PODCAST · news
Opening Arguments
by Opening Arguments Media LLC
Opening Arguments is a law show that helps you make sense of the news! Comedian Thomas Smith brings on legal analysts to help you understand not only current events, but also deeper legal concepts and areas!The typical schedule will be M-W-F with Monday being a deep-dive, Wednesday being Thomas Takes the Bar Exam and patron shoutouts, and Friday being a rapid response to legal issues in the news!
Episodes
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What the Media Are Getting Wrong About the Ilhan Omar Raid
VR47 - Federal agents raided Ilhan Omar's house this week, possibly over a decades-old conspiracy theory. Matt Explains what the media are getting wrong about the incident. Along the way we hear from Russian foreign correspondent Benny Johnson and his "deep research." Check out the OA Linktree…
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This Guy Beat Qualified Immunity Twice, in Two Different Circuits
OA1304 - Qualified immunity does not strike again! In a case out of the 10th circuit, with the same plaintiff from last week's Rosales v. Lewis/Terrell, the court once again refuses qualified immunity to an officer who was wildly out of line. Learn about immunity for municipalities and standing...
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Florida Judge Says Congress Can't Make Noncitizen Voting a Federal Crime
OA1303 - Rapid Response Friday kicks off with two major under-the-radar stories that you may not hear anywhere else about major federal decisions out of Florida and Massachusetts which may remove two important tools from Trump's fascist toolbox. We also explain how the subject of Matt's exclusive...
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Samuel Alito's Victory Lap and Douglas Murray's Deportation Jetpack Fantasy
VR46 - This week on Vapid Response Wednesday: A Bari Weiss double feature! We kick off with an amuse douche from CBS News's chill hang with a cool guy from Trenton. Samuel Alito grew up with a dream: doing incalculable damage to women's healthcare by destroying the Constitutional abortion rights...
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The 5th Circuit Denied a Cop Qualified Immunity, So We Might Be in the Afterlife
OA1302 - Qualified immunity can be overcome! In the fifth circuit?! Come hear the good news, and learn some fourth amendment traffic stop rules along the way. CHECK YOUR VOTER REGISTRATION. Deadlines for your state can be found here. Cases discussed: CHECK YOUR VOTER REGISTRATION. Deadlines for...
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DOJ Wants Every Federal Judge in Minnesota Recused (Good Luck With That)
OA1301 - IT'S FASCISM RESPONSE FRIDAY, and it's a lot. DOJ just filed a complaint trying to get every single active federal judge in Minnesota booted off immigration cases, and the "evidence" is a judge telling the New York Times the truth. The Supreme Court just let deportations to countries...
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John Yoo Wrote the Torture Memos and Never Paid for It. At All.
VR45 - Today on Vapid Response: 25 years after the terror attacks of September 11, 2001, we look back on the Forrest Gump of monstrously bad legal takes: former DOJ lawyer and current UC Berkeley law professor (!) John Yoo. We go back to the primary sources to show how the Office of Legal Counsel...
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From Toga Guy to John Hinckley: A History of Pleading Insanity
OA1300 - The “insanity defense” might sound like a relic of a time when mental illness was viewed through the lens of demons and witches, and it turns out it is… but also maybe it’s kind of woke? Jenessa walks us through the history of Old English and Early American iterations of the defense,...
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He Went to Prison for Bribing Susan Collins. She's... Totally Fine Somehow?
OA1299 - This week on Rapid Response Friday: what crimes might Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) have been complicit in, and why won't she ever be prosecuted for any of them? We go deeper into the law behind the facts exposed in ProPublica's outstanding investigation into her SuperPAC's coordination…
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The Real Reason Coyote v. Acme Was Buried (It's So Much Worse Than a Tax Write-Off)
Coyote vs. Acme is such a fun movie. Thomas and Lydia saw it with the kids, Matt tried to borrow some kids to see it with, and has some fun legal observations for us. BUT! Before that, it's a special series premiere of ACCOUNTING'ed AWFUL MOVIES! Because there is some real financial shenanigans...
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The USPS Ballot Scheme Was Even Worse Than You Thought
OA1298 - Voting rights attorney Jenessa is back with a sprawling tour of election chaos, starting with the Supreme Court's unsigned order in USPS v. California: nobody knows the vote count, and the real fight on the merits waits for 2028. Then: the USPS whistleblower letter reveals a system built...
