Aaaaaand here it is, the patent for the Skeleton Confessor! The men have tiny feet.

Ty to everyone who has told us about the ICE recruitment ads which have been running on the only general-interest US legal podcast co-hosted by a practicing deportation defense attorney. We trust that these ads are wasted on our listeners in a way that they would be wasted on few other audiences

lawyers who are appointed to represent people in federal criminal cases (these are private practice lawyers who handle public defender overflow - about 40% of all cases) haven't been paid since july. we barely have a government right now.

Can't wait for our annual Halloween episode? Check out last year's, in which Matt and Thomas discussed the true legal horror story that was the Salem Witch Trials and what happens when a society lets paranoia drive policy podcasts.apple.com/pe/podcast/b...

COMING THIS HALLOWEEN: take a break from the daily horrors of American law and enter the COURTHOUSE OF HORROR, our cabinet of macabre legal curiosities including SO I TRADEMARKED AN AXE MURDERER ATTACK OF THE TORTIOUS CLOWNS CANDYMAN 5: SUMMARY JUDGMENT And more!

What is the current state of US immigration law? Where can we still find hope? The American Immigration Council's Aaron @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social watches these issues like no one else, & joins Matt for a unique conversation between policy & practice podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...

"Nine months into the 2nd Trump administration the Opening Arguments podcast* introduced a new segment called 'Can They REALLY Do That?" to which the answer was invariably: 'they ARE.'" *early 21st century audio programming favored by the liberal intelligentsia podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...

This is & so many other things I have been able to do in the past 18 months are exactly what I wanted OA to be when I joined, and I can't thank @seriouspod.bsky.social and @seriouslydiaonly.bsky.social enough for the vision and values which make this show something special. Pls support indie media!

There are shows which break down bad movies, shows which break down classic SCOTUS cases, shows which break down terrible rightwing content, & shows which cover the rise of American fascism without breaking down. But just one which does all of that, and you can listen ad-free here Patreon.com/law

COMING SOON: excited to announce that we have just scheduled interviews with two different incarcerated authors in the coming months about each of their outstanding books

SCOOP: Suzy Weiss — Bari Weiss's sister & The Free Press co-founder — is set to appear on CBS airwaves tomorrow, to talk about her recent piece on lab-grown diamonds. Would be the second Free Press writer to appear on CBS this week, despite CBS staff concerns the outlet doesn't meet CBS standards.

This was a fun episode, but the contempt that you will hear from me for everyone involved in this wanton butchering of *everything* that made the source material good is very real. This appalling adaptation makes a strong case for opening a special division of the Hague for crimes against literature

Law'd Awful Movies is back in classic form! Coming soon: is the USA network's loose serialization of a 30-year-old John Grisham legal thriller the densest adaptation in Hollywood history? Thomas, Lydia, and Matt make the case

Law'd Awful Movies is back in classic form! Coming soon: is the USA network's loose serialization of a 30-year-old John Gresham legal thriller the densest adaptation in Hollywood history? Thomas, Lydia, and Matt make the case

This week on Vapid Response Wednesday: Caitlin Flanagan pretends that Bari Weiss is a normal journalist, Jonathan Turley pretends that the left is in denial about "Antifa" (a thing which he has already admitted isn't real), Candace Owens pretends about just about everything youtu.be/nbjLlwljCck?...

Good news, Bluesky: we had @jaketapper.bsky.social on to answer for his deeply divisive reporting on the mysterious drama and questions of competency which have surrounded a famous American family beset by tragedy. (We also have a few questions about that Biden book.) youtu.be/SK27sVty29Q?...

Listen to Opening Arguments, the legal podcast that doesn't need 36 minutes to tell you that "killing Venezuelans in boats" is extremely fucking illegal

Coming soon to OA: THE CASE AGAINST "THE CASE AGAINST ADNAN SYED" are the "Serial" liars behind this HBO series really so desperate that they are trying to pin the murder of Hae Min Lee on a Black man who was already cleared as a suspect? Did this show get *anything* about this case right?

Minor correction: On today's show Matt stated that the 1933 Reichstag Fire was not the act of a lone arsonist & that the Nazis assisted. This is not a fully established historical fact, although many historians have made the case for it. Sources in the next post

This Week's Onion Magazine:

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As anyone who has been online in the past week already knows the death of Charlie Kirk generated enough to fuel several years of Vapid Response Wednesdays, but we got it down to 2 hrs. Part I: the man in his own words, & the (very bad) case for Kirk as the "American Socrates"

"complete gibberish, nonsense, and balderdash" --Charlie Kirk on the idea that climate change is an existential threat to humanity (2024) "not incredibly important" --Charlie Kirk on global warming (August 2025) of course Trump's EPA loves him

OA is now three shows in one! STILL GOOD LAW MONDAYS: Matt & Jenessa break down classic Warren Court-era SCOTUS cases VAPID RESPONSE WEDNESDAY: Matt & our producers give their unedited review of the worst opeds we can find RAPID RESPONSE FRIDAY: Matt & Jenessa explain law in the news (classic OA)

Next week in our Still Good Law series; Katz v US (1967), the Warren Court's landmark holding that the Fourth Amendment is for people, not places. Working title: KATZ RULES EVERYTHING AROUND ME

