Marc Elias
Appearances
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Can the Courts Stop Trump’s Power Grab? (Feat. Marc Elias)
Yeah, so look. The fact is that we have a system of campaign finance in this country that is very much segmented by jurisdiction. So what do I mean by that? You have one set of campaign finance rules that apply to federal elections for House, for Senate, and for President. then every state has its own set of campaign finance rules that only apply in those states.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Can the Courts Stop Trump’s Power Grab? (Feat. Marc Elias)
In some large cities like New York City, where there are mayoral elections, I hear, quite spirited.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Can the Courts Stop Trump’s Power Grab? (Feat. Marc Elias)
Some cities in California, they even have city campaign finance systems. So oftentimes there are these questions of what do you do with funds that are in one system, but don't necessarily match up with the rules of how they would be raised or spent in another system. So one of my partners has sought this advisory opinion at the FEC to deal with this exact question.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Can the Courts Stop Trump’s Power Grab? (Feat. Marc Elias)
And, you know, we'll see what the commission says. You know, we're also, I'm very much focused on what is happening with the FEC because, of course, it's one of the agencies that Donald Trump has claimed that he and Pam Bondi can control what their view of the law is.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Can the Courts Stop Trump’s Power Grab? (Feat. Marc Elias)
Thanks for having me. I'm a big fan.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Can the Courts Stop Trump’s Power Grab? (Feat. Marc Elias)
My firm and I have brought a lawsuit on behalf of the Democratic National Committee, Democratic Senate Campaign Committee, Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee against Donald Trump over this very issue. Because it is one thing to get an advisory opinion about, you know, how does money get moved from one account to another? And the FEC is a bipartisan commission.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Can the Courts Stop Trump’s Power Grab? (Feat. Marc Elias)
You need some cooperation of both parties for a ruling. It is quite another thing if we wind up in a world in which the person who decides whether Democrats can use money a certain way and Republicans can use money a certain way is no other than Donald Trump.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Can the Courts Stop Trump’s Power Grab? (Feat. Marc Elias)
No, I don't think it's a game changer. I think it is a part of a long line of advisory opinions on similar topics. I mean, if I want to date myself, I think I asked the first advisory opinion that's sort of in this genre. on behalf of then-Senator John Corzine, who was running for New Jersey governor.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Can the Courts Stop Trump’s Power Grab? (Feat. Marc Elias)
So this question comes up a lot with federal candidates running in New Jersey, federal candidates running in Virginia in those off years because of the way federal campaign finance applies in even-numbered years, but doesn't really have the same force because you don't have federal candidates on the ballots in these odd-numbered years.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Can the Courts Stop Trump’s Power Grab? (Feat. Marc Elias)
However many days it is, it feels long.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Can the Courts Stop Trump’s Power Grab? (Feat. Marc Elias)
I feel like I'm talking here on a really important topic to exactly the right person, because I'm sure you must give it to me all. I do.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Can the Courts Stop Trump’s Power Grab? (Feat. Marc Elias)
So let's just start with the basics. Federal law does not allow non-U.S. citizens to vote, period. It is already a crime for a non-U.S. citizen to vote in a federal election. So it is already the case that in order to register to vote, you have to be a U.S. citizen. What is at issue in these laws is not really citizenship.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Can the Courts Stop Trump’s Power Grab? (Feat. Marc Elias)
Rather, proof of citizenship is a placeholder that Republicans are using as a way to disenfranchise certain groups of voters. So in order to understand it, you have to begin with how does one prove citizenship? Well, there are really only three ways. One is if you're a naturalized citizen, you can produce those papers that showed you became a naturalized citizen.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Can the Courts Stop Trump’s Power Grab? (Feat. Marc Elias)
Most of us who are native born in the United States, we don't have that, right? So now we're down, for most voters, we're down to two things. You either have a valid U.S. passport or you have an original or a certified copy of a birth certificate, okay? Where the name on the birth certificate or on the passport matches the name that you are registering to vote under. So,
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Can the Courts Stop Trump’s Power Grab? (Feat. Marc Elias)
For passports, what you find is that actually most Americans don't have valid U.S. passports. Like, you know, having a passport costs money. Most people don't get one unless they're going to travel. The people who tend not to have passports tend to skew young people. Yes, they skew also less affluent.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Can the Courts Stop Trump’s Power Grab? (Feat. Marc Elias)
