Amicus Plus

Bonus: DOJ's Shocking Grand Jury Misconduct

Sat, 23 May 2026 07:05:00 GMT

A federal judge in Chicago caught the Justice Department in a staggering web of misconduct and attempted coverup —and she has the receipts to prove it. This week District Judge April Perry admonished the US Attorney prosecuting the Broadview Six for railroading a grand jury into indicting the protestors, and said she was mulling sanctions against the attorneys involved. On this week’s Amicus Plus bonus episode, Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern discuss the many ways this botched prosecution reveals how dangerous Trump’s DOJ has become. Later: what a strange 5-4 split in a SCOTUS death penalty case signals for the future of a long-standing prohibition on executing the mentally impaired.

This episode is member-exclusive. Listen to it now by subscribing to Slate Plus. By joining, not only will you unlock weekly bonus episodes of Amicus—you’ll also access ad-free listening across all your favorite Slate podcasts. You can subscribe directly from the Amicus show page on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Or, visit slate.com/amicusplus to get access wherever you listen.

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Trump’s Slush Fund Is Even Worse Than You Thought

Sat, 23 May 2026 07:00:00 GMT

Donald Trump's $1.8 billion "anti-weaponization" settlement fund has stunned legal experts—not just because it's corrupt, but because of how skillfully and transparently it is designed to protect the Trump Family and reward loyalists. On this week's Amicus, Dahlia Lithwick brings together two of the sharpest observers of Trump-era lawlessness to map exactly what this is and why it matters.

J.P. Cooney, a career federal prosecutor and former top deputy in Jack Smith's special counsel's office, explains how President Trump sued his own IRS as a private party, settled the case through attorneys who have also been his personal lawyers, and then secured an addendum—signed by acting Attorney General Todd Blanche—immunizing Trump and his family from any IRS audit or tax-enforcement proceeding. Cooney calls it "practiced, skillful corruption".

As Investigative journalist Andrea Bernstein, host of The Law According to Trump, author of American Oligarchs, and a veteran of five Trump trials, points out, this settlement enshrines Trumpian language— such as "unlawful raid at Mar-a-Lago" and "Russia collusion hoax"—in official U.S. government documents. Bernstein says it’s vital to be clear about who stands to receive payouts: people convicted of seditious conspiracy, assaulting Capitol police officers, and other crimes they admitted to in open court.

Cooney and Bernstein agree this fund doesn't just reward insurrection—it incentivizes future violence, chills legitimate dissent, and systematically erases the historical record of Jan. 6.

Later, Slate executive editor Susan Matthews joins to preview the new season of Slow Burn, Becoming Justice Gorsuch—and explain why the most anonymous justice on the court is so pivotal to understanding the power and the politics of the highest court in the land.

Want more Amicus? Join Slate Plus to unlock weekly bonus episodes with exclusive legal analysis. Plus, you’ll access ad-free listening across all your favorite Slate podcasts. You can subscribe directly from the Amicus show page on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Or, visit slate.com/amicusplus to get access wherever you listen.

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Bonus: Doorbuster Deals in the Judge-Shopping World

Sat, 16 May 2026 07:05:00 GMT

Amicus co-host Mark Joseph Stern welcomes Madiba Dennie, deputy editor of Balls and Strikes and author of The Originalism Trap, to break down two legal stories from the past week. First up: a federal judge in Rhode Island didn't just rule against the Trump DOJ — she torched its credibility, calling its conduct "appalling" and declaring that the presumption of regularity no longer applies. Mark and Madiba discuss the case, which involves transgender minors, a wildly overreaching subpoena for private data, and a rare instance of one judge throwing shade at another. Later: Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier is arguing that surrogacy violates the 13th Amendment—a theory so sweeping it would also ban sperm donation, egg donation, and quite possibly adoption itself.

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Return of the Abortion Pill Wars

Sat, 16 May 2026 07:00:00 GMT

This week on Amicus, hosts Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern break down a whirlwind stretch of reproductive rights legal battles, from the Fifth Circuit's sweeping nationwide ban on telehealth medication abortion, to the Supreme Court's emergency order blocking it. Madiba Dennie (Deputy Editor, Balls and Strikes; and author of The Originalism Trap) joins to explain what the furious dissents from Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito reveal about where this is all headed.

Then, Dahlia sits down with writer, activist, and former NARAL president Ilyse Hogue for a wide-ranging conversation about why the assault on medication abortion and the assault on voting rights are the same fight — and why progressives keep losing the narrative battle even when public opinion and shared values are on their side. They also discuss an overlooked but hugely significant win for free speech in the Media Matters v. FTC case, and why fighting back against government bullying matters more than ever.

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The “Civility” Problem for Judges

Sat, 09 May 2026 07:00:00 GMT

Over the last few years, there’s been an undeniable uptick in threats against American judges and their families: they’ve been doxxed, swatted, even killed. Many jurists are not all that comfortable having conversations around these threats. This reluctance to respond publicly is understandable, but it’s also depriving us of a critical perspective from the very people this affects. This week on Amicus, that changes: Two judges sat down with us to talk openly about what often goes unsaid. Host Dahlia Lithwick speaks with sitting U.S. District Judge for the Western District of Washington Judge Robert S. Lasnik, and Judge Jeremy Fogel, a former U.S. District Judge for the Northern District of California and current Executive Director of the Berkeley Judicial Institute. They acknowledge that there’s a long history of judges being threatened, but point out that it’s usually not coming from the President and his Department of Justice. We’re in uncharted territory, and Judges Lasnik and Fogel are bravely opening up about what this volatility means for an independent judiciary, and what we should do about it.

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Bonus: The Callais Fallout

Sat, 09 May 2026 07:00:00 GMT

Last week was a devastating week for representative democracy, as evidenced by the decision in Louisiana v Callais. This week, several states accepted the Supreme Court’s offer to gerrymander Black districts out of existence and to do so at great speeds, before the November midterms, and yes, after voting has begun in many jurisdictions. On this week’s Amicus Plus Bonus episode, Dahlia Lithwick checks in with Balls & Strikes’ Madiba Dennie on how to understand a Supreme Court supermajority that is both determined to beat back multiracial democracy and weirdly even more insistent that this has nothing to do with politics.

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Bonus: Samuel Alito Apparently Thinks Race Is A Laughing Matter

Sat, 02 May 2026 07:05:00 GMT

With much of the attention focused on Wednesday’s catastrophic ruling in Louisiana v. Callais, which effectively gutted the Voting Rights Act, lots of people may have missed the other horrific news out of SCOTUS on the same day. Also on Wednesday, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in cases challenging Temporary Protected Status for people from Haiti and Syria. Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Madiba Dennie to break down the sheer racism behind the Trump administration’s efforts to deport TPS recipients, and how some justices simply…pretended race couldn’t possibly be relevant to these cases. “I can’t see race” and “I won’t see race” are very different things! For more from Madiba, read her on TPS in Balls & Strikes: “The Supreme Court Did Not Want to Talk About Trump’s Long History of Gutter Racism.”

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Racism’s Over and Seashells Can Be Deadly

Sat, 02 May 2026 07:00:00 GMT

Dahlia Lithwick reviews what has been an “exceptionally bad week” for American democracy. Former U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade explains why the charges against former FBI director James Comey, rooted in the claim that he threatened to kill President Trump – via the medium of seashells on Instagram – are unlikely to stick, no matter how hard Trump’s Acting (and actively auditioning) Attorney General Todd Blanche tries. A deleted insta post from a beach in North Carolina is just not going to meet the Supreme Court’s true-threat standard as laid out in Counterman v Colorado. But actually, landing a conviction is not the point, McQuade says –– Blanche has learned from Trump’s longstanding legal playbook that he can always win by losing. And that’s why she is also closely watching the DOJ’s indictment of the Southern Poverty Law Center under a dubious fraud theory, warning that Blanche is both more skilled and more ruthless in using prosecutions for political ends, with few accountability mechanisms beyond potential disbarment. McQuade’s new book, The Fix: Saving America from the Corruption of a Mob-Style Government is available for pre-order now.

Next, Dahlia discusses this week’s devastating SCOTUS decision in Louisiana v Callais with Madiba Dennie who explains how Justice Alito and the 6-3 Republican supermajority set about hollowing out Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, inviting states to redraw maps and entrench racial disenfranchisement, all under the cover of historically distorted “originalism.”

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Bonus: The Worst Voting Rights Decision Since Jim Crow

Wed, 29 Apr 2026 21:33:33 GMT

On Wednesday, Justice Samuel Alito delivered the latest, probably lethal blow in the Supreme Court’s decades-long campaign against multi-racial democracy in America, with a 6-3 majority opinion gutting what remained of the Voting Rights Act in Louisiana v Callais. In this special extra episode of Amicus, Dahlia Lithwick talks with Janai Nelson, President and Director-Counsel of the Legal Defense Fund (LDF), the nation’s premier civil rights law organization. Nelson argued Louisiana v. Callais before the United States Supreme Court in October of 2025. Together, they examine the history ignored by the right wing majority, and look ahead to the disastrous consequences this ruling unleashes on American democracy, from school boards all the way to the halls of congress.

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Bonus: GOP Losing at Constitutional Hardball

Sat, 25 Apr 2026 07:05:00 GMT

In this week’s Amicus bonus episode, Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern are joined by Madiba Dennie, Deputy Editor and Senior Contributor at Balls & Strikes, and author of The Originalism Trap: How Extremists Stole the Constitution and How We the People Can Take it Back. They break down the major voting rights news out of Virginia, where Republicans are bellyaching about a new congressional map that could give Democrats 10 out of the Commonwealth’s 11 seats in the House of Representatives. Seems like the architects of this kind of gerrymandering aren’t happy when it benefits their political foes! They discuss Madiba’s vital piece, “There Is Nothing ‘Qualified’ About Qualified Immunity,” on the Supreme Court’s latest decision protecting police from accountability. And in Texas, the 5th Circuit upheld a law requiring public schools to display the King James version of the Ten Commandments. One issue (aside from the clear constitutional violation): The bill lists…eleven commandments.

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MAGA Media Law 101

Sat, 25 Apr 2026 07:00:00 GMT

As journalists, a-listers, and some of the most vociferous critics of journalism from the Trump administration gather for the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, Dahlia Lithwick tackles the president and his allies’ tactics to chill the press and undermine the First Amendment.

In conversation with Guardian columnist and former New York Times public editor, Margaret Sullivan she explores the Trump administration’s use of meritless, high-dollar defamation suits, focusing on FBI Director Kash Patel’s $250 million lawsuit lodged against The Atlantic this week. Sullivan links democratic decline to media decline, citing oligarch ownership, consolidation, weakened local news, reduced public media, and corporate leaders’ capitulation via settlements and editorial interference.

Margaret’s newsletter, American Crisis can be found here:

margaretsullivan.substack.com/

Next, Dahlia and co-host Mark Joseph Stern examine New York Times’ reporting on leaked Supreme Court memos showing the 2016 Clean Power Plan stay as a pivotal shadow docket moment that perfectly illustrates how activity on the shadow docket is driven by institutional grievance rather than legal urgency. They also dissect Trump’s renewed attacks on the justices despite their frequent support for his agenda.

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Bonus: Justices Flaming Justices

Sat, 18 Apr 2026 07:05:00 GMT

More infighting at the Supreme Court! But also some apologies? In the Amicus Plus bonus episode this week, Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern break down the public battles between three of the nine justices. Last week was all about Sonia Sotomayor’s takedown of the “Kavanaugh Stop,” but this week she apologized for getting personal. Dahlia and Mark ask if that was a strategic move, and wonder if her apology could be a bad omen for cases still to come. Meanwhile, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson joined the fray, with a robust rejection of Kavanaugh’s shadow docket apologia in a talk at Yale Law School. Then, in a televised speech in Texas, Justice Clarence Thomas took aim at progressivism, blaming it for Nazism, Stalinism, and basically everything bad that happened in the twentieth century.

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Trump Thwarted, Orban Toppled: The New Roadmap for Democrats

Sat, 18 Apr 2026 07:00:00 GMT

Hungary’s autocratic creep was turned back at the ballot box last weekend, in a stark rebuke to the forces of illiberalism and to the American conservatives who invested so heavily in former Hungarian leader Viktor Orban’s mission. It’s good news. But it’s not the end of the story. It behoves pro-democracy forces in the United States to move past the example of democratic resilience in Hungary to real, systemic change to the machinery of American democracy. On this week’s Amicus podcast, Norm Eisen, former ambassador and current democracy warrior (as founder of www.democracydefendersfund.org), tells Dahlia Lithwick that America’s response to Trumpism starts with protecting the rule of law, safeguarding elections, and strangling corruption—the three pillars of a genuine democratic recovery. The key isn’t just fixing courts or passing reforms—it's about building a democratic coalition based on simple, clear issues. As Democrats dare to dream of what may be possible in a post-Trump America, it’s time to start making concrete, workable plans. This week’s show highlights the roadmap out of autocracy, through coalitions, court reform, and corruption-busting.

