Shows / Minimum Competence
Minimum Competence
Minimum Competence is your daily companion for legal news, designed to bring you up to speed on the day’s major legal stories during your commute home. Each episode is short, clear, and informative—just enough to make you minimally competent on the key developments in law, policy, and regulation. Whether you’re a lawyer, law student, journalist, or just legal-curious, you’ll get a smart summary without the fluff. A full transcript of each episode is available via the companion newsletter at…
Episodes
Minimum CompetenceWeil Gotshal Plans to Dissolve, the US Sues Google Over a Returning Reservist & the White House Press Fight Moves to the Oval Office
This Day in Legal History: Black Tuesday On October 29, 1929, the New York Stock Exchange suffered the worst day of the crash that had begun the previous…
Minimum CompetenceA Judge Weighs the 20,000 Disputed California Ballots, SCOTUS Lets Shelved Deportation Cases Return & Fixing the Multistate Sales Tax Disclosure Pilot
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Minimum CompetenceThe Ninth Circuit Rebuffs DOJ on California Ballots, a Judge Says Maurene Comey Was Unlawfully Fired & James Comey Is Charged a Third Time
This Day in Legal History: Federalist No. 1 On October 27, 1787, New York’s Independent Journal published an essay signed “Publius,” titled “General…
Minimum CompetenceDOJ Sues to Block Alaska’s Senate Results if Sullivan Loses, Meta’s $25B Penalty Faces Appeal & How SCOTUS Reshaped the Midterms
This Day in Legal History: The O.K. Corral On October 26, 1881, in Tombstone, in the Arizona Territory, City Marshal Virgil Earp, his brothers Wyatt and…
Minimum CompetenceThe NAACP’s Suit Over xAI’s Turbines Survives, a Judicial Council Presses a Dallas Judge in a Fitness Inquiry & What Illinois’ Swipe-Fee Fight Teaches About Tech Regulation
This Day in Legal History: Moritz v. Commissioner On October 22, 1970, the U.S. Tax Court denied a deduction claimed by Charles Moritz, a never-married man…
Minimum CompetenceThe NAACP’s Suit Over xAI’s Turbines Survives, a Judicial Council Presses a Dallas Judge in a Fitness Inquiry & What Illinois’ Swipe-Fee Fight Teaches About Tech Regulation
This Day in Legal History: Abrams v. United States On October 21, 1919, the Supreme Court heard argument in Abrams v. United States. Jacob Abrams and several…
Minimum CompetenceTrump Threatens California Election Officials With Jail, Mahmoud Khalil Petitions the Supreme Court & HUD’s Fair Housing Overhaul Stays Blocked
This Day in Legal History: The Saturday Night Massacre On the night of October 20, 1973, President Richard Nixon ordered Attorney General Elliot Richardson to…
Minimum CompetenceA Cyberattack Halts Bankruptcy Court Notices, a Judge Won’t Let the CFTC Undo Its Gemini Deal & Tesla Defeats Self-Driving Class Actions
This Day in Legal History: Black Monday On October 19, 1987, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell about 508 points, or 22.6 percent, in a single day. It is…
Minimum CompetenceSCOTUS Again Backs Republicans on Political Ad Rates, a Judge Lets the Contractor DEI Order Stand & Eight States Sue OpenAI Over ChatGPT and Kids
This Day in Legal History: The Clayton Antitrust Act On October 15, 1914, President Woodrow Wilson signed the Clayton Antitrust Act. The Sherman Act of 1890…
Minimum CompetenceQualcomm Beats Arm but Wins $2, Anthropic Asks the Full D.C. Circuit to Rehear Its Pentagon Case & CVS Pays $315M Over Opioid Prescriptions
This Day in Legal History: The Death of the Great Dissenter On October 14, 1911, Justice John Marshall Harlan died after nearly 34 years on the Supreme Court…
Minimum CompetenceFederal Agents Search Ilhan Omar’s Home, a Judge Is “Furious” Over Felled Trees at a D.C. Golf Course & Protecting Trump Accounts From Fraud
