

5-4
Prologue Projects
5-4 is a podcast about how much the Supreme Court sucks. Hosted by Peter Shamshiri, Rhiannon Hamam, and Michael Liroff, it's a progressive and occasionally profane take on the ideological battles at the heart of the Court's most important landmark cases and an irreverent tour of all the ways in which the law is shaped by politics.Subscribe to our premium episodes & much more at fivefourpod.com/support5-4 is a production of Prologue Projects.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Mar 31, 2023 • 5min
Palestine Legal: "The Great Difference a Movement Lawyer Can Make" [TEASER]
We're back with another episode of Rhiannon's movement lawyering series! In this episode, Rhiannon talks with Palestine Legal's senior staff attorney Radhika Sainath and staff attorney Dylan Saba about their mission to protect Palestinian activists from harassment, and the power of intersectional liberation movements.The full version of this premium episode is currently available exclusively to our subscribers. To join, visit https://www.fivefourpod.com/support.5 to 4 is presented by Prologue Projects. Rachel Ward is our producer. Leon Neyfakh and Andrew Parsons provide editorial support. Our production manager is Percia Verlin. Our website was designed by Peter Murphy. Our artwork is by Teddy Blanks at Chips NY, and our theme song is by Spatial Relations.Follow Palestine Legal (@pal_legal), Peter (@The_Law_Boy), Rhiannon (@AywaRhiannon) and Michael (@_FleerUltra) on Twitter and Instagram. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Mar 28, 2023 • 1h 7min
5-4 x Bloc Party: Michael on How the Dems Flopped on Debt Relief
Breaking news! It's not just the Supreme Court that sucks - it's ALSO the executive and legislative branches! This week we're sharing Michael's appearance on Bloc Party, talking about how oral arguments went down in the SCOTUS cases that could make or break Biden’s student loan cancellation initiative. Eleni Schirmer from the Debt Collective also joins in, to cringe at Roberts’ lawnmower commentary and reflect on the way Biden is (or more notably…is not) exercising his executive authority. Bloc Party is a show from Justice Democrats about the fight for the soul of the Democratic Party, featuring progressive champions challenging the status quo from inside the halls of power and the organizers transforming the party’s agenda from the outside. You can find it wherever you found this podcast.5 to 4 is presented by Prologue Projects. Rachel Ward is our producer. Leon Neyfakh and Andrew Parsons provide editorial support. Our production manager is Percia Verlin. Our website was designed by Peter Murphy. Our artwork is by Teddy Blanks at Chips NY, and our theme song is by Spatial Relations.Follow Peter (@The_Law_Boy), Rhiannon (@AywaRhiannon) and Michael (@_FleerUltra) on Twitter. You can follow the show on Twitter and Instagram @fivefourpod. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Mar 21, 2023 • 46min
Boyle v. United Technologies Corporation
What does a military contractor have in common with Justice Antonin Scalia? They both manufacture things! The contractor manufactures helicopters with faulty escape hatches. Scalia manufactures, out of whole cloth, new laws about who can be held liable for deaths. Neither of them care if you live or die, as long as the designs are to spec!5 to 4 is presented by Prologue Projects. Rachel Ward is our producer. Leon Neyfakh and Andrew Parsons provide editorial support. Our production manager is Percia Verlin. Our website was designed by Peter Murphy. Our artwork is by Teddy Blanks at Chips NY, and our theme song is by Spatial Relations.Follow Peter (@The_Law_Boy), Rhiannon (@AywaRhiannon) and Michael (@_FleerUltra) on Twitter. You can follow the show on Twitter and Instagram @fivefourpod. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Mar 14, 2023 • 6min
"When I say EMPTY you say SKULL" - Live in Austin [TEASER]
Recorded live at Stateside at the Paramount! Join us as we skewer Texas judges (not literally!), teach a robot to argue before the Supreme Court, and answer the question that has haunted this podcast from the very beginning: Who IS Leon Neyfakh? The full version of this premium episode is available exclusively to our subscribers. To join, visit https://www.fivefourpod.com/support.5 to 4 is presented by Prologue Projects. Rachel Ward is our producer. Leon Neyfakh and Andrew Parsons provide editorial support. Our production manager is Percia Verlin. Our website was designed by Peter Murphy. Our artwork is by Teddy Blanks at Chips NY, and our theme song is by Spatial Relations.Follow Peter (@The_Law_Boy), Rhiannon (@AywaRhiannon) and Michael (@_FleerUltra) on Twitter. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Mar 7, 2023 • 41min
5-4 Presents: Unreformed - "The Lucky Ones"
This week, 5-4 invites you to check out an episode of Unreformed: the Story of the Alabama Industrial School for Negro Children, hosted by friend-of-the-pod Josie Duffy Rice.In 1968, police arrested five Black girls dressed in oversized military fatigues in Montgomery. The girls were runaways, escaping from a state-run reform school called the Alabama Industrial School for Negro Children in Mount Meigs, Alabama. The girls were determined to tell someone about the abuse they’d suffered there: physical and sexual violence, unlivable facilities, and grueling labor in the fields surrounding the school. It was, as several former students called it, a slave camp.UNREFORMED is the story of how this reform school derailed the lives of thousands of Black children in Alabama for decades and what happened after those five girls found someone willing to blow the whistle. Host Josie Duffy Rice investigates the history of the school at the tail end of the Civil Rights movement in Alabama and speaks to former students who are still haunted by their experience but had the will to survive.If you like Unreformed, you can find it here: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1119-unreformed-the-story-of-t-107005437/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Feb 28, 2023 • 54min