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Bonus: I Love You, Sir

Sat, 11 Apr 2026 07:05:00 GMT

Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern are back in the smokeless cigar bar to chat about a bunch of legal news that couldn’t fit in the main show. On today’s Amicus plus bonus episode, the “Kavanaugh Stop” is back in the news. There’s a new class action lawsuit filed in New York, challenging these unlawful detentions, but that’s not all. In some new intra-SCOTUS drama, Dahlia and Mark break down the surprising moment in which one of Brett Kavanaugh’s fellow justices took a very big, very public swing at him. Plus, trying to wrap our minds around the humiliatingly desperate declaration of “love” — that’s right, “love” — from Donald Trump’s new Acting Attorney General.

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Time to Impeach Trump Again?

Sat, 11 Apr 2026 07:00:00 GMT

The events of the past week have revealed a terrifying disconnect between the constitutional remedies available to us and the gravity of the threats posed by an utterly unfit President with his finger on the nuclear button. On this week’s Amicus, Dahlia Lithwick turns to two experts on impeachment and the 25th Amendment: Rep. Jamie Raskin, and Professor Michael Gerhardt. Each has been at the very epicenter of democratic attempts to access the constitutional tools demanded by this moment. Rep. Raskin explains the urgent update needed to bolster the 25th amendment, and Professor Gerhardt explains the value of impeachment, even in lieu of conviction and removal, and why right now is high time to try Trump for high crimes.

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Was it Worth it, Pam?

Sat, 04 Apr 2026 07:00:00 GMT

It was a rough week for two of the top lawyers in the Trump administration, and it couldn’t happen to a nicer pair ... Ever since Donald Trump’s return to office and the installation of his (second choice) Attorney General, we’ve been tracking the toxic combination of incompetence and cruelty at the Department of Justice. Pam Bondi, Trump’s hand-picked attack dog for Attorney General, finally reached the point of no return. She’s out, and Todd Blanche is in … for now. Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern discuss AG Bondi’s legacy, and why she may still be dragged before congress to answer for the DOJ’s mishandling of the Epstein Files. Meanwhile, over at One, First Street, Mr. Trump became the first sitting president to show up live and in person to oral arguments, in a woefully misguided possible attempt to intimidate “his” justices into buying his nonsensical theory about birthright citizenship. John Sauer, his Solicitor General, flopped and flailed, and revealed a fundamental flaw at the heart of the second Trump presidency: if loyalty is the only test, you might fail a bunch of other, more significant, tests. Finally, Dahlia and Mark unpack the thorny and confusing 8-1 decision from the High Court in Chiles v. Salazar, taking a huge bite out of conversion therapy bans, and what that means for LGBTQ youth and the First Amendment.

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Bonus: A Blowout for Birthright Citizenship at SCOTUS

Wed, 01 Apr 2026 21:22:49 GMT

This bonus episode of Amicus, with full access exclusive for Slate Plus members, is a comprehensive exploration of Wednesday’s arguments in the Trump v. Barbara case on birthright citizenship. This landmark case challenges the executive order aimed at denying citizenship to children born in the U.S. to undocumented immigrants and temporary visa holders, potentially affecting millions of individuals born in the U.S.

Mark Joseph Stern talks to legal scholar Evan Bernick –– who co-authored a key amicus brief in this case –– about the Supreme Court’s reaction to Trump’s order to gut the 14th amendment of the constitution and remake the legal landscape surrounding citizenship. The stakes are high, and the implications reach far beyond the courtroom.

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Bonus: A Truth Bomb About ICE Deception

Sat, 28 Mar 2026 07:05:00 GMT

The Supreme Court heard arguments in Watson v. RNC this week, a dispute over state laws counting ballots mailed before but received after Election Day Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern are here to read some murky tea leaves about how this pivotal election case may be decided. Will Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Barrett resist a ruling invalidating dozens of state laws and affecting hundreds of thousands of votes? They also examine major jury verdicts against Google and Meta for the ways their technology enables addiction and child exploitation this week, thanks to a legal theory that may have at least two votes in the bag at One, First Street. Finally, they cover the DOJ’s admission to a New York judge that it made material misstatements about an ICE immigration-courthouse arrest policy that apparently never existed, potentially reversing the case and prompting preservation orders and possible contempt consequences.

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Trump Has a Plan for the Midterms, SCOTUS May Help

Sat, 28 Mar 2026 07:00:00 GMT

On this week’s Amicus, Dahlia Lithwick checks in with Protect Democracy co-founder Ian Bassin about the United States’ speedy retreat from democracy, and how lawyers seeking to protect the constitution are adapting their strategies for Trump 2.0. While Trump’s second term is following an authoritarian playbook, some courts are acting as speed bumps, while others (we’re looking at you, SCOTUS), are increasingly pickled in right-wing brine. The velocity of America’s descent into illiberalism is startling and dangerous, but Bassin argues it is also potentially self-defeating, thanks to Trump’s historic unpopularity that is growing faster than his ability to consolidate power. The two discuss Protect Democracy’s shift from a litigation-heavy strategy to combining court fights with coalition-building, and Ian outlines threats to the 2026 elections—“deceive, disrupt, deny”—including efforts like the SAVE Act and why the President’s decision to deploy ICE to stand around in airports around the country is a clear effort to normalize their presence at polling places in November. But he also stresses that overwhelming participation and public organizing are the ultimate backstops if election results are contested.

Suggested reading: protectdemocracy.org/executive-override/

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Bonus: Judge Quraishi’s Smackdown

Sat, 21 Mar 2026 07:05:00 GMT

This week in New Jersey, we witnessed real judicial courage from a federal judge who had very clearly had enough of the DOJ’s shenanigans. Co-hosts Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern take us inside U.S. District Court Judge Zahid Quraishi’s courtroom where chewed out the New Jersey U.S. Attorney’s Office for continuing to operate unlawfully in the wake of Alina Habba’s removal. He even ejected a prosecutor from the courtroom! The real consequences of this next chapter in the post-Habba saga seems to be that these endless battles over leadership may be trickling down in a way that lets extremely bad people get off with very light sentences.

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The Roberts Court’s Internal Reckoning

Sat, 21 Mar 2026 07:00:00 GMT

This Supreme Court term has seen threats against the Justices – from the President, a slew of game-changing shadow docket opinions, justices sparring in public, and some of the most consequential cases of our lifetimes. If you’re feeling a little disoriented by it all, join Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern on this week’s show for a clearer understanding of what’s going on at One, First Street. They discuss the big immigration case the court took up just this week that will be crammed into the last week of arguments, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson’s courage at a public event, and what it means when a justice steps out of the four corners of her opinions to voice urgent concerns about the shadow docket in public, and why, when it comes to threats to judges, the Chief Justice is meekly asking Trump knock it off, while taking no responsibility for his court’s role in it all.

Supplemental reading:

The Constitutional Accountability Center on the history of mail-in ballots

This week’s Executive Dysfunction newsletter from Slate’s jurisprudence team is a must-read: slate.com/dysfunction

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Bonus: A Whole Lotta Stupid

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 09:05:00 GMT

In this Amicus bonus episode, co-hosts Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern walk us through another week in which it seems folks from the Trump administration can’t stop themselves from stepping on rakes over and over again. But, is “Eagle Ed” Martin the only one who might actually have to give up his legal career? Plus: more on the Justice Department’s favorite (and seemingly only) client. And: a judicial opinion so vulgar, we can’t even write the opening sentence in this description.

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Immigration Myths and Birthright Citizenship

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 09:00:00 GMT

Next month, the Supreme Court will hear arguments in the birthright citizenship case, Trump v. Barbara. It’s still somewhat unbelievable that the high court will entertain arguments in favor of gutting an utterly clear constitutional commitment. Nonetheless, our motto on Amicus is “legal knowledge is power,” and in this case, historical understanding of legal knowledge … is power. On this week’s show, Dahlia Lithwick interviews constitutional and immigration scholar Anna O. Law about her forthcoming book, Migration and the Origins of American Citizenship.

In preparation for a lot of very bad originalist takes, Lithwick and Law discuss how immigration actually worked in the colonial and pre-Civil War eras and why the framers of the Reconstruction Amendments (including the birthright citizenship clause of the 14th Amendment) meant exactly what they said and said exactly what they meant. Law also explains how and why Wong Kim Ark affirmed birthright citizenship for children of Chinese immigrants, and emphasizes that the words “subject to the jurisdiction” had narrow historical exceptions. Finally, a reminder that the framers of the 14th Amendment chose to constitutionalize citizenship rather than establish it in statute—in anticipation of exactly the situation America finds itself in today.

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Bonus: Elena Kagan’s Banger of a Dissent

Sat, 07 Mar 2026 08:05:00 GMT

Prepare to be ushered into the Frankenstein underground lab of horrors that is the United States Justice Department. Welcome! In this week’s Amicus bonus episode, co-hosts Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern discuss Justice Elena Kagan’s dissent in Mirabelli v. Bonta, and how she might be suggesting that her colleagues manipulated the shadow docket to issue an explosive anti-trans ruling. Also: Attorney General Pam Bondi wants to stop state bar associations from investigating DOJ lawyers. Is that even legal? All that and more in this week’s smokeless cigar bar.

Executive Dysfunction is our brand new newsletter, surfacing under-the-radar stories about what Trump is doing to the law –– and how the law is pushing back. Go to slate.com/dysfunction to sign up.

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Church and State are Being Reunited, Thanks to SCOTUS

Sat, 07 Mar 2026 08:00:00 GMT

On this week’s Amicus, Dahlia Lithwick explores the rise of Christian nationalism in America, its influence on the Supreme Court , and the implications for democracy and civil rights. Featuring Rachel Laser, CEO of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, their discussion delves into the historical roots, recent legal cases, and the ongoing fight to uphold the separation of church and state in a country that survived two centuries as an open, pluralist refuge for all religions, and then became a Christian nation, seemingly overnight.

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Extra: This War is Obscenely Illegal

Mon, 02 Mar 2026 23:23:44 GMT

Trump’s actions in Iran have massive global impacts, but they also have serious legal implications. On this extra episode of Amicus, exclusive to our Plus members, Mark Joseph Stern is joined by military law expert Eugene Fidell, a visiting lecturer and senior research scholar at Yale Law School. Their conversation focuses on constitutional constraints, the role of Congress, and the principles of international law, and emphasizes the need for Congress to reclaim its war powers. While it seems like real consequences are unlikely for those responsible for flouting these laws, there are serious implications for American democracy. Fidell explains why he’s calling for impeachment as a response to these unconstitutional actions––even if such a move is very unlikely to succeed.

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Bonus: Catholic Bishops are Big Mad about Birthright Citizenship

Sat, 28 Feb 2026 08:05:00 GMT

In this week’s Amicus bonus episode, co-hosts Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern walk through a stunning constellation of court-based humiliations. First up, Judge Brian Murphy issues a powerful rebuke against the Trump administration’s so-called third country deportation policy. Next, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops files a scorcher of an amicus brief in which they make the moral and faith-based argument for birthright citizenship. And finally, just four Justices attended Donald Trump’s State of the Union address, and the President (predictably) could not resist a little ritual humiliation to their faces. Should any of them have shown up? Mark says no, Dahlia says it’s complicated. Either way, there’s one Amicus-specific silver lining to them assuming the position in those little chairs in the front row.

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Yes, Supreme Court Decisions Really Matter

Sat, 28 Feb 2026 08:00:00 GMT

“Not on the level” is how Donald Verrilli Jr. describes the Trump administration’s general, current Supreme Court practices. The former United States Solicitor General joins Dahlia Lithwick to discuss the ways this radical new posture is forcing judges to confront arguments and asserted powers previously seen as far beyond presidential authority, while still trying not to shift excessive power to courts by routinely declaring everything a pretext. They discuss whether Chief Justice John Roberts is at last signalling skepticism about Trump’s chaotic policymaking, whether the DOJ’s fluid relationship with facts is taking a toll on its credibility, and they debate the costs of delayed, splintered opinions in the major confrontation over executive power evident in the tariffs case. Don Verrilli also reflects on his deep and broad experience over decades of Supreme Court litigation, beginning with a clerkship for Justice Brennan in the 1980s, through his service in government under President Obama, to recent wins arguing before SCOTUS, to provide a truly clarifying perspective on the scale of the challenges facing the rule of law, and the “hard-nosed faith” required to overcome them.