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Kash Patel Screws the Pooch
OA1297 - This week on Rapid Response Friday: SCOTUS once again confirms the color of the sky, the latest failures in DOJ’s attempts to prosecute Trump’s political opponents, why the most important immigration agency you’ve never heard of has decided as a matter of law that Trump fixed Venezuela…
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Manosphere's Favorite Juror Had Active Restraining Order During Clancy Trial
VR44 - This week on Vapid Response: we survey some of MAGA’s worst takes on the recent mistrial of Lindsay Clancy, all the way from “women are too woke and emotional to be on juries," to “the man who acted out of emotion to ignore the law is the true hero.” Also: the manosphere’s casual…
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A Blizzard of Lies - Dave Wedge on the Karen Read Trial
OA1296 - Dave Wedge is a veteran Boston reporter and New York Times bestselling author who covered (among many other things) hundreds of murder trials as a reporter for the Boston Herald and other local outlets. Dave joins OA to discuss his new book Blizzard of Lies, the definitive account of the...
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The 5th Circuit Says You Have No Right to Clean Water
OA1295 - Today on Rapid Response Friday: your questions about the Lindsay Clancy mistrial, actual justice for the Tate brothers, Trump’s mystery meat, and the Fifth Circuit’s extremely normal holding that there is no cognizable Constitutional right to clean water and/or honest government.…
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Milo Yiannopoulos Lied About His Immigration Status (And We Can Prove It)
VR43 - Today on this special edition of Vapid Response: ICE boot enthusiast Milo Yiannopolous is not a particularly interesting person, but his recent unexpected removal to the UK makes for quite a teaching moment. Matt brings 20 years of instincts and experience as a deportation defense attorney...
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The First Openly Autistic Lawyer in Florida on What Law Firms Get Wrong
OA1294 - Haley Moss was the first openly autistic woman to practice law in Florida, and she is now an advocate for disability, autism, and neurodiversity in the workplace. She joins Matt and Thomas to discuss what law firm hiring managers need to know about autistic lawyers, why people in a...
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Most Lindsay Clancy Coverage Has the Law All Wrong
OA1293 - In this extra-special Rapid Response Friday, Thomas visits Boston to record live in Matt’s office and talk out two very different legal stories in the news that the media aren’t quite getting right this week. THE TRIAL OF LINDSAY CLANCY: Why were the defense and the prosecution both...
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ICE Went Undercover To Expose a Vast Antifa "Conspiracy"
Hey folks, no VR this week because Lydia and I are traveling. (We're in Boston, going to record RRF live together with Matt!) But folks NEED to hear this episode of Gavel Gavel we did. It's so absurd. Gavel Gavel Episode 83: Thomas, Lydia, and Matt dig into a newly released federal indictment out...
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Supreme Court Says Why Prevent Trump Violating the Constitution Before It Even Happens?
OA1292 - Jenessa takes us through the Supreme Court's 6-3 shadow docket ruling in Trump v. California, which lifted a preliminary injunction blocking Trump's executive order directing the U.S. Postal Service to gatekeep mail-in ballot delivery before the midterms. Is this a procedural…
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Meta Must Pay, Bannon's Judge Pushes Back, and a Dolly Parton Shoutout from the Bench
OA1291 - This week on Rapid Response Friday: the single biggest consumer protection settlement ever reached with any U.S. company puts new guardrails on younger social media users, a federal judge refuses to let Steve Bannon off the hook just because DOJ asked him to, an under-the-radar example…
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Stephen Miller's America First Legal Has a YouTube Show (and it sucks real bad)
VR42 - Today on Vapid Response Wednesday: Lydia, Thomas, and Matt check in on the official podcast of Stephen Miller's America First Legal, and Matt brings the receipts to show just how bad its recurring "Bad Legal Takes" feature truly is. How is an organization with this much dark money behind…
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A Mayor Declared a State of Emergency to Save Flock Cameras
OA1290 - Jenessa returns with a surveillance grab bag: a New York mayor declares a bizarre "emergency" to keep her city's Flock cameras running after the city council said no, and a state lawsuit arguing license plate readers are flatly unconstitutional, no federal court needed. Plus a federal…
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Trump Messed With the Mouse. Now He Gets the Ears.
OA1289 - Is Disney/ABC’s bold new legal action against the Trump administration one of the most important First Amendment challenges of our lifetimes, or just another Mickey Mouse operation? Matt explains. Also an explainer on the legally questionable end of Temporary Protected Status for El...
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Baseball Crank Asks "What Have Refugees Done for Me Lately"
VR41 - What does a “moderate conservative” sound like in August 2026? Thomas and Matt take a closer look at two very different self-proclaimed “moderates” representing the best and brightest in MAGA apologism. We begin with some low points from Tim Pool’s recent appearance on the gimmicky...
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Police Sued for Blatant Misuse of Facial Recognition. It's NUTS.
