Legal AF by MeidasTouch - SCOTUS & Trump Get Outfoxed in Shadow Court Instantly

Episode Date: July 1, 2025

Forget the “academic” or the “hypothetical” — groups and lawyers that oppose Trump’s unconstitutional attack on Birthright Citizenship live in the real world, and in real time within hours of the Supreme Court’s Friday’s ruling forcing them to refile their cases as class actions seeking emergency injunctions, refiled their cases in Maryland first and then New Hampshire. But now that there are 2 almost identical cases seeking identical declarations from the federal courts that Trump’s executive order is unconstitutional, what is likely to happen next? Michael Popok explains what’s happened in the last 48 hours, and discusses a secret, little-known Court —the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation— dominated by Bush and Clinton appointees, that may decide which class action survives and which judge will make the ultimate decision. Dose: Save 30% on your first month of subscription by going to https://dosedaily.co/LEGALAF or entering LEGALAF at checkout. Subscribe:  @LegalAFMTN  Visit https://meidasplus.com for more! Remember to subscribe to ALL the MeidasTouch Network Podcasts: MeidasTouch: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/meidastouch-podcast Legal AF: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/legal-af MissTrial: https://meidasnews.com/tag/miss-trial The PoliticsGirl Podcast: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-politicsgirl-podcast The Influence Continuum: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-influence-continuum-with-dr-steven-hassan Mea Culpa with Michael Cohen: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/mea-culpa-with-michael-cohen The Weekend Show: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-weekend-show Burn the Boats: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/burn-the-boats Majority 54: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/majority-54 Political Beatdown: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/political-beatdown On Democracy with FP Wellman: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/on-democracy-with-fpwellman Uncovered: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/maga-uncovered Coalition of the Sane: https://meidasnews.com/tag/coalition-of-the-sane Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Discover the magic of Bad MGM Casino, where the excitement is always on deck! Pull up a seat and check out a wide variety of table games with a live dealer! From Roulette to Blackjack, watch as a dealer hosts your table game and live chat with them throughout your experience to feel like you're actually at the casino! The excitement doesn't stop there! With over 3,000 games to choose from, including fan favorites like Cash Eruption, UFC Gold Blitz, and more! Make deposits instantly to jump in on the fun, and make same-day withdrawals if you

win! Download the BetMGM Ontario app today! You don't want to miss out! Visit BetMGM.com for terms and conditions. 19 plus to wager Ontario only. Please gamble responsibly. If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you, please contact Connex Ontario at 1-866-531-2600 to speak to an advisor free of charge.

Bet MGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. Forget the academic. We're not academics. Forget the hypothetical. We live in the real world. And lawyers have already filed new cases off of Friday's decision by the United States Supreme Court to imperil birthright citizenship in the 14th Amendment. How did they do it? Why did they do it? How did they do it in just

hours? And what happens when you have multiple new class actions? We're going to learn a lot about class actions on this hot take multiple class actions seeking temporary restraining orders about the same class, then what do you do? What if you have competing class actions, Pope Park? Well, there's a way to resolve all of that as we have at least two different judges

with two new class actions in front of them and they're dealing with it as we speak. This is what happens when the resistance is ready for what the Supreme Court could do. Nobody was caught flat-footed. Everybody filed new suits as was invited by Justice Cavadar, as was invited by Justice Sotomayor. Let's break it down right here on the Midas Touch Network and Legal AF on Michael Popak. Okay. How did we get here? We got here because starting with the fifth day of this administration,

three different courts started issuing nationwide injunctions to block Donald Trump to declare his executive order on birthright citizenship unconstitutional, that you can't change a constitutional amendment based on an executive order. Rock, paper, scissor, you lose. You want to change the constitutional amendment, you either have to convince the United States Supreme Court to reinterpret clear and ambiguous language, or you got to change the, you got to amend the amendment or amend the Constitution. Not happening. Can't do it by executive order. So you got three nationwide injunctions. Okay, it went up to the United States Supreme Court over the spring with a ruling on Friday,

not on birthright citizenship per se, but on the nationwide injunction powers of a federal judge. And the Supreme Court's 6-3 MAGA right wing ripped out of the tool bag from federal judges the ability to issue nationwide injunctions based on the parties they have in front of them. They said, go back in your lane, the MAGA majority. Stay in your lane, federal judges. Color within the lines, federal judges. The declaration of what's constitutional or not on a nationwide basis is for the United States Supreme Court, not for you lowly federal judges.