And… introducing… Executive Dysfunction. A brand new newsletter from Slate’s jurisprudence team that surfaces under-the-radar stories about what Trump is doing to the law –– and how the law is pushing back. There’s always some story buried in court filings, hidden in regulatory fine print, happening in some courthouse you may not have heard of that actually matters. Every week, Executive Dysfunction will feature one story that cuts through it all, plus updates from the Slate Jurisprudence team. Go to slate.com/dysfunction to sign up.

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Bonus: Stephen Miller’s Racism Translator

Sat, 21 Feb 2026 08:05:00 GMT

On this week’s extra serving of Amicus Plus, we’re offering a tasting menu of several different flavors of contempt from the Trump administration. First, Dahlia and Mark discuss the departure of Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin and why losing her unique brand of candor might actually be bad for the many, many pending court cases challenging DHS’s lawless rampage. Next, they discuss the DOJ lawyer who actually and for reals was held in civil contempt by a Minnesota judge. And one more scoop of contempt came up this week when a New Jersey judge ordered DOJ lawyers to investigate their own compliance with court orders. And guess what? So, so many violations! Also in “law is for suckers” land, a secret DHS policy memo surfaced by our friend, Lawdork Chris Geidner, rewrites a decades-old statute to create an infinite loop of misery in detention for lawful refugees. Finally, a little bit of stock-trading SCOTUS scuttlebutt as we hear the justices will now be using robo-recusal software to automatically flag whether they really ought to step away from a case because of, you know, a big personal conflict of interest (with many zeros after it).

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Trump’s Tariffs Overturned

Sat, 21 Feb 2026 08:00:00 GMT

The Supreme Court struck down Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs on Friday, ruling 6–3 that they vastly exceed anything federal law allows a President to do. It was a massive loss for a signature component of Trump’s economic agenda, and a coalition of liberals and conservatives on the court agreed that the statute invoked to impose these tariffs was never intended to be wielded in this fashion. The 6 disagreed emphatically as to the reasoning. The dissenters were Big Mad. On this week’s Amicus, Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern unpack the rationale behind the decision, and the implications for those seeking a remedy. And they ask what to make of this massive loss from a court that has yet to truly tell this President “no.”

Then, the press clause of the First Amendment, a once-cherished constitutional right, has fallen victim to neglect and sabotage in recent years, taking a back seat to the more vaunted love affair with individual “free speech.” But, as recent developments—including the arrest of journalist Don Lemon and the heavy-handed interview-spiking “guidance” of late night host Stephen Colbert—illustrate, the freedom of the press is no slam-dunk when it comes to saving democracy in Trump’s America. Dahlia speaks with First Amendment scholars Sonja West (University of Georgia) and RonNell Andersen Jones (University of Utah) about the health of the press clause and the themes in their book, The Future of Press Freedom: Democracy, Law, and the News in Changing Times. They trace the ways in which the framers viewed press freedom as a core, structural “bulwark of liberty,” and why the Supreme Court has increasingly treated it as a neglected companion to free speech rights; leaving weakened and fragile protections for news gathering. The conversation contrasts Trump’s first-term rhetorical delegitimization of the media with a second-term shift toward tangible actions: access restrictions, funding cuts, agency leverage, and selective regulatory pressure.

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Bonus: Is Justice Alito…Retiring?

Sat, 14 Feb 2026 08:05:00 GMT

Every once in a while, we offer a little gossip - as a treat - for our faithful pluskateers. In this week’s Amicus plus bonus episode, co-hosts Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern wonder: Is Justice Samuel Alito Retiring? They break down the mounting evidence suggesting this conservative stalwart may be stepping down from the bench soon. Like, this summer soon. And they run through some possible (and some…less possible) contenders for his replacement. Plus, they break down Pam Bondi’s testimony to Congress defending the administration's mishandling of the Epstein files, and they flag the immigration detention violations that could be headed for a shadow docket showdown.

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The Concentration Camp Next Door

Sat, 14 Feb 2026 08:00:00 GMT

The machinery to enable Stephen Miller’s darkest deportation dreams is both tangible and legal. In this week’s show, Dahlia Lithwick explores the statutory and regulatory foundations of the Trump administration’s expanding network of detention camps, plus the historical background of the vast warehouse system they are using to imprison tens of thousands of migrants. First, she speaks with Linus Chan, who represents Minnesotans detained by ICE, he teaches law at the University of Minnesota School of Law. Chan describes how the most basic right of habeas corpus has been whittled away by the courts to a filament when it comes to immigration law, allowing the federal government to weaponize brutal detention against ordinary Americans.

Next, Dahlia is in conversation with Andrea Pitzer, about her chilling and urgent new piece, Building the camps: The warehouseification of detention and initial thoughts on stopping it. It is essential reading (and listening!) in light of the billion dollar detention camp system being built in warehouses near you in cities around the nation.

If you want to check if your town is on the list, Andrea recommends checking out Project Salt Box.

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Bonus: ICE Attorney Breaks Down in Open Court

Sat, 07 Feb 2026 08:05:00 GMT

On Tuesday, an attorney for the Department of Homeland Security did something totally unexpected: she broke down in open court over the number of immigration cases she’s been assigned since ICE descended on Minnesota. In this week’s Amicus plus bonus episode, co-hosts Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern discuss how Julie Le’s court appearance points towards the ongoing collapse of the Justice Department, and why the Trump administration might actually be delighted to see it fail.

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Trump Has a New “Big Lie” for the Midterms

Sat, 07 Feb 2026 08:00:00 GMT

According to Marc Elias, Dahlia Lithwick’s guest on Amicus, “This week will be looked back on as a pivot point in terms of how the midterms play out.” Elias is a nationally recognized authority on voting rights, redistricting and campaign finance law. He is Chair of Elias Law Group and founder of Democracy Docket.

In the past few weeks, Donald Trump’s election denialism has kicked into high gear, just as his poll numbers hit new lows. Elias tells us the FBI/DNI raid to seize ballots in Fulton County, Georgia, and Steve Bannon’s new threats to surround polling places with ICE officers in November, show an administration that is prototyping new mechanisms for election subversion and voter suppression. But the public has power in this scenario, especially if they start paying attention to elections and voting rights now, rather than the day before November 3rd, 2026.

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Bonus: Liam Ramos is the Tip of the Iceberg

Sat, 31 Jan 2026 08:05:00 GMT

The chaos and terror unleashed on the people of Minneapolis has been made manifest in a series of searing images. One of those images captured a 5-year-old boy, Liam Ramos, scooped up by ICE and now detained in Texas. Liam’s story, and untold others like his, deserve your attention. So on this week’s Amicus Plus bonus episode, with Mark Joseph Stern out sick, Dahlia called on Kristin Clarens, an immigration advocate for nearly 20 years who has focused much of her career on unaccompanied youth and non-citizen kids. Kristin talks with Dahlia about the heartbreaking truth of what is happening to Liam Ramos, what is really going on inside sprawling new detention centers like the one in Dilly, Texas, where he has been sent, and how the horrors of family separation from Trump 1.0 have been repackaged and supercharged in Trump’s second stint in the White House.

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Legal Blinkers, Moral Hazards

Sat, 31 Jan 2026 08:00:00 GMT

Lawyers love legal reasoning. It promises a clean, clear path through sticky, tricky territory. But legal reasoning can enable grotesque real-world outcomes, like torture, or arresting journalists, or masked government agents detaining and disappearing people. On this week’s Amicus, Dahlia Lithwick is in conversation with Joseph Margulies, Professor of Practice of Government at Cornell University. Margulies litigated some of the biggest cases of egregious human rights violations of the post-9/11 “War on Terror”, an experience that informed his recent piece in the Boston Review: The Moral Stupefaction of America. Margulies explains how, when we allow obscure legal language to overshadow moral imperatives, we can end up in very dark places. The line from waterboarding at black sites to executing American citizens in the streets is a straight one. And there will be a lawyer willing to write a memo for all of it.

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Bonus: Trump’s Hand-Picked Attorney’s Final Act

Sat, 24 Jan 2026 08:05:00 GMT

Riddle us this: What do Linsday Halligan and Greenland have in common? Their stories reveal how to beat Trump—or at least slow him down. In this week’s Amicus Plus bonus episode, co-hosts Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern discuss Halligan’s unlawful appointment, and how a huge ruling by a Trump-appointed district judge could serve as a blueprint for getting the president to tuck his tail in defeat. They take us through this historic dressing-down, and explain how vital it can be for a judge to simply … make the administration comply. Finally, Mark and Dahlia bring us up to speed on the international confrontation over Greenland, and explain what these seemingly unrelated fights could reveal about the limits of presidential power at home and abroad.

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Who Gave ICE Permission to Trample the Constitution?

Sat, 24 Jan 2026 08:00:00 GMT

The evidence is mounting that ICE is not only unbothered by moral boundaries, but immigration and customs enforcement agents acting on behalf of President Trump believe they are not constrained by constitutional red lines, either. According to a super-secret internal memo flagged in a whistleblower complaint this week, the Fourth Amendment simply doesn’t apply to ICE. That sense of impunity is also clear in a growing chamber of horrors from their enforcement operations; from masked agents taking a child in a blue bunny hat, to the shooting of Renee Good. Worryingly, this sweeping concept of immunity is kind of true—though maybe not for the reason you think. This week on Amicus, Dahlia Lithwick talks with Alex Reinert, the Max Freund Professor of Litigation & Advocacy at Cardozo School of Law. He is also the director of the Center for Rights and Justice and Co-Director of the Floersheimer Center for Constitutional Democracy. Alex explains the origins of qualified immunity—a legal theory that allows law enforcement officers to be free from consequences for their actions—why ICE’s lawlessness is not a new phenomenon (even if it is a phenomenon in hyperdrive under Trump), and what we can do about the obvious problem of maximal impunity for the people who have the most power to inflict harm.

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Bonus: Fed Up

Wed, 21 Jan 2026 22:42:43 GMT

In this member-exclusive episode, co-hosts Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern discuss the Supreme Court’s fact-free foray into Trump v. Cook, a case that economists warn could crater the economy. President Donald Trump spent the first weeks of his second stint in the White House firing a lot of people from government agencies. For the most part, the High Court’s conservative justices let it slide, in line with their general “he’s the President, let him do it” posture. But Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook was different. In August, Trump fired off a post on Truth Social, then sacked Cook a few days later, leaving a huge question mark hanging over the independence of the Fed. Turns out, that’s a very big deal for anyone who wants to avoid hyperinflation and economic disaster. During Wednesday’s arguments, it was clear that even Trump’s hand-picked justices felt as though they would like to avoid such catastrophes. What ensued was more about feelings, fear, and frustration than law, but that may be the best we can hope for.

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Bonus: SCOTUS’ Title IX Pretzel

Sat, 17 Jan 2026 08:05:00 GMT

Over the course of more than three hours this past Tuesday, the court heard arguments about whether trans student athletes have a right to compete in school sports. In this week’s Amicus Plus bonus episode: an essential explainer of the arguments in Little v Hecox and West Virginia v BPJ from a former Department of Education lawyer who wrote guidance for interpreting Title IX. Now a partner at the Potomac Law Group, Mary Rohmiller authored a key amicus brief in the second case. She explains to Mark some of the major misunderstandings of the law, and how a broad ruling in this case could have devastating implications for all kinds of students.

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Invoking the Insurrection Act

Sat, 17 Jan 2026 08:00:00 GMT

President Trump REALLY wants to invoke the Insurrection Act. He’s fallen hard for this 200-year-old law that would allow him to deploy active duty military to enforce civilian law on American streets. On this week’s Amicus podcast, co-host Mark Joseph Stern is joined by Professor Steve Vladeck, a nationally recognized expert on the Supreme Court, federal courts, national security law, and military justice. They discuss what’s been stopping Trump from invoking the act so far, why he has no legal authority to do so right now, and what happens if he does it anyway.

Next, Mark talks to Julia Gegenheimer, former special litigation counsel in the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division’s Criminal Section, and now a special litigation counsel at Georgetown Law’s Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection. Julia and Mark discuss the remaining paths to justice after the killing of Renee Good and examine what happens when the DOJ abandons its duty to seek accountability and vindicate civil rights.

