Baby Boom! Lawyered
You were smart enough not to go to law school. Good—that's what Imani Gandy is for. Baby Boom! Lawyered is the micropodcast from the co-creator of Boom! Lawyered: two or three short episodes a week on the fastest-moving legal fights for reproductive justice. Everything from abortion rights to trans discrimination to racial justice, translated by someone who sat through the three years so you didn't have to. Produced by Rewire News Group.
What Happens If SCOTUS Orders Blue States to Respect Fetal Personhood?
Louisiana, Alabama, and Arkansas have filed two lawsuits targeting abortion shield laws and the providers who mail abortion pills into states where abortion is banned. Imani examines how the states use fetal personhood to describe their alleged injuries, whether the Supreme Court is likely to hear their case, and what today’s shield-law fight has in common with the personal liberty laws Northern states used to resist the Fugitive Slave Act. Also: why Louisiana put mifepristone, anthrax, and mail bombs in the same sentence.
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SCOTUS Did Something Nice for Black Voters in Missouri. I Know.
The Supreme Court did something nice for Black voters. I’m as shocked as you are. On Sept. 25, the Court told the Eighth Circuit to knock it off and stop trying to force Missouri to use a gerrymandered 2025 congressional map that Republicans drew at Trump’s urging. Imani Gandy breaks down how Missouri’s secretary of state gambled and ran the primary on the wrong map, and why the Supreme Court had to tell Republicans in Missouri three times that they can’t use the 2025 map—they have to use the 2022 map. Also, she explains what the Purcell principle is so you...
Make Med School White Again
Trump’s Department of Justice says the medical school at the University of California, San Francisco, discriminated against white and Asian applicants, and it’s giving the school until October 2 to enter into a voluntary resolution agreement or get sued. Imani Gandy breaks down the DOJ’s claims, including its attack on application essays asking students how race shaped their lives, which Chief Justice John Roberts expressly left legal when the Supreme Court ended affirmative action in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard. Then, she explains who pays when fewer Black and Native students become doctors: pregnant people in matern...
Tierra Walker Died Under Texas's Abortion Ban. Now Her Family Is Suing.
Tierra Walker knew her pregnancy could kill her, so she asked about an abortion. Not one of the more than 90 doctors who saw Walker offered her abortion care.
Now her family is suing the doctors, hospitals, and Texas officials who failed her, including Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. Imani Gandy explains how the state created an abortion regime that terrifies doctors into inaction, then blames those doctors when patients die—and why that regime still doesn’t excuse that Walker’s doctors failed to save her life by providing an abortion.
Expert R...
What Is the Shadow Docket and Why Should You Care?
The new Supreme Court term doesn't start until October, so why has the Court been issuing important rulings while it's supposed to be on break?
In this Office Hours episode of Baby Boom! Lawyered, Imani Gandy answers a listener's question about the shadow docket, the emergency track where some of the Court's most consequential decisions get made all year. They’re decided quickly—and often with no explanation at all.
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Episodes like this take time, research, and a commitment to the truth. If Baby Boom! Lawyered helps you u...
Trump Is Making It Easier to Discriminate Against Black Workers (Imani Explains it All)
Disparate impact may sound boring. It isn't.
It's the rule the Supreme Court established in 1971 to catch discrimination that doesn't announce itself. Fifty-four years later, the EEOC, acting on Trump's executive order, walked away from that standard. Then the DOJ's Office of Legal Counsel went further, declaring disparate impact liability under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act unconstitutional.
The new requirement: prove the employer intended to discriminate, which sounds neutral until you notice who can actually produce that proof. A white employee suing over "reverse discrimination" has a paper trail sitting right there — the...
FDA Wouldn’t Defend Its Own Mifepristone Rule in Court
On Wednesday Louisiana asked the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals to stop the abortion drug mifepristone from being mailed to patients by reinstating a rule that says you have to show up in person to get it. But if it wins, Louisiana told the three-judge panel, it doesn't want the rule change to go into effect immediately, because Louisiana doesn't trust the Supreme Court would let that restriction stand.
Meanwhile, the FDA showed up to oppose Louisiana in court but wouldn't answer a single question about its own rule. So the abortion pill manufacturers (who are now...
Louisiana Says It's ‘Blanketed’ in Contraband Mifepristone
A pill doesn't care about state lines. Louisiana does—apparently a lot.