But I want people to focus on the fact they skew young because part of what is going on here is an effort to prevent young voters from being able to participate. We see over and over again Republicans using these proxy issues that are really just proxies for targeting young voters. So, number one, you have a passport. OK, so people say, but what about a birth certificate?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Can the Courts Stop Trump’s Power Grab? (Feat. Marc Elias)
It needs to be an original birth certificate or a certified copy with a matching name. Now, I ask you, you know, or your audience, how many people have their original birth certificate? Not many people. I mean, I don't have my original birth certificate. I'm sure my mother had it. How many people have a certified copy?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Can the Courts Stop Trump’s Power Grab? (Feat. Marc Elias)
Not just a photocopy, but a certified copy, a copy certified by the state of their birth certificate. Again, not a lot of people have need for that. And I did a little bit of an experiment. I was born in New York. My wife was born in New York. I was born in the city. She was born upstate. And so we applied for our original or not. We applied for certified copies of the birth certificate.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Can the Courts Stop Trump’s Power Grab? (Feat. Marc Elias)
New York state, you know, good blue state. They've, after COVID, they closed a lot of the offices that, the vital records offices that issue these documents. So we called and it was like months to get a new birth certificate. Like literally they were telling us it will take months to get it by mail. And so this is a real barrier for people to vote if they don't have it. Who else is impacted?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Can the Courts Stop Trump’s Power Grab? (Feat. Marc Elias)
Married women who changed their last names. Because if you're a married woman who changed your last name, your birth certificate name is not going to match the name on the other document you're going to use in order to register to vote.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Can the Courts Stop Trump’s Power Grab? (Feat. Marc Elias)
So it is a big disenfranchisement aimed at young voters, at married women, and people who don't have their original birth certificate, which, again, tend to be more transient populations. And I'd add one final thing. And maybe you can ask some Republicans if you run across one. So what was Donald Trump's first executive order? It was to do away with birthright citizenship.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Can the Courts Stop Trump’s Power Grab? (Feat. Marc Elias)
Yeah, I mean, so first of all, let's go back to last summer when everyone was focused on Project 2025 and Donald Trump said he didn't know anything about Project 2025. Totally ignorant of Project 2025. I believed him at the time when he said he never read it because I don't think he's read 900 pages in his entire life cumulatively.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Can the Courts Stop Trump’s Power Grab? (Feat. Marc Elias)
What would doing away with birthright citizenship do? It would mean a U.S. birth certificate would no longer be proof of citizenship. So I ask you, how the hell is someone supposed to prove that they are a U.S. citizen if you do a birthright citizenship, which means birth certificates no longer are proof of citizenship?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Can the Courts Stop Trump’s Power Grab? (Feat. Marc Elias)
The only reason why they're currently proof of citizenship is because of birthright citizenship, right? And so then you're left with just passports. All of this is just an aim at restricting who can vote.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Can the Courts Stop Trump’s Power Grab? (Feat. Marc Elias)
Yeah, look, it impacts what you oftentimes find is things that attack minority voters tend to also attack young voters, which also tend to attack less affluent voters. And those things tend to go together. I think that there is no question that targeting minority voters is part of the Republican voter suppression plan.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Can the Courts Stop Trump’s Power Grab? (Feat. Marc Elias)
I think, though, that it is also the case, and you see this in state after state, that, you know, why do states do away with state-issued college IDs for ID to vote? It's because they're trying to target young voters. And so they're not mutually exclusive. I just think that they are going after different populations.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Can the Courts Stop Trump’s Power Grab? (Feat. Marc Elias)
So, look, there are there are right wing people. theories. There are fringe right-wing theories. And then there is the attack on birthright citizenship, which is simply nuts. I mean, the fact is the U.S. Constitution, the 14th Amendment, says what it says. So if you are a conservative textualist, you believe in birthright citizenship.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Can the Courts Stop Trump’s Power Grab? (Feat. Marc Elias)
If you are an originalist, you believe in birthright citizenship. I mean, you simply have to be a right-wing xenophobe who doesn't care what the text of the Constitution says in order to not believe that there's birthright citizenship. So I actually am pretty optimistic that the U.S. Supreme Court will uphold the lower court's decisions and affirm birthright citizenship.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Can the Courts Stop Trump’s Power Grab? (Feat. Marc Elias)
Yeah. So he posted on X that Norm Eisen, another lawyer, another pro-democracy lawyer and another Jewish lawyer. I posted on X that we were destroying civilization and that he suspected we had suffered childhood trauma and generational trauma. And so I decided rather than doing what I think he probably anticipated I would do, which is to say, you know, you are...