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Bonus: So… Republican Judges Did Something Good About Abortion

Sat, 10 Jan 2026 08:05:00 GMT

Christmas has come and gone, but the Wyoming Supreme Court delivered a late gift this week. On this week’s Slate Plus members-only episode, co-hosts Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern talk about the conservative court’s ruling striking down the state’s abortion ban. They discuss the ways in which real law was done here, and celebrate the reminder that maybe legal analysis still matters. Mark recommends that listeners check out Mary Ziegler’s Slate piece, “A Red State High Court Just Struck Down an Abortion Ban. The GOP Has Itself To Blame.” Meanwhile, Lindsey Halligan is back—or perhaps never went away? Despite a ruling that she could not actually hold the position, Halligan is still claiming to be a U.S. Attorney. A judge has gotten wise to this and signaled that real professional penalties may be in store for the lawyer that wasn’t. Finally, Mark and Dahlia tee up next week’s SCOTUS arguments about bans on transgender peoples’ rights to play sports.

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Renee Good and Trump’s Age of Immunity

Sat, 10 Jan 2026 08:00:00 GMT

You saw it. We all saw it. We all saw what happened in Minneapolis when an ICE agent shot and killed Renee Good for the crime of being in her car. This week on Amicus, Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern attempt to digest this week’s horrific events and wonder if there is even a possibility of justice. Dahlia recommends “They Didn’t Even Need A Deepfake” by Slate’s Molly Olmstead.

Later in the show, Mark speaks with Brian Finucane, a senior advisor to the International Crisis Group. He spent a decade in the U.S. State Department’s Office of the Legal Adviser. Brian and Mark discuss the lawlessness of Trump’s foreign policy (cough cough, Venezuela), and how the administration’s approach embraces some of the worst aspects of tough-guy masculinity.

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Bonus: Our Least Favorite Things

Sat, 03 Jan 2026 08:05:00 GMT

There was an absolute embarrassment of riches from which to choose for this year’s annual Amicus Worst of SCOTUS awards*. Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern, once again ably assisted by our brilliant Amicus Pluskateers, compiled a shortlist of the lowest of the lowlights at One, First Street this past year. There were incoherent merits decisions, unhinged shadow docket opinions, and persistent, straight up bullying of lower court judges… Join us in the Amicus plus smokeless cigar bar for exclusive access to the most unmissable imprudential jurisprudential award ceremony.

*Not a real awards show.

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The Fast Track To Autocracy

Sat, 03 Jan 2026 08:00:00 GMT

In a special new year retrospective, Amicus host Dahlia Lithwick revisits an important episode from early 2025. Back at the beginning of February, Kim Lane Scheppele, the Laurance S. Rockefeller Professor of Sociology and International affairs at Princeton University, pointed to the speed and viciousness of the very opening legal gambits in Trump 2.0 as evidence that America had already switched over to the fast track for autocracy on January 20th, 2025. An expert in the law of autocracy, Scheppele has seen firsthand what happened to constitutional courts, the media, the academy and the democratic norms that protected them in Russia and Hungary. In this interview, Scheppelle explains how Trump’s executive orders on everything from government funding to transgender people in the military reveal a familiar global playbook that has chillingly familiar endpoints.

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Bonus: Dear Jurisprudence

Sat, 27 Dec 2025 08:05:00 GMT

Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern answer the very smartest questions from the very smartest listeners in a listener mailbag special episode. They cover sweeping court reform, a radical plan to save American democracy, how to rebuild norms out of hopes and dreams, and whether there’s any point in writing nastygrams to the justices.

If you want to access that special 50% promotion for Slate Plus membership, go to slate.com/amicusplus and enter promo code AMICUS 50. This offer expires on Dec 31st 2025.

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What We Got Wrong About SCOTUS in 2025

Sat, 27 Dec 2025 08:00:00 GMT

Over the past calendar year, the Supreme Court’s center has shifted to the right and then more to the right, and the justices’ decisions have time and again facilitated Trump’s agenda. But the Roberts majority is not simply focused on what the current president wants; it has its sights set on a larger project: voting. Suppressing and constraining and problematizing the core function of democratic rule. In this episode, Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern reflect on the significant developments at the Supreme Court over the past year with an eye toward the implications of the court's decisions on democracy, voting rights, and the erosion of checks and balances. Looking back at the past year at One First Street, Dahlia and Mark trace the cases that reveal the court’s long game, with elections coming quickly, and discuss the forces for and against democracy being exerted within and without the high court. Then, they turn to the urgent matter of what you and I can do about it.

If you want to access that special 50% discount for Slate Plus membership, go to slate.com/amicusplus and enter promo code AMICUS 50. This offer expires on Dec 31st 2025.

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Bonus: We Try to Lead with Joy

Sat, 20 Dec 2025 08:05:00 GMT

Mark Joseph Stern and Dahlia Lithwick have good news! This week on our Slate Plus-only episode, our trusty co-hosts break down the week that was – a judge reversing the firing of hundreds of federal employees, and ICE officials getting called out for their lies. But while there was some joy, spare a thought for Hannah Dugan, the Wisconsin judge who was convicted this week for pointing an undocumented immigrant out of a side door in her courtroom earlier this year. It is a stark reminder that while the resistance is real, there is much work to be done.

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The Forgotten Lawsuits Targeting Trump’s Worst Abuses

Sat, 20 Dec 2025 08:00:00 GMT

In mid-March of 2025, ACLU attorney Lee Gelernt and his colleagues started hearing that the Trump administration might attempt a flagrantly lawless publicity stunt, involving migrant men, secret flights to El Salvador, a notorious gulag, and a total disregard for due process. Despite getting word that something was about to happen, and rushing into a Saturday night hearing, and then securing a TRO from DC judge James Boasberg, Lee and his colleagues were unable to prevent more than 250 men from being renditioned from Texas to the CECOT torture prison in El Salvador. The legal cases spawned by the dramatic events of March 15th 2025 haven’t gone away, indeed they are reaching crucial milestones in the courts, raising foundational questions about the abuse of statutes and what it means to defy court orders. On this week’s Amicus, Dahlia Lithwick is joined by the ACLU’s Lee Gelernt who is litigating these cases, to discuss the very high stakes of a set of cases that may have fallen off your radar in the shuffle.

How these cases play out will dictate much of what happens for the rest of Trump’s term in office by answering democracy-defining questions such as whether the antiquated and radical wartime powers of the Alien Enemies Act can be unleashed on people the government deems enemies domestically, whether court orders are actually directives the Trump DoJ is bound to follow, whether the district courts can require Pam Bondi’s justice department to assist in the finding of fact, and whether the ancient legal concepts protecting liberty of due process and habeas corpus have the force of law in Trump’s America.

If you want to access that special 50% promotion for Slate Plus membership, go to slate.com/amicusplus and enter promo code AMICUS 50. This offer expires on Dec 31st 2025.

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Bonus: All-New Unoriginal Originalism

Sat, 13 Dec 2025 08:05:00 GMT

This week in the Amicus Plus clubhouse of horror, co-hosts Mark Joseph Stern and Dahlia Lithwick reprise the oral arguments in Trump v. Slaughter. Yes it went poorly, and yes it signals the end of administrative independence and also that Donald Trump is king. They also go over NRSC v. Federal Elections Commission, a case that will further dilute voter power because of money in politics. Then, Mark and Dahlia update us on the latest in the Kilmar Abrego Garcia saga - and why the government is trying to punish him.

If you want to access that special 50% promotion for Slate Plus membership, go to slate.com/amicusplus and enter promo code AMICUS 50. This offer expires on Dec 31st 2025.

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One Amendment Explains It All

Sat, 13 Dec 2025 08:00:00 GMT

Trump decided this past week that there was no downside to fully embracing the racist “shithole countries” rhetoric he denied seven years ago; but this mask coming fully off is just the latest chapter in a decades-long campaign to gut a very specific part of the constitution: the reconstruction amendments. On this week’s Amicus episode, Dahlia Lithwick talks to civil rights attorney Sherrilyn Ifill about the critical role the 14th Amendment has played in shaping American democracy, and why this full frontal assault on its protections should have everyone on high alert. In a week in which we found ourselves toggling between “the tide is turning!” and “all is lost!” Sherrilyn expertly guides us to an understanding of what winning looks like in this moment, and how the courts can still play a role in renewing America’s commitment to equal justice under the law, even when the Supreme Court is openly hostile to that proposition.

Sherrilyn Ifill’s substack newsletter: Is It Too Late?

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BONUS: Laws to the Slaughter

Sat, 06 Dec 2025 08:05:00 GMT

Crack open your pluskabeers, pluskateers. It was another rough week in law-land. Here to guide you through it as always are Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern. They discuss the upcoming oral arguments in Trump v. Slaughter, the case raising the possibility that independent federal agencies answer solely to the President, and the seemingly inevitable overturning of Humphrey’s Executor. But gleaming off in the distance is the good news out of D.C., where this week, federal Judge Beryl Howell blocked warrantless arrests made by ICE and CBP officials.

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SCOTUS Greenlights Trump, Gaslights America

Sat, 06 Dec 2025 08:00:00 GMT

While the Secretary of Defense pursues lawless boat strikes with a laser focus on maximum trolling, the Supreme Court is working to undermine voting rights with a laser focus on maximum support for Republicans.

In this week’s episode of Amicus, Dahlia Lithwick and co-host Mark Joseph Stern discuss the news that Trump’s extra-constitutional attempt to restrict birthright citizenship is heading back to the Supreme Court. They also discuss Thursday’s shadow docket decision supercharging racial gerrymandering as well as next week’s campaign finance case that promises to unleash even more dark money in the midterms. Next, Dahlia’s joined by Malcolm Nance, former naval intelligence officer, author and host of the Black Man Spy podcast to talk through the current administration’s riding roughshod over established military law, and the very nasty history of bombing shipwrecks.

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Bonus: Is Fed Soc Cooked?

Sat, 29 Nov 2025 08:05:00 GMT

Gentlemen, choose your weapons. In the case of the current apparent discord between MAGA and legal braintrust the Federalist Society, it’s all keynotes and op-eds at dawn. But don’t be fooled, the Roberts court Leonard Leo built has consistently delivered Trump’s wishlist, with one possible big exception coming down the pike. On this week’s Amicus Plus VIP-exclusive bonus episode, Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Lisa Graves, who literally wrote the book on the construction of Chief Justice Roberts’ FedSoc majority. Lisa has been tracking the conservative legal movement long enough to understand what’s really going on here, and she shares her sharp analysis of why MAGA is calling out Leonard Leo, and what it means for SCOTUS.

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The Three Faces Of Trumpism

Sat, 29 Nov 2025 08:00:00 GMT

By design – and also by dint of unbridled, undisciplined extremist exuberance – Donald Trump’s second stint in the White House is thus far a tricky thing to characterize. While many of the administration’s moves seem copy/pasted from a manual for authoritarian takeover, they’re also deeply rooted in longstanding structural democratic deficits in America. For their part, The administration’s boosters argue this whiplash-inducing dismantling of institutions, norms and precedents are simply the right’s answer to similarly seismic constitutional shifts in the New Deal and Civil Rights eras. In a recent piece in the Boston Review, What Are We Living Through?, law professors Jedediah Britton-Purdy and David Pozen try to puzzle through these conflicting narratives of change. They join Dahlia Lithwick on this week’s Amicus to map this moment and to plot paths through it.

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Bonus: The Chicago Bodycam Bodyslam

Sat, 22 Nov 2025 08:05:00 GMT

Wait…are the courts actually working? That’s a question Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern were asking this week as they were deluged with heartening results from courts across the country. The National Guard deployments in Washington D.C. have been ruled illegal, and CBP agents’ brutal response to Chicago protestors were slapped down. Then there’s the surprise result in the Texas gerrymandering case (good), followed by a blistering but unhinged dissent (WTF?). Dahlia and Mark discuss all this and more, and reveal exactly and precisely when they - and you - will know SCOTUS is going to announce their ruling on tariffs.

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The DOJ's Prosecutorial Malpractice Keeps Spilling Out in Court

Sat, 22 Nov 2025 08:00:00 GMT

Dahlia Lithwick is joined by former federal prosecutor Mimi Rocah, who brings her extensive experience trying and supervising federal criminal cases to a discussion of what the survivors of Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual abuse can teach us about justice. She suggests that the Trump administration’s eleventh-hour switchback tactic of calling for investigations of only Democrats speaks volumes about how the Justice Department is functioning these days, proving that vindictive prosecutions are the only game in town, bonus if they also have the effect of power-washing the president’s shadow from the scandal. Next, they turn to the extraordinary scenes in a Virginia courtroom this week, as the DOJ’s case against former FBI director and Trump foe James Comey seemed ready to fall apart at the seams. As this administration’s practice of political interference in legal proceedings is supercharged by dear leader’s “Dear Pam” posts to “his” AG Pam Bondi, this conversation highlights why judicial integrity and the ever-expanding ranks of judges refusing to accept lies, are among the last best hopes for equal justice under the law in America.

