In this episode, I examine a debate between gun rights and property rights, in the specific context of the decision by the State Fair of Texas to ban firearms.--and the announcement of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton that he intends to challe...

In this episode, I interview my old friend Ben Voth, a professor of rhetoric and the director of debate at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. In 2019, Ben w...

With apologies for the pun, the Fifteenth Court of Appeals faces an “unprecedented” situation. Unlike the other intermediate courts of appeal in Texas, the newly created Fifteenth Court of Appeals has no immediate predecessor. ...

About a year ago, in a popular episode I had ChatGPT as my guest, and we discussed several issues of the day.  To start this year off right, I invited ChatGPT back—now updated to version 4.0—and asked it to prepare a short story for listen...

In mid-December of 2023, the Texas Supreme Court resolved a high-profile abortion case in which a woman sought an emergency injunction to immunize her health-care providers from liability under Texas's strong anti-abortion laws. During the brie...

While the furor over recent Congressional testimony by three prominent university presidents has died down somwhat (after the president of the University of Pennsylvania resigned), there are still important lessons to be learned from what went ...

Favorite guest Jason Bloom, one of the country's most respected jury consultants, returns to offer his insights on jury selection for 2024 (and with them, insight on how our modern society makes decisions). Topics include the (overwhelming) eff...

I recently watched the second televised debate among Republican candidates for President and was disappointed by the conduct of those proceedings—they were hard to follow and offered little useful information. In today’s episode, I draw on my e...

Back during the pandemic, I got a copy of "Dallam's Decisions." It’s a one-volume work with all the opinions of the short-lived Supreme Court of the Republic of Texas (1840-45, gi...

In a recent article in Slate, I note that the Texas medication-abortion case highlights the distinction between "politic...

This episode examines arguments for why the proposed new system of business courts may not pass muster under Texas' state constitution. Specifically, it examines the constitutionality of appointing trial-level judges, and of creati...

In this episode I interview ChatGPT, the powerful and easy to use AI chatbot that has changed the global discussion about the roles of human and artificial intelligence. We talk about its pote...

This episode considers modern-day financial regulation - specifically, the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau - and what Alexander Hamilton might have thought about it. Then I consider, using a recent Fifth Circuit opinion as a tes...

In this episode, I discuss three important issues of the day about school law with the people who really know the subject - three students. My guests are our kids Cecilia Coale (17, and a senior at the local high school), Camden Coale (14, a fr...

In this episode, I interview noted human rights lawyer and author (and college classmate) Julie F. Kay, co-author of the 2021 book Controlling Women:...

This episode considers the new Texas law about the national motto "In God We Trust." The law requires public schools to display "a durable poster or framed copy" of the motto, if it is donated to the school and the poster also contains the US a...

Quoting several courts and the synoptic gospels ("Render unto Caesar ... "), this episode further considers who the "people's elected representatives" are, as identified in Dobbs:Which state's representatives? A Texa...

Season Three of the Coale Mind podcast begins in the wake of the recent Dobbs opinion, taking a look at state laws seeking to regulate travel, and communication, between states involving abortion. Substantively, the episode focuses...

The antipathy of an increasingly conservative federal judiciary for the perceived excesses of the "administrative state" is well-known; a good recent example is the Fifth Circuit's panel-majority opinion in

This episode compares: the Fifth Circuit's May 2022 opinion in Jarkesy v. SEC, which held t...

Recent headlines have been dominated by the leak of Justice Samuel Alito’s draft majority opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. A key sentence in that draft opinion says: “It is time to heed the Constitution and retu...

After months of "home confinement" as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, at an appellate CLE in Austin last fall I ran into my old friends Todd Smith and Jody Sanders, who publish the popular

Building on a recent interview that I did with the Lincoln Project, this episode examines why today's Supreme Court is like a bowl of soup, heated by two separate burners. The f...

Our selection of Supreme Court Justices today is based on a wager, that can come out one of two ways. If an elderly Justice guesses correctly about his or her health, a boring confirmation process to replace that Justice with someo...

This episode examines whether the machinery of SB8 - the Texas anti-abortion law enforced entirely by private actors - can be adapted to regulate firearm sales. Specifically, it looks at the recent $70 million settlement by Remington of...