⚖ 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. Lloyd Franklin — 8th Cir. (Sep 25, 2026)

No. 26-1266 Argued September 25, 2026 Published September 27, 2026

The Eighth Circuit hears Lloyd Franklin's appeal from a federal crack-cocaine sentence in Iowa. Investigators' controlled purchases in the Quad Cities yielded more than five hundred grams of crack cocaine. A federal judge sentenced Franklin for a conspiracy to distribute the drug. The argument concerns a much larger quantity attributed to him at sentencing, based on a confidential source's account of earlier purchases. Franklin's lawyer will challenge the reliability of that account; the United States will defend the sentencing judge's finding. The appellate court will ask whether that drug-quantity finding was clearly erroneous.

United States v. Lloyd Franklin (No. 26-1266) — U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, argued September 25, 2026.

Sources
Argument audio — Eighth Circuit (public domain, 17 U.S.C. § 105):https://media-oa.ca8.uscourts.gov/OAaudio/2026/9/261266.mp3
Argument listing and date — Eighth Circuit:https://ecf.ca8.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/sessions.pl?yymm=202609&getOA=Select
Case background and sentence — U.S. Attorney's Office:https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdia/pr/two-davenport-co-conspirators-sentenced-federal-prison-cocaine-charges
Presentence report — U.S. Sentencing Commission, § 6A1.2:https://guidelines.ussc.gov/apex/r/ussc_apex/guidelinesapp/guidelines?app_gl_id=%C2%A76A1.2
Reliability at sentencing — U.S. Sentencing Commission, § 6A1.3:https://guidelines.ussc.gov/apex/r/ussc_apex/guidelinesapp/guidelines?app_gl_id=%C2%A76A1.3
Drug quantity table — U.S. Sentencing Commission, § 2D1.1:https://guidelines.ussc.gov/apex/r/ussc_apex/guidelinesapp/guidelines?app_gl_id=%C2%A72D1.1
Drug-quantity review — Eighth Circuit, United States v. Myrick:https://ecf.ca8.uscourts.gov/opndir/24/07/232264P.pdf
Sentencing hearsay — Eighth Circuit opinion:https://ecf.ca8.uscourts.gov/opndir/23/08/213524P.pdf

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