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Bonus: Deputy AG Todd Blanche Got Pantsed by the Epstein Email Dump

Sat, 15 Nov 2025 08:05:00 GMT

On this week’s bonus episode, Dahlia and Mark are brining the Thanksgiving Tofurky in shadow docket tears while discussing the Trump administration’s latest beatdown in court. Is it bad when a judge says the federal government can’t be trusted? Probably, but that won’t stop it from peddling even more lies to the judiciary and the public. From gerrymanders to the National Guard to the Epstein files, take a tour of this presidency’s latest departures from reality, and consider the question that hangs over us all: Will these people ever face consequences for this mess?

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He Quit the Bench to Raise the Alarm

Sat, 15 Nov 2025 08:00:00 GMT

Dahlia Lithwick welcomes retired federal judge Mark Wolf for his first ever podcast interview. The Reagan-appointed jurist made headlines last week with his searing indictment of the threat posed to the rule of law and democracy by the current administration. Judge Wolf opens up about his decision to leave the bench after decades of public service and the challenges faced by judges in the face of a president and a Justice Department showing scant regard for the rules.

Next, Dahlia is joined by California Attorney General Rob Bonta, who tells her, “If Trump breaks the law and hurts our state, we sue him.” Together, they discuss the urgency of justice in response to the tactics employed by the Trump administration. As Democratic AGs band together to sue against unlawful executive actions, Bonta explains their strategies in securing injunctions against the administration.

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Bonus: A Good News-Bad News Sandwich

Sat, 08 Nov 2025 08:05:00 GMT

We’re trying this week to celebrate the wins we can win. Sandwich Guy is free! Justice prevails! D.C. residents used their voices to reject the Trump administration’s efforts to make an example of a man who made a CBP officer smell briefly like mustard and onions. Yet we must inevitably remind ourselves of the dangers afoot. Dahlia and Mark talk about SCOTUS’ latest shadow docket ruling allowing the Trump administration to continue its heinous attacks on transgender people—without regard for the facts, the law, or the devastating consequences on the ground.

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When Tariffs Crashed Into SCOTUS

Sat, 08 Nov 2025 08:00:00 GMT

The Republican-appointed Supreme Court justices have been treating the Trump administration with such extreme deference that we were honestly a little flummoxed listening to this week’s arguments over his “Liberation Day” tariffs. Shockingly, during Wednesday’s arguments in Learning Resources v. Trump and Trump v. V.O.S. Selections, it seemed like the justices were in fact, concerned with presidential overreach. But was this a true bridge-too-far-moment, or were they more concerned about their own pocketbooks? This week, Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern discussed the arguments with Marc Busch, the Karl F. Landegger Professor of International Business Diplomacy at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. Busch is an expert on international trade policy and law, and signed onto an amicus brief on behalf of trade scholars explaining the history and context of IEEPA.

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BONUS: The DoJ Lied in Court (Again)

Sat, 01 Nov 2025 07:05:00 GMT

On this week’s bonus edition of Amicus Plus, Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern unpack the many cases and injunctions and un-injunctions over Trump’s extreme immigration enforcement operations and troop deployments to Portland and Chicago, also what the Supreme Court’s latest cryptic intervention in the Chicago case might mean.

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The Federal Judiciary Is Trapped

Sat, 01 Nov 2025 07:00:00 GMT

“The Chief Justice… is presiding over the end of the rule of law in America”. That quote did not come from host Dahlia Lithwick, but this week’s guest, former Federal Circuit Court Judge and George H. W. Bush appointee, J Michael Luttig. On this week’s show, Judge Luttig explains the unprecedented split we’re seeing between the federal courts and the highest court in the land in response to Trump’s lawlessness on everything from tariffs, to due process, to deploying the National Guard, and what it all means for the future of American democracy.

Next, Dahlia talks to the CEO of the small family business at the center of the tariffs case that will be argued at SCOTUS on Wednesday. Rick Woldenberg of Learning Resources explains why he’s standing up to Trump’s monarchic power grab, and why he sees himself standing shoulder-to-shoulder with James Madison.

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Bonus: Is This Trump’s Most Outrageous Legal Demand Yet?

Sat, 25 Oct 2025 07:05:00 GMT

In this week’s Amicus Plus Bonus Episode, crafted lovingly for our esteemed Pluskateers, join Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern in the smokeless cigar bar. Sorry about the mess. And the mess of course is Trump’s YUGE $250 million (give or take) demand for compensation from his very own Justice Department for, among other things, “malicious prosecution” (lolsob). The mess is also the many cases working their way through various levels of appellate courts over the Trump regime’s deployment of troops on the streets of American cities. If you’re baffled by the array of hearings (en banc or non bonk), Dahlia and Mark are here to demystify the process and explain the key themes. Namely, that a growing number of federal judges are viewing this as a break-the-glass moment.

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Demolition Man

Sat, 25 Oct 2025 07:00:00 GMT

Bulldozers and bulwarks are the twin themes of this week’s show, as Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Joyce White Vance, a longtime federal prosecutor and clarion voice in defense of the rule of law, despite its flaws. As Pam Bondi’s Justice department chases down the President’s opponents, Congress walks away from its constitutional duties, and the highest court in the land struggles to find a presidential demand too outrageous to rubber stamp, it’s no wonder many Americans are exhausted by the attempt to toggle between hope and despair. Lithwick and Vance discuss the many challenges to the integrity of the justice system and ponder what ordinary people can do to bolster vital democratic institutions under siege. Vance's new book, 'Giving Up is Unforgivable,' serves as a manual for citizens who understand that surviving this moment (and thriving after it) is a massive team project. It’s okay to huff a little hopium sometimes, but only if it’s the good stuff.

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Bonus: Trump Has Crossed Another Rubicon

Sat, 18 Oct 2025 07:05:00 GMT

On this bonus episode for our treasured Pluskateers, Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern discuss the growing movement of judges from across the ideological spectrum, who seem ever more willing to assert their authority, and challenge the executive branch, reflecting a significant moment in the ongoing struggle for checks and balances in American governance. They are incidentally also proving the US Supreme Court SCOTUS to be ever more an outlier when it comes to deference to a lawless regime. Dahlia and Mark also dig into the worrying implications of President Trump's cash grab by which he plans to fund the military despite the government shutdown. No debate: It may be good for the troops, but it’s very dangerous for the future of the republic!

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Voting Rights, But Mainly for White People

Sat, 18 Oct 2025 07:00:00 GMT

Janai Nelson, president of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund argued in defense of the Voting Rights Act in the pivotal Supreme Court case, Louisiana v Callais this week. Nelson joins Dahlia Lithwick on this episode of Amicus to probe the implications of the case for voting rights around the country, and the role of the Supreme Court in a democratic system. Nelson warns that while the consequences of losing Section 2 would be catastrophic, t many Americans are unaware how much of their democracy is undergirded by the rights accorded in the 14th and 15th amendments, and effectuated by the Voting Rights Act. Their conversation delves into the historical context of voting rights, the importance of precedent, and the unfinished, but essential, struggle for racial justice in America.

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Bonus: The Anti-LGBTQ Constitution

Sat, 11 Oct 2025 07:05:00 GMT

This week in the definitely-very-fun-and-not-at-all-dreadful Slate Plus members-only episode, Dahlia and Mark talk about the week that was: SCOTUS arguments about conversion therapy, legal rulings against (and also for) Trump’s use of the National Guard and ICE to crush dissent, and the vindictive prosecution of New York Attorney General Letitia James.

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Trump’s Insurrection Claims Could Lead American Democracy Off a Cliff

Sat, 11 Oct 2025 07:00:00 GMT

Troops on America's streets, threats of “plenary powers”, and extrajudicial killings in the Caribbean have prompted members of the military, past and present, to say that we are in the biggest civil/military crisis since the Civil War. On this week's Amicus, how SCOTUS' immunity decision in Trump v. United States helped deliver us to this scary moment. Dahlia Lithwick speaks to Yale Law School military justice expert Eugene Fidell and former JAG Maj. General Steven J. Lepper about the impossible position the military's been put in by Trump and SCOTUS and how bad that is for all of us. The Crisis in Uniform: The Danger of Presidential Immunity for the U.S. Military.

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Bonus: Um, Are You Sure You Want To Do That, SCOTUS?

Sat, 04 Oct 2025 07:05:00 GMT

On this week’s Amicus bonus episode for Slate Plus subscribers, Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern dig into the listener mailbag for another fascinating and surprising edition of “Dear Jurisprudence”, covering the inside story of SCOTUS case deliberations, possible penalties for lying lawyers, and the court’s most toxic Trump-era dynamics.

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This Will Be Trump’s Best Term at the Supreme Court Yet

Sat, 04 Oct 2025 07:00:00 GMT

Slate’s Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern are joined by Vox’s Ian Millhiser to discuss the upcoming Supreme Court term, which officially starts on Monday. The term begins with a slew of wildly significant cases that feel all but decided in the Trump administration’s favor already. That feeling of inevitability could perhaps be ascribed to the ongoing assault on democracy coming from the high court’s shadow docket, which will now spill over into cases argued on the merits. Dahlia, Mark, and Ian examine the effect of all this sloppy law on the public's perception of the court, and look ahead to upcoming cases on voting rights, campaign finance, conversion therapy, transgender rights, tariffs, and presidential power. They explore how the court's decisions reflect a shift towards a more partisan and less transparent judicial process, and ask whether there’s any hope of restoring the rule of law and healthy constitutional democracy in the future.

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Bonus: How January 6 Got Us to the Comey Indictment

Sat, 27 Sep 2025 07:05:00 GMT

Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern chew over the James Comey indictment in depth, asking whether this whole episode is a direct response to bogus claims about the January 6 insurrection and how much the Supreme Court’s presidential immunity decision is to blame. They also talk about what happens when the Supreme Court again overturns precedent on the shadow docket, and a D.C. lawsuit challenging blatant racial profiling in ICE sweeps.

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“Color-Blind” Admissions Continue to Hurt Us

Sat, 27 Sep 2025 07:00:00 GMT

The week ended with a Grand Jury Indictment of former FBI Director James Comey for what looks to be a pair of unprovable crimes. Indeed the US Attorney overseeing the case declined to bring the indictment for that very reason. He’s gone and Donald Trump’s personal insurance lawyer brought the case. Mark Joseph Stern and Dahlia Lithwick discuss what that means for the Justice Department.

Then Yale Law School’s professor Justin Driver reminds us that Supreme Court cases don’t just turn into vapors after they come down in June. The Supreme Court’s affirmative action decision from 2023 has fundamentally changed what college campuses look like and has opened the door to Trump Administration attacks on anything that even looks like racial justice efforts on elite campuses and throughout the country. Any one decision causes legal cascades that can and will be used against us.

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Bonus: Ending the Weaponization of the Justice Department

Sat, 20 Sep 2025 07:05:00 GMT

Happy Constitution Day to all who celebrate! Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern chose to celebrate as only Amicus Plus can, discussing Trump, the Justice Department, and the Supreme Court. As the administration pursues its policy of de-weaponizing the Justice Department by, um, weaponizing it against people the president personally disfavors, Dahlia and Mark highlight the importance of the lower court judges trying to keep the government accountable for its actions. Some lower court judges are trying to figure out when and whether Justice Department lawyers are telling the truth (eep) and some are trying to explain how the Constitution works to the Supreme Court’s conservative supermajority (ruh-roh).

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Free Speech Is The Enemy of Free Speech, Apparently

Sat, 20 Sep 2025 07:00:00 GMT

Dahlia Lithwick talks to First Amendment law professor Mary Anne Franks to explore the inversion of free speech in America this past week, and to trace the ways our assumptions about the First Amendment helped to tip us into this upside-down. Dr. Franks, author of Fearless Speech: Breaking Free from the First Amendment, explains the contradictions inherent in free-speech absolutism, the role of government in suppressing dissent, and the impact of media and entertainment on public discourse. What are we to make of a movement that screamed “jawboning” and “censorship” for a decade, but when handed power enthusiastically enacts actual governmental speech suppression and censorship? And what does the First Amendment mean if the powerful are consistently afforded maximum power in the “marketplace of ideas”?

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Bonus: The Many Ways Guns Kill Free Speech

Sat, 13 Sep 2025 07:05:00 GMT

The shooting of Charlie Kirk this week doesn’t have us thinking about politics, at least not really. What Mark Joseph Stern and Dahlia Lithwick see is the creep of gun violence overtaking the very notion of free speech. This week, Mark and Dahlia talk about how the prevalence of guns in America are stifling core aspects of democracy and governance. Elsewhere, they discuss federal agents scooping children out of their beds in the middle of night to be sent to Guatemala - and how DoJ lawyers lied about it all. Finally they talk about why maybe it’s not a bad thing that SCOTUS is going to hear arguments about Trump’s tariff scheme sooner rather than later.

