Opening Arguments
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,…
- Indexed episodes, last 90 days
- 30
- Latest publication
- Sep 11, 2026
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- Earliest in this view
- Jul 3, 2026
Latest episodes
The 5th Circuit Says You Have No Right to Clean Water (opens the original)
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OA1295 - Today on Rapid Response Friday: your questions about the Lindsay Clancy mistrial, actual justice for the Tate brothers, Trump’s mystery meat, and the Fifth Circuit’s extremely normal holding that there is no cognizable Constitutional right to clean water and/or honest government. Finally, today’s footnote recognizes the 60th anniversary of the original Star Trek series with a five-minute mission to boldly go where no podcast has gone before: the strange new world of a poorly-drafted cla
Milo Yiannopoulos Lied About His Immigration Status (And We Can Prove It) (opens the original)
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VR43 - Today on this special edition of Vapid Response: ICE boot enthusiast Milo Yiannopolous is not a particularly interesting person, but his recent unexpected removal to the UK makes for quite a teaching moment. Matt brings 20 years of instincts and experience as a deportation defense attorney to some of the more mysterious questions surrounding Yiannopolous’s recent encounter with the realities of immigration enforcement and ensuing swift removal to the UK. How did someone on an “extraordina
The First Openly Autistic Lawyer in Florida on What Law Firms Get Wrong (opens the original)
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OA1294 - Haley Moss was the first openly autistic woman to practice law in Florida, and she is now an advocate for disability, autism, and neurodiversity in the workplace. She joins Matt and Thomas to discuss what law firm hiring managers need to know about autistic lawyers, why people in a profession which attracts neurodiversity are still so reluctant to disclose it, and the kinds of simple accommodations which can help lawyers on the spectrum thrive. Haley Moss’s website Great Minds Think Dif
Most Lindsay Clancy Coverage Has the Law All Wrong (opens the original)
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OA1293 - In this extra-special Rapid Response Friday, Thomas visits Boston to record live in Matt’s office and talk out two very different legal stories in the news that the media aren’t quite getting right this week. THE TRIAL OF LINDSAY CLANCY : Why were the defense and the prosecution both talking past each other in their closing arguments, and what is everyone missing about why Massachusetts law makes it nearly impossible for Clancy to present the defense that most people seem to believe tha
ICE Went Undercover To Expose a Vast Antifa "Conspiracy" (opens the original)
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Hey folks, no VR this week because Lydia and I are traveling. (We're in Boston, going to record RRF live together with Matt!) But folks NEED to hear this episode of Gavel Gavel we did. It's so absurd. Gavel Gavel Episode 83: Thomas, Lydia, and Matt dig into a newly released federal indictment out of Minneapolis, where ICE's undercover operation, officially named Operation Puppet Master, has charged roughly 15 protesters under the same statute as the sandwich guy. The conspiracy map names a boxin
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