Boom! Lawyered

While Elon Musk has been taking over the government, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals quietly overturned a 60-year-old law that prevented federally-licensed firearms dealers from selling guns to anyone aged 18 to 20. Seems bad! This week, Jess and Imani get into the weeds of Reese v. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives , a Second Amendment case out of the Fifth Circuit that, sur...

We’re on week one of Donald Trump’s second administration, and we’re already tired. On his first day in office, Trump signed executive orders attempting to end birthright citizenship and declaring that the United States only recognizes two genders, male and female. Okay! On today’s episode of Boom! Lawyered, Jess and Imani talk through Trump’s flurry of early executive orders. They also go down a...

This week, Imani and Jess dive into Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton , a case out of Texas that could upend First Amendment free speech law. At issue in the case is a Texas law that requires age verification to visit websites that offer pornographic content. An adult entertainment trade organization, the Free Speech Coalition, is arguing that the law puts internet users’ privacy and security at ris...

This week, Jess and Imani read Chief Justice John Roberts’ annual “state of the judiciary report” so you don’t have to. It’s one of the country’s worst New Years’ traditions, and this year was no exception. In the 2024 report, Roberts waxed poetic about the importance of protecting judicial independence, comparing Black Americans’ civil rights struggle to internet criticism of judges.  The one wor...

Donald Trump was elected president just over a month ago, and even though he’s not in office yet, the horrors have already started. He’s threatening to halt birthright citizenship via executive action.  This week, Jess and Imani get into the history of birthright citizenship, what could happen if Trump manages to wipe it out, and how, even though people have declared he can’t upend more than a cen...

Today, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in United States v. Skrmetti , a case out of Tennessee that could determine whether trans minors have the right to gender-affirming care.  In this rapid reaction episode, Jess and Imani break down the case made by Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar and the American Civil Liberties Union’s Chase Strangio, the conservative justices’ nonsense, heartless...

The Supreme Court is set to hear oral arguments in United States v. Skrmetti , a case that could determine trans minors’ right to gender-affirming care, in December. It’s coming on the heels of Donald Trump’s successful election campaign, which he closed by attacking Democrats left and right on trans rights. This week, Jess and Imani walk through what to expect from this case—and it’s not looking...

Well… Donald Trump is back for a second term. We hate it here! This week, Jess and Imani go through what reproductive health-care hellscape we can expect from the next Trump administration: legally establishing fetal “personhood,” federal surveillance of pregnant people, and banning abortion pills—all eventually leading to a national abortion ban.  We’re preparing for a parade of horribles.  You’v...

With the election less than a week away, abortion rights and democracy are both on the line—and that’s no coincidence. Andrea Grimes, journalist and vice president of research at Reproaction, joins Jess and Imani this week to talk about the importance of opposition research into anti-abortion activists, how the anti-abortion and anti-democracy movements work hand-in-hand, and why there’s no shorta...

Can pro-natalists go touch some grass?  A trio of conservative attorneys general filed a complaint in federal court claiming the availability of mifepristone, one of two drugs used in medication abortions in the United States, creates a “sovereign injury” to the states themselves. They argue that mifepristone lowers teen birth rates in violation of the states’ “population interests.” Jess and Iman...

This week, we’re talking about EMTALA—yes, again. The Ninth Circuit will hear arguments over Idaho not wanting to abide by the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act in December, and the case is sure to make it back to the Supreme Court. This time, though, conservatives have a new weapon: the Spending Clause. Much to Jess’ chagrin, she and Imani get into how Amy Coney Barrett pulled an A...

Project 2025, the 2024 election’s big bad wolf, is coming for reproductive justice. The Heritage Foundation’s policy prescription for a second Donald Trump administration would turn the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA) on its head and explicitly allow anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination. This week, Jess and Imani dive into the Project 2025 policy positions that pose the biggest thr...

If there’s one thing conservatives like doing, it’s finding the perfect plaintiff to be the face of a court challenge to a policy that will strip people's rights. Enter: the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty and their plaintiffs: a group of goat-herding Anglican nuns, who are challenging a New York state regulation that requires employers to provide medically necessary abortions in their employee...