Another friendly reminder that the sister show to @openargs.bsky.social, Gavel Gavel, has been going DEEP on the lawsuit(s) between Blake Lively & Justin Baldoni, and the related cases that most people overlook. BONUS! Coverage of a SH case from people who haven't been credibly accused of SH! 🙃

If Vapid Response Wednesday didn't already exist we would have had to create it just to process the harvest of truly deranged takes the past few days has brought us

Just FYI Thomas is still producing the show and joining live with Matt and Lydia for Vapid Response Wednesdays (be sure to catch one if you haven't yet!), but Matt and Jenessa Seymour are holding it down for a bit with Monday deep dives and Rapid Response Fridays to give him a much-needed break

By loud and popular patron demand we finally did a My Cousin Vinny episode! The whole thing is up now on Patreon, and one big spicy meatball of an excerpt is available anywhere else you get podcasts Patreon.com/law

Please support independent media, where shows like ours still have the freedom to remind you that Charlie Kirk made his name on hate and division without anyone getting fired

In a totally disingenuous NYT oped we covered on OA's Vapid Response Weds last month, Harvard law prof Adrian Vermeule pretended (inter alia) as if the Wilcox order was some kind of clear and binding precedent & blamed lower courts for not receiving it as "notice"--all w/o mentioning Humphrey's

90 yrs ago SCOTUS told FDR directly that he couldn't fire an FTC commissioner over policy disagreements--only for cause. This court has now for at least the 3rd time this year indicated *on the shadow docket w/out explanation* that it no longer considers Humphrey's Executor to be good law

I have this thing about end credits songs which tell you about the movie you just watched. I'll reveal on our upcoming special episode on legal comedy GOAT "My Cousin Vinny" what my favorite is--what's yours? (Travis Tritt's MCV "Bible Belt" rewrite for reference) www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7QB...

Just because everything else is terrible, we're sparing ourselves a Law'd Awful Movie for a second straight month and following the very good "Juror #2" with the absolute legal comedy GOAT "My Cousin Vinny"

If you are one of these former DOJ lawyers (or you can connect us with one), we want to talk to you! Drop a note to [email protected]

as the DHS hiring surge gets going there's really only one realistic way that we can pull together to stop what's coming with ICE. But the good news is that (A) it's hardly any effort, and (B) you're probably already doing it here's THE BIG FREEZE in 40 shareable seconds

NOW ON YOUTUBE & EVERYWHERE YOU GET PODCASTS! Is this the most corrupt thing the DOJ has ever done in public? How many helicopters could someone could forget purchasing? OA's got the most extensive breakdown of DOJ's bizarre hang w/Epstein accomplice #GhislaineMaxwell yet youtu.be/vqMXN-IgFoU?...

Some title proposals for this week's multi-part episode on the most corrupt thing DOJ has ever done in public in the style of Robert Maxwell's Daily Mail: MAXWELL'S SILVER YAMMER ALL'S WELL THAT MAXWELL MS. MAXWELL BEGS YOUR PARDON A PROFFER TRUMP CAN'T REFUSE INSANE IN THE GHISLAINE

Did the founding fathers want a king? Here's what a group of originalist legal scholars had to say.

My working title for this episode which we'll be recording tonight with resident OA NYC defense expert @lizskeen.bsky.social is MAXWELL'S SILVER YAMMER which is somehow not already an actual NY Post headline about this unspeakably bizarre moment in DOJ history

Today’s @openargs.bsky.social redistricting in TX, why NY probably won’t join that fight, Trump’s on his bs again about absentee ballots, changes to immigration standards, & a trademarks case Check it out on Apple: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/o... Or Overcast (not a sponsor, just my fav player):

OA EXCLUSIVE: @seriouspod.bsky.social has cleaned up and stitched together the best version of the audio of Ghislaine Maxwell's bizarre DOJ sitdown available to the public, just fyi for anyone who enjoys their lies in the highest possible fidelity youtu.be/fghaerQY6oA?...

On this Friday's OA: The Trump administration has decided that it is now the arbiter of "good moral character" (loll) and which speech, associations, and activities should be considered "anti-American" as a matter of law

OA Book Club, is that anything?

Whiny opeds from insecure white guys complaining about how unqualified and unprofessional Ketanji Brown Jackson is have become a whole-ass genre recently! Join us next week on Vapid Response Wednesday for a tour of some especially delicate psyches thefederalist.com/2025/08/20/k...

Unlike the total squares at THE CITY we are pleased to announce that our palms are open to receiving the greasiest cash money the Eric Adams campaign can offer. We will never relent in our coverage of America‘s weirdest mayor, but we will take the money www.thecity.nyc/2025/08/20/w...

This week on Vapid Response Wednesday: The Boston Globe is wicked frickin' stupid, kehd! We review two consecutive opeds from Matt's hometown paper on why DC needs a police state and Trump needs a Nobel Peace Prize youtu.be/P8FymX_92L4?...

Really appreciating Jenessa’s work on recent episodes. You’re assembling a great team over there!

I was kind of hoping when we started this series that takes bad enough to justify a response from a general-interest legal podcast with an international audience would actually be some work to find every week, but no

Last week the Globe gave space to two of the stupidest op-eds I've ever read* and I have just turned my brain to applesauce ripping them apart with @seriouspod.bsky.social and @seriouslydiaonly.bsky.social in this week's Vapid Response (coming this Weds on @openargs.bsky.social)