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Can the Courts Stop Trump’s Power Grab? (Feat. Marc Elias)
But it turned out that that was just another in a litany of lies because what we've seen over the course of the first few weeks of the Trump administration has been, frankly, the implementation of much of what was in Project 2025. All the things that Republicans said they were not going to do, he is now doing, right?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Can the Courts Stop Trump’s Power Grab? (Feat. Marc Elias)
Whatever, terrible, your cars, whatever. Like, rather than sort of screaming back at him, I wrote an open letter and said, you know, you said that I suffered generational trauma. And that's true. You know, my great-grandfather came to this country because of the pogroms that were taking place in the Pale of Settlement, which, you know, is basically the part of Russia.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Can the Courts Stop Trump’s Power Grab? (Feat. Marc Elias)
Think of it as Ukraine, Latvia, Lithuania, that area. That was the reason why my family fled their native land. They came to the United States with nothing. I put an image of the ship manifest showing them coming over. It shows their last name, part of it being scratched out. And that was traumatic. And that my grandfather was three years old when he came to the United States.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Can the Courts Stop Trump’s Power Grab? (Feat. Marc Elias)
And he and my father and the rest of my family, they lived without hot water. They lived in tenements. Many of them worked unskilled labor or semi-skilled labor. They were exactly the people who today Donald Trump is vilifying, right? The people who came here for a better life because they couldn't stay where they were and were willing to do jobs that Elon Musk may think are unworthy of visas.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Can the Courts Stop Trump’s Power Grab? (Feat. Marc Elias)
Elon Musk may think this is the kind of laborers that we don't want because they're not high skill, highly educated laborers. And that is a form of generational trauma. And it is—you know, my family found refuge in a vibrant Jewish community in New York.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Can the Courts Stop Trump’s Power Grab? (Feat. Marc Elias)
They found a political community among the Democratic Party, which took them in, first under FDR, then under Kennedy, all the way through to the modern day. And that I am the person I am in part because of that. You know, I am—I am, you know— my great-grandfather's great-grandchild. I'm my grandfather's grandson. I'm my father's child.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Can the Courts Stop Trump’s Power Grab? (Feat. Marc Elias)
And I end by pointing out that, you know, that they didn't have the money he had. I don't have the money he has. I don't have the power he has. But that I will use whatever power I do have, whatever microphone I have, whatever legal skills I have to fight him and what he and Donald Trump are doing to this country every single day. I end by pointing out that
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Can the Courts Stop Trump’s Power Grab? (Feat. Marc Elias)
And he's trying to do it through decree, through executive order, through bullying, through posting on social media. Interestingly, Jessica, not going to Congress, you know, you wouldn't know that his party actually controls Congress because he's doing it all.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Can the Courts Stop Trump’s Power Grab? (Feat. Marc Elias)
My Hebrew name, my family, we had English names, we had Hebrew names. My Hebrew name was Hanan, who was one of the fighters in David's army who helped slay Goliath. And that, you know, I may not have the money and the power that they have, but I will do everything I can to try to take on injustice where I find it.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Can the Courts Stop Trump’s Power Grab? (Feat. Marc Elias)
The issue that makes me rage is... The fact that we are watching Donald Trump exercise executive power, okay, Article II power, while Article I, the Congress, under the leadership of Republicans, are refusing to stand up to him. I mean, of all the cowards in American society, there is a special place in the Coward Hall of Fame for Republican leadership in Congress today.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Can the Courts Stop Trump’s Power Grab? (Feat. Marc Elias)
