March 29, 2026
21,187
2,464
78
12.00%
Every word spoken in this episode is indexed. Type any phrase to jump straight to the moment it was said.
Type any word or phrase that may have been spoken. Click a result to seek the player to that exact moment.
Try a name, a topic, or a quoted line
See what was published immediately before and after this episode.
11:57Now PlayingAttorneys Brian Kabateck and Shant Karnikian break down the federal court ruling that struck down the Pentagon's restrictive press credentialing policy as unconstitutional. Judge Paul Friedman ruled that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's rules — which required reporters to pledge not to gather or report on information that hadn't been officially cleared for release, even unclassified material — violated both the First and Fifth Amendments. The court found the policy was "viewpoint discrimination" designed to "weed out disfavored journalists" and replace them with outlets that were "on board and willing to serve" the administration. Nearly every major news organization, including the New York Times, AP, CNN, and even Fox News, had refused to sign the policy and forfeited their Pentagon credentials in protest, while pro-Trump personalities like Laura Loomer and James O'Keefe were given access. Brian and Shant walk through the vagueness of the rules — terms like "unauthorized access disclosure" and "security risk" that were left deliberately undefined to give Hegseth total discretion — and why the judge relied on precedent going back to the 1970s to show this is settled, well-established constitutional law. The court ordered the immediate reinstatement of seven New York Times reporters and vacated the policy for all affected journalists.
Kabateck LLPCall 184474CIVIL for a free case evaluation or visit us at
Become a member of Legal AF YouTube community
Become a member of the Legal AF Substack
Follow Legal AF on Bluesky
Follow Michael Popok on Bluesky
Subscribe to the Legal AF podcast feed here
Subscribe to the Intersection with Michael Popok podcast feed here
Subscribe to Unprecedented with Michael Popok and Dina Doll podcast feed here
Subscribe to Court of History with Sidney Blumenthal and Sean Wilentz podcast feed here
Sentinel Indexing in Progress
Metadata and chapters are available. Claim extraction for this episode is pending.
All video content is delivered via YouTube embedded players in accordance with the YouTube Terms of Service. Sentinel provides research tools that promote discovery and accountability across political media.