Law and Chaos

In Jeffrey Epstein news: Ghislaine Maxwell showed up for congressional testimony, but says she’s taking the Fifth unless and until she gets a pardon. Bill and Hillary Clinton agreed to testify, averting a vote to refer them to DOJ for contempt of Congress. Paul Weiss managing partner Brad Karp stepped down after his emails to the noted pedophile were published.

Luigi Mangione will not face the death penalty, but will face trial this summer.

Main Show:

The Trump administration is trying to magic away Steve Bannon’s contempt of Congress conviction with an assist from SCOTUS. It’s called a GVR, and it’s filthy.

The DOJ sued in state court to get Fulton County’s 2020 ballots. They sued in federal court. And then they got a criminal warrant and just took them. Now Georgia election officials are suing to get their ballots back.

What is going on with that Tulsi Gabbard whistleblower report?

The Fifth Circuit greenlights ICE’s batcrap insane legal theory that the government must hold immigrants in detention indefinitely without a hearing. Should the challengers petition for en banc review, or go straight to SCOTUS?

And for subscribers, we’ll break down FCC Chair Brendan Carr’s threat to investigate the ladies at The View for daring to interview Texas Senate candidate James Talarico — a known Democrat!

Bannon Rule 48(a) Motion to Dismiss
https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.237437/gov.uscourts.dcd.237437.207.0.pdf

Bannon Cert Petition
https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/25/25-453/395803/20260209141144273_25-453_Bannon_cert_resp_file.pdf

US v. Alexander [DOJ civil suit to see Fulton County ballots]
https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/72028229/united-states-v-alexander/

Pitts v. US [Fulton County suit to recover ballots]
https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/72247417/pitts-v-united-states/

NSA detected foreign intelligence phone call about a person close to Trump
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/feb/07/nsa-foreign-intelligence-trump-whistleblower

Whistle-Blower Report Involved Intelligence About a Trump Contact
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/07/us/politics/whistle-blower-gabbard-trump.html

Buenrostro Mendez v. Bondi
https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/71870107/buenrostro-mendez-v-bondi/

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Andrew flies solo on today’s show, which… coincidentally features a bunch of law from the 1980s. Learn how a 1981 advertisement for a soon-to-be defunct video game system shaped the law of copyright into what it is today after Atari sued Magnavox to pull a Pac-Man clone off the shelves.

In the second story, we talk about the death of antitrust law. What once broke up the phone company’s monopoly is now so defanged that just two companies control almost all of the components that go into your PC. Oh, and the phone company basically reassembled itself.

The computer graphics monopoly set us on the path where computer are rented, not owned. And taking advantage of that was a company that targeted teenagers who want the latest and greatest gaming rig (but can’t afford it). Learn about the consumer fraud lawsuit, potential settlement, and the future of computers. Have we gone backwards since the 1980s? (Yes.)

Check out the independent reporting of Steve Burke at GamersNexus.

Atari, Inc. v. North American Philips Consumer Electronics Corp., 672 F.2d 607 (1982)
https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=16433139020722034724

Burns v. Fragile, Inc. [docket via CourtListener]
https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cand.454102/

Steve Burke, GamersNexus YouTube channel
https://www.youtube.com/@GamersNexus

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DOCKET ALERTS:

We bid a fond goodbye to Ed Martin … well, fond-ish.

Liam Ramos, the little boy kidnapped by ICE in Minneapolis along with his father is back home after a judge in Texas granted his habeas petition. Read the scathing order here.

Judge Jia Cobb re-imposed a temporary restraining order barring DHS from excluding legislators from immigrant detention facilities.

Two immigrant rights groups challenged ICE’s homebrew arrest warrants.

The Trump administration finally got that perp walk of Don Lemon. Two weeks ago, a federal magistrate refused to issue an arrest warrant for Lemon, Minnesota journalist Georgia Fort, and three others who were present at the MLK Day protest at a church whose pastor David Easterbrook is an ICE supervisor. Now a grand jury has indicted all eight of the DOJ’s original targets.

Chief Judge Jeffrey Sutton of the Sixth Circuit dropkicked the DOJ’s judicial ethics complaint against Chief Judge James Boasberg of the US District Court in DC. The complaint is based on leaked notes from a closed judicial conference in March, which Law and Chaos is suing to kick loose under FOIA. The Signalgate administration says it has no idea how this judicial record wound up on its servers.

Liz and Andrew sound off on Chief Justice Roberts forcing SCOTUS employees to sign NDAs.

Donald Trump sues the IRS — it’s like suing himself, but you get to foot the bill.

And we ponder whether Trump can legally burn down the Kennedy Center Make the Kennedy Center Great Again.

Plus for subscribers: Andrew’s got a deep dive into the Death on the High Seas Act and the lawsuit filed by survivors of two men murdered in the Caribbean boat strikes.

Justice Dept. demotes Ed Martin, stripping Trump ally of most authority
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2026/02/02/ed-martin-demoted-justice-department

Liam Ramos Habeas Order
https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.txwd.1172886492/gov.uscourts.txwd.1172886492.9.0_3.pdf

TRO Enjoining DHS from Excluding Legislators From Immigration Facilities
https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.283200/gov.uscourts.dcd.283200.52.0.pdf

The Perp Walk Is The Point
https://www.lawandchaospod.com/p/the-perp-walk-is-the-point

US v. Armstrong [Don Lemon Indictment]
https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.mnd.231103/gov.uscourts.mnd.231103.39.0_1.pdf

DOJ Attacks Judge, Claims Judicial Immunity For Itself
https://www.lawandchaospod.com/p/doj-attacks-judge-using-leaked-doc

Judge Sutton Dismissed DOJ Complaint Re Judge Boasberg
https://www.opn.ca6.uscourts.gov/internet/judicial_complaints/files/2025/06-25-90173(Chad.MO.pdf

Res Ipsa Media v. DOJ [L&C FOIA suit]
https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/71236135/res-ipsa-media-llc-v-department-of-justice

How the Supreme Court Secretly Made Itself Even More Secretive
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/02/us/supreme-court-nondisclosure-agreements.html

Trump v. IRS
https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.flsd.706172/gov.uscourts.flsd.706172.1.0_4.pdf

Boat Strike Complaint
https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.mad.294916/gov.uscourts.mad.294916.1.0_1.pdf

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Docket Alerts:

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard led a raid on the Fulton County Election Hub and Operating Center in Atlanta. ProPublica got the warrant. Mo Ivory, a Democratic commissioner for Fulton County, breaks it down on Instagram.

In Chicago, Marimar Martinez has moved to unseal evidence from DOJ’s failed effort to prosecute her for getting shot by ICE.

Reuters reports that Marcos Charles, the top official in ICE's Enforcement and Removal Operations division, issued new guidance instructing ICE to target only immigrants who have been arrested or convicted of crimes. This would be a huge improvement, but DHS won’t comment.

Main Show:

Once again, this is all the Supreme Court’s fault. Specifically, its rulings in J.G.G. v. Trump and Trump v. CASA led directly to the mayhem in Minnesota. First the Court forced immigrants challenging their detention to file thousands of individual habeas cases. And then they drastically limited the power of federal judges to issue relief when it “discovered” that nationwide injunctions are illegal.

The Trump administration took this as an invitation to break the law, irrespective of how many courts tell them not to, on the theory that CASA means precedent doesn’t count any more. DHS dummied up a memo saying that actually everyone without a green card must be held indefinitely. This is a gross misstatement of the law, as literally hundreds of courts have already ruled. But the Trump administration says because of CASA, they can continue to lock up people who’ve lived here for decades, checking in with DHS, working, paying taxes, and taking care of their families.

Judges are deluged with habeas petitions, which differ from each other only in the particulars of the cruelty being visited upon the individual immigrant. After ICE failed to obey a court order to release a habeas petitioner, Chief Judge Patrick Schiltz in the District Court of Minnesota ordered Todd Lyons, the Acting Director of ICE, to either release the guy or show up and explain why he shouldn’t be held in contempt of court.

ICE released the petitioner, but Judge Schiltz was still furious. He published a list of 96 violations of court orders in January alone — and that’s only in Minnesota! Thanks, Chief Justice Roberts!

On the plus side, Judge Schiltz’s colleague Judge John Tunheim issued a TRO ordering ICE to release every refugee detained under the erroneous memo and quit kidnapping them and spiriting them away to Texas.

And for subscribers, we’ll discuss the Ninth Circuit’s ruling that bars Kristi Noem from unilaterally canceling temporary protected status for a million Venezuelans and Haitians.

Hundreds of judges reject Trump’s mandatory detention policy, with no end in sight
https://www.politico.com/news/2026/01/05/trump-administration-immigrants-mandatory-detention-00709494

Fulton County Election Hub Warrant
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/26513986-1-28-26-fulton-warrant/

Marimar Martinez Motion to Unseal
https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.ilnd.487595/gov.uscourts.ilnd.487595.100.0.pdf

Exclusive: ICE officers in Minnesota directed not to interact with 'agitators' in new orders
https://www.reuters.com/world/ice-officers-minnesota-directed-not-interact-with-agitators-new-orders-2026-01-29/

J.G.G. v. Trump
https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24pdf/24a931_2c83.pdf

Trump v. CASA
https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24pdf/24a884_8n59.pdf

Tobay Robles v. Noem
https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/72120823/tobay-robles-v-noem

Judge Tunheim TRO
https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.mnd.230526/gov.uscourts.mnd.230526.41.0.pdf

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Hats off to Minnesota! The Twin Cities kicked Greg Bovino’s a** so hard he’s limping back to California and then retiring altogether. We’ll discuss the Trump administration’s apparent pivot on the invasion of Minneapolis and the many legal cases pending there.

First up, Minnesota v. Noem, where the state is trying to convince Judge Katherine Menendez to order DHS out of Minneapolis. Their Tenth Amendment argument got a big boost from Attorney General Pam Bondi, who actually sent Governor Walz a letter offering to pull back ICE’s goons if the state would surrender its legal rights.

Then we’ll discuss Minnesota’s lawsuit to preserve the evidence from the murder of Alex Pretti. The FBI says they’ve got it locked down, but Judge Eric Tostrud isn’t so sure.

Finally we’ve got a deep dive into the DOJ’s effort to turn a protest at a church into a criminal conspiracy to oppress Christians.

Show Links:

Minnesota v. Noem
https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/72132615/state-of-minnesota-v-noem/?order_by=desc

Bondi-Walz Letter
https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.mnd.230268/gov.uscourts.mnd.230268.114.1_1.pdf

Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension v. Noem
https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/72185880/minnesota-bureau-of-criminal-apprehension-v-noem/

US vs SEALED [Nekima Levy-Armstrong]
https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/72181995/united-states-v-sealed/?order_by=desc

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