@openargs.bsky.social
Explaining law in the news to non-lawyers every Mon/Fri and responding to the right's worst legal takes on video every Weds. Join the community at patreon.com/law!
The @openargs.bsky.social podcast has a good dive into immunity, qualified and otherwise, and the narrow, ambiguous road of legal recourse when the federal government misbehaves. We live in a time where understanding the decision tree is important.
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...
Tomorrow's front page of the Minnesota Star Tribune: Jan. 24, 2026
23.01.2026 23:45 — 👍 10118 🔁 3984 💬 152 📌 254You know what Congress can do: open its own investigation into Renee Good’s death and make its own referral to DOJ. And if the Republicans don’t want to do it, I think we know have 10 attorneys and 1 FBI agents perfectly willing to testify at shadow hearings held by the Democrats.
24.01.2026 01:55 — 👍 357 🔁 97 💬 5 📌 5Next up on Law'd Awful Movies: Kim Kardashian fails the acting bar in Ryan Murphy's atrocious "All's Fair"-- but how is the law? The law is also bad. Get ad-free listening along with our most entertaining episodes on Patreon!
patreon.com/law
US court allows ICE to arrest and pepper-spray peaceful protestors in Minnesota
Appeals Court Stays Restrictions on Federal Tactics in Minnesota The Eighth Circuit granted the Trump administration’s request to block, at least for now, a lower court’s injunction limiting how federal agents interact with protesters in the state.
One court decision, two different headlines.
Guardian on the left, NY Times on the right. Which one more directly conveys information and the stakes to the reader?
I have appreciated Silky's work for years and her book "Unbuild Walls" helped me to better understand how to center decriminalization and abolition in both my legal advocacy and my journalism, so this one was extra fun for me. Still thinking about this one, and I think you will be too.
22.01.2026 02:54 — 👍 48 🔁 16 💬 2 📌 0If you can’t run against the fucking Gestapo, then get out of the way for those who can.
22.01.2026 01:24 — 👍 2470 🔁 510 💬 19 📌 21
Also be sure to check out Silky Shah's book "Unbuild Walls: Why Immigrant Justice Needs Abolition," required reading for anyone who is ready to do their part to abolish ICE
www.haymarketbooks.org/books/2213-u...
We are podcasters at heart and you can always find us in the usual places, but we're giving this video thing a try every Wednesday now so please also follow us on YouTube! Thanks as always for supporting independent media
m.youtube.com/@SeriousPodN...
Thanks to @silkys13.bsky.social of the Detention Watch Network for a great conversation about the challenges & opportunities of organizing against mass deportation & detention in this moment, how lawyers can (and can't) help, & where she is finding hope right now
youtu.be/zonU1PEmrd0?...
This is necessary reading from the Detention Watch Network's Silky Shah. She'll be joining on tomorrow's show for a great conversation about 23 years of fighting ICE on the ground, what this moment means to her, the tough choices these times require, and imagining life after ICE
20.01.2026 23:54 — 👍 15 🔁 7 💬 1 📌 0Thanks!
20.01.2026 23:50 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
BTW if you want background on the Maduro story, listen to the one and only Liz Skeen @openargs.bsky.social
podbay.fm/p/opening-ar...
Do you really need us to explain why a US military invasion of Greenland would be illegal or are we good here
11.01.2026 05:53 — 👍 71 🔁 2 💬 3 📌 1
#AbolishICE
From the @openargs.bsky.social
podbay.fm/p/opening-ar...
"ICE IS NO GESTAPO!" COMPLAIN GESTAPO ENTHUSIASTS
The National Review piece we read and discussed five months ago (starting around 6:45) on why ICE is definitely not the Gestapo has aged like lettuce
youtu.be/hiwC6szbOWM?...
"If [ ] Eastman & [ ] Trump’s plan had worked, it would have permanently ended the peaceful transition of power... [I]f the country does not commit to investigating and pursuing accountability for those responsible, the Court fears January 6 will repeat itself."
--federal judge David Carter 3/28/22
John Eastman and Rudy Giuliani rally the troops at the Capitol on January 6, 2021
RT this if you know that John Eastman did J6
06.01.2026 17:10 — 👍 28 🔁 16 💬 1 📌 2
@seriouspod.bsky.social's 5-second review of the pro-insurrectionist "The Eastman Dilemma":
"it's like someone did 4% of the work on this movie, and then died"
Opening Arguments was the only non-MAGA media outlet to review the John Eastman documentary screened at Mar-a-Lago just ahead of J6 last year as part of our patrons-only Law'd Awful Movies series. The full episode (and all other LAMs) is up for patrons without ads!
Patreon.com/law
Former attorney John Eastman bears more personal responsibility for J6 than Donald Trump, and yet most Americans will never know his name. Let's be sure they do.
open.spotify.com/episode/33Lm...
just a reminder of the initial, in the moment, right wing reaction to jan 6
my favorite is greg gutfeld saying republican condemnation of the jan 6 rioters is an example of their moral superiority over the left
www.mediamatters.org/media/4018641
One of the best ways to commemorate 1/6/2021 is to learn as much as you can about the plot behind it and be sure that everyone around you understands it too. Last year's J6 episode went deep on the too often overlooked complicity of lawyers in the insurrection
open.spotify.com/episode/4W55...
CORRECTION TO TODAY'S OA: we have an extradition treaty with Venezuela, but it has been functionally dead for yrs & does not cover Venezuelans
In my defense, it turns out I had internalized "we have no extradition w/Venezuela" from one of the funniest endings to any movie
youtu.be/SlA9hmrC8DU?...
"They are lying. They know that *we* know that they are lying, and that we know that that *they* know that we know that they are lying."
deportnation.substack.com/p/we-have-al...
You'd hardly know from mainstream coverage that these actions were flatly illegal and totally unjustified, even by US standards, or that 80 people lost their lives on Saturday.
Thanks so much to patrons for stepping up for this one, & pls consider supporting indie media here:
Patreon.com/law
This two-part episode was recorded barely 24 hours after the news broke, so there are plenty of things we expect to revise and revisit here. But thanks especially to Liz we covered quite a lot of ground, and in much more depth than you'll find almost anywhere else
05.01.2026 16:52 — 👍 8 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
