Episodes
New episode · November 5, 2026
Democrats Win Congress in Historic Midterms. Can They Rein In Trump?
Democrats have won the House and Senate. What will it take to turn that victory into lasting checks on presidential power?
Every episode
October 2026
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Could Facebook Have Stopped January 6? With Frances Haugen
Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen, the subject and hero of the new film The Social Reckoning, joins Corey Brettschneider and John Fugelsang for an in-depth conversation about Facebook’s responsibility for January 6.
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Report the News, Risk Deportation? Stanford Students Take On Trump
Can writing an article put you at risk of deportation?
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Impeach Trump? Rep. Al Green Makes the Case
Congress has the power to impeach Trump. Will it use it?
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Jack Smith Fights Back—and Why the Midterms Matter (with Rep. Ted Lieu)
Jack Smith turns the tables on his congressional questioners and doubles down on why he indicted Donald Trump.
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Deported to Torture? The Supreme Court Greenlights Trump
What if the government sends you to a country you've never known—where you fear persecution or torture—and you never get a real chance to challenge it?
September 2026
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Trump’s White House Press Ban & Religious Coercion (with Mickey Dollens)
Can a president shut out reporters because he doesn’t like their coverage? Corey Brettschneider and John Fugelsang take on Donald Trump’s sudden ban on CNN, MS NOW, and Politico from the White House.
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Bonus Episode: Is Bipartisanship Still Possible? With Governors Bill Haslam and Phil Bredesen
One Republican. One Democrat.
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Did the Supreme Court Just Save the Election? With Skye Perryman
Can Trump use the Postal Service to control how Americans vote by mail? And when does a campaign promise cross the line into an attempted bribe?
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Will the Court Help Trump Steal the 2026 Election?
Could the Supreme Court help Trump disrupt the 2026 election?
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Trump’s Mafia Presidency, with Barbara McQuade
Trump’s abuses of power keep colliding with the law. But even when courts recognize the danger, procedural barriers can prevent them from stopping it.
August 2026
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The Christian Nationalism Behind January 6, with Rep. Jared Huffman
Why did the January 6 Committee underplay the role of Christian nationalism in its final report? Rep.
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Trump’s Presidency for Sale?
This week on The Oath and the Office, we follow four stories that raise one question: what happens when the restraints on presidential power start disappearing?
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Trump vs. the Supreme Court. Again.
Trump already lost on birthright citizenship. Now he is testing the limits of constitutional law with two narrower executive orders.
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Blanche’s Confirmation Deal: Trump’s Weaponization Fund Could Return
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche appears to have secured the committee votes needed to advance his nomination.
July 2026
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What Trump and the New Right Really Believe | David French
What does Trump actually believe, and how does his worldview connect to the New Right? Corey Brettschneider and John Fugelsang look beyond the latest outrages to the ideology linking them.
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Trump’s Media Threats & Todd Blanche’s $1.8B Slush Fund (with Skye Perryman)
Threatening the broadcast licenses of news networks is a direct assault on the free press.
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Trump Targets the Press—and Spies on Americans (with Sen. Ron Wyden)
Trump’s Justice Department subpoenaed New York Times reporters after they exposed security problems with the Qatari jet Trump accepted for use as Air Force One.
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Trump’s $2.2 Billion Presidency: The Corruption the Constitution Saw Coming
Trump’s latest financial disclosure points to something far bigger than another ethics scandal: a presidency being used as a vehicle for private financial gain.
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Trump Loses Birthright, Wins a Power Grab (with Joyce Vance)
The Supreme Court dealt Trump a major defeat by rejecting his effort to end birthright citizenship. It also refused to let him fire the head of the Federal Reserve.
June 2026
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Trump’s DOJ Is Hiding the Epstein Files. Katie Phang Is Suing.
Katie Phang joins The Oath and the Office to discuss her legal fight to force Trump’s DOJ to release the Epstein files.