Welcome to the first-ever episode of Baby Boom! Lawyered. Imani Gandy gets into Louisiana v. FDA, the case that could result in a ban on mailed mifepristone for everyone, not just Louisianans. There's a standing fight, a Supreme Court dissent where Clarence Thomas called mifepristone manufacturers a "criminal enterprise," and a very predictable outcome coming from the Fifth Circuit. Oral arguments are Sept. 9. Get into the case with Gandy.
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If ‘Roe’ Was Never Enough, Why Was It Everything? (And a Word to My Boom! Lawyered Fam)
Roe v. Wade was never enough. Reproductive justice advocates have been saying that for decades. So why did so much of the reproductive rights movement organize itself around protecting Roe anyway?
In this solo episode, Imani Gandy explores how legal arguments became the center of the fight for abortion rights, what got lost in the process, and why public health researchers and reproductive justice advocates were often telling a different story. From Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas' anti-abortion roadmap in Box v. Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky to the public health findings of the Turnaway Study, t...
Can Trump Really End Birthright Citizenship
Imani and Jess are off this week, but before the Supreme Court issues its birthright citizenship ruling in Trump v. Barbara, revisit this conversation with Pregnancy Justice President Lourdes Rivera on how the movement trying to deny citizenship to some children born in the United States is also working to grant constitutional rights to embryos and fetuses.
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Episodes like this take time, research, and a commitment to the truth. If Baby Boom! Lawyered helps you understand what’s at stake in our courts, chip in to keep our fearless le...
The Trump Administration Wants More Trad Wives
In this episode, Imani and Jess unpack the Supreme Court’s order on mifepristone access and explain where it fits in the Trump administration’s crusade to redefine motherhood nationwide.
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Episodes like this take time, research, and a commitment to the truth. If Baby Boom! Lawyered helps you understand what’s at stake in our courts, chip in to keep our fearless legal analysis alive. Become a member today.
B*itch, Listen now has its own dedicated feed on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever else you ge...
Louisiana is Ground Zero for Voting Rights, Abortion Pill Access
In this episode, Imani and Jess unpack the historic attack on voting rights from the Supreme Court in Louisiana v. Callais and explain what’s next from the Court on the fight to block mifepristone access.
Expert Repro Journalism That Inspires.
Episodes like this take time, research, and a commitment to the truth. If Baby Boom! Lawyered helps you understand what’s at stake in our courts, chip in to keep our fearless legal analysis alive. Become a member today.
B*itch, Listen now has its own dedicated feed on Apple P...
The Supreme Court Gears Up For Another Unprecedented Term (Rerun)
The Supreme Court closed out arguments for the term this week. Jess and Imani are out, but this episode showcases all the biggest cases of the term. Stay tuned for deep dives on the decisions coming up in future episodes.
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Episodes like this take time, research, and a commitment to the truth. If Baby Boom! Lawyered helps you understand what’s at stake in our courts, chip in to keep our fearless legal analysis alive. Become a member today.
B*itch, Listen now has its ow...
A Colorado School Tests the Separation of Church and State
Imani and Jess are off this week, but in this episode republished from 2025, Imani and Jess discuss a new school launched in Colorado that’s designed to erase the separation of church and state in public education. They also explain why the conservative legal movement could finally succeed in getting taxpayers to fund religious schools.
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Episodes like this take time, research, and a commitment to the truth. If Baby Boom! Lawyered helps you understand what’s at stake in our courts, chip in to keep our fearless legal analysis alive...
The Anti-Choice Movement’s Obsession with Abortion Pills
In this episode, Imani and Jess unpack the conservative legal movement’s latest attacks on medication abortion, from courthouses to state legislatures across the country—including efforts to categorize mailing pills as “drug trafficking.”
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Episodes like this take time, research, and a commitment to the truth. If Baby Boom! Lawyered helps you understand what’s at stake in our courts, chip in to keep our fearless legal analysis alive. Become a member today.
B*itch, Listen now has its own dedicated feed on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, an...
Will Donald Trump Put Ted Cruz on the Supreme Court?
In this episode, Imani and Jess dive into the Supreme Court’s conversion therapy decision, birthright citizenship oral arguments, and rumours that President Donald Trump has his eye on Texas Sen. Ted Cruz for his next Supreme Court nomination.
