P. Andrew Torrez

10 years ago today, Trump’s DC hotel opened. It taught him people will pay a sitting president, and there will be no repercussions. Want to understand the second term’s corruption? Start with the hotel:

We listened to the hearing yesterday in DOJ's attempt to purge CA votes mid-election. It went very badly for the government, because of an issue of procedural geekery. @andrewtorrez.bsky.social, that's your walk up music! www.lawandchaospod.com/p/ninth-circ...

by @andrewtorrez.bsky.social @lizdye.bsky.social 1/2 “On Wednesday, October 21, the Trump administration waltzed into federal court in California, demanding a temporary restraining order to force the state to set aside vote-by-mail ballots from some 20,000 people it claims are noncitizens..

The promise of originalism: the far right invented a faux jurisprudence to maximize far-right outcomes, pretended they discovered the secret inner thoughts of the founders, reduced it to a bumper sticker slogan & campaigned on it The critique: we laughed at these dweebs until it was too late

Rupar always does an amazing job pulling and transcribing these clips such that you don't have to play the embedded video. I am here to tell you that for this one YOU MUST PLAY THE EMBEDDED VIDEO.

Blanche told reporters DOJ was not involved in the exact thing Trump said he ordered. The latest breach of the firewall of independence that’s burned for nearly half a century between DOJ and the executive, and it may have finally been extinguished. makeitmakesensepod.substack.com/p/the-presid...

Today on the pod —Alina Habba's triumphant(???) return —Louise Lucas indictment —Trump has to site for deposition in BBC trollsuit —Trump lawyers demand 11th Circ cancel sanctions that make them sad —Soooooo many election cases with @andrewtorrez.bsky.social podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/e...

Note that the defendant, AK elections director Carol Beecher, is the one who tried to keep Dan J. Sullivan off the ballot. Wondering if this is a collusive effort to get a stipulated settlement, as in MO with SOS Hoskins and the gerrymandered map kerfuffle. www.elections.alaska.gov/wp-content/u...

This bullshit complaint by DOJ trying to get Alaska to toss out the result of the senate election is a Stan Woodward joint, obviously. Complaint here: storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

Somebody paid money to find out that Hunter Biden is slightly less unpopular than Don Jr which is, on the one hand, an utter waste of money, but on the other hand, hilarious.

Yea there’s been massive Democratic fraud in Utah, few know this

Yes, the first part is outrageous, but the rest is *also* an outrageous multi-part lie. After (falsely) claiming that Merrick Garland was equally Biden's lackey, Blanche says "I'm not being critical of that" - despite having filed motions to dismiss Trump's criminal cases for that alleged reason!

Trump’s efforts to tear down the East Potomac Golf Course in open defiance of a court order is about much, much more than golf. Another must-read from @lizdye.bsky.social for @atrupar.com.

Breaking: Supreme Court denied Trump’s emergency application to restrict gender-affirming health care for transgender inmates @courthousenews.bsky.social

another data point: 70% of alaskans want to hear less about trans people in sport

And here I was thinking I’d have to stop writing about Alina Habba because she quit pretending to practice law

See? We drop a super long podcast when you have a super long drive!

Kind of weird that Susan Collins thinks the best way to hold on to her Senate seat is to try and convince voters that she’s not *really* a rubber stamp for Trump, she’s just completely fucking stupid.

Thanks for the kind words! Prof. Baumann’s article is a great think piece & we all need to have our baseline assumptions challenged. I am on record (video, even!) in 2017 arguing against court expansion for essentially Vladek’s reasons. But 2025+ SCOTUS is just… not a court in any sense.

Today on the pod —Homebrew hooch and magnet schools at SCOTUS —Trump shenanigans in BBC trollsuit —Doofus of the day: Stan Woodward in DC golf course case —Can Trump steal all government docs? —Bonus: Pack the Court ... or not? with @andrewtorrez.bsky.social podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/e...

For the past 20 minutes, the court's hearing has apparently been moved to the inside of a wind tunnel located next to a cell phone dead zone. I can hear every other word, but only punctuated by long whooooooooooshing sounds.

This is the most important development if you followed the set of questioning out of the box this morning when Judge Reyes asked DOJ lawyers who would be willing to sign the reply brief filed yesterday (that was full of lies). She is NOT interested in having a sanctions fight (at this time).

If you've been waiting to get into the hearing before Judge Reyes which YES IT IS STILL GOING ON FIVE HOURS LATER, the line is now open to the public: 833-990-9400 PIN: 787605272

I think the state is degrading faster than people realize. People who place their hopes in 2028 need to set their expectations around a state that is greatly diminished and set on a downward trajectory. Arresting the decline is itself a generational task.

Still no external audio for those of us trying to dial-in to the hearing before Judge Ana Reyes, which has apparently resumed. (Time to go back to obsessively refreshing Roger Parloff's feed. Thanks, Roger!)

The dial-in line for today's golf course hearing before Judge Reyes in DC is borked but Roger Parloff is doing yeoman's work liveblogging it:

No no this is fine. The DOJ said last night that it violates executive privilege for the court to look at presidential statements to divine his real intention.

SCOOP: 'Tommy' from the now-viral exchange with Abdul El-Sayed is Thomas Teepell, a former staffer for Republican Senator Josh Hawley with close ties to Christian Nationalist Sean Feucht. He's the son of a former Bobby Jindal staffer whose consultant work was instrumental in getting Hawley elected.

I’m assuming Trump insiders sold their Kalshi contracts on Netanyahu minutes before this Truth Social post went public.

On today's show, Liz predicted Zacharia's firing 12 hours beforehand; we talk about Maryland's smartest (& only) Republican; you'll get an in-depth discussion of the admin's war on Ilhan Omar but most importantly you'll get SANDWICH LAW! with @lizdye.bsky.social podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/e...

Liz 100% called this yesterday

Today on the pod: —Rep. Andy Harris: law-knower extraordinaire —DOJ pissing off every judge in DC at once —Can Trump really deport Rep. Ilhan Omar? —Smuckers bites TJ's, Joe bites back —Doofus of the Day: Katie Zachariah with @andrewtorrez.bsky.social podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/e...

Does anyone understand what this means? How can you be a citizen but subject to removal? www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...

This is a big deal. ohiocapitaljournal.com/2026/10/15/o...

Republican Rep. Andy Harris incorrectly told a reporter they were breaking the law as the reporter and others recorded an exchange with him last night. Harris had just wrapped up a debate with Democratic challenger Dan Schwartz.

So good!