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Trump’s War on Habeas Corpus and DOJ Independence — with Harry Litman
Corey Brettschneider and John Fugelsang open with explosive new reporting that Stephen Miller pushed a plan for President Trump to suspend habeas corpus — the fundamental constitutional safeguard that allows people detained by the government to challenge their imprisonment in court.
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Trump Melts Down as Congress Pushes Back
Trump melts down in a chaotic Meet the Press interview, lashing out when pressed on his “anti-weaponization” fund and his false claims of rigged elections.
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Trump’s Bad Week Is Democracy’s Opening
Donald Trump’s revenge politics hit resistance this week — not by accident, but because citizens, journalists, lawyers, judges, and lawmakers kept pushing.
May 2026
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Trump’s Imperial Presidency: Bogus Charges and Foreign Wars
Trump’s claim of power above the law is showing up on every front: bogus prosecutions, deportation threats, attacks on speech, war powers, and military escalation abroad.
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The Secret Memos Behind the Supreme Court’s Shadow Docket (with Jodi Kantor)
What is the Supreme Court doing when it acts without full briefing, oral argument, or a real explanation?
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Can Trump Undo Our Citizenship Rights? (with ACLU’s Cecilia Wang)
This week on The Oath and The Office, Corey Brettschneider and John Fugelsang begin with the new redistricting wars, as southern states move to dilute Black Americans’ voting power after a green light from the Supreme Court.
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The Supreme Court’s Assault on Our Rights (with Kate Shaw)
The Supreme Court is reshaping American democracy — weakening voting rights, empowering the presidency, and narrowing the protections that have defined modern civil rights law.
April 2026
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Trump’s War on Truth and Science (with James Morone)
Trump briefly talked about “cooling things down.” Then came the escalation.
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Trump’s Supreme Court, the Shadow Docket, and the New Normal (with Aaron Parnas)
Has Trump changed American politics so deeply that what once seemed dangerous now feels normal?
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Trump vs. the Pope
Trump says the pope should stay out of politics.
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Is Trump Committing War Crimes? Lawrence Douglas on Hegseth, Nuremberg, and the Criminal State
Can a president commit war crimes? Can a defense secretary? And what would it take to hold either one accountable?
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Before Project 2025: How the Right Built Trump’s Power Grab (with David Sirota)
Trump’s attack on birthright citizenship is only part of the story. The bigger danger is a decades-long effort to free the presidency from constitutional limits.
March 2026
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Mueller Warned Congress. Trump Celebrated His Death.
Trump’s reaction to Robert Mueller’s death was grotesque. But the deeper question is what Congress failed to do when Mueller was alive: why didn’t it impeach Trump based on the Mueller report?
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Stacey Abrams on the SAVE Act: The New Voter Suppression Threat
Is the SAVE Act really about election security — or is it a new blueprint for voter suppression?
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Trump’s War and the Imperial Presidency
Trump’s shifting war aims are a warning sign of the imperial presidency.
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Can Congress Stop Trump’s War?
As the prospect of a U.S. military clash with Iran returns to the headlines, Corey Brettschneider and John Fugelsang break down the constitutional stakes: who actually controls the power to start—and stop—a war?
February 2026
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Trump Loses in Court — But Pressure Remains on the Press and Late Night (with Mike Pesca)
Trump just suffered a major Supreme Court defeat.
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Trump’s FCC Pressures Late Night — Even as Resistance Wins
Trump’s FCC is pressuring late-night TV — and CBS is hesitating. What happens when regulators don’t censor speech outright, but make networks afraid to air it?
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DOJ Payback Politics (with Preet Bharara)
Trump is turning DOJ into payback politics—and this week shows the playbook in action: pressure around the Gateway tunnel, a reporter’s home searched, the Clinton subpoena spectacle, and a growing recruiting crisis inside the department.