Expert Repro Journalism That Inspires.
Episodes like this take time, research, and a commitment to the truth. If Baby Boom! Lawyered helps you understand what’s at stake in our courts, chip in to keep our fearless legal analysis alive. Become a member today.
B*itch, Listen now has i...
We Did the Reading. Fascism Came Anyway.
The most informed progressive public in American history is watching a fascist takeover in real time. In her first solo episode, Imani Gandy wants to know why. From Black Twitter to the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act dying in the Senate twice, she builds the argument—and then pokes holes in it herself. She doesn't have a clean answer. That's why she's asking.
Correction: In this episode I state that New York cut a billion dollars from the police budget — they pledged to cut a billion but ultimately cut approximately half a million. I also state that...
The New Parental Rights Legal Grift
In this episode, Imani and Jess break down the latest anti-trans decision from the Supreme Court, Mirabelli v. Bonta and explain how the conservative legal movement is rewriting parental rights law from the shadow docket of the Supreme Court.
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Episodes like this take time, research, and a commitment to the truth. If Boom! Lawyered helps you understand what’s at stake in our courts, chip in to keep our fearless legal analysis alive. Become a member today.
Imani’s column, AngryBlackLady Chronicles, is back in 2026! Sign up for...
There’s More Drama at the Supreme Court
In this episode! Imani and Jess spill the tea on the recent Supreme Court drama, from infighting among the justices in the Trump tariff decision, to retirement rumours, and why it is more than political theater when the president attacks the independence of the judiciary.
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Episodes like this take time, research, and a commitment to the truth. If Boom! Lawyered helps you understand what’s at stake in our courts, chip in to keep our fearless legal analysis alive. Become a member today.
Imani’s column, AngryBlackLady Chronicles, is b...
Dateline’s Josh Mankiewicz Takes You Inside the True Crime Machine
In part two of her series on true crime and disability, Imani Gandy interviews Dateline correspondent Josh Mankiewicz about true crime as a machine that decides whose stories get told—and whose don’t. From missing Black women, to missing and murdered Indigenous people, to the near invisibility of disabled victims, they talk about what true crime shows—and what it leaves out.
Because attention itself is a form of power.
(And yes, there’s a Bill Hader moment.)
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Episodes like this take time, research...
What’s Going On In the Fight Over Abortion Pills
In this episode, Imani and Jess walk through the current legal threats to medication abortion access and explain how the national abortion landscape could be reshaped entirely by spring.
Expert Repro Journalism That Inspires.
Episodes like this take time, research, and a commitment to the truth. If Boom! Lawyered helps you understand what’s at stake in our courts, chip in to keep our fearless legal analysis alive. Become a member today.
Imani’s column, AngryBlackLady Chronicles is back in 2026! Sign up for her newsletter here to read it first...
Can Trump Really End Birthright Citizenship
Imani and Jess are off this week, but in this episode republished from 2024 they explain the spurious new legal arguments underpinning the conservative push to end birthright citizenship.
Expert Repro Journalism That Inspires.
Episodes like this take time, research, and a commitment to the truth. If Boom! Lawyered helps you understand what’s at stake in our courts, chip in to keep our fearless legal analysis alive. Become a supporter today.
Imani has relaunched her column, AngryBlackLady Chronicles. Sign up for our newsletters here to read it first, and listen to Imani’s new po...
The Justice Department Tries to Prosecute Black Journalists
In this episode, Imani Gandy and Jess Pieklo unpack the federal charges brought against Black journalists and advocates in connection to an anti-ICE protest at a Minnesota church.
Correction - In this show we refer to Don Lemon as "from CNN" when he is a former CNN journalist.
See the referenced Lourdes Rivera Episode Here!
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Episodes like this take time, research, and a commitment to the truth. If Boom! Lawyered helps you understand what’s at stake in our courts, chip in to keep our fearless legal...
In Mercy's Shadow: The Mercy Narrative in True Crime
True crime is everywhere—but crimes against disabled people are rarely treated as “true crime” at all. Imani Gandy talks with disability justice advocate Vilissa Thompson about why disabled victims are erased from true crime, how ableism shapes which stories get told, and what ethical storytelling requires when disability is involved.
