Boom! Lawyered

In this episode of Boom! Lawyered, Imani and Jess preview the upcoming Supreme Court term, including a challenge to conversion therapy bans, protections for transgender student athletes, and more. Expert repro journalism that inspires. Episodes like this take time, research, and a commitment to the truth. If Boom! Lawyered helps you understand what’s at stake in our courts, chip in to keep our fearless legal analysis alive. Become a supporter today.Imani has relaunched her column, AngryBlackLady Chronicles. Sign up for our newsletters here to read it first, and listen to Imani’s new podcast, B*tch, Listen, here.

Turns out the closet wasn’t locked—it was glass all along. Sometimes you just can’t see your way out. Imani Gandy talks with comedian, actor, and writer Franchesca Ramsey about coming out later in life, visibility, and the joy of saying, "Surprise, bitch, I’m gay." They also discuss how comedy can be an opening for tougher conversations about race. Expert Repro Journalism That Inspires.

Expert repro journalism that inspires

Boom! Lawyered is back for its ninth season! In this episode, Imani and Jess explain why they believe we’re living through a “Deconstruction era”—think Reconstruction era, but in reverse—and what that means for our public institutions and the rule of law.  Expert repro journalism that inspires Episodes like this take time, research, and a commitment to the truth. If Boom! Lawyered helps you understand what’s at stake in our courts, chip in to keep our fearless legal analysis alive. Become a supporter today.Imani is relaunching her column! AngryBlackLady Chronicles will drop in September 2025. Sign up for our newsletters here to read it first.

In this episode of Boom! Lawyered Summer Session, Imani and Jess unpack the current landscape of the federal courts and what the conservative capture of the judiciary means for fighting President Donald Trump’s authoritarian agenda. They are joined by Alliance for Justice President Rachel Rossi, who highlights dangerous new Trump appointees and explains how progressives can win back the federal courts —yes, really. Expert repro journalism that inspires Episodes like this take time, research, and a commitment to the truth. If Boom! Lawyered helps you understand what’s at stake in our courts, chip in to keep our fearless legal analysis alive. Become a supporter today.Imani is relaunching her column! AngryBlackLady Chronicles will drop in September 2025. Sign up for our newsletters here to read it first.

 In this episode of Boom! Lawyered Summer Session, Imani and Jess dig into the Republican efforts to strip federal funding from Planned Parenthood clinics and explain how it fits with their larger attacks on health care and Medicaid. They are joined by Alexis McGill Johnson, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, who explains the day-to-day impact of these attacks and how to find joy in the fight ahead.  Expert repro journalism that inspiresEpisodes like this take time, research, and a commitment to the truth. If Boom! Lawyered helps you understand what’s at stake in our courts, chip in to keep our fearless legal analysis alive. Become a supporter today.Imani is relaunching her column! AngryBlackLady Chronicles will drop in September 2025. Sign up for our newsletters here to read it first.

In this episode of Boom! Lawyered Summer Session, Imani and Jess dive into the attacks on birthright citizenship and unpack the absurd constitutional arguments conservatives are making to advance these attacks. They are joined by Lourdes Rivera, president of Pregnancy Justice, who connects birthright citizenship to the movement to establish legal personhood rights for fertilized eggs, zygotes, and fetuses. Rivera also explains how conservatives are misusing the 14th Amendment to lob political attacks on bodily autonomy. Episodes like this take time, research, and a commitment to the truth. If Boom! Lawyered helps you understand what’s at stake in our courts, chip in to keep our fearless legal analysis alive. Become a supporter today.Imani is relaunching her column! AngryBlackLady Chronicles will drop in September 2025. Sign up for our newsletters here to read it first.