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Trump vs. the Rule of Law: A 5-Year-Old Detained + Election Power Grab
A federal judge warns that Trump is violating the principles of law and the Declaration of Independence—and this week’s events show exactly what that means in practice.
January 2026
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Jan. 6 Then & Now: The Insurrection Blueprint (with Tom Joscelyn)
Jan. 6 wasn’t just a riot—it was a blueprint.
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DOJ vs. Trump: The Indictment That Never Came (with Glenn Kirschner)
The indictment that never came is still shaping DOJ’s ongoing battle with Trump.
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ICE Kills Renee Good: Can Minnesota Charge? + Trump’s White-Grievance Politics
An ICE agent killed Renée Nicole Good in Minneapolis—so can Minnesota bring charges, even if federal officials try to block accountability?
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Trump's Illegal Attack on Venezuela: Congress Must Step In + Jack Smith’s Testimony
In this episode of The Oath and The Office, Corey Brettschneider (Brown University Professor and author) and John Fugelsang dive into Trump’s illegal military action in Venezuela, exposing how it violates Congress' constitutional power to declare war.
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Supreme Court Checks Trump — 2025 Year in Review
As 2026 begins, host Corey Brettschneider (Brown University professor) and co-host John Fugelsang look back at 2025’s biggest constitutional stress-tests—and what to watch in 2026.
December 2025
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Brown Shooting Fallout: Lies on X — Epstein Redactions
This week, host Corey Brettschneider, a Brown University professor, and co-host John Fugelsang begin with the latest confirmed developments in the Brown University shooting—and the parallel storm of disinformation on X that spread during the investigation: false accusations against a transgender student and a manufactured narrative about motive.
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A Brown Professor on the Shooting—and Gun Laws
This week’s episode is personal.
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Trump’s Supreme Court Power Grab (with Leah Litman)
Leah Litman — University of Michigan law professor and constitutional law expert — joins Corey Brettschneider and cohost John Fugelsang to explain how the Supreme Court may be clearing the way for Donald Trump to fire independent regulators at will.
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MAGA Is Blaming the Judges (with Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse)
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse joins us for one of our most important conversations yet.
November 2025
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Political Prosecutions Blow Up — Judge Rules Trump’s Prosecutor Was Illegally Appointed
A judge has blown up Trump’s indictments of James Comey and Letitia James — ruling the special prosecutor was illegally appointed.
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Trump Cornered Amid Epstein Panic
Epstein files erupt in Washington, leaving Trump suddenly cornered as Republicans push for their release.
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Trump Ends His Shutdown — What’s Behind Jackson’s Puzzling SNAP Call?
Trump has ended his shutdown — but the real shock came from the Supreme Court.
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The Case That Could Finally Stop Trump (with Dahlia Lithwick)
This week on The Oath and The Office, Corey and John trace the pattern of Trump’s lawlessness — from unions suing over his surveillance of non-citizens’ social media to his effort to strip gun rights from marijuana users, a selective “law and order” move aimed at his non-allies.
October 2025
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From Tariffs to Nukes — How Congress Can Stop Trump’s Power Grabs (with Rep. Ted Lieu)
Corey Brettschneider and John Fugelsang trace how “no taxation without representation” connects to today’s fight to restore Congress’s power in the face of Trump-style presidential overreach.
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When Courts Fail and Universities Fight Back
In this week’s episode of The Oath and The Office, Corey Brettschneider and John Fugelsang break down a deeply concerning new ruling from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals — one that sides with Trump and the military, expanding executive power and eroding the cornerstone principle of civilian control.
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Trump’s Self-Coup: The Three Prosecutions that Expose It
Three prosecutions. One plan.
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The Rule of Law on Trial (with CNN's Jake Tapper)
Is the rule of law still standing—or slipping away?
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Trump Targets Comey — and the Shutdown Showdown (with Malcolm Nance)
On this episode of The Oath and The Office, Corey Brettschneider and John Fugelsang examine two urgent threats to American democracy before welcoming New York Times bestselling author Malcolm Nance.
