5-4

In the movies, detectives trail a suspect until he messes up and throws his DNA-soaked paper cup into the trash. In real life, they just pretend like they don't understand the word "identify" in order to abuse the 4th Amendment. If you're not a 5-4 Premium member, you're not hearing every episode! To hear this and other Premium-only episodes, access to our Slack community, and...

What to do if you get arrested (not legal advice™), why are the liberal justices just sitting back while conservatives devour the judiciary, and whether or not to vote for Biden - you've got questions, we've got … maybe not "answers," but definitely "responses." If you're not a 5-4 Premium member, you're not hearing every episode! To hear this and other Premium-only...

Rhi got locked up. The food was bad, the comrades were immaculate, and while the friendless centrist pundits on Twitter were wrapping themselves in knots to try to argue protests aren't speech, the kids were keeping the focus where it belongs: On Gaza. If you don't think laws are real either you can get a sick shirt about it from Shout Your Abortion: https://shout-your-abortion.square.site...

E Pluribus Unum, more like E Pluribus Sue Them! In America, if your landlord refuses to do repairs, you sue 'em. If you get food poisoning from a chain restaurant, you sue 'em. But if you're stripped of your bodily autonomy by your state legislature via a bounty hunting scheme, you CAN'T sue your state in federal court, because of Hans v. Louisiana. If you're not a 5-4 Premium...

Listen, we're not going to do the whole merch thing again, but it's time to hang up the robe and hit the beach. Or: another episode where we call for Sonia Sotomayor to retire. If you're not a 5-4 Premium member, you're not hearing every episode! To get exclusive Premium-only episodes, access to our Slack community, and more, join at fivefourpod.com/support. 5-4 is presented by Pro...

Santa isn't the only one who keeps a naughty and nice list. And if your organization winds up on the United States' list of bad boys (designated terrorist organizations), you can forget about receiving legal representation or assistance from US-based firms. That's material support, according to this holding, even if that support doesn't contribute to terrorism in any way. If you&#3...

Texas passed a law that allows it to police the US border with Mexico without regard to federal policy. That may seem like a little oopsy but actually it's a big "fuck you." If you're not a 5-4 Premium member, you're not hearing every episode! To get exclusive Premium-only episodes, access to our Slack community, and more, join at fivefourpod.com/support. 5-4 is presented by Pr...

The Court does not want you to plead not guilty by reason of insanity and to enforce that, they'll happily sign off on you being institutionalized for far longer than the prison sentence that you would have served.  You'll need a mental health day after this one for sure. If you're not a 5-4 Premium member, you're not hearing every episode! To get exclusive Premium-only episodes, a...

This is the story of a man with the worst luck in the whole world, and how Jay-Z called the whole thing. If you're not a 5-4 Premium member, you're not hearing every episode! To get exclusive Premium-only episodes, access to our Slack community, and more, join at fivefourpod.com/support. 5-4 is presented by Prologue Projects. Rachel Ward is our producer. Leon Neyfakh and Andrew Parsons pro...

We're joined by Balls and Strikes' Jay Willis in this emergency episode to talk about Trump v. Anderson, which challenged Colorado removing Trump from the primary ballot. In a shocking twist, the Court held that Colorado can't do that. JK that's not shocking - the twist is that the dogs you hear barking in this episode are Jay's, not Michael's. If you're not a 5-4 Premi...

The legal academy is losing its mind. Good news for us, the profs are talking about their broken brains in the New York Times. Today on the show, Peter, Rhiannon, and Michael discuss “The Crisis in Teaching Constitutional Law” by Jesse Wegman to snark on the state of legal education. If you're not a 5-4 Premium member, you're not hearing every episode! To get exclusive Premium-only episode...

You can't sue the President if they wronged you, as long as what they did was in the course of their official duties. And maybe possibly if they did it out unofficially out of spite, or because they were just feeling crimey that day. Thank goodness we have this fantastic precedent to help us deal with Trump's many cases! If you're not a 5-4 Premium member, you're not hearing every...

Groundhog Day but make it interrogation. The Supreme Court says cops are welcome to keep hauling you in for questioning as long as they honor an arbitrary waiting period. If you're not a 5-4 Premium member, you're not hearing every episode! To get exclusive Premium-only episodes, access to our Slack community, and more, join at fivefourpod.com/support. 5-4 is presented by Prologue Projects...

