Season 6, Episode 2 (Show 263): Five-Oh and Four Questions
January 28, 2026
We analyze and add to the oral argument in Wolford v. Lopez, the Hawaii gun case, and continue our retrospective.
CLE Credit Available for this episode from podcast.njsba.com.
The look back over our five years of drama, humor, reason, and illogic continues, as perhaps the most notorious opinion of the five year period – the Trump immunity case – reappears in a clip, along with a revisit with Justice Breyer. Meanwhile, the oral argument in Wolford v. Lopez did, in fact, prompt the Professors Amar to write in SCOTUSblog.com, and we go even further here, with clips from that oral argument and answers to the justices that didn’t find their way into the record, but now, hopefully, enter the public discourse.
(LAWYERS AND JUDGES ARE ELIGIBLE FOR CONTINUING LEGAL EDUCATION CREDIT by visiting podcast.njsba.com after listening.)
Show Notes:
Season 6, Episode 1 (Show 262): High Fives
January 21, 2026
On the fifth anniversary of Amarica’s Constitution, we have a bountiful look back, including luminaries and clip analysis. Enjoy!
CLE Credit Available for this episode from podcast.njsba.com.
It’s five years of Akhil and Andy on Amarica’s Constitution, and our friends are lining up to talk about it. In typical fashion, it’s not just testimonials but reflections. And we do a clip episode, but this time it’s not the justices, or the oral advocates, or the pundits, on the hot seat: it’s us. We look back at two episodes per year, playing our sometimes correct, sometimes wildly wrong predictions, and our sometimes prescient, sometimes widely ignored so-called insights. It’s been quite a ride, and quite a recap – so much so that this part one of at least two.
(LAWYERS AND JUDGES ARE ELIGIBLE FOR CONTINUING LEGAL EDUCATION CREDIT by visiting podcast.njsba.com after listening.)
Show Notes:
Season 5, Episode 52 (Show 261): The Minnesota Massacre
January 14, 2026
ICE agents kill a mother in a gruesome, horrifying scene. What does our constitutional system say about it?
CLE Credit Available for this episode from podcast.njsba.com.
A powerful and aggressive central government sends unwanted forces in huge numbers to a city where the residents oppose and resent this policy. The undertrained forces unleash violence against the population in the form of an obviously wrongful death. Minneapolis, yes – but also a seeming repeat of an important American historic event, that shaped a nation’s core beliefs, later reflected in the Declaration and the Constitution. We tell those stories, and look at the values and basic laws that emerged from them; bring to light important Supreme Court cases – and bring all this to Minneapolis for examination of how they apply, 250 years later.
(LAWYERS AND JUDGES ARE ELIGIBLE FOR CONTINUING LEGAL EDUCATION CREDIT by visiting podcast.njsba.com after listening.)
Show Notes:
Season 5, Episode 51 (Show 260): Venezuelan Frisbie
January 7, 2026
Maduro is in custody and will be tried in US courts, it appears. Constitutional issues? You bet – but not necessarily the ones you think they are.
CLE Credit Available for this episode from podcast.njsba.com.
The military capture of the Venezuelan leader, Maduro, is an event with giant international strategic, moral, economic, political, and other considerations. It also raises fascinating constitutional questions, and Professor Amar is ready to discuss some matters that probably did not come to your mind right away. Much of this stems from the fact that Maduro will be tried in a U.S. civilian, not a military court, so constitutional protections are implicated. Whatever your thoughts about the policy matters, it behooves you to join us in this exploration of how this escapade reveals a strain in constitutional doctrine that remains unresolved. Meanwhile, you will learn of cases with names like “Frisbie,” hence our title.
(LAWYERS AND JUDGES ARE ELIGIBLE FOR CONTINUING LEGAL EDUCATION CREDIT by visiting podcast.njsba.com after listening.)
Show Notes:
Season 5, Episode 50 (Show 259): Your Questions, Easy and Hard
December 31, 2025
From presidential oaths to Calvin Coolidge, we take your questions wherever they lead. Happy New Year!
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Our listeners have a talent for inquiry; they follow Professor Amar’s arguments every week, and come up with their own. This week, we end the year by fielding a wide range of questions, including some related to presidential oath-taking; juries, asked by a Judge; pardons and their abuse; and many related topics. Akhil invokes Angela Bassett and Tina Turner, as we answer the questions first softly, and then not so softly. And we end the year with fond wishes sincerely offered.
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Show Notes:
Season 5, Episode 49 (Show 258): No Army at All
December 25, 2025
The Supreme Court has ruled that the National Guard deployment in Illinois must end. We take a look at the constitutional and historical considerations this brings to mind.
CLE Credit Available for this episode from podcast.njsba.com.
Presidential power is abridged, for a change, by the Supreme Court in its shadow docket ruling in Trump v. Illinois. Rather than ruling in silence, however, this time the Court gives us 25 pages and 4 opinions to chew on. We examine the history behind issues of deployment of the Army as well as the Guard/Militia on domestic soil, which leads us to discussions of Militia Acts, the Military Amendments, and basic constitutional principles. Professor Amar discusses the implications for the coming big rulings on tariffs and birthright citizenship he sees in the alignment the Court assumes in this ruling. Just as this is not the Court’s last word in this case, we will have more to say in subsequent episodes, but this discussion will leave you armed, if you will, with the tools to see the issues clearly.
(LAWYERS AND JUDGES ARE ELIGIBLE FOR CONTINUING LEGAL EDUCATION CREDIT by visiting podcast.njsba.com after listening.)

