OA525: Insurrectionist Mounts Sovereign Citizen Legal Defense, Hilarity Ensues

Last week's answers, this week's questions! If you'd like to support the show (and lose the ads!), please pledge at patreon.com/law!

April 15th marks two significant events in US history: the 11th anniversary of Tamerlan and Dzhokar Tsarnaev's bombing of the Boston Marathon, and the first day of jury selection in  the first criminal trial of a former US President. These two very different situations both share one important legal question: how do you select a jury from a city full of people who not only know a defendant by name but have good reasons to despise them? Boston residents Matt and Casey share their own memories of the day that changed their city forever before breaking down the trial of surviving bomber Dzhokar Tsarnaev and ensuing appeals of his death sentence to the 1st Circuit and Supreme Court. We examine why the U.S. publicly announced that it would not be reading Tsarnaev his Miranda rights, and debate whether or not the defense should have been allowed to introduce evidence during the penalty phase that Tamerlan Tsarnaev may have participated in a triple homicide two years earlier to prove his influence over his younger brother. What can Clarence Thomas's decision reinstating Tsarnaev's death sentence tell us about how Trump trial judges might handle jury selection? And what might be next following the 1st Circuit's recent findings on juror bias? 1) U.S. v. Tsarnaev indictment  2) Middlesex District Attorney's report on Watertown PD's shootout with the Tsarnaev brothers 3) 1st Circuit's decision vacating Dzhokar Tsarnaev's death sentence (7/31/2020) 4) Supreme Court decision reinstating Tsarnaev's death sentence  (3/5/2022) 5) Most recent 1st Circuit decision ordering further hearing on juror bias (3/21/2024)   If you'd like to support the show (and lose the ads!), please pledge at patreon.com/law!

Episode 1022 Courts in Arizona and Florida have both ended abortion rights in very different (but both terrible) ways this month. Did Arizona actually resurrect a 160-year law passed decades before it was even a state? And how weird can it get when you go full originalist on a law that is younger than most people in Florida? Before we get there, Matt opens by sharing his experience with the OJ Simpson trial at the age of 14 and how it shaped his understanding of US criminal law. We then make sure to pay appropriate respects to the violent domestic abuser who (do we even have to say "allegedly" anymore?) brutally murdered Nicole Brown and Ronald Goldman on June 12, 1994. Also, two different countries have committed extreme and unprecedented violations of international law involving embassies in the past week. How does the Vienna Convention protect diplomatic posts, and what actually happens when these international agreements are broken? The first of the Trump trials will finally begin in New York in one business day! How does jury selection even work in a case where everyone on the planet has an opinion about the defendant? 1) Planned Parenthood v Florida (4/1/24) 2) In Re: TW, 551 So. 2d 1186 (1989) 3) Planned Parenthood of AZ v. Mayes (4/9/24) 3) The Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations (1961) 4) Judge Merchan's letter to the parties in NY v. Trump outlining jury selection process If you'd like to support the show (and lose the ads!), please pledge at patreon.com/law!

As usual, we've got last week's answers and this week's questions! Some fun and tricky ones... If you'd like to support the show (and lose the ads!), please pledge at patreon.com/law!

Hey folks, due to an annoying technical glitch, I'm just re-releasing this episode. This was some weird backend problem with our hosting. The file looks completely fine everywhere that I can see, but internet goblins decide otherwise, I guess. Sorry for the trouble and I'll make sure this won't happen again! OA10121 On March 26, 2024 a container ship the size of the Eiffel Tower named for the world's most famous surrealist destroyed a bridge named after the author of the U.S. national anthem yards from one of the most notable sites of our country's least popular war. Who was Francis Scott Key anyway, and why has the man who gave the world the phrase "land of the free and the home of the brave" gotten a total pass for writing the world's worst national anthem while owning people and prosecuting abolitionists? We then honor the memories of the six Latino immigrants who lost their lives in this disaster by taking a closer look at the contributions of both undocumented and "lightly documented" workers to the U.S. economy, including the massive boost of more than $7 trillion that the Congressional Budget Office has predicted the so-called "border crisis" will bring in the coming years. But what about the most recent Republican "solution" to give the world's whitest and wealthiest a chance at the American Dream? Would Thomas be able to immigrate to the U.S. under Sen. Tom Cotton's RAISE Act? We end with a short cruise through maritime law and examine why the owners of the Dali are seeking protection under the same 209-year-old maritime law which was used to severely limit the liability of everyone responsible for the Titanic. 1. "Francis Scott Key Opposed 'Land of the Free,'" Jefferson Morley (2012) 2. Baltimore bridge collapse victims: New info on who they were – NBC4 Washington (3/28/24) 3. Baltimore Mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs Key Bridge Emergency Response Fund  4. RAISE Act point system infographic  5. 20 Years Later, Undocumented Immigrants Who Aided 9/11 Recovery & Cleanup Efforts Demand Recognition | Democracy Now! (9/15/2021) 6. Oceanic Steam Navigation Co. v. Mellor :: 233 U.S. 718 (1914) (U.S. Supreme Court's application of the 1851 Limitation of Liability Act to the Titanic disaster) 7. Petition for Exoneration from or Limitation of Liability filed in federal court by the owners of the Dali (4/1/24) If you'd like to support the show (and lose the ads!), please pledge at patreon.com/law!