You get to just issue injunctions that fit with the parties that are in front of you. You just do cases and controversies. We'll do the big picture. And despite the fact that months or years can go by and babies are born without nation, they're nationless, they're citizenshipless, they don't get government funding in red states,

they don't get a passport, but to the Supreme Court, well, this is what we're declaring. Of course, they left open a couple of major holes, like what happens when a group of states get together and sue for a nationwide injunction, like 19 or 20 states that got together. Well, we'll punt for that for another day. Shouldn't I know that coming out of the order on Friday,

but I don't. And so we have that new gray area, but two invitations. The only time that Kavanaugh and Sotomayor ever got along is in there, they had the exact same, almost the exact same line in there. For Kavanaugh, it was his concurrence, meaning he agreed with the majority and with Sotomayor, her dissent.

And they said, well, you can get the equivalent of a nationwide injunction if you move for a class actions status, class action certification, and a temporary restraining order on top of that. That's a nationwide injunction. So DeMajor said, effectively, get on your high horse, hurry up, go file.

And the group in Maryland led by Georgetown University was ready because within less than three hours, they filed a class action complaint, a motion to certify the class, and a temporary restraining order. And then just hours after that, in New Hampshire in front of Judge LaPlante, the American Civil Liberties Union,

and a bunch of other groups, including Democracy Forward, Norm Eisen, they filed in front of a judge up in New Hampshire, seeking the exact same thing. Hold that thought, we got competing class actions. Potentially, potentially. What's a class action? Quick tutorial.

There's two ways to bring cases in court. Individual actions, collective or class actions. Individual actions, you have a dispute. You have a breach of contract, something happened to you. You were injured, you and a group of people were injured. Not that large of a group of people. You all have rights breach of contract, something happened to you, you were injured, you and a group of people were injured, not that large of a group of people, you all have rights under a contract, or you lived together, you lived in the same area,

you got an environmental disaster, some sort of personal injury, some sort of tort or defamation. It's not a lot of people, you know, eight, nine, 10, 20, 50 people maybe, they sue together in court under some right, to have some right declared over some injury, that's individual. Okay. And now with the Supreme Court, it says when you have those cases, you can only fashion federal judges injunctions that fit that those

parties and only apply to those parties. No more nationwide injunctions. Okay. That's terrible in a lot of different areas, by the way. Environmental cases, terrible. Civil rights cases, terrible. To take away that power of a federal judge. All right, but that's what it is. Did you know the liver is the second largest organ in your body? It's responsible for over 500 functions. But for some reason, liver health doesn't always

get the attention it deserves. Over 30% of Americans have a sluggish liver, a problem that often goes undetected until the very last minute. Dose is on a mission to educate us all on why it's so important to maintain your liver health and has created an incredible product to help you do just that.

I mean, I found a clinically supported, potent and effective solution, and I can't wait to share it with you. Dose for your liver was formulated to cleanse your liver of unwanted elements. A digestion, I mean, it acts as your body's filter, flushing out unwanted elements and breaking down what you consume into essential nutrients.

The liver produces and regulates cholesterol, stores vitamins and minerals, and impacts digestive and metabolic health, among many other things. Dose's science-backed formula promotes liver function, aids digestion, eases bloating, and even boosts energy levels. In a double-blind, blind placebo controlled clinical trial,

dose for your liver lowered liver enzyme levels by 50% and over 86% of participants. Stick with dose and feel the incredible benefits over time. More energy, better digestion, reduced bloating, healthier liver enzyme function, reduction in brain fog, and better sleep. One dose for your liver shot is equivalent to 17 shots of turmeric juice.

Dose is gluten-free, dairy-free, sugar-free, and vegan. Save 30% on your first month of subscription by going to dosedaly.co slash Legal AF or entering Legal AF at checkout. That's D-O-S-E-D-A-I-L-Y.CO slash Legal AF for 30% off your first month subscription. Now you have class action or collective action. That is a couple of people represent

along with their lawyers, a class of people certified by the judge that are similarly situated, that have injuries that are similar, or you can break them up into subclasses and you can bring the case together. So you don't need to bring 100,000 or 300 million people together on a constitutional violation

because we're all being violated, right, by Donald Trump. You know, and so he's doing nationwide damage. There needs to be a nationwide tool in the toolbox. So they want it to be, Supreme Court wants it to be class actions. So there's a set of rules about how you bring class actions and what the requirements are and the elements of it. It's much more difficult than just getting

