Claim OwnershipEarly Returns - Law and Politics with Jan Baran
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© 2025 Early Returns - Law and Politics with Jan Baran
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Elections, lobbying, voting, and campaigning today are intense and filled with increasingly complex rules and resulting legal disputes. “Early Returns: Law and Politics with Jan Baran” spotlights players on the field, including political professionals, activists, election officials, lawyers, and journalists, eliciting their insights and personal experiences. Join Jan and his guests as they tackle current controversies in law and politics. Jan Baran is a partner at Holtzman Vogel Baran Torchinsky & Josefiak PLLC.
26 Episodes
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Host Jan Baran welcomes back Josh Gerstein, Senior Legal Affairs Reporter for Politico, for a comprehensive review of the litigation landscape surrounding the Trump administration. They dive into the Supreme Court's increasingly prominent "shadow docket" and how it has become essential for advancing presidential agendas through executive action rather than legislation. The conversation covers major legal flashpoints including immigration enforcement cases, National Guard deployments in Califo...
Host Jan Baran sits down with Coinbase Chief Policy Officer Faryar Shirzad for an educational and illuminating deep dive into cryptocurrency's intersection with law and politics. Faryar, whose journey from Iranian diplomat's son to White House advisor to Goldman Sachs executive led him to crypto's frontier, breaks down the complex technology in refreshingly accessible terms. He explains how the recently passed Genius Act creates the framework for dollar-backed "stablecoins" - essentially digi...
Jan Baran speaks with Artificial Intelligence (AI) legal expert. lawyer and teacher, Oliver Roberts, to speak about AI, its birth, its forms, and how people have historically used and are currently using the ever-changing technology. They discuss further about how AI has changed the way lawyers practice, how the courts are using it, what questions clients are asking in RFPs related to technology, and why the big law firms are investing in AI. There are plenty of upsides to using ...
In this episode of Early Returns, Jan Baran speaks with Brody Mullins, co-author of “The Wolves of K Street” and Pulitzer Prize winning Wall Street Journal journalist, about the historical, present and future world of lobbyists in the U.S. When our founding fathers created the Constitution, they believed there would be both industry and worker factions lobbying towards a greater good. Then, eventually big money took over big government and legal reforms were introduced. They...
In this episode, Jan Baran speaks with the Vice Chair of the Federal Election Commission (“FEC”), Trey Trainor. Born and raised in Texas, Commissioner Trainor discusses his career, his route to the FEC, the tracking of campaign donors through technology, the future of the Commission, and its role with the Department of Justice in campaign finance investigations. Given that the FEC is responsible for administering and enforcing our federal campaign finance laws, they discuss the Ne...
Attorney General of Virginia and son of an immigrant who fled Fidel Castro’s Cuba, Jason Miyares, has recently announced his campaign for reelection and now talks with Jan Baran about the role of attorney general and the issues facing Virginia. AG Miyares reveals his journey growing up in Virginia Beach and his path to his current office. He also discusses the pre-election lawsuit by the Department of Justice which unsuccessfully challenged Virginia’s deletion of non-citizens from voter...
A very unusual and historic week of political and legal events just preceded America’s Independence Day. The Supreme Court of the United States ended its term with pivotal decisions, including a number that affect former President Donald Trump, the pending legal cases against him, and the 2024 presidential election. Indeed, the justices have ruled on constitutional, political, and cultural controversies in recent years in ways that have eroded the public’s confidence in the Court. Josh...
Arguing before the Supreme Court increasingly has become a specialty of an elite group of lawyers. A former Scalia judicial law clerk, Kannon Shanmugam has argued 38 cases at the court. In this episode, Jan speaks with Kannon about his Midwest upbringing, his route to being a lawyer, his exceptional career, and his times before the Supreme Court. They discuss his most memorable case, Maryland v King, involving DNA and the Fourth Amendment; he shares his observations about t...
In this episode of Early Returns, Jan Baran speaks with Former Virginia Governor and U.S. Ambassador, Jim Gilmore. They discuss his career in public service, his rise in Republican politics with the popular Virginia car tax reimbursement, and staying true to his roots and passion for foreign affairs and policy. As Ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), he has been close to the past and current struggles throughout the world that threate...
