Law and Chaos cover art

Law and Chaos

Law and Chaos

Written by: Liz Dye
Listen for free

About this listen

 Ignorance of the law is no excuse! That's true for a traffic stop, and it's true if you want to participate in whatever's left of American democracy. If the events since the 2016 election taught us anything, it's that tuning out is not an option. Legal journalists Liz Dye and Andrew Torrez break down the week's most important courtroom stories, so you can keep on top of this crazy news cycle. Whether it's Texas giving two middle fingers to the Supreme Court, or Donald Trump in all the courts at once, we've got you covered.© 2024 Political Science Politics & Government
Episodes
  • Ep 228 — Gerrymanders For Me But Not For Thee

    Ep 228 — Gerrymanders For Me But Not For Thee
    May 12 2026
    As Trump rants at “Neil and Amy” for betraying him in the IEEPA tariffs case, the next tariff battle is already taking shape.Reuters legal reporters analyzed court stats in Minnesota and proved that federal prosecutions cratered during the immigration surge. So much for “cleaning up” crime.Doofus of the Day: Pete Hegseth, who is vowing to put Senator Mark Kelly in jail … again.Judge Melissa Dubose referred the head of the Civil Division at the US Attorney’s Office for Rhode Island for possible sanctions due to lack of candor. Chief Judge John McConnell appointed a special counsel to review.Justice Alito extended the stay in the mifepristone case until Thursday.MAIN SHOW:The Virginia Supreme Court struck down the Democratic gerrymander on a technicality. Now the state’s legislators have filed a longshot emergency application for stay at the Supreme Court.And FCC Chair Brendan Carr is lying about the equal time rule as an excuse to go after the ladies at The View. Oregon v. Trump [Tariffs]https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/72368522/the-state-of-oregon-v-trumpTrump vowed to fight crime in Minneapolis. Prosecutions plungedhttps://www.reuters.com/world/americas/how-trumps-minneapolis-immigration-blitz-hobbled-federal-crime-fighting-2026-05-07/Gomez v. Nessinger [Rhode Island Attorney Sanctions]https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/73235898/gomez-v-nessinger/Mifepristone SCOTUS Dockethttps://www.supremecourt.gov/search.aspx?filename=/docket/docketfiles/html/public/25a1208.htmlScott v. McDougle (Virginia Supreme Court)https://www.vacourts.gov/static/opinions/opnscvwp/1260127.pdfScott v. McDougle [US Supreme Court petition for stay]https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/25/25A1240/408563/20260511151941216_25A%20Application%20for%20Stay.pdfFCC Petition by KTRK-TV (The View)https://www.fcc.gov/ecfs/document/10507899614175/1FCC Chair Brandon Carr letter (DA 26-68)https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DA-26-68A1.pdfShow Links:https://www.lawandchaospod.com/BlueSky: @LawAndChaosPodThreads: @LawAndChaosPodTwitter: @LawAndChaosPodSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
    Show More Show Less
    1 hr and 5 mins
  • Ep 227 — Presumption of Irregularity

    Ep 227 — Presumption of Irregularity
    May 8 2026
    Kash Patel is not as think as you drunk he is … again. And if you tell someone about it, he’ll strap you to a polygraph.The DC Circuit seems likely to side with Senator Mark Kelly in his lawsuit against Pete Hegseth for trying to steal his pension.The DOJ subpoenaed a hospital in Rhode Island for medical records of kids receiving gender affirming care. While the parties were negotiating, the DOJ filed a petition to enforce in Texas, which their hand-picked Judge Reed O’Connor instantly granted. Now the hospital has appealed to the Fifth Circuit (ughhh) and the Rhode Island Child Advocate has filed a motion to quash in the District of Rhode Island.Our Doofus of the Day is Chief Justice John Roberts. It won’t always be someone on the Supreme Court, but when you stand up in front of hundreds of lawyers to whine about how unfair it is that people think your obviously political Supreme Court is political, how could we resist?MAIN SHOW:The 11th Circuit has joined two other circuit courts of appeal in ruling that the Trump administration cannot use the mandatory detention provisions of the Immigration and Naturalization Act to hold any immigrant, anywhere in the US, for any length of time and with no opportunity for a bond hearing.The DOJ is so desperate to hire lawyers that they’re offering signing bonuses and tipping current employees with “retention incentive allowances” to keep them from fleeing. Turns out, competent lawyers don’t like harassing trans kids for sport and indicting Democratic politicians on spurious grounds.Judge Coleen McMahon ruled that DOGE illegally dismantled the National Endowment for the Humanities when the bros fed the grantee database into ChatGPT with an instruction to find grants were “DEI.”The Southern Poverty Law Center says the government’s public lies about the case — lookin’ at you, Todd Blanche — are so egregious that the court should hand over the grand jury transcript.Judges in Rhode Island and Texas are dueling over the DOJ’s subpoena for the medical record for transgender minors.READING LIST:How Professional Wrestling Prepared Linda McMahon for Trump’s CabinetKash Patel’s Personalized Bourbon Stashhttps://www.theatlantic.com/politics/2026/05/kash-patel-fbi-bourbon/687066/Kash Patel ordered polygraphs of more than two dozen members of his team, sources tell MS NOWhttps://www.ms.now/news/kash-patel-ordered-polygraphs-of-more-than-two-dozen-members-of-his-team-sources-tell-ms-nowDOJ Offers Lawyers $25,000 Signing Bonuses as Hiring Lagshttps://news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/doj-offers-lawyers-25-000-signing-bonuses-as-recruitment-lagsUS. SPLChttps://www.courtlistener.com/docket/73223865/united-states-v-southern-poverty-law-center-incIn Re: Administrative Subpoena 25-1431-032 [Texas action]https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/73276712/in-re-administrative-subpoena-25-1431-032/In Re: Motion to Quash Administrative Subpoena to Rhode Island Hospital [Rhode Island action]https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/73290254/in-re-motion-to-quash-administrative-subpoena-to-rhode-island-hospital/“Chief Justice John Roberts says American public wrongly views the justices as ‘political actors’” [NBC News]https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/supreme-court/chief-justice-john-roberts-says-justices-are-not-political-actors-rcna343958Hernandez Alvarez v. Warden (11th Cir. immigration) [docket via CourtListener]https://storage.courtlistener.com/pdf/2026/05/06/ismael_perez_v._assistant_field_office_director_krome_north_service.pdfAmerican Council of Learned Societies v. McDonaldhttps://www.courtlistener.com/docket/70035052/american-council-of-learned-societies-v-mcdonald/How Professional Wrestling Prepared Linda McMahon for Trump’s Cabinethttps://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2026/04/27/linda-mcmahon-profileShow Links:https://www.lawandchaospod.com/BlueSky: @LawAndChaosPodThreads: @LawAndChaosPodTwitter: @LawAndChaosPodSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
    Show More Show Less
    1 hr and 5 mins
  • Ep 226 — SCOTUS and Louisiana Go Mask Off