This Day in Legal History: In re Turner On October 13, 1867, Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase, sitting as a circuit judge in Baltimore, decided In re Turner…
Minimum CompetenceDOJ Opens an Antitrust Probe of TV Networks Over Pool Coverage, Lisa Cook Faces a White House Hearing & a Judge Tosses an AI-Drafted Complaint
This Day in Legal History: The Alex Jones Verdict On October 12, 2022, a jury in Waterbury, Connecticut, ordered Alex Jones and his company to pay about $965…
Minimum CompetenceNew York Alleges TikTok Ran "Placebo" Safety Tests on Teens, Florida Goes It Alone Against Meta & a Judge Orders Christa Pike Execution Evidence Preserved
This Day in Legal History: Bostock Is Argued On October 8, 2019, the Supreme Court heard argument in Bostock v. Clayton County and two companion cases. Each…
Minimum CompetenceThe EEOC Fights to Keep Its Law-Firm DEI Records Secret, Disney Takes On the FCC & What Sen. Kelly's AI Tax Bill Would Actually Tax
This Day in Legal History: The Stamp Act Congress On October 7, 1765, twenty-seven delegates from nine of the thirteen American colonies met in New York City…
Minimum CompetenceSCOTUS Opens Its Term With Boulder's Climate Case, the Harvard Funding Fight Hits the First Circuit & Poland Charges Google Over Publisher Payments
This Day in Legal History: Earl Warren Takes the Center Chair On October 5, 1953, which was the first Monday in October and the opening day of the Supreme…
Minimum CompetenceTennessee Calls Its Failed Execution a "Tragedy," a Judge Strikes Down the Federal Noncitizen-Voting Crime & New Mexico Seeks Up to $40B From Meta
This Day in Legal History: Thurgood Marshall Joins the Court On October 2, 1967, Chief Justice Earl Warren swore in Thurgood Marshall as an associate justice…
Minimum CompetenceSCOTUS Takes Up Mandatory Immigration Detention, the Forced-Labor Tariffs Go to Trade Court & Tennessee's Failed Execution
This Day in Legal History: The Nuremberg Verdicts On October 1, 1946, the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg delivered its sentences on the surviving…
Minimum CompetenceSCOTUS Revives Third-Country Deportations, Jack Smith Faces the Senate & Why California's Wealth-Tax Critics Miss the Mark
This Day in Legal History: The Integration of Ole Miss On September 30, 1962, James Meredith, a Black Air Force veteran, was escorted onto the campus of the…
Minimum CompetenceA Judge Blocks Trump From Using Counterterrorism Grants as Election Leverage, Alito Recuses From a Big Climate Case & Florida Asks a Court to Freeze OpenAI's Model Development
This Day in Legal History: Congress Creates the U.S. Army On September 29, 1789—the very last day of the First Congress’s inaugural session—the House and…
Minimum CompetenceA New Mexico Jury Finds Meta Misled Millions Over Cambridge Analytica, TikTok Pays Alabama to Dodge the First Teen-Harms Trial & SCOTUS Revives the SAVE Voter Checks
This Day in Legal History: The Black Sox Indictment On September 28, 1920, a Chicago grand jury indicted eight members of the Chicago White Sox for conspiring…
Minimum CompetenceReporters Turned Away From the White House Despite a Court Order, the ABA Fights for Its Accreditation Power & New York Calls Polymarket Illegal Gambling
This Day in Legal History: Congress Proposes the Bill of Rights On September 25, 1789, the First Congress agreed on twelve proposed amendments to the newly…
Minimum CompetenceMissouri's Map Hits SCOTUS a Third Time, a Judge Tosses Michigan's Climate-Antitrust Suit Against Big Oil & OpenAI Turns Musk's SEC Filings Against Him
This Day in Legal History: The Judiciary Act of 1789 On September 24, 1789, President George Washington signed the Judiciary Act of 1789 into law—one of the…
