The Legal Weekly W(h)ine

Grab a glass of wine and join our Constitution scholar, Dr. John R. Vile, and our full-time practicing attorney, Virginia Vile Tehrani, Esq., for a lively, interesting, and educational discussion of the origin, history, and significance of the United States Constitution! Learn about the legal creation of our country through the 2nd Continental Congress, after the original enactment of the Articles...

Sanctuary cities, roving patrols, and birthright citizenship. What is ICE legally allowed to do, and can they enforce federal immigration rules through local police forces? Are sanctuary cities legal? Can ICE use roving patrols in California to target and pick up people who look a certain way or those who are hanging out with illegal immigrants? Can ICE pick up citizens in these roving patrols? An...

LGBTQ+ school curriculum has been limited by the Supreme Court based on 1st Amendment religious freedoms. In Mahmoud v. Taylor, a 6-3 decision, from June 2025, SCOTUS ruled in favor of parents' religious rights to opt out of LGBTQ+ school curriculum if it conflicts with their religious beliefs. In particular for this case, SCOTUS held that parents of young minors in elementary school can opt their...

SCOTUS just dropped a new Birthright Citizenship case at the end of June 2025, but what did it really decide? We all expected SCOTUS to rule on the real issue - whether the term "birthright citizenship," stemming from the 14th Amendment of the United States Constitution and from the Nationality Act of 1940 really means that anyone at all who is born within the physical borders of the United States...

Grab a glass of wine and join our Constitution scholar, Dr. John R. Vile, and our full-time practicing attorney, Virginia Vile Tehrani, Esq., for a lively, interesting, and educational discussion of the origin, history, and significance of the United States Declaration of Independence. ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ To learn more about Virginia Tehrani, Esq., check her out at: https://www.tehranilawll...

President Donald Trump has been making waves with his trade deals and restrictions, his unilaterally placed tariffs against even our regular allies like Canada, and his pardons. What are the actual constitutional limits on a United States President's power to enact trade agreements, issue tariffs, and pardon anyone he chooses to pardon? In this episode, our legal team explores President Trump's po...

Trump just threw himself a birthday party, and the nation protested on June 14, 2025. Were the "No Kings" protests involving over 5 million people constitutional? Did President Donald Trump violate any terms of the Constitution by doing a military parade down the streets of D.C.? Find out our legal opinions regarding the protests and parade and the 1st Amendment's right to free speech and to free...

SCOTUS just allowed the destruction of Native American sacred religious sites in favor of copper mining. In the case of Apache Stronghold v. United States, (U.S. S.Ct. 2025), the Supreme Court denied certiorari on the case, effectively upholding the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling to allow mining on a large area of land in Arizona that the Apaches believed was where the world was created. Thro...

Trump's declared war on Harvard by slashing its government funding, revoking Visas for its international students, and demanded control over its admissions activities. Harvard University, unlike Columbia University, has not backed down and has filed multiple lawsuits against Donal Trump and his administration. Are Donald Trump's actions, as President of the United States, legal? Are they constitut...

#SCOTUS just paused Donald Trump's deportations of Venezuelan immigrants in Texas who are being held in jail pending deportation under the Alien Enemies Act. In a Per Curiam decision from May 16, 2025, in the case of A.A.R.P. v. Donald Trump, 605 U.S. ____ (2025), SCOTUS granted a temporary injunction against Trump and his administration that prohibits them from deporting specific immigrants in Te...

Trump's Executive Orders continue to make headlines. This week, we are discussing Trump's continued reliance on the Alien Enemies Act to deport Venezuelans and a federal Texas court that has defied Trump on these deportations with its May 1, 2025 order.   In the Texas case, J.A.V. v. Trump, Judge Fernandez Rodriguez, Jr., of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas, stop...

SCOTUS issued back-to-back emergency, lightning-fast decisions in two of the most hotly contested immigration cases in America: Noem v. Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, 640 U.S. ___ (2025) (4/10/2025) and A.A.R.P. v. Donald J. Trump, 640 U.S. ___ (2025) (4/19/2025). It is extremely rare for SCOTUS to issue emergency decisions, and it's even more rare for SCOTUS to issue preliminary injunctions. But i...