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Dear Justice Kavanaugh, “I’m American, Bro”

Sat, 13 Sep 2025 07:00:00 GMT

In this week’s episode of Amicus, we delve into the recent Supreme Court shadow docket order in Noem v. Vasquez-Perdomo, which in essence legalized racial profiling by roving ICE patrols, and in practice may have ushered in America’s “show your papers” era for Americans with brown skin, who speak Spanish, and/or go to Home Depot in work clothes. Join Dahlia Lithwick and Ahilan Arulanantham, a longstanding human rights lawyer and law professor, as they unpack what this unargued, unreasoned, unsigned and (in Kavanaugh’s case) uncited decision means for both immigrants and U.S. citizens, for 4th amendment doctrine, and for the lower courts expected to parse SCOTUS’ tea leaves.

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Bonus: Bench Slaps and SCOTUS Clap Backs

Sat, 06 Sep 2025 07:05:00 GMT

While there were certainly whoops of joy when Mark Joseph Stern and Dahlia Lithwick reunited in this week’s Plus members-only episode, there was not much else to celebrate. A judge ruled that in the process of sending National Guard troops to Los Angeles, the Trump administration violated the Posse Comitatus Act. Sooooo what is going to be done about it? Meanwhile, a different court ruled that $2.2 billion in grants destined for Harvard University were illegally cancelled. To get them back Harvard will need to go back to court. Again. Mark and Dahlia discuss this news, and also how lower court judges are calling out SCOTUS’ unreasoned, incoherent opinions and how some of the Justices are trying to control, alt, delete all the backbiting.

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How To Fix Our Broken Constitution

Sat, 06 Sep 2025 07:00:00 GMT

There is a “stuckness” to American political life right now, which has become a seemingly inexorable centrifuge of polarization, victimization and power grabbing. The constitution is brandished as sword and shield, and also as though it is the word of God. Americans, it seems, have lost the ability to think creatively and expansively about the constitution, and our ability to amend it. On this week’s Amicus, Dahlia Lithwick is in conversation with Jill Lepore, whose new book “We The People: A History of The U.S. The Constitution is a thorough and bold excavation of a central, but utterly neglected part of America’s constitutional scheme: the amendment process. In her book, and in this interview, Lepore challenges Americans to rekindle their constitutional imaginations and really think about what the act of mending, repairing, or amending has meant through the nation’s history, and could mean for a country on the brink.

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Bonus: Oh Great, It’s Citizens United All Over Again?

Sat, 30 Aug 2025 07:05:00 GMT

n this week’s bonus episode of Amicus Plus, Dahlia Lithwick and Richard L Hasen discuss the current state of voting rights in the U.S., focusing on the implications of potential changes to Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, the ongoing redistricting battles in Texas, and threats to mail-in voting and election integrity posed by Donald Trump. They explore the historical context of these issues, the legal challenges ahead, and the importance of civic engagement in safeguarding democracy.

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Is The National Guard Coming To Your City?

Sat, 30 Aug 2025 07:00:00 GMT

In this episode of Amicus, Dahlia Lithwick discusses the recent deployment of the National Guard in Washington D.C. and its implications for checks and balances in the U.S. legal system. She is joined by Elizabeth “Liza” Goitein from the non-partisan Brennan Center’s Liberty and National Security Program, a leading expert on all things Posse Comitatus, the Insurrection Act, and the Pandora’s box of domestic military deployment in policing, and the legal frameworks governing it all. Together they explore the dangers of the administration’s current actions in the nation’s capital, and whether the president can act on his threats to expand them to cities that didn’t vote for him around the country.

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BONUS: The Post-Roe Rise In “Maternity Homes”

Sat, 23 Aug 2025 07:05:00 GMT

This week in the Plus Plus club, Slate’s executive editor Susan Matthews talks with T.J Raphael, the host of Liberty Lost, a podcast that tells the story of the Liberty Godparent Home - a facility on the campus of Liberty University in Virginia where unmarried pregnant young women would live before giving up their babies for adoption. The show traces the history of this and other similar facilities, and Susan and TJ discuss how faith-based “maternity homes” are seeing a resurgence in post-Roe America.

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Punished For Their Pregnancies

Sat, 23 Aug 2025 07:00:00 GMT

Women were prosecuted for experiencing miscarriage or stillbirth even before the Supreme Court swept away the protections of Roe v. Wade. But these prosecutions have ramped up since, in both red and blue states. The stakes are ramping up too, with legislators introducing bills that would treat abortion as homicide, potentially subjecting patients to the death penalty. This week, Mark Joseph Stern talks with Karen Thompson, the legal director of Pregnancy Justice. They discuss what happens when the state decides a fetus, or even an embryo, has equal or greater rights than pregnant people. As fetal personhood legislation moves ahead in more and more red states, this concept is also seeping into the law in blue states. Women have been jailed because their pregnancies ended in a way the state disliked. Grandmothers have been prosecuted decades after pregnancy loss thanks to investigators using forensic genetic genealogy to hunt them down. As Thompson explains, a frightening frontier in the battle for bodily autonomy and reproductive rights is here, and it demands our attention.

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BONUS: A Dispatch from Occupied Territory

Sat, 16 Aug 2025 07:05:00 GMT

In this week’s Slate Plus–only silent screaming room, Mark Joseph Stern talks with Madiba Dennie, deputy editor and senior contributor at Balls and Strikes and author of The Originalism Trap. They talk about Trump’s brazen takeover of D.C., how a judge is using the Supreme Court’s shadow docket against it, and Kim Davis’ long shot bid to overturn marriage equality at SCOTUS.

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When Trump Hits New Jersey, This Lawyer Hits Back

Sat, 16 Aug 2025 07:00:00 GMT

Law firms, universities, and businesses are bending the knee to the Trump administration at the slightest threat. Amid this shocking cowardice, blue states have been a bastion of defiance against the president’s escalating power grabs—with attorneys general leading the way. Mark Joseph Stern talks with New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin, who has been on the frontlines of this battle since Day One.

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BONUS: The Dangerous Reason Trump Wants to Change the Census

Sat, 09 Aug 2025 07:05:00 GMT

In this week’s Slate Plus–only room of doom, Mark Joseph Stern talks with Cristian Farias, journalist and host of The Bully’s Pulpit, a podcast from the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University. They talk about Trump demanding a new census that excludes undocumented immigrants, the FBI tracking down Texas Democrats who fled the state to break quorum, and the Justice Department asking the Supreme Court for permission to racially profile potential migrants. To top it off, the Supreme Court’s latest attack on the Voting Rights Act is taking shape—and it could be the final blow.

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Who Gets Left Out of Originalism?

Sat, 09 Aug 2025 07:00:00 GMT

The official history of America’s founding is often told as a whites-only story, a heroic tale of wealthy white men forging a new nation—with no mention of the people they excluded, displaced, or oppressed. But who gets left out of the story that “originalists” like to tell about the law? This week Mark Joseph Stern talks with Maggie Blackhawk, professor at NYU School of Law, and Gregory Ablavsky, a professor at Stanford Law School, about Native nations at the time of the founding, some of which were very much on the scene as the Constitution was being debated and ratified. What did they think about it? And does asking that question obscure a much more complicated—but more accurate—examination of the founding?

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BONUS: Is the Bias in the Room With Us Right Now?

Sat, 02 Aug 2025 07:05:00 GMT

In this exclusive bonus episode for Slate Plus members, Mark Joseph Stern talks with Leah Litman from Strict Scrutiny about the Trump administration's bogus bias complaint against a federal judge who’s been a thorn in its side. They also discuss the mounting proof that the Justice Department is lying to the Supreme Court—and Trump's unfolding attack on birthright citizenship.

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Don’t Give Up on the Law Just Yet

Sat, 02 Aug 2025 07:00:00 GMT

It’s easy to give up on the courts right now. SCOTUS is throwing down unreasoned decisions expanding Donald Trump’s authority, and Senate Republicans keep confirming the president’s cronies to lifetime judgeships, tarnishing the entire judiciary with their corruption. But there are judges—courageous, hard-working men and women—who have chosen a different path and are fighting to protect democracy and restore our civil rights. In his new book, Better Judgment: How Three Judges Are Bringing Justice Back to the Courts (out Sept. 2), Reynolds Holding tells the story of three of these judges and how they are laying the groundwork for a post-Trump future in which the courts serve as guardians of liberty rather than instruments of autocracy. Holding speaks with co-host Mark Joseph Stern about these judges’ refusal to accept business as usual and vision of a court that truly delivers equal justice to all.

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Bonus: Columbia’s Capitulation Starts a Disturbing New Chapter

Sat, 26 Jul 2025 07:05:00 GMT

In this week’s bonus episode for Slate Plus members, Mark Joseph Stern retires to the Pluskateer bar with Jay Willis of Balls and Strikes to talk about Columbia University caving to the Trump administration and the disastrous confirmation of Joshua Divine. Mark also offers an update on the Supreme Court’s latest disastrous shadow docket decision — and he answers a burning question frequently posed by listeners.

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When Unaccountable People Come for Your Vote

Sat, 26 Jul 2025 07:00:00 GMT

Civil rights are under attack. The Supreme Court seems to have its sights set on the Voting Rights Act. The Trump administration, meanwhile, is taking every issue to the court knowing that it will never have to face accountability there. And with states like Texas considering unpopular redistricting plans, the administration may never face it at the ballot box either.

Put more bluntly, many of our elected officials are operating with a perceived immunity from accountability of any sort. This week Dahlia spoke about the deleterious effects of these actions on voting rights with Maya Wiley, president and CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. They discuss the damage done to our civil rights by the current Department of Justice, and what we can learn about accountability from recent developments in the Jeffrey Epstein scandal.

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Bonus: SCOTUS’ All New “Because We Said So” Doctrine

Sat, 19 Jul 2025 07:05:00 GMT

In this member-exclusive episode of Amicus, Dahlia Lithwick and co-host Mark Joseph Stern discuss the Supreme Court's shadow docket decision in the case of McMahon v New York, an unexplained order permitting the Trump administration to move forward with its abolition of the Education Department by firing about 1,400 employees. They chew over the bottomless horror of the Emil Bove judicial confirmation that appears to be all-but guaranteed, and debate whether the Supreme Court, really, really meant it when it warned the President last May that for reasons nobody could comprehend at the time, he couldn’t fire the Fed Chair, Jerome Powell.

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How To Build A Police State (With The Supreme Court’s Blessing)

Sat, 19 Jul 2025 07:00:00 GMT

Over the last six months, life has been upended for millions of people in America as Stephen Miller's extreme immigration policies have been unleashed. And while the first weeks of the second Trump administration saw some genuine pushback from the Supreme Court, six months in, that feint at checking and balancing has fallen away. On this week's Amicus podcast, Dahlia Lithwick welcomes Aaron Reichlin Melnick, Senior Fellow at the American Immigration Council. Reichlin Melnick last appeared on the show in the days after Trump's inauguration and the initial barrage of lawless Executive Orders targeting the immigration system and the millions caught in it. Half a year into Trump 2.0, and Stephen Miller's no-holds-barred anti-immigrant plan for America, what's stuck? What's accelerated? And in light of the new budget, what's next?

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Bonus: Us Too, Justice Jackson, Us Too.

Sat, 12 Jul 2025 07:05:00 GMT

Can nationwide class actions replace universal injunctions? This week's bonus episode of Amicus with Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern tackles this crucial legal question and more. They also discuss Justice Jackson's impassioned dissent in the shadow docket order that lifted a block on President Trump’s plans for mass firings of federal workers. And they delve into Judge Joseph Laplante’s significant class action ruling against Trump’s birthright citizenship executive order.

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The Call Is Coming From Inside The Court

Sat, 12 Jul 2025 07:00:00 GMT

In this episode of Amicus, Dahlia Lithwick sits down with Senator Sheldon Whitehouse to dissect the most recent Supreme Court term and its implications. They explore Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson's emerging role and influence, the patterns of bias within the court that she’s calling out, and the broader systemic issues facing the judiciary. Their conversation also delves into the “worst possible nominee” for a lifetime appointment to a US court of appeals, Emil Bove. Next, they tackle climate inaction, Democrats’ failure to respond to the billionaire takeover of the Supreme Court, and why Senator Whitehouse is still optimistic about challenging, even fixing, these systems.

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Opinionpalooza 2025

Fri, 11 Jul 2025 15:53:00 GMT

The Supreme Court wraps up a momentous term. Dahlia Lithwick, Mark Joseph Stern and guests break down the cases and the controversies, explaining what it means for you, and for American democracy.

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Bonus: SCOTUS Made it Worse

Sat, 05 Jul 2025 07:00:00 GMT

Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern answer your questions about threats to federal judges, how far religious opt-outs can go in public schools in light of Mahmoud v. Taylor, and whether or not the rule of law in America is, in fact, cooked.

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Our All-Star SCOTUS End-of-Term Breakfast Table

Wed, 02 Jul 2025 07:00:00 GMT

Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern host the panel that’s guaranteed to help you understand what happened during the Supreme Court’s latest term – examining the major decisions, the emergency docket, and the evolving dynamics on the court. Dahlia and Mark welcome the New York Times’ Jamelle Bouie, civil rights lawyer and 14th Amendment scholar Sherrilyn Ifill of Howard University, and Professor Steve Vladeck of Georgetown Law to Amicus, to discuss the implications of the cases and the controversies of the term that just wrapped. Together, they offer close analysis of the court’s decisions and the various justices’ machinations, while stepping back to set it all in vital historical and political context.

This is part of Opinionpalooza, Slate’s coverage of the major decisions from the Supreme Court. The best way to support our work is by joining Slate Plus. (If you are already a member, consider a donation or merch!)Also! Sign up for Slate’s Legal Brief: the latest coverage of the courts and the law straight to your inbox.

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“No Right Is Safe”

Sat, 28 Jun 2025 07:00:00 GMT

The cataclysmic opinions from SCOTUS on Friday certainly suggest that the courts can no longer save us. In fact, in Trump v. CASA., we learned that it’s somehow not actually the job of the courts to save us from blatant violations of our rights. With universal injunctions drop-kicked and district court judges sidelined, it’s going to be nearly impossible to vindicate your rights in Trump’s America. No rights are safe when the only way to get relief is to sue the government yourself.

And yet in a definitely-not-planned-last-day-of-the-term-with-all-the-big-cases lineup, several other bad things happened as well. Hosts Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern discuss all of Friday's big decisions including Mahmoud v. Taylor, which will allow parents to opt-out of having to hear about LGBTQ+ people in schools.

This is part of Opinionpalooza, Slate’s coverage of the major decisions from the Supreme Court. The best way to support our work is by joining Slate Plus.

By joining, not only will you unlock weekly bonus episodes of Amicus—you’ll also access ad-free listening across all your favorite Slate podcasts. You can subscribe directly from the Amicus show page on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Or, visit slate.com/amicusplus to get access wherever you listen.

Also! Sign up for Slate’s Legal Brief: the latest coverage of the courts and the law straight to your inbox.

Want more Amicus? Join Slate Plus to unlock weekly bonus episodes with exclusive legal analysis. Plus, you’ll access ad-free listening across all your favorite Slate podcasts. You can subscribe directly from the Amicus show page on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Or, visit slate.com/amicusplus to get access wherever you listen.

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Bonus: The Supreme Court's Worst Move Since Trump Returned to Office

Tue, 24 Jun 2025 20:02:00 GMT

In this member-exclusive Opinionpalooza episode of Amicus, Dahlia Lithwick and co-host Mark Joseph Stern discuss the Supreme Court's shadow docket decision in the case of DHS vs. DVD, which allows for the deportation of migrants to third countries without due process or notice, despite the potential for torture and death. The Supreme Court's majority chose the opaque system of an unsigned, unargued, unbriefed and unreasoned order to issue a body-blow to the rule of law, undermining lower court rulings and Congressional statutes, specifically the Convention Against Torture. Dahlia and Mark discuss the Supreme Court’s accelerating trend of granting sweeping powers to the executive branch without proper justification, all while the Trump administration continues its pattern of defying lower court orders. Not great! Also not great? A brand new whistleblower report from a former rising star at the Department of Justice, claiming that Trump judicial nominee and current senior DoJ official, Emil Bove, deliberately ordered subordinates to defy court orders.

This is a member-exclusive bonus episode, part of Amicus’ Opinionpalooza coverage of the end of the Supreme Court term. Listen to it now by subscribing to Slate Plus. By joining, not only will you unlock weekly bonus episodes of Amicus—you’ll also access ad-free listening across all your favorite Slate podcasts. You can subscribe directly from the Amicus show page on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Or, visit slate.com/amicusplus to get access wherever you listen.

If you are already a member, consider a donation or merchAlso! Sign up for Slate’s Legal Brief: the latest coverage of the courts and the law straight to your inbox. Delivered every Tuesday.

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The Many Compromises of Elena Kagan

Sat, 21 Jun 2025 07:00:00 GMT

The Justices seem intent on packing their summer vacation bags and getting on their way.

Earlier in the week, the court’s conservative supermajority upheld a Tennessee ban on gender-affirming care for trans kids. The logic behind the decision was…lacking (Slate Plus members can hear about this right now). In this episode, Dahlia Lithwick talks to Chase Strangio, the lawyer for the Tennessee plaintiffs, about where we go from here.

Meanwhile, don’t miss the significance of Friday’s batch of rulings: co-host Mark Joseph Stern joins Dahlia to talk about the implications in cases seemingly about vaping and faxes and gas stations, but with much bigger implications. He also breaks down why Elena Kagan keeps joining the conservatives, and whether it foreshadows something bigger headed our way (light-at-end-of-tunnel-or-oncoming-train-dot-gif).

This is part of Opinionpalooza, Slate’s coverage of the major decisions from the Supreme Court this June.

Also! Sign up for Slate’s Legal Brief: the latest coverage of the courts and the law straight to your inbox. Delivered every Tuesday.

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Bonus: SCOTUS Apparently Doesn’t Believe Trans People Exist

Wed, 18 Jun 2025 20:00:00 GMT

In this Slate Plus exclusive episode, Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern analyse the Roberts Court's decision in Skrmetti, effectively bans gender-affirming care for trans minors in more than 20 states.

This is part of Opinionpalooza, Slate’s coverage of the major decisions from the Supreme Court this June. Listen to it now by subscribing to Slate Plus. By joining, not only will you unlock weekly bonus episodes of Amicus—you’ll also access ad-free listening across all your favorite Slate podcasts. You can subscribe directly from the Amicus show page on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Or, visit slate.com/amicusplus to get access wherever you listen.

The best way to support our work is by joining Slate Plus. (If you are already a member, consider a donation or merch!)Also! Sign up for Slate’s Legal Brief: the latest coverage of the courts and the law straight to your inbox. Delivered every Tuesday.

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Bonus: A Win For Disability Rights, Mostly

Sat, 14 Jun 2025 07:05:00 GMT

On this week’s bonus episode available to Slate Plus subscribers, Mark Joseph Stern and Dahlia Lithwick go over the week at SCOTUS. They talk about the small, but potentially significant, victory in a case about police invading the wrong house, a ruling which maintains people’s rights to sue law enforcement when they do wrong. Meanwhile, in A.J.T. v Osseo, a win for disability rights! But there are storm clouds on the horizon — Justice Kavanaugh joined Justice Thomas in a very outlandish and shockingly conservative concurrence.

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Tanks On DC’s Streets And A US Senator In Handcuffs

Sat, 14 Jun 2025 07:00:00 GMT

America feels very different this weekend. While the president’s planned military parade (that just happens to coincide with his birthday) will see tanks and armored vehicles rolling through Washington DC, federalized National Guard and US Marines have been deployed to Los Angeles over the objections of state and city electeds, many of us are reeling from seeing a sitting US Senator forced to the floor and cuffed for trying to ask a question, and dozens of protests are planned around the country to declare “No Kings”. It’s. A. Lot. In this episode of Amicus Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Mark Joseph Stern to try to process some of the events of the last week, and to understand where the law stands on the key question of whether President Trump lawfully deployed troops quell anti-ICE raid protests in California that the administration is trying to claim are a “rebellion”.

This is part of Opinionpalooza, Slate’s coverage of the major decisions from the Supreme Court this June. The best way to support our work is by joining Slate Plus. (If you are already a member, consider a donation or merch!)Also! Sign up for Slate’s Legal Brief: the latest coverage of the courts and the law straight to your inbox. Delivered every Tuesday.

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There Is No Musk-Trump Feud Without The Roberts Court

Sat, 07 Jun 2025 07:00:00 GMT

Money talks, and sometimes it speaks as law by fiat from the highest court in the land. In this episode of Amicus, Dahlia Lithwick delves into the impact of money on the judiciary and, eventually, on, democracy with Michael Podhorzer, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress. They discuss how the many faces of big money in America, currently personified by Elon Musk and Donald Trump, have shaped the Supreme Court and government regulations. They explore the implications of recent court decisions, the downfall of unions, and the crucial role of collective action in preserving democracy. Michael Podhorzer also writes a weekly newsletter, Weekend Reading.

Want more Amicus? Join Slate Plus to unlock weekly bonus episodes with exclusive legal analysis. Plus, you’ll access ad-free listening across all your favorite Slate podcasts. You can subscribe directly from the Amicus show page on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Or, visit slate.com/amicusplus to get access wherever you listen.

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Bonus: Unanimous Opinions Out Front, Desperate Dealmaking Out Back

Thu, 05 Jun 2025 21:05:00 GMT

This is part of ⁠Opinionpalooza⁠, Slate’s coverage of the major decisions from the Supreme Court this June. The best way to support our work is by joining ⁠Slate Plus⁠. (If you are already a member, consider a ⁠donation⁠ or ⁠merch⁠!)

Also! Sign up for ⁠Slate’s Legal Brief:⁠ the latest coverage of the courts and the law straight to your inbox. Delivered every Tuesday.

Dahlia Lithwick hosts an 'Opinionpalooza' special of Amicus, covering Thursday’s decisions from the Supreme Court. She and Mark Joseph Stern dive into Ames vs. Ohio Youth Department, discussing Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson’s opinion on reverse discrimination, Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s refreshing nod to the establishment clause in the Catholic Charities case, and Justice Kagan’s narrow decision in Mexico’s lawsuit against US gun sellers; a decision that was not the win the gun lobby hoped for. Together, they reveal the strategy emerging from the court’s liberals this term. The episode wraps up with a deep dive into an uptick in dismissed cases and its potential link to audacious former Supreme Court clerks.

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BONUS: Time To Make Some Tariffic Amicus Pesto

Sat, 31 May 2025 07:05:00 GMT

The Supreme Court can probably go ahead and add “tariffs” to the list of hugely consequential cases it’s going to rule on, on what is variously called the “emergency,” “shadow,” or “lightning” docket. As the final weeks of the Supreme Court term unravel before us, Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern discuss the high octane case that’s likely headed their way soon, after the US Court on International Trade decided President Trump’s emergency tariff scheme is illegal. Next, they turn to a very odd split of votes in this week’s SCOTUS decision not to take up a case concerning religious freedom and native lands, and explain why Justice Clarence Thomas has not, in fact, had a sudden change of heart when it comes to tribal rights.

Get Slate’s latest coverage of the courts and the law straight to your inbox. Delivered every Tuesday. https://slate.com/legalbrief

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This End Of Term At SCOTUS Is Unlike Any Other in History

Sat, 31 May 2025 07:00:00 GMT

The end (of the Supreme Court term) is nigh. This week, Amicus goes into June Opinionpalooza mode with some meta-analysis of what to look out for as the Supreme Court delivers dozens of decisions over the next month or so. Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern say this is a term-ending unlike any other, partly because the number of cases pinging onto the high court’s shadow docket means the term may never really, truly, actually, end. And even when the shadow docket cases are decided, there is no real law that emerges, just a few lines of unsigned chicken scratch. Beyond the big merits cases concerning everything from birthright citizenship to healthcare for trans minors to racial gerrymandering to defunding Planned Parenthood, and beyond the brief, unbriefed, unargued emergency docket cases, the Supreme Court’s conservatives are in a power struggle with the very president they crowned quasi-king.

In a conversation recorded live on Friday at the WBUR Festival in Boston, Mark is joined by Professor Jed Shugerman of Boston University Law School, where they discuss the bad originalism and poor judgment that led to the Roberts’ court’s embrace of a little something called unitary executive theory that has become the Trump administration’s carte blanche.

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BONUS: This Time It’s South Sudan

Sat, 24 May 2025 07:05:00 GMT

Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern take to the Amicus Plus rumpus room this week to talk about a shocking deportation flight to South Sudan that seemed to blatantly violate a judicial order. The good news for Trump officials? House Republicans passed a bill that would prevent federal courts from holding them in contempt. Then, a brash conservative judge campaigning for SCOTUS makes a move against Chief Justice John Roberts to stay in the good graces of the only man whose opinion really matters: The president who fills Supreme Court seats.