Minimum CompetenceTrump Asks SCOTUS to Detain a Pro-Palestinian Scholar, a Federal Judge Takes Leave After a "Super Drunk" Conviction & DoorDash's $131.5M NYC Pay Settlement
This Day in Legal History: The Capture of John André On September 23, 1780, three American militiamen stopped a man riding toward British lines near Tarrytown…
Minimum CompetenceParamount Settles With the States to Clear Its Warner Bros. Merger, the Botched-Bar-Exam Vendor Pays Up & Why Tariffs Need an Unwinding Mechanism
This Day in Legal History: The Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation On September 22, 1862, following the Union’s costly victory at Antietam, President Abraham…
Minimum CompetenceTesla's Race-Discrimination Trial Opens, CNN, MS NOW and Politico Sue Over a White House Press Ban & Law Schools Confront AI
This Day in Legal History: Sandra Day O’Connor Confirmed On September 21, 1981, the United States Senate voted 99 to 0 to confirm Sandra Day O’Connor to the…
Minimum CompetenceCharlie Kirk's Family Eyes a Suit Against UVU, Noncitizen-Voting Defendants Challenge the Law Itself & the CLARITY Act Crashes in the Senate
This Day in Legal History: The First Peacetime Draft On September 16, 1940, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Selective Training and Service Act…
Minimum CompetenceSupreme Court Blocks Trump's Mail-Ballot Restrictions, Musk's X Drops Apple but Keeps Suing OpenAI & Why Breaking Up the Big Four Won't Fix Auditor Misconduct
This Day in Legal History: The 16th Street Baptist Church Bombing On September 15, 1963, members of the Ku Klux Klan planted dynamite beneath the steps of the…
Minimum CompetenceArizona Sues L'Oréal Over Hair-Relaxer Cancer Risks, a Second Judge Blocks the Mail-In Voting Rule, the "Loyalty Question" Falls & a ChatGPT Brief Backfires
We’ve launched Minimum Competence CLE, and our first course is now available completely free. Researching Federal Tax Issues After Loper Bright looks at how…
Minimum CompetenceTexas Holds TikTok Liable Over Child Safety, 41% of Lawyers Say the Job Harmed Their Mental Health & California's New Kids-Online Laws
We’ve launched Minimum Competence CLE, and our first course is now available completely free. Researching Federal Tax Issues After Loper Bright looks at how…
Minimum CompetenceCourt Tosses NESE Pipeline Permit, Chemours' $455M North Carolina PFAS Deal & Legal-AI's Harvey Hits $15.5 Billion
We’ve launched Minimum Competence CLE, and our first course is now available completely free. Researching Federal Tax Issues After Loper Bright looks at how…
Minimum CompetenceSCOTUS Leaves Missouri's Map in Limbo, U.S. Resumes Visas for Hungary and Poland Only & Law Degrees Earned Behind Bars
We’ve launched Minimum Competence CLE, and our first course is now available completely free. Researching Federal Tax Issues After Loper Bright looks at how…
Minimum CompetenceAppeals Court Blocks SAVE Database for Voter Checks, the Montana License-Plate Loophole by the Numbers & Fixing NY's Charity Bottleneck
We’ve launched Minimum Competence CLE, and our first course is now available completely free. Researching Federal Tax Issues After Loper Bright looks at how…
Minimum CompetenceTrump Takes Mail-In Voting Back to SCOTUS, IRS Targets Race-Conscious Schools' Tax Exemptions & Big Law Data Breaches
We’ve launched Minimum Competence CLE, and our first course is now available completely free. Researching Federal Tax Issues After Loper Bright looks at how…
Minimum CompetenceGoogle Dodges an Ad-Tech Breakup, Boeing's $3.1M "Rounding Error" FAA Fine & the EPA's Blocked California Emissions Gambit
We’ve launched Minimum Competence CLE, and our first course is now available completely free. Researching Federal Tax Issues After Loper Bright looks at how…
