Moving The Bar: My Life As A Radical Lawyer

Hosts Heidi Boghosian and Michael Smith interviewed some of Michael Ratner’s closest friends and colleagues as part of a special broadcast highlighting Michael Ratner’s legal work and mentorship. The special also marked the upcoming release of Michael Ratner’s autobiography Moving The Bar: My Life As A Radical Lawyer published by OR Books. In this one hour taken from the two hour fundraiser broadcast, we hear from attorneys including Eleanor Stein, Richard Levy, Ray Brescia, David Cole and Baher Azmy.

Michael Ratner’s pathbreaking legal and political work is unmatched. He provided crucial support for the Cuban Revolution and won the seminal case in the Supreme Court guaranteeing the right of habeas corpus to Guantanamo detainees. Michael also challenged U.S. policy in Iraq, Haiti, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Puerto Rico and Israel-Palestine. This book is a testament to his unflagging efforts on behalf of the poor and oppressed around the world.

– Marjorie Cohn, Professor Emerita, Thomas Jefferson School of Law

Michael Ratner personified lawyering that brought both radical and human values into challenges to the use of governmental power to violate the essence of the Bill of Rights. From the torture of prisoners after 911 to the massive racial profiling by the New York Police Department, Michael’s voice and vision continue to resonate. This book provides a powerful testament to the spirit of this extraordinary man.

– Attorney Bill Goodman

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Ordinary People, Extraordinary Times – A Guide for All of Us: How to Reclaim Your Power, Fight for Freedom, and Reimagine Democracy

We’re joined by Skye Perryman, the author of a new book, Ordinary People, Extraordinary Times – A Guide for All of Us: How to Reclaim Your Power, Fight for Freedom, and Reimagine Democracy.

Skye opens her book this way: “I know how you feel – because I’ve been there to … On a bad day, and there are many bad days, our nation’s backslide from democracy into autocracy accelerates….Untrained, masked federal agents are running roughshod in our streets, terrorizing communities. Peaceful protesters have been killed. The government has been weaponized, and the Supreme Court feels stacked. It is harder and harder for many to make ends meet….We are all so tired. And many of us are numb…. It’s almost impossible to keep up; even harder to know what to do.”

Guest – Skye Perryman is the President and CEO of Democracy Forward, a national legal organization that advances democracy and progress in the courts. Named one of TIME’s 100 Most Influential People in the World, she is a leader in the largest affirmative litigation effort against executive branch overreach in United States history. In reviewing her new book for Ms Magazine, I called it “timely, hopeful, and practical. She is the author of a new book, Ordinary People, Extraordinary Times – A Guide for All of Us: How to Reclaim Your Power, Fight for Freedom, and Reimagine Democracy.

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A Real Right To Vote: How A Constitutional Amendment Can Safeguard American Democracy

From Donald Trump’s dangerous Executive Orders imposing restrictions on voting to the Supreme Court’s dismantling of the Voting Rights Act and all the efforts at voter suppression in Congress and state legislatures, the right to vote in America is under assault. The Midterm Elections are less than 90 days away and many people are asking whether free and fair elections will even take place this November, and if they do, whether Trump and the Republicans will try to block the results in races they lose.

To help us understand what is going on, we’re very pleased to be joined by an internationally recognized expert in election law, Rick Hasen.

Guest – Rick Hasen is the Gary T. Schwartz Distinguished Professor of Law, and Director of the Safeguarding Democracy Project at UCLA School of Law. He is co-author of leading casebooks in election law and served in 2022 and 2024 as an NBC News/MSNBC Election Law Analyst. He was a CNN Election Law Analyst in 2020. From 2001-2010, he served as founding co-editor of the quarterly peer-reviewed publication, Election Law Journal. He is the author of over 100 articles on election law issues. His latest book, A Real Right to Vote, was published by Princeton University Press in February 2024.

Cuba: The Capital of 21st Century Communism

On July 20th, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the State Department released a 100-page McCarthyite propaganda report. It is a document that seeks to serve as the ideological justification for an escalating assault on Cuba, the Cuba solidarity movement and all political dissent on the left. The report casts a wide net of unfounded accusations, maliciously painting over 40 left-leaning social movement organizations and individuals as purported Cuban “front groups” while employing guilt-by-association tactics to smear even elected officials such as New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass.

Among the organizations cited is the National Lawyers Guild, an association of attorneys, law students and legal workers, of which all of the hosts here on Law and Disorder are members. It goes so far as to cite reports from the long-discredited House Un-American Activities Committee, reviving Cold War conspiracy theories from the 1950s and repackaging them for the present.