In re Gault with Josie Duffy Rice
It's not easy being a kid. Especially when the state thinks you don't have any constitutional rights. Thank goodness for this week's case, In re Gault, where the Court decides you can have a little rights, as a treat. If you're not a 5-4 Premium member, you're not hearing every episode! To get exclusive Premium-only episodes, discounts on merch, access to our Slack community, and more, join at fivefourpod.com/support.5 to 4 is presented by Prologue Projects. Rachel Ward is our producer. Leon Neyfakh and Andrew Parsons provide editorial support. Our production manager is Percia Verlin. Our website was designed by Peter Murphy. Our artwork is by Teddy Blanks at Chips NY, and our theme song is by Spatial Relations.Follow Peter (@The_Law_Boy), Rhiannon (@AywaRhiannon) and Michael (@_FleerUltra) on Twitter. You can follow the show on Twitter and Instagram @fivefourpod. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Feb 21, 2023 • 5min
Prosecutorial Immunity, or "FTP" Means Prosecutors Too [TEASER]
You know and hate qualified immunity, which allows cops to get away with murder. Now meet prosecutorial immunity, the judge-made doctrine that allows prosecutors to get away with the death penalty. Prosecutorial immunity shields prosecutors from the consequences of their actions - whether it's putting witnesses they know are lying on the stand, withholding exculpatory evidence, or retaliating against you for refusing a plea. APAB.The full version of this premium episode is available exclusively to our subscribers. To join, visit https://www.fivefourpod.com/support.5 to 4 is presented by Prologue Projects. Rachel Ward is our producer. Leon Neyfakh and Andrew Parsons provide editorial support. Our production manager is Percia Verlin. Our website was designed by Peter Murphy. Our artwork is by Teddy Blanks at Chips NY, and our theme song is by Spatial Relations.Follow Peter (@The_Law_Boy), Rhiannon (@AywaRhiannon) and Michael (@_FleerUltra) on Twitter. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Feb 14, 2023 • 1h
Connick v. Thompson Encore
What is the greater crime? Missing a recording and pushing an episode back by a week … or using the full power of the state to prosecute a man for something he did not do, confining him in solitary as he awaits execution, and then appealing the remedy that he is awarded when exculpatory evidence (that the prosecution probably hid from the defense) resurfaces? Anyway, here's an encore of Connick v. Thompson to help you get hype for next week's Premium episode about prosecutorial immunity.If you're not a 5-4 Premium member, you're not hearing every episode! To get exclusive Premium-only episodes, discounts on merch, access to our Slack community, and more, join at fivefourpod.com/support.]5 to 4 is presented by Prologue Projects. Rachel Ward is our producer. Leon Neyfakh and Andrew Parsons provide editorial support. Our production manager is Percia Verlin. Our website was designed by Peter Murphy. Our artwork is by Teddy Blanks at Chips NY, and our theme song is by Spatial Relations.Follow Peter (@The_Law_Boy), Rhiannon (@AywaRhiannon) and Michael (@_FleerUltra) on Twitter. You can follow the show on Twitter and Instagram @fivefourpod. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Feb 7, 2023 • 1h 10min
"Jones Day Made Trump" - Live at Harvard Law with David Enrich
Recorded live at Harvard Law School's Corporate Capture of the Legal System conference, we're talking about Jones Day. The law firm jumps into bed with all manner of villains with the justification that "everyone deserves representation." But as David Enrich, business investigations editor at The New York Times writes in his new book “Servants of the Damned: Giant Law Firms, Donald Trump, and the Corruption of Justice," what Jones Day actually does goes far beyond "representation."If you're not a 5-4 Premium member, you're not hearing every episode! To get exclusive Premium-only episodes, discounts on merch, access to our Slack community, and more, join at fivefourpod.com/support.5 to 4 is presented by Prologue Projects. Rachel Ward is our producer. Leon Neyfakh and Andrew Parsons provide editorial support. Our production manager is Percia Verlin. Our website was designed by Peter Murphy. Our artwork is by Teddy Blanks at Chips NY, and our theme song is by Spatial Relations.Follow Peter (@The_Law_Boy), Rhiannon (@AywaRhiannon) and Michael (@_FleerUltra) on Twitter. You can follow the show on Twitter and Instagram @fivefourpod. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Jan 31, 2023 • 43min
Korematsu v. United States
In this case from 1944 the Court decides that arresting someone on "suspicion of being Japanese" and putting them in a concentration camp is not racially motivated. And while we're at it, don't call it a "concentration camp," that makes the justices feel icky.5 to 4 is presented by Prologue Projects. Rachel Ward is our producer. Leon Neyfakh and Andrew Parsons provide editorial support. Our production manager is Percia Verlin. Our website was designed by Peter Murphy. Our artwork is by Teddy Blanks at Chips NY, and our theme song is by Spatial Relations.Follow Peter (@The_Law_Boy), Rhiannon (@AywaRhiannon) and Michael (@_FleerUltra) on Twitter. You can follow the show on Twitter and Instagram @fivefourpod.Our email is fivefourpod@gmail.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands