In this episode, our hosts — Kathryn Johnson and law professors Ilan Wurman and Joshua Kleinfeld — examine the three latest examples of judicial power being used to block elected officials.

They cover Florida’s effort to hold the American Academy of Pediatrics and WPATH to account for lying about the risks and benefits of transgender surgery on kids — only for an Illinois federal judge to step in and halt the state proceedings on First Amendment grounds. They cover the D.C. Circuit’s decision to overrule Pete Hegseth and compel the American military to permit transgender service members — holding that his policy was motivated by bare “animus" with no rational basis. And they cover a Tennessee federal judge’s decision to dismiss human smuggling charges against Kilmar Abrego Garcia on the novel theory of "vindictive prosecution" — once again protecting an illegal immigrant with alleged gang ties from deportation.

The episode closes with a deeper discussion of judicial power itself: what happens when major policy questions keep getting resolved by courts rather than through democratic politics? Have conservatives been too sanguine about the judiciary’s role?

Don’t miss it. And be sure to check out Professor Wurman’s new book, The Constitution of 1789: A New Introduction, now available from Cambridge University Press.

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In this special episode of Rationally BASED, our host, law professor Ilan Wurman, is joined by guest co-hosts Sanjana Friedman and Judge Glock. Both write about homelessness, public encampments, and other disorders in America's progressive cities. Our hosts talk about the state of the homelessness-industrial complex in Los Angeles and San Francisco. Do NGOs have an incentive to perpetuate homelessness? Was Spencer Pratt right to describe homeless people as simply "drug addicts"? (Answer: mostly yes.) Our hosts talk about how progressives manipulate language to dull the mind and advance their radical agenda, for example by describing homeless persons as "unhoused." Our hosts then dive into legal issues surrounding "public nuisance": Can taxpayers and homeowners use public nuisance to fight back against public encampments and other insane progressive policies? And why are progressives so against public nuisance laws in these obvious contexts, when they use public nuisance laws for absurd purposes like suing energy companies for climate change or gun manufacturers for gun violence? Is this another example of progressives abusing the legal system? Tune in to find out.

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Our hosts Kathryn Johnson, Joshua Kleinfeld, and Ilan Wurman break down the controversial new DOJ Anti-Weaponization Fund. Is it legal? Is it justified? And after decades of Democrat “sue and settle” tactics, does it even matter?

The panel dives into how Obama and Biden administrations used collusive sue-and-settle tactics to funnel billions to allies, donors, and favored causes through settlement funds — from $3.5B for Native American tribes and aligned lawyers, to $1.3B for Hispanic farmers and aligned lawyers, to $1.2B from Volkswagen for electric cars, to a student debt end-run from Biden. Trump banned the practice in his first term — only to have the ban immediately reversed by Biden.

At the core of the episode is the defining question of the Trump era: When the Left breaks norms for power, should the Right turn the other cheek, respond combatively but differently, or engage in pure tit-for-tat? Is upholding already-broken norms just being suckers?

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New Podcast Episodes every Thursday morning, find us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or on YouTube!

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