Boom! Lawyered

The Supreme Court just let a blatantly unconstitutional abortion ban take effect in Texas. They made this unprecedented and radical move on the “shadow docket,” which is a fancy way of saying they avoided any hearings or scrutiny of any kind. They haven’t even had to explain their reasoning. Now, maybe they will eventually fix this. But maybe they won't. At best, this is a major warning shot at Roe v. Wade. At worst, it's a complete dismantlement of 50 years of abortion rights precedent via casual inaction. Either way, you can bet more bans like this are coming to a state near you. To make as much sense of the chaos as possible, Jessica Mason Pieklo and Imani Gandy hop on the mics for an emergency episode of Boom! Lawyered.Rewire News Group is a nonprofit media organization, which means that Boom! Lawyered is only made possible by the support of listeners like you! If you can, please join our team by donating here: https://rewirenewsgroup.com/donate

Last week, the Supreme Court completed its business for this term. And by "its business" we mean "gutting the meager remaining protections for voting rights in the United States." Other highlights of their closing act include the Affordable Cart Act living to fight another day, some subtle groundwork being laid for legal religious discrimination, and a disappointing number of justices (ZERO) announcing their retirement.On the last Boom! Lawyered before our own summer break, Jess and Imani break down the final crush of news from the Court and give the latest update on Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization. Barring any major breaking news, Boom! Lawyered will be back in September. If you want more Jess and Imani in the meantime, follow their Rewire News Group adventures on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook!Rewire News Group is a nonprofit media organization, which means that Boom! Lawyered is only made possible by the support of listeners like you! If you can, please join our team by donating here.

The Supreme Court handed down two big decisions today. First, the Court rejected an attempt by conservative attorneys general to declare the Affordable Care Act as unconstitutional. But don't get too comfortable, law nerds. There's more to this decision than meets the eye.Then the Court declared that the city of Philadelphia must contract with a foster care agency that refuses to certify same-sex couples. What's even more shocking is that Justice Elena Kagan signed on. And so did Justice Stephen Breyer. And so did Justice Sonia Sotomayor!What gives? How can all of Court's liberal justices have signed onto this requirement to certify an agency that discriminates? Well, on this rapid reaction episode of Boom! Lawyered, Jess and Imani have some answers. And what those answers say about the state of case law protecting so-called "religious freedom" is as fascinating as it is alarming.Boom! Lawyered is a part of Rewire News Group, a nonprofit media organization. That means we rely on supporters like you to help make our show possible. And right now, we're running an amazing campaign—if you donate here today, a generous supporter will match your gift!

Heads up! If you can help us reach our fundraising goal at https://rewirenewsgroup.com/donate/, Jess and Imani will film the wildest and smashiest live event in Rewire News Group history next week! Check out that donate page for more info.***Lubbock, Texas, passed a “sanctuary city for the unborn” ordinance, a so-called heartbeat ban that would ban abortion at around six weeks. The ban would allow anyone to sue to enforce the ban—and not just anyone in Lubbock or Texas. Anyone in the country could decide to sue a Lubbock abortion provider. Or a few thousand people could decide to sue one of those providers at once.The law can't take effect for now, thank goodness, but that could change.Planned Parenthood, which provides abortions in Lubbock, challenged the constitutionality of the ordinance in federal court. But in a shocking decision, the court dismissed the case. And the logic used to justify the decision should alarm anyone concerned about abortion rights. Because the Lubbock ban isn't the only one with this terrible clause—the statewide Texas ban, which is also currently unenforceable, would also allow for private enforcement of their ban should it ever take effect.On this episode of Boom! Lawyered, Jess and Imani dissect the impact of this shocking decision. They also give their weekly update on the latest developments in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, the direct challenge to Roe v. Wade that the Supreme Court is expected to hear in the fall.