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Episodes like this take time, research, and a commitment to the truth. If Boom! Lawyered helps you understand what’s at stake in our courts, chip in to keep our fearless legal analysis alive. Become a supporter today.Imani has relau...
Why Conservatives Want to Ban Trans Girls from Sports
In this episode, Imani Gandy and Jess Pieklo discuss the ICE raids in Minnesota, Trump’s threats to “buy” Greenland, and explain how a ruling in favor of state bans on trans girls playing sports could lead to boys-only chess clubs.
Expert Repro Journalism That Inspires.
Episodes like this take time, research, and a commitment to the truth. If Boom! Lawyered helps you understand what’s at stake in our courts, chip in to keep our fearless legal analysis alive. Become a supporter today.
Imani has relaunched her column, AngryBlackLady Chronicles. Sign up for our...
My Holidays Look a Little Different This Year (Thanks, Portia)
Imani Gandy interviews Portia Burch about what it means to get through the holidays when you don’t love them. Together, they talk about companionship, Black joy without the performance or obligation, and building a season that feels steadier and more survivable.
Expert Repro Journalism That Inspires.
Episodes like this take time, research, and a commitment to the truth. If Boom! Lawyered helps you understand what’s at stake in our courts, chip in to keep our fearless legal analysis alive. Become a supporter today.Imani has relaunched her column, AngryBlackLady Chroni...
We're In The Deconstruction Era - Re-release
The Supreme Court heard arguments this week in Trump v. Slaughter, a case that could greatly expand the scope of presidential power. Imani and Jess are off this week but decided to republish this episode from September that explains why they believe we’re living through a “Deconstruction era”—think Reconstruction era, but in reverse—and what that means for our public institutions and the rule of law.
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Episodes like this take time, research, and a commitment to the truth. If Boom! Lawyered helps you understand what’s at st...
Texas Bounty Abortion Pill Bounty Hunter Law Goes Into Effect
In this episode of Boom! Lawyered, Imani and Jess break down HB 7, a Texas law that attacks medication abortion and could set the stage for a nationwide abortion ban. They also discuss how the legislation, which went into effect on Dec. 4, 2025, incentivizes community members to snitch on one another using financial rewards.
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Episodes like this take time, research, and a commitment to the truth. If Boom! Lawyered helps you understand what’s at stake in our courts, chip in to keep our fearless legal analysis alive. Become a member today.
<...Judy Reyes on ICE Raids, Humanity, and the Power of Storytelling
Imani Gandy interviews actor Judy Reyes about the handling of immigration policy in Trump 2.0, what she learned playing an immigration lawyer on TV, and why storytelling cuts through political nonsense in ways policy and punditry never will. They also discuss the importance of community, culture, and what it means to stay human in a country determined to see you as anything but—plus a little ‘Scrubs’ reboot gossip for longtime fans.
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Episodes like this take time, research, and a commitment to the truth. If Boom! Lawyered helps you underst...
From Marriage Equality to SCOTUS Reform: Imani and Jess Answer Your Questions
In this episode of Boom! Lawyered Imani and Jess answer audience questions on everything from threats to same-sex marriage, how to reform the federal courts, and what should be kept and what should be scrapped if we rewrote the constitution.
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Episodes like this take time, research, and a commitment to the truth. If Boom! Lawyered helps you understand what’s at stake in our courts, chip in to keep our fearless legal analysis alive. Become a supporter today.
Imani has relaunched her column, AngryBlackLady Chronicles. Sign up for ou...
Fighting Back During Trump’s Most Chaotic Era
In this episode of Boom! Lawyered, Imani has the week off, so Jess is joined by President and CEO of Democracy Forward Skye Perryman to talk about fighting the Trump administration in court and how building community is the antidote to authoritarian rule.
Expert Repro Journalism that Inspires.
Episodes like this take time, research, and a commitment to the truth. If Boom! Lawyered helps you understand what’s at stake in our courts, chip in to keep our fearless legal analysis alive. Become a supporter today.
Imani has relaunched her column, AngryBlackLady Chronicles. Sign...
A Colorado School Tests the Separation of Church and State
In this episode of Boom! Lawyered, Imani and Jess discuss a new school launched in Colorado that’s designed to erase the separation of church and state in public education. They also explain why the conservative legal movement could finally succeed in getting taxpayers to fund religious schools.