As our guest today writes, “These accusations are not meant to be rational. They, like the charges that our elections are manipulated, are transparent excuses to go after institutions and individuals that are seen as threatening Trump and the Republican Party’s absolute grip on power.”

Guest – Chris Hedges is a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and author, and the former Middle East correspondent for the New York Times. Among his more than a dozen books are American Fascism: The Christian Right and the War on America; The Greatest Evil Is War; and A Genocide Foretold: Reporting on Survival and Resistance in Occupied Palestine. Chris Hedges is also one of the contributors to the book titled From the Flag to the Cross: Fascism American Style, a book composed of summaries of interviews with guests here on the Law and Disorder radio show, and available for purchase at O/R Books.

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Khalil v Trump

Mahmood Khalil, a recent Columbia University graduate and legal permanent resident has sued senior Trump administration officials and private anti-Palestinian groups for conspiring to target, detain, and attempt to deport him because of his identity and his advocacy for Palestinian rights. He is represented by the Center for Constitutional Rights and the law firm of Beldock, Levine and Hoffman.

The lawsuit argues that government officials and private actors, including the Heritage Foundation, Betar and Canary Mission violated the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871 and the US Constitution when they coordinated to suppress political speech and support of Palestinian rights through the weaponization of immigration enforcement and baseless, pretrial accusations of terrorism and antisemitism.

Mahmoud‘s arrest, detention, and attempted deportation were part of a broader strategy to criminalized solidarity, chill speech and make an example of those who speak out against the subjugation of Palestinians. This case is about more than one person or one freedom movement. Is about whether government power can be weaponized by private actors to target human rights defenders and strip people of their constitutional rights.

Guest – New York attorney Adina Marx-Padare. She is a justice fellow at the Center for Constitutional Rights ( CCR). She graduated.CUNY law school and worked at Bronx Defenders.

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Challenges To The Trump Administration’s Executive Orders

The legal system is straining as it tries to hold the Trump administration accountable for its unprecedented assault on our constitutional rights. Close to a thousand lawsuits have been filed challenging Trump’s Executive Orders and their implementation, plus more than ten thousand separate habeas corpus petitions filed by people targeted by Trump’s immigration crackdown.

We take a deeper look at some of these legal and political developments. We’re joined by our very own co-host Steve Rohde, who practiced constitutional law for almost 50 years.  He is a former Chair of the ACLU Foundation of Southern California, the author or two books and numerous articles on the courts and the law.

Guest – Stephen Rohde is a journalist, lecturer and political activist. For almost 50 years, he practiced civil rights, civil liberties, and intellectual property law and has won significant First Amendment victories in state and federal appellate courts.Steve is past chair of the ACLU Foundation of Southern California and Chair Emeritus of Bend the Arc, a Jewish Partnership for Justice. He is a founder and current chair of Interfaith Communities United for Justice and Peace; and a member of the Board of Directors of Death Penalty Focus. He is the Special Advisor on Free Speech and the First Amendment for the Muslim Public Affairs Council.Steve is the author of the books American Words of Freedom: The Words That Define Our Nation and Freedom of Assembly and numerous articles and book reviews on civil liberties and constitutional history. He is co-author of Foundations of Freedom published by the Constitutional Rights Foundation. Steve is also the host of Speaking Freely: A First Amendment Podcast exploring the most important Supreme Court cases in the area of free speech and free press.

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Student Journalism Supported By Law Center

Student journalism is one of the most vital—and often overlooked—front lines in the fight for a free press. Across the country, student reporters expose such topics as sexual misconduct, financial mismanagement, and government secrecy. Yet without the institutional legal backing enjoyed by newsrooms, they frequently face censorship, retaliation, and lawsuit threats from administrators and public officials.

For more than fifty years, the Student Press Law Center has stood as the nation’s leading legal advocate for student journalists. Founded in 1974, the nonprofit offers free legal help via a nationwide hotline, advises on First Amendment issues—from libel to public records access—and spearheads the “New Voices” movement for state-level legal protections.

Guest – SPLC staff attorney Jonathan Gaston-Falk. A former student journalist himself at York High School in Virginia, Jonathan joined the center in March 2022 after a five-year tenure leading the Education Law Unit at the Legal Aid Society of Rochester, New York. There, he advocated for student free speech rights before school boards and the state Commissioner of Education.

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