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, Wednesday being Thomas Takes the Bar Exam and patron shoutouts, and Friday being a rapid response to legal issues in the news!
- Update frequency
- every 2 days
- Average duration
- 65 minutes
- Episodes
- 1131
- Years Active
- 2016 - 2025
We Have a King Now I Guess. Cool. Cool.
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OA 1128 - First: an urgent question from a patron on Trump’s latest executive power grab. Ma…
The Thursday Night Massacre, Part 2
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OA1127 + T3BE59!
Our breakdown of the Thursday Night Massacre continues, with Liz Skeen. The…
The Thursday Night Massacre
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OA1126 - Law'd Awful Boves
We interrupt your regularly-scheduled LAM for readings and comme…
Drinking from the Firehose of Fascism
OA1125 - (NOTE: Acting US Attorney for SDNY Danielle Sassoon’s resignation letter and DOJ acting deputy Emil Bove’s acceptance of that letter were published while we were recording this episode, and …
DoJ Memo Written In Crayon On Olive Garden Kids Menu Directs SDNY to Drop Eric Adams Case
OA1124 and T3BE58 - Emil Bove drafted an insanely stupid and corrupt memo ordering SDNY to stop prosecuting the case against the insanely stupid and corrupt (and guilty) Mayor Eric Adams. This is abs…
How the Insurrectionist Might Use the Insurrection Act to Go After Non-insurrectionists
OA1123 - Insurrection enthusiast Donald Trump sure seems to be looking for an excuse to invoke the Insurrection Act of 1807 in a little-noticed section of one of his flurry of Inauguration Day execut…
It's Only Been 18 Days, But That's An Eternity in DOGE Years
OA1122 - We’re not even three weeks into the second Trump administration and already well into our first Constitutional crisis. How was the world’s richest man given access to the nation’s checkbook …
The Pro-vaccine Republican Doctor Who Just Just Gave His Vote to RFK, Jr.
OA1121 and T3BE57 - Senator Bill Cassidy is one of the few remaining Republicans in national politics that resembles a normal human being. He is a doctor, and is very pro-vaccine. And he had a critic…
Rudy Giuliani and the Possibly the Worst Legal Document Ever Filed
OA1120- This episode was first published on our sister show, Gavel Gavel, and has been made available at no charge for our wonderful Opening Arguments patrons!
Folks, we and you deserve a little trea…
People Are Fighting Back Against Trump’s Fascist Agenda in the Courts, and They’re Already Winning
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OA1119 - Trump's executive orders are bad for humanity--and just plain badly written. We sur…
Key Figure Behind Project 2025 Lies His Way Through Confirmation
OA1118 and T3BE56 - Russell Vought lied in his confirmation hearing, but who is Vought and why should we care? Lydia gets us up to speed on this capital-d Doozy, with his background, some highlights …
The Vacancies Act - How Trump Has Used and Abused It, and Might Again
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OA1117 - As Donald Trump’s executive branch nominees continue to work their way through the …
Triaging All the Horrible
OA1116 - We take stock a few days into the second Trump administration to consider the current state of ICE enforcement, Trump’s blatantly unlawful overrule of the recent Supreme Court decision forci…
Trump's Executive Orders Are All Absurd and Horrible. But Which of them Actually Matter?
OA1115 - Matt joins for a special Wednesday to provide an initial review of some of the most notable of the 26 executive orders which Donald Trump signed after his inauguration on Monday. We go beyon…
We (Disrespectfully) Dissent.
OA1114 - “We are now faced, my friends, with the fact that tomorrow is today.” --Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (April 4, 1967)
We begin the second Trump administration exactly where we intend to remain…
We've Had One Jack Smith Report, Yes. But What About Second Report?
OA1113 - Special counsel Jack Smith recently resigned and turned final reports in each of Donald Trump’s federal cases to Attorney General Merrick Garland. We examine the enigma of the man and the co…
Democratic Senators Faced Their First Test in the Trump 2.0 Era - the Hegseth Confirmation
OA1112 and T3BE55!
But who will watch the doozy watchers? We will. We watched Pete Hegseth's confirmation hearing, but our focus might have been a bit different than elsewhere. Here at Doozywatch(tm…
We Watched the Eastman Documentary Trump Screened at Mar-a-Lago
OA1111 - The Eastman Dilemma: Lawfare or Justice?
We're giving everyone half of this Law'd Awful Movies! We watched John Eastman's... documentary? Whatever it is, a strange nonprofit called the Madi…
Trump Has His Own Entire Genre of Law Now
OA1110 - For the first time in US history, an American President (both former and future) is facing criminal sentencing. We review Judge Juan Merchan’s most recent ruling on Donald Trump’s motion to …
The Hysterical Victimhood Complex of John Eastman
OA1109 and T3BE54 - John Eastman is many things: a hack, a liar, a disgraced law school dean, a failed Wikipedia editor, and a mostly-disbarred, twice-indicted traitor to the Constitution on a despe…