a nationwide adjunction from a federal judge. That's why it's reported as a win for Donald Trump. But you can do it. I can't think of a better case than a birthright citizenship attack that affects all Americans, especially mothers who gave birth after February with the executive order or are pregnant

or into the future. You put them all into a class. Now New Hampshire's case and Maryland's case are almost identical. I've looked at both of them, right? In terms of their class, of who they're defining as a class. So then what do you do? Because you can't have really, you're not supposed to have competing class actions with potential

orders by different judges on different, in different ways. One grants the injunction, one doesn't grant the injunction. So we're gonna find out. Judge LaPlante is gonna hold a conference in New Hampshire that I'll report on. Judge Boardman is holding a conference this week, early this week in her courtroom, about the procedure around the class certification, obviously going to be opposed by Trump. And moving forward, so she can make what Justice Sotomayor wants, a fast ruling, so that it gets up to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals or the First Circuit Court of Appeals and ends up at the United States Supreme Court this summer.

That's the goal because think of the purgatory and the limbo these babies and their mothers are living in. Their baby's born now, right? In a red state, birth certificate says that state, Alabama, for lack of that state, Alabama, for lack of a better, Mississippi, right? Person says, baby US, baby United States citizen, funding. I need support or social services or I need a passport.

No, we don't recognize you as a US citizen. What do you mean? Well, there's an executive order. Yes, but it's in litigation, right? But the injunctions have all been stayed effectively And so now so now has to go back through a process and babies are being born every minute That's the problem. That's the real world that we live in now. How do you solve the problem of competing class actions? Let me end it that way

There is a mechanism. There's a joint panel for multi-district litigation. Of course there is. And the joint panel for multi-district litigation takes up the cause of when there's competing class actions about who's going to, which class action is going to be the one, or how they're going to consolidate them, or maybe one gets stayed while the other one moves forward, and what judge is going to handle it. So that multi-district panel, which is very weird, by the way, it's sort of a secret panel nobody ever thinks about. And it's all appointed by John Roberts, the Chief Justice. And right now, the seven members of it, four are George W. Bush appointees, of all things. Two are Clinton, and one is Obama. No Trump, no Biden, at all. And this group is going to make a decision

about who's gonna be the judge. Could be Judge LaPlante, could be Judge Boardman, New Hampshire, Maryland, could be Judge Coffinore, that's my vote, senior status judge out in Seattle, who made the first ruling against the Trump administration about birthright citizenship five days into their administration. He's good.

They look at the credentials, they look at the docket, they look at where, which case makes the most sense in terms of proximity or what we call locale or situs, witnesses availability. Here, it's a nationwide issue. You can put it anywhere. So I think they're gonna find the best judge. I think if there's a case that's filed,

which hasn't yet been, Seattle, that matches these two, then it may end up with Judge Koffner. Usually it's the first to file. So the first to file was Maryland. That's Judge Boardman, that's being led by Georgetown. The backup case is New Hampshire, led by the ACLU and Democracy Forward. And then we'll wait to see if a case gets filed

in Washington at all or Seattle at all. And this panel would decide it. They can do it on their own initiative. They could do it because the party asked for it. If usually, if you're the defendant, you want one case. So we'll have to see what Trump does next. We'll know more when the Boardman hearing takes place early this week.

We'll know more when Judge LaPlan holds their hearing, and then we'll see if this multi-district litigation panel comes into play. In the meantime, I'll keep you posted. I'm Michael Popok. You're on the Midas Touch Network, you're on Legal AF. Come over to Legal AF. Oh my God, we're so close.

I can taste it to getting to 700,000 subscribers in less than eight months over on the Legal AF YouTube channel. With your help, we vibrate on that same frequency. With your help, we will get there. So until my next report, I'm Michael Popak. Can't get your fill of Legal AF? Me neither. That's why we formed the Legal AF Substack.

Every time we mention something in a hot take, whether it's a court filing or a oral argument, come over to the Substack, you'll find the court filing and the oral argument there, including a daily roundup that I do call, wait for it, Morning AF. What else? All the other contributors from Legal AF are there as well. We've got some new reporting. We got interviews.

We got ad-free versions of the podcast and hot takes. Where? Legal AF on Substack. Come over now to free subscribe.