OA10121 On March 26, 2024 a container ship the size of the Eiffel Tower named for the world's most famous surrealist destroyed a bridge named after the author of the U.S. national anthem yards from one of the most notable sites of our country's least popular war. Who was Francis Scott Key anyway, and why has the man who gave the world the phrase "land of the free and the home of the brave" gotten a total pass for writing the world's worst national anthem while owning people and prosecuting abolitionists? We then honor the memories of the six Latino immigrants who lost their lives in this disaster by taking a closer look at the contributions of both undocumented and "lightly documented" workers to the U.S. economy, including the massive boost of more than $7 trillion that the Congressional Budget Office has predicted the so-called "border crisis" will bring in the coming years. But what about the most recent Republican "solution" to give the world's whitest and wealthiest a chance at the American Dream? Would Thomas be able to immigrate to the U.S. under Sen. Tom Cotton's RAISE Act? We end with a short cruise through maritime law and examine why the owners of the Dali are seeking protection under the same 209-year-old maritime law which was used to severely limit the liability of everyone responsible for the Titanic. 1. "Francis Scott Key Opposed 'Land of the Free,'" Jefferson Morley (2012) 2. Baltimore bridge collapse victims: New info on who they were – NBC4 Washington (3/28/24) 3. Baltimore Mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs Key Bridge Emergency Response Fund  4. RAISE Act point system infographic  5. 20 Years Later, Undocumented Immigrants Who Aided 9/11 Recovery & Cleanup Efforts Demand Recognition | Democracy Now! (9/15/2021) 6. Oceanic Steam Navigation Co. v. Mellor :: 233 U.S. 718 (1914) (U.S. Supreme Court's application of the 1851 Limitation of Liability Act to the Titanic disaster) 7. Petition for Exoneration from or Limitation of Liability filed in federal court by the owners of the Dali (4/1/24) If you'd like to support the show (and lose the ads!), please pledge at patreon.com/law!

Episode 1020! It's time for a round of Trump updates, starting in Florida with the responses to Judge Aileen Cannon's weird request that the parties try making up new law that she could try out on a jury if this case ever finally makes it to one. Is Jack Smith's response to this nonsense everything we'd wanted? And what happens when you actually try to sit down read anything that the Trump defense team has filed as if it were a serious legal document? We then turn to recent legal developments in New York, where a subprime auto lender has totally failed to post Trump's bond and Judge Merchan finally had to get around to putting in writing that the world's most famous criminal defendant isn't allowed to go after his family. 1. Trump's response to Judge Cannon's order 2. Jack Smith's response to Judge Cannon's order 3. 18 USC Sec 793 (Espionage Act) 4. Presidential Records Act 5. Trump's opposition to motion to clarify gag order 6. Judge Marchan's order expanding gag order 7. Judge MacAfee's denial of motion to dismiss Fulton County charges on 1st Amendment grounds If you'd like to support the show (and lose the ads!), please pledge at patreon.com/law!

Can you believe it, it's T3BE8! You know the drill, we answer last week's questions, honor two winners, and then ask two more questions! But Matt has a new bar exam book, and it's going to be quite fun, if these questions are any indicator. Deviously hard, needlessly complex, extremely silly... it has it all! If you'd like to support the show (and lose the ads!), please pledge at patreon.com/law!

Most criminal defendants can't kill 346 people and expect to get off with a light fine and three years of probation, but most criminal defendants are not The Boeing Company. In today's show, we examine the differences between different kinds of pretrial diversion agreements and why the best ones are reserved for ultra-wealthy defendants like Boeing and Jeffrey Epstein. We then take a closer look at the DOJ's routine use of deferred prosecution agreements to help our nation's most valued citizens (corporations) avoid the unpleasant inconvenience of facing actual consequences of their actions (killing people), with a special focus on the NPA which recently resolved Boeing's recent deadly fraud involving its 737 MAX. 1. Boeing Deferred Prosecution Agreement (1/7/2021) 2. "Nosedive: Boeing and the Corruption of the Deferred Prosecution Agreement," Prof. John C. Coffee (6/6/2022) 3. "Why Boeing pilot Forkner was acquitted in the 737 MAX prosecution,"| The Seattle Times (3/25/22) 4. "Blowing the Door Off Boeing’s ‘Epstein Deal’" - The American Prospect (2/9/24) 5. Fifth Circuit order dated 12/15/23 from In re Ryan et al confirming that courts have no authority to review a DPA and that families will have to wait to oppose any future motion to dismiss If you'd like to support the show (and lose the ads!), please pledge at patreon.com/law!

Episode 1018 - GOOD NEWS EPISODE! It's positive vibes only as we celebrate the impending disbarment of MAGA law toadies John Eastman and Jeffrey Clark, the first but-actually-for-real-this-time Trump trial date, and some extremely real threats to your favorite President's sacred First Amendment rights to lie to the public and terrorize the families of court personnel. In more good news, the Supreme Court couldn't seem to find an actual excuse to ban medical abortions this week--or even find anyone who could even claim to have been in the same ZIP code as someone harmed by mifepristone--so we take a good look for ourselves and don't find too much to worry about.  One more bit of good news: Matt wants to give you a job! (Inquire within.)  1. John Eastman's two-page proposal to overturn the results of the 2020 Presidential election 2. Judge Yvette Roland's full 126-page decision to the CA Supreme Court recommending John Eastman's disbarment (March 27, 2024) 3. Judge Merchan's gag order (3/26/24) 4. Trump's motion to dismiss GA charges on 1st Amendment grounds (12/23/2024) 5. Transcript of oral arguments in FDA v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine (March 26, 2024)  6. Federal judge Matthew Kacsmaryk's  mifepristone ruling (April 7, 2023) 7. Application of Comstock Act to Drugs That Can Be Used for Abortion (USPS General Counsel)(12/23/2022) 8) 18 U.S. Code § 1461 - Mailing obscene or crime-inciting matter (Comstock Act)   If you'd like to support the show (and lose the ads!), please pledge at patreon.com/law!