⚖ Oral Arguments, with Context

Real court arguments, crisp audio, with context.

Court recordings can be difficult to follow, and many suffer from poor audio quality. This podcast enhances the audio, provides a brief introduction to each case, and explains legal concepts that may be unfamiliar to some listeners.

We hope these enhancements make oral argument recordings easier to understand, more accessible, and more enjoyable to listen to.

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United States v. Edward Kiley — 10th Cir. (Sep 16, 2026)

No. 25-1364 Argued September 16, 2026 Published September 30, 2026

A balloon carrying a homemade explosive drifted through a Colorado Springs parking lot at night, snagged on a fence and blew out windows at a nearby florist. Investigators linked Edward Kiley to the device. At his federal sentencing, the judge treated the blast as felony fourth-degree arson and increased his firearms offense level by four. That federal guideline increase requires another felony; Colorado's arson law asks whether a person faced death or serious injury, or at least two thousand dollars' worth of property was endangered. Kiley says the judge lacked evidence that people or that much property were actually endangered. Leah Yaffe of the Federal Public Defender's Office represents Kiley and will ask the Tenth Circuit to reconsider his sentence.

United States v. Edward Kiley (No. 25-1364) — U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, argued September 16, 2026.

Sources
Argument audio — Tenth Circuit (public domain, 17 U.S.C. § 105):https://www.ca10.uscourts.gov/sites/ca10/files/oralarguments/25-1364.mp3
Argument date and docket — Tenth Circuit:https://www.ca10.uscourts.gov/oralargument/search-results?field_oa_hearing_date_value%5Bmin%5D%5Bdate%5D=08%2F01%2F2026&field_oa_hearing_date_value%5Bmax%5D%5Bdate%5D=09%2F30%2F2026
Fourth-degree arson — Colorado Revised Statutes (2024), § 18-4-105:https://content.leg.colorado.gov/sites/default/files/images/olls/crs2024-title-18.pdf
Firearms sentencing guideline — U.S. Sentencing Commission (2024), § 2K2.1:https://www.ussc.gov/sites/default/files/pdf/guidelines-manual/2024/GLMFull.pdf
Case issue — Federal Defender pending-issues digest:https://ks.fd.org/sites/ks/files/media-library/issues-pending-20260402.pdf
Underlying incident — police affidavit reported by The Gazette:https://www.denvergazette.com/outtherecolorado/2024/02/08/new-details-emerge-from-case-of-man-accused-of-setting-off-explosive-devices-near-downtown-colorado-springs-affidavit/
Explosion video and location — KRDO:https://krdo.com/news/2024/01/24/watch-security-camera-footage-captures-alien-like-explosion-near-downtown-suspect-arrested/
Leah Yaffe — Colorado Federal Public Defender:https://co.fd.org/our-staff/
Will Morrison — professional profile:https://www.linkedin.com/in/will-morrison-63887a128

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