Boom! Lawyered Summer Session is back—and now we’re on video, too! In this season opener, University of Texas Law Professor Elizabeth Sepper joins Imani and Jess to unpack big changes in the relationship between religion and government ushered in by the Roberts Court. Episodes like this take time, research, and a commitment to the truth. If Boom! Lawyered helps you understand what’s at stake in our courts, chip in to keep our fearless legal analysis alive. Become a supporter today.Imani is relaunching her column! AngryBlackLady Chronicles will drop in September. Sign up for that newsletter here to read it first, and to get other expert repro journalism, too.Watch this episode on Youtube

On June 27, the Supreme Court wrapped up its extraordinarily consequential, controversial, and, at times, surprising term. Imani and Jess break down the best and worst of the 2024-2025 opinions, and what it could mean for the future of the nation. All that and… alligators? Tune into the final episode of this season of Boom! Lawyered.Episodes like this take time, research, and a commitment to the truth. If Boom! Lawyered helps you understand what’s at stake in our courts, chip in to keep our fearless legal analysis alive. Become a supporter today.The Fallout is back and better than ever. In her revamped weekly column, Jess and other guest experts will explore the judges, court cases, legal news, and laws that affect your day-to-day life. Subscribe to the newsletter here.

Chief Justice John Roberts contorted logic to find a path for Tennessee to enforce its anti-trans law, while Justice Amy Coney Barrett left breadcrumbs for conservatives to lodge future attacks on trans rights. In this week's episode, Imani and Jess break down this devastating decision and more.Episodes like this take time, research, and a commitment to the truth. If Boom! Lawyered helps you understand what’s at stake in our courts, chip in to keep our fearless legal analysis alive. Become a supporter today.The Fallout is back and better than ever. In her revamped weekly column, Jess and other guest experts will explore the judges, court cases, legal news, and laws that affect your day-to-day life. Subscribe to the newsletter here. 

Did the Supreme Court really make it easier for straight white folks to bring reverse discrimination claims? Kind of, yes. In this week's episode, Imani and Jess explain the Court's unanimous reverse discrimination decision, and why it matters that Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson wrote it.Episodes like this take time, research, and a commitment to the truth. If Boom! Lawyered helps you understand what’s at stake in our courts, chip in to keep our fearless legal analysis alive. Become a supporter today.The Fallout is back and better than ever. In her revamped weekly column, Jess and other guest experts will explore the judges, court cases, legal news, and laws that affect your day-to-day life. Subscribe to the newsletter here.

This episode has everything: strict scrutiny, the “big, beautiful bill,” and even Marbury v. Madison. This week, Imani and Jess answer listener questions in our second AMA episode.Episodes like this take time, research, and a commitment to the truth. If Boom! Lawyered helps you understand what’s at stake in our courts, chip in to keep our fearless legal analysis alive. Become a supporter today.Fight news fatigue with Executive Dysfunction, our weekly newsletter covering the Trump administration. We keep up with the chaos, so you can turn off your push notifications.

This week Imani and Jess have a very special guest join the pod. Robin Stevenson, author of the LGTBQ+ children’s book Pride Puppy, joins Boom! Lawyered to talk about what it’s like having her work at the center of the Supreme Court fight in Mahmoud v. Taylor. Listen in as Stevenson shares her experience being targeted by the conservative legal movement, and learn what folks everywhere can do to support banned books and their authors.Mentioned in this episode:The First Amendment Is Being Rewritten in Real TimeEpisodes like this take time, research, and a commitment to the truth. If Boom! Lawyered helps you understand what’s at stake in our courts, chip in to keep our fearless legal analysis alive. Become a supporter today.Fight news fatigue with Executive Dysfunction, our weekly newsletter covering the Trump administration. We keep up with the chaos, so you can turn off your push notifications.

Buckle up, y’all—we have a doozy for you today.This week, Imani and Jess get into the Supreme Court oral arguments in A.J.T. v. Osseo Area Schools. It was supposed to be a narrow education rights case that looked at whether students have to meet an impossibly high bar to sue schools under the Americans with Disabilities Act—that is, until Supreme Court litigator Lisa Blatt entered the chat and made things a little spicier.Now, Blatt is trying to make it difficult for anyone with disabilities to bring forth discrimination cases, and even the Supreme Court justices were confused.Rewire News Group is a nonprofit media organization, which means that episodes like this one are only made possible with the support of listeners like you! If you can, please join our team by donating here.And sign up for The Fallout, a weekly newsletter written by Jess that’s exclusively dedicated to covering every aspect of this unprecedented moment.