I mean, history will probably forget who I am. It will probably remember you because you were on TV. But it will definitely remember. It will definitely remember Mike Johnson and John Thune. It will definitely remember the elected Republicans who, at a time when this country needed them to do the minimum— They failed to do it.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Can the Courts Stop Trump’s Power Grab? (Feat. Marc Elias)
And so that is the thing that causes me to rage more than anything else. The other is what gives me—what was the other one?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Can the Courts Stop Trump’s Power Grab? (Feat. Marc Elias)
Yeah, so look, I think we need to—I don't know if it's chill out, but I think we need to recognize that when Donald Trump says he's doing something, he is oftentimes not doing it. Like, so it's not—I want to be clear. I'm not saying— That, you know, you need to pick your battles. Like maybe politically it's smart to pick battles. Maybe it's not. Like that's a fight that's not for lawyers.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Can the Courts Stop Trump’s Power Grab? (Feat. Marc Elias)
And it's, you know, it is in some sense worse than we expected, but it's more or less, you know, kind of what an aspiring authoritarian would do.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Can the Courts Stop Trump’s Power Grab? (Feat. Marc Elias)
What I do think is that if Donald Trump says, you know, I decree myself a magic wand and three wishes, we should not immediately assume that he has a magic wand and three wishes. Like these executive orders, I mean, have no force of law. I mean, in the hierarchy of law, you have statutes, you have agency rules, you have agency policies, and then you have executive orders.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Can the Courts Stop Trump’s Power Grab? (Feat. Marc Elias)
They largely are symbolic. And I wish people would understand that he is trying to create a reality about his power that doesn't always exist.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Can the Courts Stop Trump’s Power Grab? (Feat. Marc Elias)
I mean, look, the only thing I'd say is I started Democracy Docket to give people accurate information about what's happening to democracy in court. We have nearly 400,000 subscribers, and if people want access to that, I hope they check it out.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Can the Courts Stop Trump’s Power Grab? (Feat. Marc Elias)
Same here.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Can the Courts Stop Trump’s Power Grab? (Feat. Marc Elias)
Look, I think Democrats did hammer away at it. I think the problem is with Donald Trump is that he is able to spew complete and utter lies, which he did, about it. And it sort of put much of the mainstream media in this, on the one hand, on the other hand side. I mean, I'm not saying any individual journalist was in that place, but as a collective, it
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Can the Courts Stop Trump’s Power Grab? (Feat. Marc Elias)
It was like, well, there's this terrible thing called Project 2025 and Democrats say this is what's coming. On the other hand, the campaign says they are distancing themselves and, you know, and having nothing to do with it. And so I think it became a hard thing for Democrats to puncture through that wall. But I do think Democrats tried.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Can the Courts Stop Trump’s Power Grab? (Feat. Marc Elias)
Yeah. So it shouldn't have a chilling effect on the legal community, but it is having a chilling effect on the legal community. And I think that's what Donald Trump had in mind. You point out I was a partner at Perkins Coie for many, many years. I was the general counsel of the Clinton campaign in 2016.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Can the Courts Stop Trump’s Power Grab? (Feat. Marc Elias)
While I was there, I also led President Biden's successful litigation in the post-election of 2020. We won more than 60 cases there. defeating Donald Trump and his allies in court. So I understand that, you know, Donald Trump is vindictive and is willing to do things and break norms. And in many respects, that's kind of baked into the cake.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Can the Courts Stop Trump’s Power Grab? (Feat. Marc Elias)
What shouldn't be baked into the cake is the response of the large law firms, right? The large law firms should be rallying behind not just this one law firm, but also you probably know that Covington and Burling faced a similar situation kind of order, a little narrower, because they had the audacity, one of their partners had the audacity to represent Jack Smith. God forbid. God forbid, right.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Can the Courts Stop Trump’s Power Grab? (Feat. Marc Elias)
