Law and Chaos

DOCKET ALERTS:
 
The Kennedy Center board of trustees is back on its BS. After being ordered to take Trump's name off the side of the building, they've now voted again to put it back on. They also voted to close the facility for two years. Rep. Joyce Beatty, who brought the lawsuit that forced them to back off the first time, vows to fight on.
 
Meanwhile musician Chuck Redd was just awarded $252,000 in attorneys fees after the Center sued him for breaching a contract he never signed.
 
Judge Roy Altman is Aileen Cannon-balling it up in Trump's trollsuit against the BBC. This week he allowed Trump to amend his complaint yet again for "good cause." What good cause could there be to sue a company which never broadcast the supposedly defamatory documentary in the US?
 
MAIN SHOW:
 
The Washington Post reports that Jeanine Pirro, the US Attorney for DC, has empaneled a special grand jury. Corruption incoming!
 
The DOJ has amended the indictment of the SPLC again. This time they've added a former employee who ran its Intelligence Project and managed its paid informants. The case is no less preposterous with an extra defendant and a couple more charges.
 
The Ninth Circuit issued a hugely consequential ruling on Section 230 immunity for websites, and Liz and Andrew do not agree at all about it.
 
SUBSCRIBER BONUS:
 
Judge Richard Stearns in Massachusetts swatted down the DOJ's effort to shout "antisemitism" and steal $950 million from Harvard.
 
Trump v. BBC
https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/72040010/trump-v-british-broadcasting-corporation/
 
Pirro, in rare move, convenes special grand jury in Washington
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2026/08/12/pirro-convenes-unusual-grand-jury-dc-that-can-focus-single-case-issue-report/
 
US v. Southern Poverty Law Center 
https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/73223865/united-states-v-southern-poverty-law-center-inc/
 
Colorado v. Meta [9th Circuit opinion]
https://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2026/08/10/24-7265.pdf
 
US v. Harvard
https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/72520538/united-states-v-president-and-fellows-of-harvard-college/
 
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DOCKET ALERTS:
 
Todd Blanche was confirmed as permanent attorney general after Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy remembered that he's an unprincipled hack.
 
Trump's lackey Will Scharf is being promoted from staff secretary to White House Counsel in advance of the midterms.
 
The White House is once again trying to fire Federal Reserve Board Member Lisa Cook after the Supreme Court blocked it the first time.
 
DOOFUS OF THE DAY: Senator Mike Lee, who vowed to block the Senate going into recess until it passed the SAVE America Act. He did not. Instead Majority Leader John Thune made him preside over the session, ensuring that he could not object.
 
MAIN SHOW:
 
On Friday, the DC Circuit affirmed the trial judge's order blocking Trump's tacky ballroom — at least the above-ground portion. The government tried to shield this project from judicial review by claiming that the Office of the Executive Residence, which manages floral arrangements and routine maintenance of the White House, was actually superintending the $600 million construction project. But the appeals court nixed it. 
 
The administration hopes to use a similar ONE WEIRD TRICK to slap white paint all over the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. It claims that the project is being overseen by the White House Office of Administration, rather than the General Services Administration. TBD whether Judge Dabney Friedrich lets them get away with it.
 
Airlines hate Skiplagged.com, which tells consumers how to save money by hopping off flights at the layover. They've failed to shut the site down using various tort claims, and so they tried copyright and trademark.
 
SUBSCRIBER BONUS:
 
After the Supreme Court blocked him in June, Trump is once again trying to end birthright citizenship by executive order.
 
National Trust for Historic Preservation v. National Park Service [DC Circuit Docket]
https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/73239730/national-trust-for-historic-preservation-v-nps
 
National Trust for Historic Preservation v. National Park Service [Trial Docket]
https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/72028010/national-trust-for-historic-preservation-in-the-united-states-v-national/
 
Cultural Heritage Partners v. Trump 
https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/71918245/cultural-heritage-partners-pllc-v-trump/
 
American Airlines, Inc. v. Skiplagged, Inc. 
https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/67699985/american-airlines-inc-v-skiplagged-inc/
 
United Airlines' Contract of Carriage
https://www.united.com/en/us/fly/contract-of-carriage.html
 
Trump EO: "Ending Birth Tourism"
https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2026/08/ending-birth-tourism/
 
Trump EO: "Continuing to Protect the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship"
https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2026/08/continuing-to-protect-the-meaning-and-value-of-american-citizenship/



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DOCKET ALERTS:
 
Todd Blanche advanced out of the Judiciary Committee and faces a vote by the full Senate on whether to confirm him as Attorney General. Will Republicans defy—JK,LOL.
 