Welcome to a new season of Boom! Lawyered, which also means a new Supreme Court term is around the corner. What better way to usher that in with friend-of-the-pod Elie Mystal joining Jess and Imani on the season premiere of the podcast? They try to answer important questions weighing on all our minds, including: Is the gig finally up for Chief Justice John Roberts and his reputation as anything ot...

How can Vice President Kamala Harris go beyond “restore Roe " messaging during her presidential run? What are the odds that a state like Michigan, where voters enshrined abortion rights into the state constitution, could have that overturned in a second Donald Trump presidency? Join Jess and Imani this week as they respond to these questions and more—submitted by you, our listeners. And stay tuned...

The Biden administration's final Title IX rule, which bans sex discrimination in schools that get federal funding, took effect last week. Except, that is, in the more than two dozen states where conservative attorneys general filed lawsuits to block the rule from taking effect. Chris Geidner joins Imani and Jess this week to parse through the legalese and where it leaves LGBTQ+ students as the sch...

Editor's note: This episode was recorded before President Joe Biden's SCOTUS reform proposals.  Black women law nerds, unite! "We're having a moment," as this week's special guest Madiba Dennie says. Dennie is a lawyer, deputy editor and senior contributor at Balls and Strikes, and the author of The Originalism Trap . She joins Jess and Imani to discuss how originalism is not a legitimate intellec...

Boom! Lawyered is back for a summer session with four episodes before fall—and first up is Lizz Winstead, the founder of Abortion Access Front and co-creator of the Daily Show. It's a smorgasbord of all things reproductive rights, including serious things like expanding the courts and abortion access and not-so-serious things like a debate between "Anthony Comstock" and Minnesota Sen. Tina Smith t...

The Supreme Court released its decision regarding the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act—not once but twice thanks to another opinion leak!—and, well, the justices punted. In this reaction episode, Jess and Imani get into the coward decision in Idaho v. United States— that dismissing the case as "improvidently granted" is simply a cop-out, and the ripple effects that will emerge. And...

The recent Supreme Court decision in FDA v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine did not "restore" mifepristone access. The justices didn't "dismiss" the case. And yet that's what some media have been claiming. Join Jess and Imani in this mythbusting mifepristone episode and what they're predicting comes next. Rewire News Group is a nonprofit media organization, which means that episodes like this on...

The Supreme Court issued its decision in the first of two abortion cases we've been waiting for—and it was pretty OK! Join Jess and Imani in this reaction episode breaking down the unanimous ruling on standing in FDA v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine that was written by—yup—Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Our verdict? The decision is great, but more litigation is coming. Rewire News Group is a nonprof...

It's a supersized episode of Boom! Lawyered with special guest Gretchen Sisson, author of the recently released book Relinquished: The Politics of Adoption and the Privilege of American Motherhood . Sisson is also a qualitative sociologist and friend of the pod who studies abortion and adoption at Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health based at the University of California, San Francisco....

Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito has always been the worst , but now, he's even more confident letting his freak flag fly because he knows nothing is going to happen to him. By now, you might have heard about the Alito's Virginia home displaying an upside-down American flag—an insurrectionist symbol after the January 6 attack on the Capitol, and their flying another, an "Appeal to Heaven" flag,...

Jess and Imani are talking about Idaho—again! Now that the state has made its argument that people who visit emergency rooms at Medicare-funded hospitals needing an abortion can go pound sand, it's arguing before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals that anyone who “recruits, harbors, or transports” a minor within Idaho for the purposes of “procuring an abortion” out of state can be criminalized as...

Two years ago today, Politico published the bombshell leak heard around the world—Justice Samuel Alito's 98-page majority draft opinion overturning Roe v. Wade . In this flashback episode, Jess and Imani react the following afternoon to the absolute sucker punch. For more coverage of the leaked opinion, check out our next episode, " Processing the Fallout of the Supreme Court Leak ." Rewire News G...