Opening Arguments

OA1236 - Elections grab bag! Election news has been accumulating, so Jenessa helps us get caught up on what’s going on. Who’s winning elections? What’s going on with redistricting? Heard something confusing about the mail? Trump back on his bullshit again? Good news, mixed news, debunking alleged bad news, bad news with plans for how to turn things around; we’ve got it all.
Updates since we recorded: The SAVE America Act passed the House. Also the affidavit for the warrant in Georgia was unsealed. We’ll talk about it soon, but the short version is these people really still believe in election conspiracy theories. It’s gross. We’ll survive.
John Hanna & Julie Carr Smyth (Feb. 1, 2026). Texas stunner: Democrat Taylor Rehmet flips Republican state Senate district Trump won by 17 points, Associated Press.

Amy Howe (Feb. 4, 2026). Supreme Court allows California to use congressional map benefitting Democrats, SCOTUSBlog.

Tangipa v. Newsom (docket and SCOTUSBlog coverage), SCOTUSBlog.

Abbott v. League of United Latin American Citizens (docket and SCOTUSBlog coverage), SCOTUSBlog.

H.R.7296 - SAVE America Act, Congress.gov.

H.R.7300 - Make Elections Great Again Act. Congress.gov.

Domestic Mail Manual 608.11

Domestic Mail Manual amendment explanation (Nov. 24, 2025). Postmarks and Postal Possession, Federal Register.

39 CFR Part 111

Dan Mooney, What Is RTO? Why Do We Have It?, National Association of Postal Supervisors (Aug. 19, 2025) 

Regional Transportation Optimization (RTO) initiative. (Feb. 2, 2025). Service Standards for Market-Dominant Mail Products, Federal Register.

39 CFR Part 121

Track Your Ballot or Ballot Application, Vote.org.

2 U.S.C. § 7 - Time of election

(Dec. 24, 2025). Table 11: Receipt and Postmark Deadlines for Absentee/Mail Ballots, National Conference of State Legislatures.

Evan Lee (Jan. 15, 2026) Court holds that all candidates can challenge rules governing vote counting in elections, SCOTUSBlog.

Bost v. Illinois State Board of Elections, 607 U.S. __ (2026).

Bost v. Illinois State Board of Elections (docket and SCOTUSBlog coverage), SCOTUSBlog.

Amy Howe (Nov. 10, 2025). Justices agree to decide major election law case, SCOTUSBlog.

Watson v. Republican National Committee (Election Law) (docket and SCOTUSBlog coverage), SCOTUSBlog.

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OA1235 - Today on Rapid Response Friday: Matt’s still on island time, so it’s a good-news-only kind of day as we review (1) the historic termination of deportation proceedings against Tufts grad student Rumeysa Ozturk, (2) new judicial restraints on ICE, (3) a DC federal judge’s outstanding rebuke to DHS Secretary Kristi Noem’s attempt to deport 350,000 Haitians, and (4) a Republican revolt on Trump’s emergency tariffs. (Also: just how stupid is the super-secret memo which ICE has apparently been using to justify breaking into some immigrants’ homes without a judicial warrant?)
Finally in today’s footnote: Matt shares how his attempt to mail some pants from the U.S. Virgin Islands revealed a weird loophole in Trump’s emergency tariff orders which is now forcing some U.S. citizens to pay international duties on domestic shipments.
In re: Ruiz-Massieu, Int. Dec. #3400, Board of Immigration Appeals (June 11, 1999)

Whistleblower Aid letter detailing secret ICE memo allowing arrests without warrants (memo attached at Ex. 1)(Jan. 6, 2026)

Sample I-205 ICE administrative warrant

D.C. District Court judge Ana Reyes’s decision in Moit v. Trump  preserving Temporary Protected Status for Haitians in the U.S. (2/2/2026)

“Suspending Duty-Free De Minimis Treatment for All Countries,” The White House (July 30, 2025)