Let's burn this motherfucker down metaphorically speaking OF COURSE! Today we're talking about how to counter Fed Soc's influence on campus and in the courts. The game plan isn't to copy their strategy - it's to play to the left's strengths. If you're not a 5-4 Premium member, you're not hearing every episode! To get exclusive Premium-only episodes, access to our Sl...

The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist. He learned it from the Federalist Society, by watching them steadily shift the terms on which all contemporary legal issues are argued. Now even progressive jurists feel compelled to debate the debate club on its own turf. The Devil is duly impressed. For more about what Fed Soc hath wrought, check out Amanda Hollis...

First you get the money, then you get the power. But FIRST first you get the law students. This week we're exploring the tentacles of the Federalist Society, and how a so-called debate club pulls levers across government, the legal profession, and academia, to achieve its conservative ideological goals. Hear more from this episode's contributors: Vanessa A. Bee is the author of HOME BOUND:...

There's a powerfully connected right-wing organization operating at every elite law school in the nation. It built itself by leveraging the conservative victim complex, the Reagan revolution, networks of judges and activists, and cold hard psycho millionaire cash.  This is the story of the Federalist Society. If you can't get enough of these monsters, you may want to read The Rise of the C...

Every year we like to shout out organizations that inspire us or have deeply embarrassing kompromat on us. Good luck guessing which is which! https://www.icareaboutcoral.org/ https://shoutyourabortion.com/ https://www.assignedmedia.org/ https://www.librariesforthepeople.org/ https://palestinianfeministcollective.org/ https://www.newalternativesnyc.org/ https://www.projectstreetvet.org/ https://fa....

This episode was available early to Premium members. If you'd like that kind of perk, consider joining at fivefourpod.com/support. Ryna Workman and Jinan Chehade were both knocked off the Big Law course they thought they were on, after expressing solidarity with Palestine. Now they're on a mission to make some good trouble. Thanks for being a 5-4 Premium member! Your support means the worl...

Ryna Workman and Jinan Chehade were both knocked off the Big Law course they thought they were on, after expressing solidarity with Palestine. Now they're on a mission to make some good trouble. If you're not a 5-4 Premium member, you're not hearing every episode! To get exclusive Premium-only episodes, access to our Slack community, and more, join at fivefourpod.com/support. 5-4 is pr...

It's basically impossible to amend our crummy Constitution, as demonstrated by the litany of proposed amendments that have face planted directly into the dustbin of history.  If you're not a 5-4 Premium member, you're not hearing every episode! To get exclusive Premium-only episodes, access to our Slack community, and more, join at fivefourpod.com/support. 5-4 is presented by Prologue...

Our nation has laws, procedures, and courts for settling labor disputes. But what if you're a concrete company and you don't wannnnnnnnnnnnnna go through the system that Congress authorized specifically for this purpose? Then you take it to state court baybeeee - and see if SCOTUS will let you sneak out of the National Labor Relations Board process. Hey, did you know that if you're not...

Get a load of this - this guy accepted a SALARY for TEACHING at a SCHOOL. Simply not Supreme Court justice material.  Get the guy who sold a house to a billionaire instead. If you're not a 5-4 Premium member, you're not hearing every episode! To get exclusive Premium-only episodes, access to our Slack community, and more, join at fivefourpod.com/support. Read the book that inspired this ep...

We want to dedicate this episode to Vermont and Maine, the only two states in this whole goddamn country that let everyone exercise their Constitutional right to vote. What are they putting in that syrup? Everywhere else, you've got Richardson v. Ramirez to thank for the movement to disenfranchise people who've been caught up in the criminal punishment system. If you're not a 5-4 Premi...

War! Huh! Yeah! What is it good for? Absolutely suppressing speech! Read "The Anti-Surveillance Coalition's Highest-Stakes Gamble" by Spencer Ackerman https://foreverwars.ghost.io/the-anti-surveillance-coalitions-highest-stakes-gamble/ Listen to Know Your Enemy: Elon Musk, the Jews, and the ADL, with Mari Cohen, Alex Kane, and Peter Beinart https://www.dissentmagazine.org/blog/know-you...