PART TWO: Trump's deportations violate current immigration laws, rules, and policies. Grab a glass of wine and join our legal team for a second special episode as we have an expert in immigration - attorney Abbas Sadiq, of Sadiq Law Group - discuss "normal" immigration procedures and laws and how the current deportations and revocations of legal statuses violate those normal rules and procedures....

Trump's deportations violate current immigration laws, rules, and policies. Grab a glass of wine and join our legal team for a special episode as we have an expert in immigration - attorney Abbas Sadiq, of Sadiq Law Group - discuss "normal" immigration procedures and laws and how the current deportations and revocations of legal statuses violate those normal rules and procedures. Mr. Sadiq breaks...

Big law firms are now Donald Trump's special targets in his Executive Order, and we sure have a lot to say about it! Donald Trump's recent Executive Orders have targeted individual big law firms by naming them, getting rid of their security clearances, and disallowing government contracts. 3 of these firms are fighting in court, claiming that Trump's Executive Orders against them are unlawful and...

President Donald Trump and his administration violated a THIRD federal district court order! This time, Donald Trump deported a Brown University doctor and professor. Trump's administration claims Dr. Rasha Alawieh's deportation was due to security risks from her native Lebanon, from where she was returning after a family trip. Officials found pictures of Dr. Alawieh at a funeral for a Hezbollah l...

President Donald Trump and his administration just violated ANOTHER federal district court order! This time, Donald Trump deported about 300 Venezuelans to El Salvador (to their notoriously violent prison) and to Honduras. Trump claims they were members of the Tren de Aragua Venezuelan gang and that their deportation was justified under his use of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798. Therefore, through...

#SCOTUS just struck Donald Trump down. On March 5, 2025, the Supreme Court ruled against Trump and the Government in a 5-4 decision, lifting the stay that prevented a federal District Court Judge's ruling against Trump from going into effect. Through Department of State v. AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition, SCOTUS approved the District Court Judge's order requiring Trump and the Government to releas...

Multiple courts have ordered preliminary injunctions of President Trump's recent executive orders and of Elon Musk's DOGE program. Donald Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance have suggested that the U.S. President does not have to follow court orders and that he may choose not to follow court orders. But does Donald Trump - or any U.S. President - have the right to do so? Join us for our special 10...

Donald Trump and Elon Musk just got rid of USAID? Is this actually legal? Is it in our country's best interests? And ultimately, how will this affect our relationship with Gaza, including Trump's claims that the United States will take Gaza and require the Palestinians to move to other countries? What do other countries have to say about this? Grab a glass of wine and join our legal team as we do...

TN has made some voting a crime! The Tennessee Legislature just passed a bill making it a crime, punishable by up to three years in jail, for any local public officials to vote in favor of sanctuary policies or locations for immigrants. The right to vote is fundamental to our democratic republic, including the right to vote for whom and for what we choose. But this TN law strikes at the heart of o...

President Donald Trump's Executive Order #M-25-13 threw our country into a federal funding crisis in the second week of his presidency. Trump's Executive Order temporarily paused all federal funding and disbursement of all federal assistance. This Executive Order was not legal; it violates our very original law - the United States Constitution  Grab a glass of wine and join our legal team as we do...

Birthright Citizenship - what does it mean? The 14th Amendment of the United States Constitution defines it very clearly, except for a very limited exception. Is there a way that President Donald Trump can re-define birthright citizenship? Would that be legal, and how, exactly, could it be done? If Trump and/or the County re-define citizenship, what happens to people who were previously declared t...

Legal update on TikTok! When #donaldtrump took office, he signed an executive order extending the time for TikTok to stay active and to divest itself from China. Since this has happened, our legal team takes a dive into the legality of this action. Catch our original podcast about the law that started this and the #Scotus case that affirmed the law with Episode 94: TikTok ends; Can Trump legally r...

TikTok turns off in the United States, but why? Our top scholar and lawyers break down #SCOTUS's TikTok decision to uphold Congress' law banning TikTok in the United States as of Sunday, January 19, 2025. Go back with us to the origins of the country's concern with TikTok being owned and operated by China, which is considered one of America's adversaries, and how it started with Donald Trump in hi...