This direct challenge to Roe v. Wade didn't reach the Supreme Court by accident. It was the culmination of a detailed plan that was hiding in plain sight.Actually, that doesn't do it justice—the deep-pocketed anti-choice movement was begging everyone years ago to listen to exactly how it planned to obliterate abortion rights: by passing a 15-week abortion ban in Mississippi and defending it all the way to a revamped Supreme Court.On this episode of Boom! Lawyered, Jess and Imani take us inside that plan to either end Roe or make it "totally irrelevant," and they explain how it's snaked its way to the precipice of victory.Rewire News Group is a nonprofit media org, which means that Boom! Lawyered is only made possible by the support of listeners like you! If you can, please join our team by donating here: https://rewirenewsgroup.com/boomgive

The Supreme Court announced today it would be taking up a case that could completely upend abortion rights.Back in 2018, Mississippi passed a law that banned abortion at 15 weeks. It was struck down at the district level. Then the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, a notoriously conservative appeals court, struck it down, citing the clear precedent of Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey. And if the Supreme Court agreed that this was obviously unconstitutional, they could have easily just refused to take the case.But they finally took the case.On this emergency episode of Boom! Lawyered, Jess and Imani explore what today's news portends for abortion in America and when we can expect this all to come to a head. They are also joined by special guest Hillary Schneller, the lead attorney on the case from the Center for Reproductive Rights, who explains how this case could determine the extent of the government's ability to mess with our fundamental rights.

RAGA is the Republican Attorneys General Association. It's essentially what it sounds like—a bunch of Republican attorneys general whose goal is to get other Republican attorneys general elected to office. Seems (relatively) normal, right?Well, it would be, except the group has gone completely off the deep end. On top of a lot of their members fighting to overturn the 2020 election, there are disturbing connections between RAGA and the insurrection at the Capitol in January.On this episode of Boom! Lawyered, Jess and Imani take us into the smoky back-room world of RAGA to give us an inside look at their half-alarming, half-embarrassing schemes and the creeps behind them.

Fact #1: Everyone agrees—Mississippi’s lawyers included—that no fetus is viable at 15 weeks.Fact #2: Mississippi passed an abortion ban that takes effect at 15 weeks.Fact #3: Pre-viability abortion bans have been ruled unconstitutional.Combined, these three facts mean that courts should have no trouble striking down Mississippi's ban. And yet! Arguments over that ban have made it all the way to the Supreme Court, where justices have conferenced on whether to hear the case almost twenty times. What gives?On this episode of Boom! Lawyered, Imani and Jess try to get inside the heads of the justices to make sense of what's going on—and whether all of their indecision could be resolved with the right self-care routine.

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court heard arguments in a case involving a former high school student who posted a photo of herself and a friend on Snapchat with their middle fingers raised. The caption read, “fuck school fuck softball fuck cheer fuck everything.” Have you fainted in outrage yet?Brandi Levy was a freshman at a Pennsylvania high school when she tried out for the varsity cheerleading team. She didn’t make it, and ended up on the JV squad. She probably wasn't happy about that and posted the Snapchat in question. The cheerleading coaches caught wind of it and suspended her from cheerleading for a year.In response, Levy's father filed a lawsuit with the help of the ACLU, alleging that the school had violated his daughter’s First Amendment rights. And now this case may decide some major questions about the rights of minors like:What free speech rights do students have outside of school?Can their free speech rights be abridged 24 hours a day, 365 days a year?What counts as private versus public speech in the era of social media?On this episode of Boom! Lawyered, Jess and Imani wade into all of this and more. Gooooo team!

Just when you thought lawmakers couldn't stoop any lower to attack trans kids, Texas state senators took it to a new level with the introduction of a bill that would prohibit parents from "administering or supplying, or consenting to or assisting in the administering or supplying of puberty suppression prescription drug or cross-sex hormone to a child, other than an intersex child, for the purpose of gender transitioning or gender reassignment." And if parents don't comply, the state could take their child. Seriously!This follows on the heels of other anti-trans bills in Arkansas and North Carolina. Fortunately, Jess and Imani are here to explain everything you need to know about what's happening and what can be done about it.Boom! Lawyered is created by Rewire News Group. We're a nonprofit media outlet, and that means your contributions are essential to funding our work. So if you enjoy Boom! Lawyered, please consider donating here: https://rewirenewsgroup.com/boomgive