The 1968 Case That Proves the Charlie Kirk Firings Were Illegal

OA1218 - What happens to your first amendment rights when you work for the government? Do you give it all up when you walk in the door? How do we balance the individual right of the worker to speak, against the government’s need to have a functioning work place? Pickering v Board of Education (1968) sets us up to understand how this all works… and why a teacher criticizing Charlie Kirk on their personal Facebook page probably isn’t a fireable offense. Patrons got exclusive content at the end of this one, only available at patreon.com/law! Can you apply these principles to eight cases that followed Pickering? Quiz yourself alongside Thomas! Pickering v Board of Education, 391 U.S. 563 (1968) A summary of the history of criminal defamation law, Robinson, E.P. (2024, July 5). Criminal libel. Free Speech Center at Middle Tennessee State University. Check out the OA Linktree for all the places to go and things to do! To support the show (and lose the ads!), please pledge at patreon.com/law!

OA1217 - Well, we recorded a bit late to make sure we caught Trump's "announcement" thingy and it was... nothing. But that's good! Matt also takes us through more travel bans that are going into effect and have been way underreported on. But The Federalist has a piece saying not only is this all great, but Trump should proudly adopt 1920s immigration policy. There is no quiet part anymore. But fortunately, Matt has a fun footnote for us to bring us back up!

We begin with a delightful amuse douche from the lawyer of Colorado election tamperer Tina Peters unconditionally demanding her release from state prison because Donald Trump said so before a deep dive into our main story: an absurdly bad take from the New York Times--in both a lengthy print story and an episode of The Daily podcast--on how Joe Biden’s unwillingness to be a border fascist got a border fascist elected. Matt breaks down the real causes of the uptick in asylum seekers to the U.S. during Biden’s term in office (and its many unreported benefits to the economy and the nation) and provides the full context for the domestic and international law which the Times is openly arguing that Biden should have broken.  You can also catch this episode on YouTube! “How Biden Ignored Warnings and Lost Americans’ Faith on Immigration,” The New York Times, Christopher Flavelle (12/7/2025) “Biden Didn’t Cause the Border Crisis” (Part 1 of 4), David Bier, Cato Institute (1/16/2025) “Effects of the Immigration Surge on the Federal Budget and the Economy,” Congressional Budget Office (July 2024) “Job Openings: Total Nonfarm,” U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (Oct. 2025) Check out the OA Linktree for all the places to go and things to do!

OA1216 - We welcome incarcerated journalist and advocate Christopher Blackwell, calling from his home at the Washington Corrections Center. Chris is the co-founder and Executive Director of Look2Justice, a non-profit which empowers and advocates currently and formerly incarcerated people through an “inside-out” organizing model. He is also a writer whose work has appeared in (among other places) The New York Times, the Washington Post, The Boston Globe, and The Nation, and is a co-author of the new book Ending Isolation: The Case Against Solitary Confinement. Chris joins to share his story and his own deeply personal perspective on the inhumanity of solitary confinement. Look2Justice’s website Ending Isolation: The Case Against Solitary Confinement, Christopher William Blackwell (Author), Deborah Zalesne (Author), Kwaneta Harris (Contributor), Terry Kupers (Contributor) (September 2025) Christopher Blackwell’s published work in the New York Times Check out the OA Linktree for all the places to go and things to do!  

OA1215 - We examine why the potential merger of Warner Brothers Discovery with either Netflix or Paramount would almost be certainly illegal under better circumstances before mourning the imminent loss of the independence of the one government agency which is supposed to stop this kind of thing. What exactly is the Federal Trade Commission, and why was destroying it a top priority for Project 2025? We then take a closer look at this week’s oral arguments in Trump v. Slaughter, in which the Supreme Court’s MAGA majority is poised to turn the FTC and dozens of other independent agencies into tools for Trump’s corruption and graft. Finally, in today’s footnote: why is an actual government website hawking the Trump Gold Card, and can the President really just make up a completely new way to give anyone with one million dollars a new path to US citizenship? Trump v. Slaughter oral arguments (12/8/2025) Humphrey’s Executor v. US, 295 US 602 (1935) Federal Trade Commission Act (1914) Rebecca Slaughter’s SCOTUS brief Trumpcard.gov Check out the OA Linktree for all the places to go and things to do!

VR16 - This week on Vapid Response: it’s the Hat and the Hammer, with the return of both New York Times token religious conservative columnist Ross Doot-hat and Newsweek editor-at-large Josh Hammer. We begin with a savory amuse douche in which a Christian influencer preaches against making policy based on “toxic empathy” before reading  Josh Hammer taking her up on the joke by explaining why the U.S. military has the absolute right to kill anyone Josh Hammer wants dead. Finally, Ross Douthat stops in from whatever planet he has been living on with some advice for the Trump administration on how to be better Christians.

OA1214 - As the end of 2025 approaches, we are finding real cause for hope in how federal courts have been handling the Trump administration’s unprecedented assault on the rule of law. In the first of what will be at least two parts, Matt and Thomas speedrun through just a few of the many wins--both big and small--that we have seen in a wide range of categories. Just Security’s Litigation Tracker  Farewell Messages by Recent DOJ Alumni “The Unraveling of the Justice Department,” Emily Bazelon, The New York Times (11/16/25) Docket for J.G.G. v. Trump (Alien Enemies Act and related contempt litigation) Judge William Young’s decision in AAUP v. Rubio (9/30/25) Injunction blocking Trump asylum EO in RAICES v. Noem (7/2/25)  Injunction blocking ICE from enforcement in certain churches in Philadelphia Yearly Meeting v. Noem (2/24/25) Injunction in Center for Taxpayer Rights v. IRSblocking IRS from sharing taxpayer information with ICE (11/21/25) Injunction in Rhode Island v. Trump blocking EO which would have dismantled the Institute for Museums and Libraries and several other federal agencies (11/21/25) Check out the OA Linktree for all the places to go and things to do!  

OA1213 - Thomas is back for an action-packed Rapid Response Friday! This week: we compare the letter that just earned the former President of Honduras a pardon of his conviction for definitely being involved with narcotrafficking against the Trump administration’s excuses for murder on the high seas of Venezuelans suspected to be involved with narcotrafficking--and if House Speaker Mike Johnson actually has a point in blaming Barack Obama for all of this. Matt then takes a quick look at Steve Bannon’s petition for review of his conviction for contempt of Congress by the Supreme Court and explains how “safe third country” agreements now give ICE the power to deport asylum seekers to Central America without a hearing on their claims. Finally in today’s footnote, Matt shares an incredible story from his week: an astonishing beyond-Kafkaesque legal argument the government has ordered his client to respond to that you will have to hear to believe. “Double-Tap Warfare: Should President Obama be Investigated for War Crimes?” Florida Law Review (Jan. 2017) Steve Bannon’s cert petition to the U.S. Supreme Court in Bannon v. US (10/15/2025) U.S. v. Helen Bryan, 339 U.S. 323 (1950) Matter of C-I-G-M & L-V-S-G-, 29 I&N Dec. 291, (BIA 10/31/2025) Asylum Cooperative Agreement with Honduras, Federal Register (7/8/2025) ACA with Guatemala, Federal Register (7/15/2025) “The Night Raids,” Lynzy Billing, ProPublica (12/15/2022) Juan Orlando Hernandez letter to Trump seeking pardon, New York Times (12/2/2025) Check out the OA Linktree for all the places to go and things to do!

Today on Vapid Response Wednesday: weeks after designating “Antifa” a “domestic terror organization,” the White House hosted a panel of MAGA luminaries to update the President on the not-at-all-made-up threat to the nation posed by a thing which demonstrably does not exist. We begin with a short amuse douche, in which Tennessee Senator Marsha Blackburn is concerned about the extremely real Portland “Antifa hit list”--a thing which definitely exists exactly as described! Matt then explains why the war on “Antifa” is a threat to all of our civil liberties before we take a seat at the Antifa Round Table. The White House “antifa round table”, Youtube (10/7/25) The alleged Portland “antifa hit list” White House claims "more than 1,000%" rise in assaults on ICE agents, data says otherwise, NPR (10/10/25) Attacks on ICE up 1,000%? Trump administration claim not backed up by court records, Los Angeles Times (12/1/25) “Countering Domestic Terrorism and Organized Political Violence,” NPSM-7 (9/25/25) “Designating Antifa as a Domestic Terror Organization,” The White House (9/22/25) “Extremist File: Jack Posobiec,” Southern Poverty Law Center

OA1212 - What’s a cop to do when he stumbles onto a crime, and the evidence points to someone he knows all too well? In today’s deep dive, friends become suspects, concerned parents become FBI agents, and laptops become lost jungle detritus. This criminal case out of the US District Court of the Northern Mariana Islands (a US territory in the Pacific) may not have reached the Supreme Court, or have any particularly important precedent, but what it lacks in prestige it makes up for with a fact pattern seemingly written by a law professor specifically to test your knowledge of criminal procedure and evidence. Come for the caper, stay for the OA midterm! U.S. v. Weindl, (D.N. Mar. Is. 2012) Check out the OA Linktree for all the places to go and things to do!