September 2025
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Trump and Bondi are Coming for Free Speech
Trump’s politics of division—friends vs. enemies—has now turned on the First Amendment itself.
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Trump Turns Kirk’s Killing Into a Weapon
Corey Brettschneider and his cohost John Fugelsang examine how Donald Trump is exploiting the tragedy of Charlie Kirk’s killing—turning grief into a retribution narrative—and the danger that poses to American democracy.
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Trump’s ICE Raids Get SCOTUS Greenlight: Democracy on the Line
The Supreme Court just gave Trump a dangerous win—greenlighting ICE racial profiling raids.
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Judge Rules Trump’s Military Move Illegal
Judge Breyer rules Trump’s military deployment is unconstitutional under the Posse Comitatus Act. We unpack the history, the structural reasoning, and what it means for presidential power.
August 2025
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Trump’s Flag-Burning Ban and Dictator Dreams
Donald Trump just issued an unconstitutional order against flag burning.
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Trump Attacks the Smithsonian: Whitewashing Slavery From Our History
Donald Trump is attacking the Smithsonian and trying to whitewash the story of slavery.
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The Hard Coup Has Begun: Trump Escalates His War on America
Corey and John open with a personal note: The Presidents and The People has just won the American Bar Association’s Silver Gavel Award for its defense of the rule of law—a mission now more urgent than ever.
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Rigging Reality: Trump Fires Stats Chief as Texas Targets Voting Rights
Donald Trump didn’t like the latest economic data, so he fired the nation’s top labor statistician. It’s not just about one job: it’s a dangerous move toward rigging reality itself.
July 2025
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Satire Strikes Back: South Park Skewers Trump and Paramount
South Park just aired one of its sharpest episodes ever—a brutal, brilliant, and hilarious take-down of Trump and Paramount, its own parent company This after Paramount bowed to Trump's groundless lawsuit over a 60 Minutes story and then refused to renew Stephen Colbert’s contract.
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From Courtrooms to Congress (with Mike Sacks)
Veteran legal journalist Mike Sacks has reported from countless courtrooms, from Fox 5 to the National Law Journal.
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Birthright Citizenship Showdown: State AGs vs. Trump (with NM Attorney General Raúl Torrez)
In this urgent episode of The Oath and The Office, hosts Corey Brettschneider and John Fugelsang unpack the high-stakes constitutional battle over birthright citizenship.
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The Coup Continues: Trump's Purge, MAGA Meltdown, and the War on Free Speech
In this explosive episode of The Oath and The Office, Corey Brettschneider and John Fugelsang reveal how Trump's latest moves amount to a dangerous "self-coup"—an internal attack on American democracy.
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SCOTUS Guts Injunctions & Trump’s “Alligator Alcatraz” Spectacle
In this episode of The Oath and The Office, Corey Brettschneider and John Fugelsang unpack the Supreme Court's dramatic ruling that weakens nationwide injunctions—a critical blow to civil rights groups fighting executive overreach.
June 2025
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Illegal War? War Powers, Deportation Chaos & Trans Rights at Risk
In this wide-ranging episode of The Oath and The Office, John and Corey dive into four major legal controversies shaking the nation: Iran Attack & War Powers: Was President Trump’s recent bombing of Iranian nuclear sites without Congress’s approval an illegal act of war?
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No Kings, No Tyrants (with ACLU's Mike Zamore)
Join Corey Brettschneider and John Fugelsang on this timely episode of The Oath and the Office, featuring Mike Zamore, National Policy Director of the ACLU.
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Trump, the Insurrection Act, and the California National Guard: Democracy Under Threat
In this episode of The Oath and the Office, Corey Brettschneider and John Fugelsang unpack Donald Trump’s unprecedented move to take operational control of the California National Guard.
