Show Notes
DOCKET ALERTS:
Alina Habba is newly married and locked in a knife fight with fellow Trumplander Ric Grenell. She says he failed to deposit a $6 million check to the Kennedy Center. And — hey, what a coincidence! — a week later, the New York Times reported that Habba got a $50 million contract from a Venezuelan billionaire seeking a pardon for campaign finance violations.
Virginia State Senate President Pro Tempore Louise Lucas got indicted for running a chain of unlicensed marijuana dispensaries with her family.
A magistrate judge in Florida says Trump has to sit for a deposition by December 11 in his defamation trollsuit against the BBC.
DOOFUS OF THE DAY: It's a pitched battle between the bottom of Donald Trump's personal lawyers, Daniel Epstein, who filed a motion to please decide this quickly because being sanctioned by a federal judge is embarrassing, and Alex Jones's, who got two extensions of time to file their Fifth Circuit brief and somehow still managed not to turn in their homework on time. Now the Fifth Circuit might toss Alex Jones's appeal without a hearing.
MAIN SHOW: Two weeks before the midterm elections, the Department of Justice is demanding that California "segregate" 20,000 mail-in ballots from voters it says are noncitizens. Trump's henchmen filed a lawsuit and tried to steer this case to one of his appointees, but the move backfired and landed on the docket of one of the administration's harshest critics, Judge David Carter. Whoops!
Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín issued an injunction blocking HSI thugs from harassing citizens for voting.
SUBSCRIBER BONUS: Civil procedure FTW! In a lawsuit filed by the NAACP seeking to prevent Homeland Security from sending goons to the polls. A federal judge just ordered expedited discovery in an effort to protect the security of the midterms.
Exclusive: White House probes claims of missing Kennedy Center money in "MAGA blood feud" https://www.axios.com/2026/10/14/trump-kennedy-center-donation-maga-feud
A Billionaire Wanted a Trump Pardon. His Family Gave Alina Habba a $50 Million Deal. https://www.nytimes.com/2026/10/20/us/politics/julio-herrera-pardon-alina-habba.html
US v. Lucas https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/75002838/united-states-v-lucas/
Trump v. BBC https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/72040010/trump-v-british-broadcasting-corporation/
Donald Trump v. Thirty Five Federal Judges [11th Cir. appeal of attorney sanctions in IRS case] https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/73710657/donald-trump-v-thirty-five-former-federal-judges/
Jones v. Heslin [Alex Jones 5th Cir. appeal] https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/73472491/jones-v-heslin/
US v. California [DOJ demands California purge mail-in ballots] https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/74967108/america-v-california-state-of/
California Nurses Association v. Mullin https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/74815064/california-nurses-association-v-mullin
NAACP v. DHS [Subscriber bonus] https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/74811483/national-association-for-the-advancement-of-colored-people-v-us/
Show Links: https://www.lawandchaospod.com/ BlueSky: @LawAndChaosPod Threads: @LawAndChaosPod Twitter: @LawAndChaosPod
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