Minimum CompetenceCharlie Kirk's Accused Killer Will Face a Death-Penalty Trial, Tiger Woods' 5-Year License Ban & Fixing Massachusetts Truck Taxes
We’ve launched Minimum Competence CLE, and our first course is now available completely free. Researching Federal Tax Issues After Loper Brightlooks at how the…
Minimum Competence"Keffe D" Guilty in Tupac Murder, Trump Fights On for Mail-In Voting Curbs & SCOTUS Lets the White House Ballroom Rise
This Day in Legal History: Aaron Burr Acquitted of Treason On September 1, 1807, a jury in Richmond, Virginia acquitted Aaron Burr—the former Vice President of…
Minimum CompetenceJudge Rules Pro-Palestinian Deportations Unconstitutional, Big Law Leasing Surges 17% & CXMT Sues the Pentagon
We’ve launched Minimum Competence CLE, and our first course is now available completely free. Researching Federal Tax Issues After Loper Brightlooks at how the…
Minimum CompetenceMeta's $18B Child-Harm Settlement, Tate Brothers' Extradition Bail Fight & Bayer's $7.25B Roundup Deal Advances
This Day in Legal History: The Murder of Emmett Till On August 28, 1955, fourteen-year-old Emmett Till was abducted, tortured, and murdered in the Mississippi…
Minimum CompetenceJudge Weighs Kennedy Center Trump Signage, Lisa Cook Fights Fed Removal & X Loses NY Hate-Speech Suit
We’ve launched Minimum Competence CLE, and our first course is now available completely free. Researching Federal Tax Issues After Loper Bright looks at how…
Minimum CompetenceKennedy Center Renaming Defies a Court Order?, Deloitte's $21.5M DEI Settlement & Ninth Circuit Blocks Ideological Grant Strings
We’ve launched Minimum Competence CLE, and our first course is now available completely free. Researching Federal Tax Issues After Loper Brightlooks at how the…
Minimum CompetenceSCOTUS Lifts Mail-In Voting Block, U.S. Plans Record 200K Visa Revocations & Google Brings Gemini AI to Big Law
We’ve launched Minimum Competence CLE, and our first course is now available completely free. Researching Federal Tax Issues After Loper Brightlooks at how the…
Minimum CompetenceJudge Voids 75-Nation Visa Ban, Golden Gate Bridge Protesters Sentenced & TikTok's $400M Kids-Privacy Deal
We’ve launched Minimum Competence CLE, and our first course is now available completely free. Researching Federal Tax Issues After Loper Brightlooks at how the…
Minimum CompetenceTeen Drops Meta/Google/Snap Suit, DOJ Targets Mar-a-Lago FBI Agents & Tech Giants Fight Over AI Voice Data
We’ve launched Minimum Competence CLE, and our first course is now available completely free. Researching Federal Tax Issues After Loper Brightlooks at how the…
Minimum CompetenceTupac Defense Says "Don't Believe My Client," Trump's Nine New Judicial Picks & DOJ Uses Comey's Novel in "86 47" Threat Case
This Day in Legal History: The War on Poverty On August 20, 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Economic Opportunity Act, the legislative centerpiece…
Minimum CompetenceMeta Whistleblower Testifies "Profits Won," Judge Strikes Ghost-Gun Rule SCOTUS Upheld & Trump's Law-Firm Privilege Claim
We’ve launched Minimum Competence CLE, and our first course is now available completely free. Researching Federal Tax Issues After Loper Bright looks at how…
Minimum Competence29 States Put Meta on Trial, DOJ Probes William & Mary Scholarships & Why the Public Deserves a Stake in AI
This Day in Legal History: The Nineteenth Amendment Is Ratified On August 18, 1920, Tennessee became the thirty-sixth state to ratify the Nineteenth…
Minimum CompetenceTupac Murder Trial Opens, AG Blanche Backs Pirro Against Trump & Judge Clears End to Somali TPS
