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Law and Disorder is a weekly independent civil liberties radio program airing on more than 150 stations and on Apple podcast. Law and Disorder provides timely legal perspectives on issues concerning civil liberties, privacy, right to dissent and practices of torture exercised by the US government and private corporations.
Law and Disorder July 14, 2025
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American Association of University Professors v. Rubio
Sadly, listeners to Law & Disorder are all too familiar with how the Trump administration has systematically created a climate of repression and fear on our university campuses. Federal agencies are attempting to deport multiple individuals for their pro-Palestinian advocacy, including Mahmoud Khalil, a leader of the pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia University. These actions have sent chills through the community of noncitizen students and faculty on campuses around the country, causing some to pull out of academic conferences, stay home from protests, and withdraw from other forms of public advocacy and engagement.
While Khalil and other students are actively pursuing their own lawsuits and habeas corpus petitions defending their own First Amendment rights, the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University has filed an innovative lawsuit attacking the Trump administration from a different angle. On March 25, 2025, the Knight Institute filed a lawsuit on behalf of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), AAUP’s Harvard, NYU, and Rutgers campus chapters, and the Middle East Studies Association, alleging that the Trump administration’s policy of arresting, detaining, and deporting noncitizen students and faculty who participate in pro-Palestinian activism, chills noncitizens from speaking and, by extension, robs these organizations and their U.S. citizen members of noncitizens’ perspectives on a matter of significant public debate. The suit seeks a court order declaring that the policy is unlawful and enjoining the federal government from enforcing it.
In the lawsuit, titled American Association of University Professors v. Rubio, US District Judge William G. Young in Mass. denied the government’s motion to dismiss and set a trial for July 7.
Guest – Xiangnong (George) Wang is a staff attorney at the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University. He first joined the Institute as a legal fellow from 2020 to 2021 before serving as a law clerk to the Hon. William J. Kayatta, Jr. of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. Wang received a B.A. in public policy from Stanford University and a J.D. from Yale Law School.
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Police Accountability Enforcement In Louisville, KY
In the wake of Breonna Taylor’s 2020 murder, the city of Louisville created the Office of Inspector General to provide independent oversight of the Louisville Metro Police Department. In 2021, Ed Harness was appointed the city’s first Inspector General, tasked with investigating police misconduct and recommending policy reforms. His term ends this November, and community groups—including the Louisville NAACP—are calling for his reappointment.
But questions remain about how local reforms will be enforced, especially as the federal government steps back. A recent executive order gives the U.S. Attorney General authority to unilaterally end consent decrees, raising concerns about long-term accountability.
Guest – Ed Harness is a former U.S. Army Military Police officer and Milwaukee police officer, Ed previously served as Executive Director of the Civilian Police Oversight Agency in Albuquerque and led the Dispute Resolution Division of the Wisconsin Better Business Bureau. In addition to his duties in Louisville, he serves as a Board Member at Large for the National Association for Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement (NACOLE).
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Law and Disorder July 7, 2025
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Young Voters Support Openly Socialist Mayoral Candidate Zohran Mandani
In a spectacular primary victory with national implications, the 33-year-old charismatic socialist Zohran Mamdani won the Democratic primary race in New York City on June 24. He most assuredly will win the general election and become the next mayor of New York City in the fall. With broad support, especially amongst younger people, Mamdani came from way behind to win in a landslide over former 67-year-old former New York State governor Andrew Cuomo. Cuomo had name recognition and the support of the Democratic Party establishment. His campaign was well funded to the tune of $25 million donated by superpacs and billionaires. This included a last-minute $5 million infusion by billionaire Michael Bloomberg.
Cuomo was supported by most of the trade union bureaucracy, conservative Black leader Jim Clyburn of South Carolina, who is credited with getting Bernie Sanders defeated, and the charlatan Al Sharpton. Mamdani’s popularity skyrocketed when New Yorkers became aware of him and his platform. His campaign recruited 40,000 volunteers who knocked on 1,500,000 doors. 20,000 people contributed small amounts to his effort.
While Cuomo campaigned on fear supporting a policeman on every subway car Mamdani took a radically different approach. His campaign was anchored in the idea that New York should become an affordable city for the working and Middle class people who live there. He advocated a rent freeze; free, fast, buses; free childcare, and city run grocery stores in neighborhoods who need them. He stood up for Palestinians.
The core of Mamdani’s campaign workers resided in the Democratic Socialist of America. He was endorsed by Bernie Sanders, AOC, and Ilhan Omar. Mamdani is the Muslim son of South Asian immigrants. His father is a professor at Columbia University and his mother is a film director. Mamdani himself had served for four years as a State Assembly man from Astoria, Queens. He was born in Uganda and grew up on the west side of Manhattan. He had been active supporting taxi cab drivers who were financially ruined by the intrusion of Uber and Lyft into their businesses. Several committed suicide. Mamdami led a hunger strike and a successful effort to get financial help for them.