Episodes like this take time, research, and a commitment to the truth. If Boom! Lawyered helps you understand what’s at stake in our courts, chip in to keep our fearless legal analysis alive. Become a supporter today.
Imani has relaunched her column, AngryBlackLady Chronicles. Sign u...
The Constitution: A Scam by Rich White Men, for Rich White Men
The Constitution isn’t sacred—it’s a sham that pretends to be about equality but actually only benefits white men in power. Imani Gandy talks with best-selling author Elie Mystal about why the Constitution has never worked for Black people, how the Supreme Court weaponizes it to strip people of their rights, and what it would look like to scrap it and start over.
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Episodes like this take time, research, and a commitment to the truth. If Boom! Lawyered helps you understand what’s at stake in our courts, chip in...
Why Planned Parenthood is getting in on the California redistricting effort
In this episode of Boom! Lawyered, Imani and Jess are joined by Jodi Hicks, President and CEO of Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California to unpack the redistricting fight between California and Texas and explain why the battle of the maps is a reproductive justice issue.
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Episodes like this take time, research, and a commitment to the truth. If Boom! Lawyered helps you understand what’s at stake in our courts, chip in to keep our fearless legal analysis alive. Become a supporter today.
Imani has r...
Conversion Therapy Bans Head to SCOTUS
In this episode of Boom! Lawyered, Imani and Jess explain the arguments and what's at stake in Chiles v. Salazar, the case challenging Colorado’s ban on conversion therapy practices.
Expert repro journalism that inspires.
Episodes like this take time, research, and a commitment to the truth. If Boom! Lawyered helps you understand what’s at stake in our courts, chip in to keep our fearless legal analysis alive. Become a supporter today.
Imani has relaunched her column, AngryBlackLady Chronicles. Sign up for our newsletters here to read it first...
The Supreme Court Gears Up for Another Unprecedented Term
In this episode of Boom! Lawyered, Imani and Jess preview the upcoming Supreme Court term, including a challenge to conversion therapy bans, protections for transgender student athletes, and more.
Expert repro journalism that inspires.
Episodes like this take time, research, and a commitment to the truth. If Boom! Lawyered helps you understand what’s at stake in our courts, chip in to keep our fearless legal analysis alive. Become a supporter today.
Imani has relaunched her column, AngryBlackLady Chronicles. Sign up for our newsletters here to read it first, and...
It’s Never Too Late To Be Gay, Featuring Franchesca Ramsey
Turns out the closet wasn’t locked—it was glass all along. Sometimes you just can’t see your way out.
Imani Gandy talks with comedian, actor, and writer Franchesca Ramsey about coming out later in life, visibility, and the joy of saying, "Surprise, bitch, I’m gay." They also discuss how comedy can be an opening for tougher conversations about race.
Expert Repro Journalism That Inspires.
Expert Repro Journalism That Inspires.
Episodes like this take time, research, and a commitment to the truth. If Baby Boom! Lawyered helps you...
Introducing Our New Show: “B*tch, Listen!” with Imani Gandy
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Expert Repro Journalism That Inspires.
Episodes like this take time, research, and a commitment to the truth. If Baby Boom! Lawyered helps you understand what’s at stake in our courts, chip in to keep our fearless legal analysis alive. Become a member today.
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We’re in the Deconstruction Era
Boom! Lawyered is back for its ninth season! In this episode, Imani and Jess explain why they believe we’re living through a “Deconstruction era”—think Reconstruction era, but in reverse—and what that means for our public institutions and the rule of law.
Expert repro journalism that inspires
Episodes like this take time, research, and a commitment to the truth. If Boom! Lawyered helps you understand what’s at stake in our courts, chip in to keep our fearless legal analysis alive. Become a supporter today.
Imani is relaunching her column! AngryB...
Trump Hijacked the Courts: Here’s How to Fix It
In this episode of Boom! Lawyered Summer Session, Imani and Jess unpack the current landscape of the federal courts and what the conservative capture of the judiciary means for fighting President Donald Trump’s authoritarian agenda. They are joined by Alliance for Justice President Rachel Rossi, who highlights dangerous new Trump appointees and explains how progressives can win back the federal courts —yes, really.
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Episodes like this take time, research, and a commitment to the truth. If Boom! Lawyered helps you understand what’s at stake in our c...