School libraries are not indoctrinating kids with “LGBTQ+ ideology”—I know that, you know that, we know that.But conservatives love pretending they don’t.This week, Jess and Imani get into Mahmoud v. Taylor, a Supreme Court case that could upend First Amendment rights with the potential to fundamentally erase the separation of church and state in public schools.Rewire News Group is a nonprofit media organization, which means that episodes like this one are only made possible with the support of listeners like you! If you can, please join our team by donating here.And sign up for The Fallout, a weekly newsletter written by Jess that’s exclusively dedicated to covering every aspect of this unprecedented moment.

Editor's note: This episode was recorded on April 16, 2025.The Trump administration’s lawlessness is hard to exaggerate—and especially so in the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who the White House admitted was mistakenly deported to a detention center in El Salvador. And even though the Supreme Court ordered the administration to “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s return to the United States, Trump and his cronies are doubling down.The White House is completely disregarding due process—and it’s a threat to all of us.This week, Jess and Imani get into Abrego Garcia’s nightmarish case, El Salvador and the U.S. government volleying blame on each other to avoid his rightful return, and President Donald Trump’s apparent desire to “deport” American citizens to a foreign detention center.Rewire News Group is a nonprofit media organization, which means that episodes like this one are only made possible with the support of listeners like you! If you can, please join our team by donating here.And sign up for The Fallout, a weekly newsletter written by Jess that’s exclusively dedicated to covering every aspect of this unprecedented moment.

This week, Jess and Imani join Lizz Winstead and Moji Alawode-El of Feminist Buzzkills live from The Black Cat in Washington, D.C. for a rowdy takedown of the latest abortion case to reach the Supreme Court, the election results in Wisconsin, and more.Rewire News Group is a nonprofit media organization, which means that episodes like this one are only made possible with the support of listeners like you! If you can, please join our team by donating here.And sign up for The Fallout, a weekly newsletter written by Jess that’s exclusively dedicated to covering every aspect of this unprecedented moment.

President Donald Trump famously has a… strained relationship with the law, to say the least. His first term saw numerous legal challenges to attempted policies—not to mention his two impeachments. Now, barely two months into his second term, Trump is already facing more than 100 lawsuits over his attacks on birthright citizenship, gutting of the federal workforce, and more. In this episode, Jess and Imani dive into the Trump administration’s attacks on the law, from targeting law firms to straight up ignoring court orders. And psst—Washington, D.C. listeners, don’t miss seeing Jess and Imani live with Feminist Buzzills’ Lizz Winstead and Moji Alawode-El! They’ll be taking the stage at the Black Cat on April 3 at 8 p.m. (doors open at 7 p.m.). Get tickets here.Rewire News Group is a nonprofit media organization, which means that episodes like this one are only made possible with the support of listeners like you! If you can, please join our team by donating here.And sign up for The Fallout, a weekly newsletter written by Jess that’s exclusively dedicated to covering every aspect of this unprecedented moment.

We have a treat this week—more attorneys! Law professor David S. Cohen and sociologist Carole Joffe join the pod to talk about their newest book, 'After Dobbs.'They chat with Jess and Imani about the legal battle over abortion pills, the Comstock Act, the importance of abortion care advocates, and what’s next in the abortion fight.Rewire News Group is a nonprofit media organization, which means that episodes like this one are only made possible with the support of listeners like you! If you can, please join our team by donating here.And sign up for The Fallout, a weekly newsletter written by Jess that’s exclusively dedicated to covering every aspect of this unprecedented moment.

We’re sweating! We’re hyperfixating! Because a bunch of conservative attorneys general have filed a lawsuit trying to weaken or eliminate Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, which served as a precursor to the Americans with Disabilities Act.This week, Jess and Imani get into the conservative legal movement’s attempts to roll back Section 504—and how it could constitute government-sponsored eugenics. And even though conservatives are pretending that they’re really just targeting trans folks, why should we believe them?Rewire News Group is a nonprofit media organization, which means that episodes like this one are only made possible with the support of listeners like you! If you can, please join our team by donating here.And sign up for The Fallout, a weekly newsletter written by Jess that’s exclusively dedicated to covering every aspect of this unprecedented moment.