OA1288 - What happens when a hotheaded cop who isn’t interested in putting in much effort to solve a crime meets up with another cop who thinks computers are infallible? A man with no criminal record who lives 300 miles from the crime scene and has no conceivable connection to the crime gets...
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The Tates Seek Release, Super-Duper Promise They Won't Flee
OA1287 - Today on Rapid Response Friday: Todd “Two Taints” Blanche flexes his new freedom as two Tates blanch at the loss of theirs, and a lawsuit over a cinematic heist starring Nicolas Cage. Applicability of Executive Privilege to Presidential Communications with Private Advisers, Office of…
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Ross Douthat Leaves NYT for Bari Weiss. Here Were Some of His Worst Columns.
VR40 - This Vapid Response Wednesday, we note the end of Ross Douthat’s 17-year run as the resident New York Times conservative columnist with a drive-by review of some of his most willfully clueless work--and a closer look at his recent farewell message in which he provides a fitting capstone to…
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Melissa Murray Gives the Constitution Some Strict Scrutiny
OA1286 - NYU Law professor and Strict Scrutiny co-host Melissa Murray joins to discuss (among many other things) her new book, Sonia Sotomayor’s dance moves, and why actually reading the Constitution matters now more than ever. Professor Murray’s book The U.S. Constitution: A Comprehensive and...
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Cornyn and Tillis Negotiate Meaningless Concession from Blanche
OA1285 - This week on Rapid Response Friday: regulators, mount up! We take a closer look at the actual documents provided to the Senate Judiciary Committee by Attorney General nominee Todd Blanche which convinced John Cornyn and Thom Tillis to change their votes, how deregulation caused a…
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Did Mamdani Wipe Little Italy Off the Map?
VR39 - Vapid Response Wednesday returns with a tasteful pairing of stories about alleged anti-Italian discrimination that go together like chianti and red sauce. Today's specials include: Aperitivo: a tasteless morsel from the least deserving recipient in the history of the Mark Twain Prize for...
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How a Bank Robbery Became a Fourth Amendment Landmark
OA1284 - Can a modern court implement modern solutions? It really depends on your perspective. Despite some baffling misconceptions about how… anything works, the Justices seem to be doing a pretty good job of ultimately deciding that yes, police do in fact need a warrant to deeply invade your...
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The Most Brazen and Corrupt Heist in American History (GG Crossover!)
Apologies for being a little late on this one! Donald Trump sued the IRS, an agency he currently runs, for leaking his own tax returns, and asked for a cool $10 billion. Thomas, Lydia, and Matt dig through the actual complaint and a judge's increasingly suspicious rulings, all timed suspiciously...
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LAM1015: Outlaw
LAM1015 - Jimmy Smits stars as a gambling, sports-shooting Supreme Court Justice with a law clerk paid to fend off his advances, in NBC's forgotten 2010 flop Outlaw. Thomas, Matt, and Lydia can barely get through a single scene without stopping to ask what this show thinks a Justice actually…
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How SCOTUS Paved the Way for Flock Cameras
OA1282 - Is anything private any more? Depends which Supreme Court Justice you ask. To kick off a series of episodes around data privacy and the law, first Jenessa walks us through a string of Supreme Court cases addressing 4th Amendment rights and technology. In part 1, we cover landmark cases...
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Todd Blanche Can Also Lie and Dodge Questions in Writing Too!
OA1281 - As we wait on the final vote tally for Attorney General nominee Todd Blanche, we take a look at written responses which he recently provided into the record to answer a wide range of Senate questions the day after his hearing concluded. We also take a closer look at how the 5th Circuit…
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Law on the Spectrum, with Peter O'Neil
OA1280 - Peter O’Neil was preparing for retirement after decades of practicing law when he learned that he was autistic at the age of 65. This realization inspired his memoir My So-Called Disorder: Autism, Exploding Trucks, and the Big Daddy of Rock and Roll, in which he looks back at his life…
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What Happened to You, Todd Blanche?
OA1279 - This week on Rapid Response Friday: A federal judge rips up the corrupt “settlement” Trump reached with his own IRS at the unprecedented request of a group of 35 former federal judges just in time time for aspiring Attorney General Todd Blanche’s confirmation hearing, humanizing the…
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Nancy Mace Thinks Anyone With a Foreign Name Is Disloyal
VR38 - This week in Vapid Response Thomas, Lydia, and Matt review some truly awful takes from a MAGA economist on the true cause of low crime rates, Rep. Nancy Mace on her extremely real and not-at-all-racist concerns about the dangers of judges with dual citizenship, and a then-20-year-old…
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The MAGA Justices Get Torched by... Amy Coney Barrett?!