And we know that he targeted other lawyers for removing their security clearances on an individual basis for activity they did. And the question I ask is, you know, I mean, Jessica, you and I, and probably everyone listening to this, we grew up in school reading
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Can the Courts Stop Trump’s Power Grab? (Feat. Marc Elias)
the poem by the minister in Nazi Germany who said, they came for the communists and I didn't worry because I wasn't a communist and I didn't speak out. They came for the socialists and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a socialist. They came for the Jews and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for me and there was no one. That's roughly it. And we all dutifully condemned
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Can the Courts Stop Trump’s Power Grab? (Feat. Marc Elias)
the people who didn't speak out and said, we will never do that again. Never again, right, was the phrase. We all listened and studied the words of Martin Luther King Jr. when he talked about not the terribleness of the white Southern racists, but that the worst... that were being done was by the moderates who were the supposed good people who stayed silent.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Can the Courts Stop Trump’s Power Grab? (Feat. Marc Elias)
So here we are, it's 2025, and I ask, you know, the lawyers out there, why are you staying silent? You know, why aren't you saying, don't come for another law firm without coming for us first?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Can the Courts Stop Trump’s Power Grab? (Feat. Marc Elias)
Yeah, but courage doesn't come from not being scared. I'm scared. I'm afraid. I'm sure you're scared. You're afraid. Like, it's okay to be afraid. The question is, what do you do next, right? Do you then cower in fear? Or... Do you do you stand by your convictions? And that's where courage comes from. If you don't have if you don't have fear, you're not courageous.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Can the Courts Stop Trump’s Power Grab? (Feat. Marc Elias)
You're only courageous if you have fear and you're able to act notwithstanding it. And, you know, and let's be honest, a lot of these large law firms, they're not being asked to do a whole lot. I mean, they're making a lot of money. They're quite successful in life. They're not living hand to mouth. Right.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Can the Courts Stop Trump’s Power Grab? (Feat. Marc Elias)
So asking them to stand up for other law firms is not exactly asking them to walk across the Edmund Pettus Bridge.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Can the Courts Stop Trump’s Power Grab? (Feat. Marc Elias)
it's a really good question. I think it is a little bit of what you said, which is that I think every lawyer, every large firm litigator or manager of a large law firm thinks this is crazy, you know, and, and also thinks by the way, it's unconstitutional, which it is. It's like the The president of the United States can't actually do the things. And it's not just this executive order.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Can the Courts Stop Trump’s Power Grab? (Feat. Marc Elias)
Like the president of the United States is claiming to have a whole lot of power to do executive orders that he doesn't have. But in this arena, I think, you know, if you talk to most lawyers in private, they'll say, yeah, this is crazy. This is terrible. This is like anti-democratic and someone needs to stand up.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Can the Courts Stop Trump’s Power Grab? (Feat. Marc Elias)
But, and then they explain why they are not the right person to do that, because their clients will be upset. They're afraid what it will mean for their business. They're afraid what it will mean in their community. They're afraid, you know, I mean, and look, this is one of the reasons why you're like a hero to me and so many people, because you every, you know, you are constantly changing.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Can the Courts Stop Trump’s Power Grab? (Feat. Marc Elias)
speaking truth in in in you know before an audience that oftentimes i assume you know is some of them are open to your truth and some of us open and so so like you know what i'm talking about because the easiest thing for someone like you is to actually not speak to an audience who doesn't want to hear it doesn't want to hear the truth and i think that's where the legal community is and you have some people like you who are saying you know what i'm going to still speak truth and that will let you know that that is the most important thing and there are other people who are like you know what i can just stay quiet yeah i'm gonna
