NYTimes lets awful Harvard Law prof lie his ass off for some reason

Opening Arguments

VR2 - Vapid Response Wednesday returns live on video for another round of bad-faith legal takes from the American right’s leading--well, let’s just go with “minds.”

We begin with a quick check-in on the divided state of the U.S. “sovereign citizen” movement via a short explainer video in which one of its leading grifters denounces a whole new set of grifters who are promoting the concept of an “American State National.”

We then plumb new depths of dumbassery from Harvard Law school professor/crypto-theocrat Adrian Vermeule. In a recent New York Times op-ed, Vermeule has called out the true villains of the American judiciary: lower court judges who aren’t doing exactly what Adrian Vermeule imagines the Supreme Court has told them to do. Matt breaks down why this column doesn’t provide a single example of the trend it purports to be exposing, and Lydia has the details on one of MAGA’s favorite legal scholars. Who is Adrian Vermeule, what is “Catholic integralism,” and why is a man who has previously gone to so much effort to hide his true beliefs behind “common-good Constitutionalism” showing his entire ass in the pages of the NYT?

Then, we preview a *patron-only* bonus where we go into overtime to witness the spectacle of Alan Dershowitz’s lengthy but extremely unconvincing arguments as to why everyone should be required to sell him pierogi under force of law. If you want to be sure to not miss that, you'll have to go to patreon.com/law!

• Watch this episode on YouTube! https://youtu.be/-GyGbd-GUbs

• "What is the difference between American National and American State National?" Kelby Smith (Youtube link)

• “Someone is Defying the Supreme Court, But It’s Not Trump,” The New York Times, Adrian Vermeule (7/25/25)

• SCOTUS shadow docket order in Trump v. Wilcox (05/22/2025)

• SCOTUS shadow docket order in Noem v. Doe (05/30/2025)

• SCOTUS shadow docket order in DHS v. D.V.D. (06/23/2025)

• SCOTUS shadow docket order in DHS v. D. V. D. (07/03/2025)

• Harvard Students' Letter to Administration re: Vermeule (11/09/2020)

• Vermeule Responds to Harvard Law Faculty's Letter to Students re: The Rule of Law under the Trump Administration (03/30/2025)

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