    Ep 226 — SCOTUS and Louisiana Go Mask Off
    May 5 2026
    DOCKET ALERTS: Sadly, recurring L&C segment “Justin Baldoni Teaches CivPro” is canceled. He and Blake Lively settled their civil suit today. Now we’ll just have to rely on Trump and his minions to show us how law does not work.The DOJ subpoenaed a Rhode Island hospital for patient records on gender affirming care. When the hospital failed to respond (oh no!), the DOJ moved to enforce the subpoena … in Texas, before a hand-picked conservative jurist. Judge Reed O’Connor granted the motion, and now the hospital is seeking to block the demand in a Rhode Island federal court.Trump says the War Powers Resolution doesn’t count because of the ceasefire. He’s full of s***.Law and Chaos’s first inaugural Doofus of the Day is Justice Neil Gorsuch, who went on Fox News to hawk his book and tell us all about the Christian Founding Fathers.MAIN SHOW:On Friday the Fifth Circuit purported to ban the abortion drug mifepristone nationwide based on a letter from HHS Secretary Robert “Bear Carcass” Kennedy implying that the dispensing protocol had been arbitrarily decided. On Monday, the Supreme Court stayed that order temporarily. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and Alina Habba — what even is her job these days??? — both appeared on TV and undermined the Comey seashells case. Democratic candidate Lindsay Garcia and a local voter have sued Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry over his executive order that suspends that state’s primary elections – but only for the US House of Representatives races.And for subscribers: US Attorney for DC Jeanine Pirro is ready to pick up the slack for Justin Baldoni. Today she’ll teach us how Munsingwear vacatur doesn’t work. In Re: Administrative Subpoena 25-1431-032 [Texas action]https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/73276712/in-re-administrative-subpoena-25-1431-032/In Re: Motion to Quash Administrative Subpoena to Rhode Island Hospital [Rhode Island action]https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/73290254/in-re-motion-to-quash-administrative-subpoena-to-rhode-island-hospital/US v. Russottohttps://www.courtlistener.com/docket/70649950/united-states-v-russotto/Collins v. Landry (Louisiana elections lawsuit) [Docket via CourtListener]https://gov.louisiana.gov/assets/2026-Executive-Orders/JML-Exective-Order-26-038.pdfExecutive Order 26-038 (order suspending elections)https://gov.louisiana.gov/assets/2026-Executive-Orders/JML-Exective-Order-26-038.pdfLouisiana v. FDA (5th Cir) [docket via CourtListener]https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/73207799/state-of-louisiana-v-fda/Louisiana v. FDA (W.D. La. trial court) [docket via CourtListener]https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.lawd.213952/Sec. Kennedy Letter re: Mifepristonehttps://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.lawd.213952/gov.uscourts.lawd.213952.1.110.pdfSupreme Court stay orderhttps://www.supremecourt.gov/orders/courtorders/050426zr_l5gm.pdfIn re grand jury subpoenas [Federal Reserve]https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/72490330/in-re-grand-jury-subpoenas/Show Links:https://www.lawandchaospod.com/BlueSky: @LawAndChaosPodThreads: @LawAndChaosPodTwitter: @LawAndChaosPodSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
    Show More Show Less
    57 mins
adbl_web_anon_alc_button_suppression_c
No reviews yet