Believe Absurdities, Commit Atrocities

Opening Arguments

OA1079 - An OA Spooktacular! But also a normal episode.

We continue our ongoing series on fascism and the law with a fresh perspective on a familiar American legal horror story. Matt explains the terrifying legal context surrounding the 1692 Court of Oyer and Terminar which sentenced dozens of innocent Massachusetts colonists to hang for the extremely real felony of practicing witchcraft--and an unexpected defense strategy which could have spared them. What can the most terrifying run of wrongful executions in US history teach us about the dangers of governance by rumor, paranoia, and conspiracy theories 332 years later?

SOURCES:

• In the Devil’s Snare: The Salem Witchcraft Crisis of 1692, Mary Beth Norton (2003)

• “Salem Witchcraft Trials Research Guide,” Congregational Library (2024)(links to primary sources)

• 18 USC 611 (voting by aliens)

• Order granting preliminary injunction against Oklahoma’s anti-Sharia law amendment in Awad v. Ziriax et al, W.Dist. of OK (2010)(later upheld by 10th Circuit

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