill people so badly. I'm going to take away this man's plane. I want to see him do it. I cannot wait. Sorry. Jopy. That's good news, by the way. That was my- that was my necklace.

Okay, your happy place is a dispepted dystopia. But I do love that in your in your happy place. If Jopy is Han Solo, the court is job of the HUD. Yep. Yep. That's exactly what that seems right. That seems right. So my favorite things this week are one being able to eat leafy greens with

abandon to just like have a lettuce binge. That was a lettuce bender. It was amazing. I'm

thank you to the good people of the UK for providing me with that experience. I also love love love meeting stricties in the wild. So I ran into Jeff Canyon on the New York City Subway and he is not only a fan of public transportation. He is a fan of the podcast as well. So great to meet you, Jeff. And Leah texted me to let me know that she ran into Nathan on a delta flight and she reports that Nathan loves the pod and is absolutely delightful. And obviously the two things are related. So

Nathan glad you and Leah had that meet cute. My other fav from this week is I just finished Robin Lee's crash into me. This is a book and it was awesome. I literally again kind of put my life on hold so I could finish it. It is sexy, propulsive, just a great, great read. Gen X, you will remember Robin Lee because she is a former actress. She was in the 1990s movie. Have plenty. Did you see this?

“Ellie have plenty. Do you remember that? I probably saw it. It's kind of a black Gen X favorite.”

That's a deep cut for you. She's also the author of The Idea of You, which was made into I think a Netflix movie starring Anne Hathaway and the very delectable Nicolas Galzotine. She's just a great author and she's a Columbia Law grad and this book was great. So highly, highly recommend Robin Lee's crash into me. Also the title comes from a Dave Matthew song

and I do like the DMD. Nice. UVA always. All right. So that's all we have for you today.

Thanks so much to our guest host, Ellie Mistall, always a pleasure to have you on the pod. I think you're the first guest host who's ever vape continuously during the podcast. So thank you. I just want to remind our listeners again to be on the lookout in your feet for the first of our summer bonus episodes. This one about no your rights. It's going to be dropping on Thursday.

“Take a listen. It'll be really important, really informative. And that's all we have. We'll see you next”

week. Peace! Strix Yurtney is a cricket media production. Our show is produced by Melody Raule and Michael Galsmith. Our music is by Eddie Cooper. Our team includes Matt DeGroat, Ben Hethcote, Johanna Case, Kenny Moffitt, Adam Lippard and Eric Shoot. Our production staff is proudly