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Harvard Law & Holy Wars: Trump’s Attack on Courts, Campuses, and Religious Freedom
Trump’s battles are spreading everywhere: from the Ivy League halls of Harvard to the Supreme Court’s shifting stance on religious liberty.
May 2025
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The War That Didn’t End When We Thought: (with historian Michael Vorenberg)
This week on The Oath and The Office, co-hosts Corey Brettschneider and John Fugelsang welcome renowned historian and Lincoln scholar Michael Vorenberg.
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Supreme Threats (with Melissa Murray)
NYU Law Professor and renowned constitutional expert Melissa Murray joins Corey Brettschneider and John Fugelsang on The Oath and The Office for a vital discussion on abortion rights, the Supreme Court, and the health of democracy.
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The Rule of Law Under Siege: Judge Dugan Indicted, Roberts' Weak Trump Rebuke, Habeas Corpus Crisis
Co-host Corey Brettschneider celebrates winning the American Bar Association Silver Gavel Award—but there's no time to rest.
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Bad Vibes & Broken Oaths (with Leah Litman)
Law professor Leah Litman (University of Michigan) – co-host of Strict Scrutiny – joins co-hosts Corey Brettschneider and John Fugelsang on The Oath and The Office for an urgent, witty deep-dive into the chaos at the heart of American law and democracy.
April 2025
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100 Days of Democratic Destruction: Trump, Executive Orders, and Constitutional Crisis
In this essential episode of The Oath and The Office, hosts Corey Brettschneider and John Fugelsang dissect Trump’s first 100 days, highlighting dangerous executive orders that threaten constitutional democracy.
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Lady Justice vs. Trump 2.0: (with Dahlia Lithwick)
Legal journalist Dahlia Lithwick joins The Oath and The Office to explore why Trump’s second presidency is even more dangerous than the first—and how courageous lawyers, many of them women, are once again stepping up to defend the rule of law.
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Trump’s Coup Continues: Supreme Court Defiance and the Ivy League Showdown
This week on The Oath and The Office, Trump openly defies a Supreme Court order to return a non-citizen to El Salvador—then calls it a “win.” Stephen Miller gloats.
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Skadden Folds. The Court Wavers. Trump Advances
Professor Corey Brettschneider and political comedian John Fugelsang this week discuss the Supreme Court's recent ruling on immigration and the capitulation of law firms to Trump's bullying.
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Who Can We Trust to Uphold the Constitution?
John Fugelsang and Professor Corey Brettschneider talk about the deliberate attempt by Trump to curtail free speech at universities by denying them funds.
March 2025
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Capitulation or Courage: The ACLU's Fight for Non-Citizens' Rights
John Fugelsang and Professor Corey Brettschneider this time hightlight the many judges that are ruling against Trump's illegal orders and policies.
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Trump's War on Courts Heats Up
This time - John and Corey take a deep dive into Trump's escalating defiance of court orders, attacks on judges, and controversial deportations.
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Systematically Eliminating Dissent By Dismantling Free Speech
John and Corey discuss the illegal ICE arrest and incarceration of activist Mahmoud Khalil, a former student at Columbia University and researcher in machine learning at the University of Connecticut.
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Bravely Standing Up to the Bully in the White House
John and Corey discuss the contentious meeting with President Trump and Ukrainian President Zelensky in the Oval Office.
February 2025
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What We Can Learn From Germany
John Fugelsang and Professor Corey Brettschneider discuss Vice President JD Vance who gave a speech in Munich criticising Germany for curtailing free speech about Nazis and hypocritically scolding European leaders for many actions Trump himself has taken.
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Resigning to Defend Democracy
John Fugelsang and Professor Corey Brettschneider discuss the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Danielle Sassoon, resigning.
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Trump vs. The Constitution
Professor Corey Brettschneider and John Fugelsang discuss the coup that Donald Trump is carrying out against the Constitution and how he's doing it through birthright citizenship and an outright rejection of judicial review.
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