Hey, it's Kate. And Leah. And we are recording this conversation after our regular episode was basically

already finished because, of course it was. And we do have a great episode teed up for you today.

It's about how law changes and we discuss two terrific books on the topic

but before we get to those conversations we have some breaking news we need to

bring to you because the Fifth Circuit Fifth Circuit, fifth circuit

it, by which we mean they have attempted to short-circuit our democracy.

And we flagged the case in which they did that, RNC versus Wetzel, as a case to watch,

is a case about whether it is illegal for states to count ballots that arrive after

election day even if those votes were cast and mailed prior to election day.

Now in 18 states and the District of Columbia there are laws

on the books that authorize state officials to count votes that come in after

election day so long as those ballots are sent or postmarked by election day.

To which the Fifth Circuit said, watch this, like usher me,

not for much longer because in what can only be described

as an outlandish radical opinion that would

extensively refashion elections the Fifth Circuit discovered that

unbeknownst to all of us Congress in the 1800s actually prohibited states from

counting ballots that arrived after election day. In a true true galaxy brain

move some geniuses, those on the Fifth Circuit, like discovered that

well actually federal law has preempted these state laws for over a hundred years,

it's just nobody realized it until now like this is becoming a

familiar theme we and only we can actually see what everyone has always missed

...