rationally BASED

Susan Collins lost in Maine after years as the most moderate Republican in the Senate. Across the country, Republicans ran solid candidates and still underperformed. In Alaska, “Decoy Dan” Sullivan remains on the ballot with thousands of votes while Mary Peltola leads by a few hundred. Hosts Kathryn Johnson and law professors Joshua Kleinfeld and Ilan Wurman give their high-level thoughts on the results — and an update on the Alaska decoy. On the results: Ilan argues the lesson is to scrap pr...

A Brazilian Supreme Court justice who used to be Lula’s personal lawyer ordered the polls kept open for two hours after they were supposed to close. Another ordered the opposition candidate, Bolsonaro, to surrender his passport. He's since fled to the United States. Is that the sign of a healthy democracy, or is the global Left actually the authoritarian ones undermining democracies around the world? In Alaska, a second “Dan Sullivan” is on the ballot against the actual Republican senator of...

Trump’s Office of Legal Counsel has been on a tear, and hosts Ilan Wurman, Kathryn Johnson, and Joshua Kleinfeld explain the big developments. Guns: OLC announced that the federal ban on selling handguns to 18-to-20-year-olds is unconstitutional -- and DOJ announced it will no longer enforce it.Religion: OLC reversed federal policy that routinely barred religious charities from receiving federal grants. Religious charities can now get those grants on the same terms as secular ones.Immigration...

Chief Justice Roberts likes to take some time away from DC every summer and relax in Maine. It's a lovely community. Boats and barbecues. Neighbors and no cars. For years, it helped him reset from one of the country's biggest jobs. Then a local activist published an op-ed urging people to yell at him, give him the finger, refuse to serve him, and generally make sure he never has a moment's peace. Other activists obliged, kayaking up to his home every morning to denounce him. But is that reall...

Two big new cases just hit the courts, and hosts Ilan Wurman, Kathryn Johnson, and Joshua Kleinfeld take them on. First, the President pulled the White House passes of CNN, MS NOW, and Politico, saying: “The White House is not instituting an assault on the Free Press, something which I cherish. It is instituting an assault on the FAKE NEWS ….” The outlets sued, claiming a constitutional right to the passes, and a federal judge provisionally ruled in their favor on due process grounds. I...