Journalist Katie Phang's lawsuit against Blanche for failing to disclose all documents required under the Epstein Files Transparency Act hit a snag when the government just plum forgot to file an answer to her complaint. The DOJ also failed to provide unredacted documents to Judge Emmet Sullivan for review in chambers. Judge Sullivan ordered Blanche to personally appear in court on August. 13.
 
DOOFUS OF THE DAY: Third Circuit Judge Jennifer Mascott, who spent the first six months of her judicial tenure moonlighting as the head of a PR firm which solicited MAGA clients.
 
MAIN SHOW:
 
Trump's multitudinous trollsuits do much better in front of his own appointees than in front of normal judges. Judge Roy Altman has utterly beclowned himself in Trump's lawsuits against Capital One and the BBC. But his cases against the Wall Street Journal, JP Morgan, and the New York Times faced a much cooler reception.
 
Charges against the Broadview 6 for "conspiracy" to protest were dropped months ago. But the case goes on, as the former defendants ask Judge April Perry to appoint a special counsel to investigate and potentially prosecute the US Attorneys Office in Chicago for contempt of Court. Prosecutors counter that any investigation can be handled by the DOJ's Office of Professional Responsibility, which has been conveniently neutered under Trump.
 
And we're back on our Buc-ee's BS — can't get enough of those beaver nuggets! Has the convenience-store-on-steroids chain gone too far with its lawsuits against every animal mascot on earth? One plucky teddy bear is fighting back.
 
SUBSCRIBER BONUS:
 
Can John Oliver sell parody Buc-ee's merch? We consult a talking squirrel and the greatest amicus brief of all time!
 
LINKS: 
 
Phang v. Blanche 
https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/73246595/phang-v-blanche/
 
US v. Rabbitt [Broadview 6]
https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/71795281/united-states-v-rabbitt
 
At Trump's DOJ, watchdogs gutted as misconduct complaints soar
https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/trumps-doj-watchdogs-gutted-misconduct-complaints-soar-2026-08-06/
 
'Is she even allowed to be doing this?': Inside a federal judge's side gig running a PR firm
https://www.politico.com/news/2026/08/06/jennifer-mascott-federal-judge-adfero-pr-firm-01025871
 
Buc-ee's v. Teddy's Market [docket via CourtListener]
https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/73290962/buc-ees-ltd-v-teddys-market-llc/
 
THE GREATEST AMICUS BRIEF OF ALL TIME
https://www.acluwv.org/app/uploads/2017/08/2017-08-17-Amended-Amicus-28File-Stamped29.pdf



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Andrew is flying solo today. He's got three stories about the petty incompetence of this administration. First, we start off with the likely impending confirmation of Todd Blanche as Attorney General after the DOJ finally put in writing that the $1.8 billion "Anti-Weaponization" slush fund is dead. The Trump tax giveaway is still alive, though, and that means so is Judge Williams's investigation as to whether the President committed a fraud on the court.
 
Next, we delve into the unraveling of DC US Attorney Jeanine Pirro's ham-handed efforts to try and indict a former Olympian for vandalizing the Reflecting Pool in Washington. Turns out, the problem was the contractor all along. Who knew? (We all knew, including Pirro.)
 
Finally, we take a look at a trio of motions filed by James Comey in his criminal case, all of which involve the central claim that the mafia uses the term "86" to mean "kill." Turns out, Comey secured an affidavit from the world's foremost expert on mafia code words, and he thinks that argument is "preposterous." How do all of these fundamental mistakes keep making their way into criminal indictments? Comey is the latest defendant who thinks prosecutors may not have been entirely candid with grand juries.



Trump v. IRS [SDFL Docket via CourtListener]
https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/72207870/trump-v-internal-revenue-service/?filed_after=&filed_before=&entry_gte=&entry_lte=&order_by=asc
 
US v. Comey [docket via CourtListener]
https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/73256624/united-states-v-comey/?order_by=desc
 
John Gleeson affidavit
https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nced.227449/gov.uscourts.nced.227449.40.3.pdf



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It's our semiquincentennial! And we're celebrating with a long-form interview with Zach Everson, research director of the Trump Accountability Project. Zach joins us to discuss how cryptocurrency powered Donald Trump's massively successful grift of billions of dollars, and what we can do about it. Along the way, we also discuss the proposed CLARITY ACT, and how the fake ethics provisions added by Republicans were so bad that the bill itself is likely to die on the vine.
 
Thank you for being with us for 250 episodes!



CLARITY ACT- HR 3633
https://www.lummis.senate.gov/wp-content/uploads/Clarity-Act.pdf



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Twitter: @LawAndChaosPod