Guest – John Tarleton is a co-founder and editor in chief of the Indypendent, a free monthly newspaper and website publishing in New York City since 2000. He’s the cohost of the independent NewsHour on WBAI in New York City.
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Trump v Casa : Presidential Immunity
On June 27, the last day of the Supreme Court’s official term, the 6-member ultra-conservative majority issued one of the most dangerous decisions in its history, which the 3 dissenting judges called “shameful” and a “grave attack on our system of law.”
In three lawsuits consolidated as Trump v, CASA Inc, 22 state attorneys general, several pregnant women who are not American citizens, and a variety of civil rights organizations challenged Donald Trump’s Executive Order banning birthright citizenship. That’s the principle enshrined in the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution that all babies born in the United States are American citizens regardless of the citizenship or immigration status of their mothers. But the June 27 decision didn’t reach the merits of that challenge.
Instead, it dealt with the scope of the injunctions which three different US District Courts in Maryland, Washington, and Mass issued enjoining Trump’s EO. All of those district courts found that to grant complete relief to the plaintiffs, it was necessary to issue “universal injunctions” which not only restrained Trump from implementing his EO against the specific plaintiffs named in those lawsuits but also restrained Trump from implementing it nationwide. Three different federal appellate court denied Trump’s request to stay those universal injunctions, but last week the conservative majority on the Supreme Court gave Trump a green light to proceed within 30 days against any mother who was not one of the named plaintiffs.
Guest – Stephen Rohde believes that Trump v CASA is a monumental decision that dangerously builds on last year’s disastrous decision in Trump v US, in which the same 6-member conservative majority invented absolute presidential criminal immunity. Steve practiced civil rights and civil liberties law for almost 50 years, and is a prolific author of two books and scores of articles and book reviews on constitutional law and history. He is former President of the ACLU of Southern California and is Special Advisor on Free Speech and the First Amendment for the Muslim Public Affairs Council. He is also host of the new podcast Speaking Freely produced by Ms Studios which is available on Spotify, I Heart Radio and other streaming platforms.
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Law and Disorder June 30, 2025
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Dangerous Threshold: Long Range Implications Of Bombing Iran’s Nuclear Facilities
In a dangerous escalation of U.S. foreign policy, Donald Trump announced on June 22 that the U.S. had bombed 13 Iranian nuclear facilities in support of Israel. The Israeli-Iranian conflict has already left hundreds dead—including scores of civilians—and now risks igniting a wider regional, if not global, war.
While Trump claimed to broker a ceasefire, Israeli missiles struck Iranian targets just hours later. Iran denied any retaliation but was quickly blamed for alleged missile fire—charges used to justify further Israeli attacks. Trump publicly rebuked both nations, saying he’s “not happy with Israel,” even as White House officials praised his supposed diplomatic intervention. With the region in crisis, global powers maneuvering, and questions mounting over legality and legitimacy, we examine the broader implications for peace, international law, and U.S. democracy. BreakthroughNews
Guest – Brian Becker, national coordinator of the ANSWER Coalition and a longtime critic of U.S. imperialism and military intervention. A leader of the Party for Socialism and Liberation, he’s also a leading voice in the movement to end the occupation of Palestine.
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Cyber Citizens: Saving Democracy with Digital Literacy
Cyber Citizens: Saving Democracy with Digital Literacy is a new book by our own co-host Heidi Boghosian. Heidi explains how the erosion of civics education combined with widespread digital illiteracy, leaves Americans vulnerable to manipulation—by Big Tech, foreign adversaries, extremist movements, and even our own government. She argues that we’re not just under-informed—we’re being actively rewired by the very systems we depend on daily.
Yet people are fighting back and taking cyber citizenship seriously. They include librarians teaching patrons to use Tor, activists leveraging open-source tools, educators using justice-themed games to teach critical thinking, and whistleblowers risking everything to expose abuses by governments and tech giants. Heidi’s earlier books include Spying on Democracy and I Have Nothing to Hide, and her writing has appeared in outlets like the LA Times, the Philadelphia Inquirer, and the ABA Human Rights Journal. She’s on the Advisory Board of the Georgetown Center on Privacy and Technology and the Media Freedom Foundation.
Guest – Heidi Boghosian is executive director of the A.J. Muste Foundation for Peace and Justice, a charitable organization providing support to activist organizations. Before that she was executive director of the National Lawyers Guild. Her book ““I Have Nothing to Hide”: And 20 Other Myths About Surveillance and Privacy was published in 2021 (Beacon Press). She received her JD from Temple Law School where she was editor-in-chief of the Temple Political & Civil Rights Law Review. She has an MS from Boston University’s College of Communication and a BA from Brown University.
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