Opening Arguments

About

Opening Arguments is a law show that helps you make sense of the news! Comedian Thomas Smith brings on legal analysts to help you understand not only current events, but also deeper legal concepts and areas! The typical schedule will be M-W-F with Monday being a deep-dive, Wednesday being Thomas Takes the Bar Exam and patron shoutouts, and Friday being a rapid response to legal issues in the news!

But Who Will Execute the Executer? The Supreme Court.
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...
Ross Douthat says Trump's Christian Nationalism just needs more Christian in it
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...
Trump Keeps Racking Up Ls in the Courts
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...
Is Trump Playing “Pardon, Marry, Kill” With Narcotraffickers?
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...
Trump hosts (and dozes through) absolutely unhinged Antifa Round Table
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...
What Happens When an FBI Agent Investigates a Friend?
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...
Let’s Go Around the Law Office and Say What We’re Thankful For
OA1211 - For this special Thanksgiving episode, we take a break from the news for Matt to share his gratitude in short interviews with just a few of the staff, attorneys, and partners who make his Boston immigration law firm's work possible. Stop in...
The Tragedy of True Crime
OA1210 - This week we welcome journalist and author John J. Lennon, who is calling in from New York’s Sing Sing Correctional Facility where he is serving 25 years to life for murder. Lennon’s extraordinary new book The Tragedy of True Crime: Four...
SCOTUS Made Gerrymandering So Easy, You’d Have to Be a Texas Republican to F It Up
OA1209 - Are you done with legal doomerism? Us too. Take some time away from doomscrolling and join Matt and Jenessa for Rapid Response Friday as we consider four stories of legal corruption and authoritarianism failing in the face of honest federal...
Epstein files reveal he was BFFs with Steve Bannon and offered him USE OF THE ISLAND. and his house.
VR14 - Part 2 of the Epstein files We continue our first look at some highlights from last week's massive release of more than 20,000 pages of material from the estate of Jeffrey Epstein released by the House Oversight Committee, including Steve...
Emails reveal Larry Summers went to Epstein for advice on women. He STILL teaches at Harvard.
OA1208 - We go beyond the Trump-related content in the latest round of Epstein disclosures by the House Oversight Committee to explore what we can learn from the many people in Jeffrey Epstein's orbit who flattered, patronized, and enabled him. Part 1...
Reminder to Congress: Impeachment Exists. And It's the Only Acceptable Response to the Epstein Cover-up
OA1207 - We record a late-breaking reaction to the recent massive round of documents released from Jeffrey Epstein's estate and discuss how Trump may have just reached his most impeachable moment so far. Matt then shares some incredible news about how...
Kat Abughazaleh - Indicted by Trump's DoJ for Protesting ICE while running for Congress
Kat Abughazaleh spent years reporting on right-wing media and movements, and she is now running to represent Illinois's 9th District in Congress on an explicitly anti-authoritarian platform. Kat joins to talk about her uniquely candid platform and...
Turns Out Our Civil Rights Come From... A Parking Garage in Wilmington, Delaware?
In our continuing Still Good Law series, Jenessa explains how a dispute arising from a parking garage in Wilmington, Delaware became the foundation for one of the most important concepts in civil rights: determining that a private or quasi-public...
GOOD THINGS HAPPENS! 100% GOOD NEWS OA DAY!
OA1205 - It’s another good news Friday! Voting rights expert Jenessa runs down some of the highlights of the off-year blue sweep in this week’s elections, as well as some recent unsung national victories for voting and disability rights. Matt then...
Night of the Living Op-Ed! (A Belated Spooktacular)
VR12 - Yes, we absolutely thought this was coming out pre-Halloween. Halloween may be over, but NEVERTHELESS THE SPOOKTACULAR PERSISTED! In this Vapid Response double feature, Thomas, Matt, and Lydia are haunted by two ghoulish takes from the...
What Happens When the House Refuses to Swear in a New Member?
OA1204 - As House Speaker Mike Johnson continues to pretend that he doesn’t have to seat Democrat Adelita Grijalva well over a month after she was elected to represent Arizona’s 7th Congressional district, we take a closer look at the last time...
COURTHOUSE OF HORROR
OA1203 - Happy Halloween! We take shelter from a year of ghoulish legal news in the COURTHOUSE OF HORROR, a cabinet of macabre legal curiosities including: “SO I TRADEMARKED AN AXE MURDERER”: The historic Lizzie Borden House takes a whack at a...
Trump’s All Out Assault on Immigrants Continues in Incompetent but Horrifying Fashion
OA1202 - We are pleased to welcome American Immigration Council Senior Fellow Aaron Reichlin-Melnick for this unique conversation between a practitioner and a policy expert. The AIC is one of the country's leading sources of information and advocacy...
Trump Says DOJ Should Pay Him $230 Million Because Why the F*** Not at This Point
OA1201 - This Rapid Response Friday, Matt and Jenessa play a few rounds of “Can They REALLY Do That?”, with topics including: The legal mechanism and filings behind Trump’s $230 million demand for DOJ having the audacity for investigating him...

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