This Day in Legal History: Clinton Testifies Before the Grand Jury On August 17, 1998, President Bill Clinton became the first sitting president to testify…
Minimum CompetenceCourt Upholds Trump's De Minimis Tariff Repeal, SCOTUS Takes Immigrant Detention Fees Case & a Courtroom AI "Prompt Injection"
This Day in Legal History: The Social Security Act On August 14, 1935, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act, creating the foundation…
Minimum CompetenceMotley Rice's $67M Meta Fee, Trump Media Sued Over Paid Truth Social Access & Palestinian Students Sue Columbia
This Day in Legal History: Britain’s Last Executions On August 13, 1964, two men—Peter Anthony Allen and Gwynne Owen Evans—were hanged simultaneously in two…
Minimum CompetenceFifth Circuit Voids Surprise-Billing Formula, Judge Blocks USPS Mail-In Limits & White House Pushes New Reflecting Pool Charges
This Day in Legal History: Andrew Johnson Suspends Secretary Stanton On August 12, 1867, President Andrew Johnson suspended Edwin Stanton, his Secretary of…
Minimum CompetenceMangione Heads to Trial, Trump Says Weaponization Fund Is "Up to Blanche" & Social Media Suits Advance
This Day in Legal History: The Weimar Constitution On August 11, 1919, President Friedrich Ebert signed the Weimar Constitution into force, creating the first…
Minimum CompetenceSenate Confirms Todd Blanche as AG in 50-49 Squeaker, Alito Stays on SCOTUS & NJ's $2.5B PFAS Settlement
This Day in Legal History: Ruth Bader Ginsburg Joins the Court On August 10, 1993, Ruth Bader Ginsburg was sworn in as an associate justice of the Supreme…
Minimum CompetenceTrump Goes 0-21 on Voter Rolls, Signs New Birthright Orders & Meta Hit With $567M in New Mexico
This Day in Legal History: The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution On August 7, 1964, Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, one of the most consequential—and…
Minimum CompetenceU.S. Refunds $100B in Supreme Court-Struck Tariffs, New Mexico Sues for Epstein Files & OpenAI Fights Apple
This Day in Legal History: The Voting Rights Act of 1965 On August 6, 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act, arguably the most…
Minimum CompetenceDOJ Fights IRS-Suit Fees, Amazon Loses Perplexity AI Ban, Final Oath Keepers Cases Dismissed & EPA Climate Grants Restored
This Day in Legal History: The First Federal Income Tax On August 5, 1861, President Abraham Lincoln signed the Revenue Act of 1861, and with it created the…
Minimum CompetenceTodd Blanche AG Confirmation Advances, Benefits-Data Immigration Lawsuit & Trump's 75 First Amendment Losses
This Day in Legal History: The Acquittal of John Peter Zenger On August 4, 1735, a New York jury acquitted printer John Peter Zenger of seditious libel—a…
Minimum CompetenceTodd Blanche Anti-Weaponization Fund, Capital One Trump Debanking, Tom Goldstein Appeal, Reflecting Pool Case Dropped
This Day in Legal History: The Immigration Act of 1882 On August 3, 1882, President Chester A. Arthur signed the Immigration Act of 1882, the first…
Minimum CompetenceDOJ Drama, Prediction Markets, and the Limits of Congressional Power
This Day in Legal History: America’s First Patent On July 31, 1790, the United States issued its first patent under the newly enacted Patent Act of 1790. The…
Minimum CompetenceTrump Asks SCOTUS to Toss E. Jean Carroll's $83M Verdict, Blanche AG Vote Stalls, Bar Exam Chaos
This Day in Legal History: America’s First Representative Assembly On July 30, 1619, in a wooden church at Jamestown, twenty-two elected representatives took…
Minimum CompetenceChobani Zero-Sugar Class Action, eBay $56M Stalking Settlement, Charlie Kirk Case
This Day in Legal History: The First Hague Convention On July 29, 1899, delegates from twenty-six nations signed the first Hague Convention, the product of an…