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Can the Courts Stop Trump’s Power Grab? (Feat. Marc Elias)
Yeah. And look, that is, you know, I built a website called Democracy Document.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Can the Courts Stop Trump’s Power Grab? (Feat. Marc Elias)
Yeah. And, you know, the original reason I started it in March of 2020 and the original reason, Jessica, was that I felt like you had the truth of what was happening in voting and in court. And then you had what Donald Trump was saying was happening in voting and in court.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Can the Courts Stop Trump’s Power Grab? (Feat. Marc Elias)
And so one of the features of that site from the very first day of its launch to today is we post all of the court pleadings, the underlying filings, both by the Democratic Party, by the Republican Party, by the states, the AGs, Republican, Democratic, and as well as the outcomes, the decisions by the courts, again, whether they are favorable or unfavorable to voting.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Can the Courts Stop Trump’s Power Grab? (Feat. Marc Elias)
We put it all there because my hope was that even if people didn't trust me, even if Republicans would say, well, Mark Elias is just going to put in his favorable light, I could say, look, here, you can go read what the Republican Party said, right?
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Can the Courts Stop Trump’s Power Grab? (Feat. Marc Elias)
When Rudy Giuliani stood up in a federal courtroom in December of 2020 and said he is not claiming there was fraud in Pennsylvania, okay, when he said that in courtroom, I could tell people he said that, but I thought, well, maybe if we just put the transcripts the documents, it would help combat that kind of misinformation.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Can the Courts Stop Trump’s Power Grab? (Feat. Marc Elias)
So I think it is really important to speak not just to people who agree with you, but to try to find ways to provide access to information, even if they don't trust the messenger. At least, you know, here is the information and you can read it for yourself and form your own conclusion.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Can the Courts Stop Trump’s Power Grab? (Feat. Marc Elias)
Yeah, I mean, look, I mean, our system of government relies on checks and balances. The check that the founders envisioned holding the president in, you know, under the Constitution was Congress. But we have not seen Speaker Johnson or Leader Thune do anything other than You know, hand their power over to the White House.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Can the Courts Stop Trump’s Power Grab? (Feat. Marc Elias)
So so there is no check coming from Republicans who control the gavels in Congress. So it has fallen really to the courts. And, you know, I think you deliver a really important message. I hope people in the audience hear this. The courts are holding, you know, it doesn't feel that way to people in day to day life because it. Judges don't hold press conferences, right? Judges don't.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Can the Courts Stop Trump’s Power Grab? (Feat. Marc Elias)
The federal courts, unfortunately, are not televised. I think it would feel better for two people if they did have televised hearings. But if you read the opinions, if you go to sites like Democracy Talk, but if you read the opinions of what judges are saying, the judges are saying that what Donald Trump is doing is illegal. They are saying that what he's doing is unconstitutional. And they are
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Can the Courts Stop Trump’s Power Grab? (Feat. Marc Elias)
Using words that don't sound extraordinary to people who watch politics where vitriol is common, but for judges are quite unusually sharp. I mean, you have federal judges saying things like the president is not a king. I mean, could you imagine a federal judge saying that about Joe Biden or Barack Obama or George W. Bush or Washington? or Bill Clinton or Bush or Reagan. No, no, no.
Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Can the Courts Stop Trump’s Power Grab? (Feat. Marc Elias)
Like, like this is, this is an extraordinary language that you see out of these courts. So they are holding, I think what we're all waiting on is at some point, one of these judges is going to issue an order and the Trump administration is just going to say, you know what, we can't, we won't comply with that. And then you will have what people refer to as a constitutional crisis.