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VR22 - Matt reports in just a few miles from--and this is true--Epstein Island to provide a recap of his recent visit to Minnesota days after Alex Pretti’s murder for the first major gathering of state legislators joining forces to stop federal overreach since 1814. How are the people of Minneapolis and their elected leaders holding up on the front lines of the Department of Homeland Security’s war on America, and what can we learn from their example? 
Finally, in today’s Vapid Response: professional centrist (and amateur constitutional scholar) Lionel Shriver explains how nearly three hours of research has convinced her that sanctuary jurisdictions, the people of Minneapolis, and Antonin Scalia have gotten it all wrong.
State Futures website

Video of the Minnesota Senate Rules and Administration Select Subcommittee on Federal Impacts to Minnesotans and Economic Stability hearing held Jan. 29, 2026

“There Should Be No Sanctuary From ICE,” Lionel Shriver, The Spectator (Jan 2025)

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Take a break from the downfall of democracy and instead get outraged at the deep injustice of a year-long feud over a bronze medal in women’s gymnastics. This story’s got everything: bravery, racism, the best and the worst of sportsmanship, bad blood that’s been brewing since the Cold War, and, somehow, the Swiss Federal Court. Come for the weird gymnastics scoring rules, stay for the legal analysis of international arbitration rules.
Rory Carroll (August 5, 2024). Gymnastics - Biles bows to Andrade in floor final at Paris games. Reuters.

International Gymnastics Federation, Code of Points
2022-2024: https://www.gymnastics.sport/publicdir/rules/files/en_2022-2024%20WAG%20COP.pdf

2025-2028: https://www.gymnastics.sport/publicdir/rules/files/en_1.1%20-%20WAG%20COP%202025-2028.pdf


International Gymnastics Federation, Technical Regulations
2024: https://www.gymnastics.sport/publicdir/rules/files/en_1.1%20-%20Technical%20Regulations%202024.pdf

2025: https://www.gymnastics.sport/publicdir/rules/files/en_1.1%20-%20Technical%20Regulations%202025.pdf


English press release from Swiss Federal Court.

Further reading:
Richard McLaren, The CAS Ad Hoc Division at the Athens Olympic Games, 15 Marq. Sports L. Rev. 175 (2004).

Video of the relevant floor routines, plus a time stamp for when they all attempt the infamous Gogean leap:
Rebeca Andrade: 0:55; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXKM8ThtYOE

Simone Biles: 0:53; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2m2UL5bljw

Jordan Chiles: 1:29; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kU0769SvbWE

Ana Bărbosu: 1:06; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ik01tvmwV9c

Sabrina Maneca-Voinea: 1:49; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuF-smKa4Vo


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OA1233 - We are not conspiracy theorist type people. But... yeah man I don't know. But also, so much more in these files to talk about. If you know anything about the federal government’s 2007 plea deal with Jeffrey Epstein you know that it was bad. But newly-released documents from the Epstein files show that it was actually much worse than that! Thanks to a newly-released legal memo, a draft indictment, and internal emails between prosecutors we now have a much better understanding of the disagreements within US Attorney for the District of Southern Florida Alex Acosta’s office as they finalized the terms of a much-too-friendly agreement between the US government and a billionaire pedophile which a federal appeals court would later call “a national disgrace.” Matt has the receipts for this special emergency episode.
You can also watch this episode on YouTube!
Steve Bannon’s Interview with Jeffrey Epstein (directly downloaded from the DOJ)

Investigation into the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida’s Resolution of Its 2006–2008 Federal Criminal Investigation of Jeffrey Epstein and Its Interactions with Victims during the Investigation (Department of Justice Office of Professional Responsibility, 2020)

Incident Report (Palm Beach Police Department, 2006) 

Epstein indictment draft (United States Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of Florida, 2007)

Appendix in The People of the State of New York v. Jeffrey E. Epstein (2013)

Opinion - Alex Acosta acted with professionalism and integrity in handling the Jeffrey Epstein case (Miami Herald, 2/16/2019) 

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