At this point in a presidential election year, the national conversation would usually be focused on which candidates are wrestling for their party nomination. But, as we know, this year is different. Even though primary elections still remain and the nominating conventions won’t occur until late summer, the 2024 candidates for president appear to be settled: President Joe Biden v. Former President Donald Trump. Charlie Cook, respected political analyst who has observed and...
As with the previous two season kick-offs of Early Returns, we welcome the third season with the newly elected 2024 chair of the Federal Election Commission, Sean Cooksey, who is a republican. The FEC consists of six bipartisan commissioners with no more than three from the same political party. It takes the vote of four commissioners to take any major action. Chair Cooksey has three of his six years under his belt serving on the FEC. He and Jan discuss what the FEC i...
In this episode of Early Returns, Jan speaks with Bradley Smith, professor at Capital Law School, former Federal Election Commission (“FEC”) Chair, nationally recognized expert on campaign finance and the First Amendment, and the Founder and Chairman of the Institute for Free Speech (“IFS”). IFS defends rights guaranteed by the first amendment of the United States Constitution. Brad and IFS have been instrumental in modifying the debate about regulating money and politics by provi...
In this episode, Jan speaks with Jill Holtzman Vogel, the managing partner of Holtzman Vogel and a Virginia State Senator. Jill started her law firm 21 years ago as a sole practitioner specializing in political law. It now has over 40 lawyers in four states. Jill also has devoted 16 years of public service in the Virginia Senate. Jill speaks openly about her experiences as a woman in these two male dominated industries, and how she navigated her career, built a growing and s...
It appears that policy changes are being resolved in the courts, and most specifically at the Supreme Court. If we look at recent court decisions involving abortion, the Affordable Care Act, Environmental Protection Act and gun rights, many people believe these decisions are politically motivated, especially when the politicians and media help to plant that seed by branding each Justice as liberal or conservative partisans. In this episode, Jan speaks with the Honorable Thomas G...
This episode examines an important government agency that helps keep our voting systems current, transparent, and reliable. The U.S. Elections Assistance Commission (“EAC”) has existed for a little over 20 years. It was created in the aftermath of the 2000 presidential election and the Florida vote recount. In today’s political climate of distrust and controversy regarding, among other things, the voting process and vote counting, the EAC plays an integral role in ensuring t...
Political activity and lobbying have become not only full time, but also highly regulated. That also means that election campaigns as well as lobbying activities are getting under way for the next election cycle. To talk about the demands and challenges of advising companies on political law, Jan speaks with Wesley Bizzell, a lawyer who has spent over 20 years specializing in political law, including at one of the world’s largest tobacco companies, Altria, which is politically ac...
This episode marks the start of the second season of Early Returns. We have been privileged to interview interesting guests and welcome a large and growing audience of listeners. We have discussed laws about foreign election interference, representation of the president during the Mueller investigation, the perspective of a journalist who covers legal affairs, biographies of notable politicians and jurists, the recent work of election lawyers, and more. Our very first guest was th...
The lead up to the 2022 election cycle was a very active two years, coming off of a very divisive 2020 election which included pandemic-related election changes and election deniers. Our guests, Jessica Furst Johnson and Jason Torchinsky, both political law partners at Holtzman Vogel, join Jan to review the legal issues that arose during this recent 2022 election cycle and to identify/forecast the legal compliance issues that are likely to arise in 2024, including new FEC actions, political f...
The first Monday in October is the traditional beginning of a new Supreme Court term. This week the nine justices began hearing cases that involve our constitutional rights and that shape U.S. law. Each term, the Supreme Court seems to be tackling the big issues including abortion, gun rights, voting rights, affirmative action and the checks and balances of the constitutional powers of Congress, the White House, and the Judiciary. The last term was significant for many reasons inc...
The 2022 mid-term elections will decide the fate of 435 House seats and 33 Senate seats. With 90 days remaining before election day, Early Returns welcomes nationally respected nonpartisan voting analyst, Nathan Gonzales. As editor and publisher of Inside Elections, Nathan has studied and analyzed campaigns and elections for over 20 years. He shares with our audience how he conducts his research and where his predictions and polling have been correct and where they have been...
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