OA1278 - On its face, the decision in Watson is a pretty narrow ruling. Some states allow ballots postmarked on or before election day, but arriving after election day, to be counted. The court decided they can continue to do so. But at stake was so much more. Bubbling under the surface, election...
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It's Not Just Prairieland and Broadview. More Lives Are Being Ruined by Unjust Prosecutions.
OA1277 - We continue our coverage of the Trump administration’s criminalization of dissent with a brief update on the sentencing of the last remaining Prairieland defendant and a closer look at similar federal prosecutions of ICE protesters in Minneapolis, Spokane, and a number of other...
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Ben Shapiro is having AI write his columns, and apparently not even the good models
VR37 - Ben Shapiro and Matt Walsh both wrote furious, error-riddled columns attacking the Supreme Court's birthright citizenship ruling in Trump v. Barbara. And so Thomas, attorney Matt Cameron, and producer Lydia ran the columns through an AI detector and their BS detectors to see just how fake...
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Trump Is Once Again Trying to Change the Law With Memos
OA1276 - Who could have predicted this? Us! The Trump administration has made their complete disdain for people with disabilities clear since day one. We’ve called it out before, and the natural progression of those efforts came to a head mid-June when they announced their intention to turn over...
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Matt's Complete Supreme Court Term Recap
OA1275 - As June ends and another Supreme Court Season wraps, it is time to look back and survey the damage: significant blows to voting and trans rights, harder times for immigrants throughout the system, and a vast expansion of executive powers. But we also go beyond the headlines to see what…
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The New Cover on Alito's TPS Reports Is for Racism
VR36 - In Mullin v Doe, Samuel Alito just proudly stripped Temporary Protected Status from more than one million people who were lawfully living and working in the US as of the time of the decision--and all on the shadow docket, without even waiting for the full merits of the case to be heard. We...
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Worst Dude Hires Even Worse Lawyer to Legally Harass Woman Who Posted About Him
OA1274 - Can you sue if someone posts something nasty about you online? I mean maybe, but not like this. In today’s episode, Lydia introduces us to the wild world of “Are We Dating the Same Guy?” and Jenessa walks us through a lawsuit that trips over its own feet while trying to take them down....
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Prairieland - 30 Years for Moving Magazines. These Are Real Human Lives, Ruined.
OA1273 - On June 23, 2026, eight people were sentenced in DOJ’s first so-called “Antifa” terrorism prosecution by federal judge Reed O’Connor in the Northern District of Texas to a combined 450 years in federal prison for their participation in a protest held at the Prarieland ICE detention...
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Why Is Alito Like This? with Peter Canellos
OA1272 - We are excited to welcome veteran journalist Peter Canellos to discuss his new book Revenge for the Sixties: Sam Alito and the Triumph of the Conservative Legal Movement. In this first-ever biography of Samuel Alito, Canellos draws from extensive interviews and years of research to…
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He's Literally the Worst Dealmaker Ever. EVER.
OA1271 - The single stupidest war of choice the U.S. has ever gotten itself into may finally be coming to an end--or at least the concept of a plan for an end? We go beyond the headlines to see what is actually in this thing, and take on some of the most interesting legal questions raised here.…
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The National Review’s Defense of Todd Blanche Is So Bad It's Confusing
VR35 - In this episode released on the 54th anniversary of the Watergate break-in, the Vapid Response team raids the archives of the New York Times to retrieve one of the single worst (and worst-timed!) contemporary takes on the scandal which would end Richard Nixon’s Presidency. We then return…
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
Opening Arguments is a law show that helps you make sense of the news! Comedian Thomas Smith brings on legal analysts to help you understand not only current events, but also deeper legal concepts and areas!The typical schedule will be M-W-F with Monday being a deep-dive, Wednesday being Thomas Takes the Bar Exam and patron shoutouts, and Friday being a rapid response to legal issues in the news!
HOSTED BY
Opening Arguments Media LLC
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Opening Arguments have?
Opening Arguments currently has 1000 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Opening Arguments about?
Opening Arguments is a law show that helps you make sense of the news! Comedian Thomas Smith brings on legal analysts to help you understand not only current events, but also deeper legal concepts and areas!The typical schedule will be M-W-F with Monday being a deep-dive, Wednesday being Thomas...
How often does Opening Arguments release new episodes?
Opening Arguments releases new episodes frequently with a large back catalog of 1000 episodes. Check the episode list for recent publication dates.
Where can I listen to Opening Arguments?
You can listen to Opening Arguments on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Opening Arguments?
Opening Arguments is created and hosted by Opening Arguments Media LLC.
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