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The Two Tracks of Justice

Sat, 24 May 2025 07:00:00 GMT

This week’s episode attempts to understand the ways in which the law of Trump unfolds along two tracks at the same time. First, Mark Joseph Stern joins us to talk about the Supreme Court’s decision to let Trump fire the heads of independent agencies, undermining a 90-year-old precedent in an unsigned, two-page decision on the shadow docket. This is a case in which Donald Trump’s agenda perfectly aligns with the wishlist of the conservative supermajority that controls the court. But if the court keeps giving Trump free passes to break the law now, why should we expect him to respect the court when it tries to draw the line later?

Then Dahlia Lithwick talks to the University of Chicago’s Aziz Huq about the idea of a “dual state,” a legal arrangement in which seismic changes happen in ways that are not perceptible to the bulk of the citizens. Drawing from the work of a Jewish lawyer who witnessed the dual state operate in Nazi Germany in the 1930s, Huq explains that authoritarians can seize the levers of the law to persecute disfavored groups, without disturbing the idea of the rule of law for the great majority of the nation.

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Bonus: Write In Support of Gaza? Go Straight to Jail.

Sat, 17 May 2025 07:05:00 GMT

This week on our Slate Plus members-only episode, when Mark Joseph Stern is away, old friends come to play. Dahlia Lithwick talks to Cristian Farias, legal journalist and host of a new podcast “The Bully's Pulpit; Trump v. The First Amendment.” They talk about the Trump administration's disregard for the first amendment that guides its detentions of students like Rumeysa Ozturk.

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SCOTUS Is About to Suffer Buyers Remorse, Again

Sat, 17 May 2025 07:00:00 GMT

Our eyes this week were trained on the arguments over birthright citizenship at the Supreme Court on Thursday. While Solicitor General John Sauer advanced wild arguments on behalf of the Trump administration, four of the justices (hint: the women) seemed extremely suspicious of his motives. The five men? Not so much. Slate senior writer Mark Joseph Stern joins Dahlia Lithwick to break down Trump v. CASA Inc. and the growing divide on the court between those who trust this president and those who don’t.

Although Thursday’s arguments touched on fundamental rights, SCOTUS made the strange choice to largely avoid the constitutional question and focus on a different one: Whether district courts have the power to issue “universal” injunctions that apply nationwide, as multiple courts did in order to protect birthright citizenship from the president. Judges have issued an unprecedented number of these orders against the Trump administration—in response to Trump’s unprecedented barrage of lawless executive orders. Some conservative justices seem perturbed by the explosion of universal injunctions. But it became clear on Thursday that this is the worst case for the court to use to rein them in.

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Bonus: The Week of Sweet and Bitter

Sat, 10 May 2025 07:05:00 GMT

In this week’s bonus episode exclusively for Slate Plus members, the news comes in good and bad waves.

Slate’s Mark Joseph Stern and Dahlia Lithwick remember former Supreme Court justice David Souter who died this week at the age of 85. They talk about the demise of “Eagle” Ed Martin’s bid to be the US Attorney for the District of Columbia, and Justice Allison Riggs’ court victory allowing her to keep her seat at the North Carolina Supreme Court, as well as the dangerous precedent set by the legal fight over her reelection. Finally they discuss Trump’s transgender military ban, and Justice Sotomayor’s charge to lawyers to stand up and fight.

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SCOTUS, Meet The Broligarchs

Sat, 10 May 2025 07:00:00 GMT

After Silicon Valley’s yeet to the right after Donald Trump was elected in 2016, and the DOGE-ification of the federal government (read: chaos and abuse as the driving ethos of HR), it felt like high time to delve into the evolving relationship between tech billionaires like Elon Musk and Peter Thiel and the U.S. government. Their influence has massive implications for core constitutional issues such as mass surveillance, privacy, and deregulation. Kara Swisher joins Dahlia Lithwick on this week’s Amicus to highlight the dangers of tech giants' encroachment on government oversight and the implications of AI and cryptocurrency.

This week’s episode concludes with a heartfelt tribute to Justice David Souter who died on Thursday. Dahlia and former Souter Clerk Mary-Rose Papandrea reflect on the late Justice’s humility, judicial philosophy, and the profound loss felt by his former clerks and the legal community.

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BONUS: Ooooo-klahoma, Where the Separation of Church and State Dies

Sat, 03 May 2025 07:05:00 GMT

On this week’s Slate Plus-only episode, Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern review the jaw-dropping arguments from SCOTUS this week that could effectively legalize public funding for religious education. They also talk about Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson’s statements defending district court judges, and what they mean as the Trump administration keeps attacking these legal professionals by name.

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The Un-American Project

Sat, 03 May 2025 07:00:00 GMT

Whether it’s attempting to overturn birthright citizenship, effectively stripping citizenship from American children, or claiming Alien Enemy Act war powers under an imaginary invasion, Trump’s anti-immigrant moves are outlandishly unconstitutional. They are also being met with significant pushback from judges, even conservative ones. On this week’s Amicus, Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Slate senior writer Mark Joseph Stern who explains the landmark ruling from a Trump-appointed judge in the southern district of Texas that declared the administration's use of the Alien Enemies Act is unlawful. Next, Amanda Frost, University of Virginia law professor and author of You Are Not American: Citizenship Stripping from Dred Scott to the Dreamers, joins Dahlia to explain what Birthright Citizenship really means, and all the ways Trump is working to redefine what it means to be an American, including stripping citizenship from children and denaturalizing adults.

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Bonus: Justice Alito Failed the Book Report

Sat, 26 Apr 2025 07:05:00 GMT

In this week’s Slate Plus members-only episode, Mark Joseph Stern joins Dahlia Lithwick to break down oral arguments in Mahmoud v. Taylor, a case that will have huge implications for how (and if!) public schools can talk about LGBTQ+ people.

They also discuss Democratic lawmakers pushing back against the big law firms who have bent the knee to the Trump administration. Some now argue these firms may in fact be in violation of the law by agreeing to help Trump.

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The Anti-Trump Cases That Have Changed The Game

Sat, 26 Apr 2025 07:00:00 GMT

As we approach President Trump’s 100th day in office (this time around) this Wednesday, Dahlia Lithwick checks in with one of the key architects of the litigation strategy that is successfully confounding the administration’s most exorbitant executive overreach. After almost 140 executive orders and scores of associated lawsuits, it’s hard to keep track of the state of play. But Skye Perryman of Democracy Forward is on hand to help us think through the main strands of anti-authoritarian litigation, and to explore how some recent wins in court against Trump 2.0 are upending the administration’s attempt to style itself as an all-powerful unitary authority.

Next, Slate senior writer Mark Joseph Stern joins to discuss the Supreme Court's recent actions, including a significant order halting deportations to El Salvador, reflecting a growing judicial resistance to the administration's overreach and a confusing claim that Presidents work for . . . their lawyers?

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Bonus: SCOTUS Wants You To Stop Oppressing Conservatives with Your Big Gay Energy

Sat, 19 Apr 2025 07:05:00 GMT

This week, Leah Litman joins Mark Joseph Stern in the Amicus Plus Smokeless Cigar Bar (™). They discuss upcoming key Supreme Court cases centered on religious freedom and LGBTQ+ rights. First, they tackle Mahmoud v. Taylor, where Muslim and Christian parents are challenging a public school’s inclusive reading lists, arguing it violates their religious rights. The case lacks concrete evidence on the policy's implementation, but the Supreme Court decided to take it up anyway, signaling some of the conservative justices may be in the mood for some good old speculation, or harm-guessing. Next, they discuss Oklahoma Statewide Charter School Board v. Drummond, which could compel the state to fund a religious charter school. All of this is very familiar to Litman, who explores SCOTUS’ solicitude for the tender emotions of conservative Christians who feel as though the existence of LGBTQ people is an act of oppression toward conservative Christians in her new book, Lawless: How the Supreme Court Runs on Conservative Grievance, Fringe Theories, and Bad Vibes,

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Playing Chicken With The Constitution

Sat, 19 Apr 2025 07:00:00 GMT

Ever since March 15, when three flights carrying hundreds of men who had been afforded zero due process left United States airspace and landed in El Salvador, American democracy has been hurtling toward an internal conflict that the federal judiciary would very much prefer to avoid, but just keeps getting more unavoidable. On this week’s Amicus podcast, Mark Joseph Stern is joined by Leah Litman for the first half of the show. They discuss how, faced with a Trump administration that claims the ability to rewrite the Constitution on the fly, denies the ability to follow court orders, and dangles the possibility of extending its lawlessness to renditioning American citizens to a foreign prison, the federal judiciary this week did what the Supreme Court failed to do last week: explicitly call out the regime’s lawless actions. Aptly, Leah’s new book, Lawless: How the Supreme Court Runs on Conservative Grievance, Fringe Theories, and Bad Vibes, comes out on May 13 and they discuss how the highest court’s enabling of Trump and MAGA more broadly has brought us to the constitutional precipice.

Next: In the six months since the re-election of Donald Trump, abortion and reproductive rights have been squished way below the fold, news-wise, obscured by an ever-mounting pile of terrifying headlines. But outside of the public glare, the legal landscape of reproductive rights has been shifting. Dahlia Lithwick talks to Mary Ziegler about her book Personhood: The New Civil War Over Reproduction. Together, they examine how notions of fetal and embryonic personhood are fueling punitive actions against women, physicians, and those who provide or seek healthcare related to reproduction.

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Bonus: Hired. Fired. Rehired. Refired. Thanks, SCOTUS.

Sat, 12 Apr 2025 07:05:00 GMT

This week in Amicus’ Slate Plus-only episode, Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern provide an update on SCOTUS’ ruminations on Trump’s challenge to birthright citizenship. They also go over the firing, rehiring, and refiring of a member of the NLRB board, and a wild election lawsuit in North Carolina that should have you worried about the state’s political and legal systems.

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A Lawyer’s Guide to Not Caving to the President

Sat, 12 Apr 2025 07:00:00 GMT

On this week’s Amicus, autocratic creep in high and low gear. In high gear: The Supreme Court finally issued its order in Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s case, requiring that the government “facilitates” Abrego Garcia’s return from the El Salvadoran prison to which he was illegally and accidentally reditioned, but also recognizing the limits on its authority to direct the executive branch. Dahlia Lithwick talks to Slate senior writer Mark Joseph Stern about the ways in which the High Court’s attempts to avoid a showdown with the Trump administration may be futile.

Next, Dahlia turns to the autocratic creep in low gear that is President Trump’s buyout of Big Law. Jessie Weber, managing partner at Brown Goldstein and Levy, shares her view from a firm that has no intention of capitulating government bullying.

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Extra: The Supreme Court Just Gave The Trump Administration Everything It Wanted—Almost

Tue, 08 Apr 2025 19:30:00 GMT

Here’s a question for you. If you are scooped up by ICE (masked, covering badge numbers), then moved from one detention center to another in quick succession, before being hastily forced onto a flight to El Salvador where you are imprisoned in a “terrorism confinement center” beyond the jurisdiction of the United States –– at what point in that process could you access some kind of adjudicatory review? In this bonus episode of Amicus for Slate Plus members, Dahlia Lithwick tackles the Supreme Court’s shadow docket decisions in two overlapping but distinct cases stemming from the Trump administration’s renditioning of detainees to an El Salvadorean mega-prison which also happens to be a legal black hole.

Joined by Slate senior writer Mark Joseph Stern, they explore the legal and procedural concerns, the consequences for due process, and why five justices saw fit to reward the Trump administration for some very out-of-bounds behavior in the lower courts.

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Bonus: Judge Boasberg Edges Closer To The Cliff Of Contempt

Sat, 05 Apr 2025 07:05:00 GMT

In this week’s episode exclusively available to Slate Plus members, Slate’s Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern talk about the latest in Judge James Boasberg’s continued quest to find out what really happened behind the scenes as the Trump administration renditioned alleged gang members. They discuss Thursday’s fiery hearing in Judge Boasberg’s court room and if, when, and indeed how, he’ll hold anyone in the Trump administration in contempt.

Mark and Dahlia also discuss Medina v. Planned Parenthood South Atlantic, a case argued at SCOTUS this week that challenges South Carolina’s efforts to prevent people enrolled in Medicaid from accessing health care at Planned Parenthood clinics in the state.

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He Was Deported by Administrative Error. We Talked to His Lawyer.

Sat, 05 Apr 2025 07:00:00 GMT

The US government’s use of a prison in El Salvador as an extra-judicial due-process free black site has been rendered starkly visible by the story of one man they tried to disappear. On this week’s Amicus, Dahlia Lithwick interviews Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, lawyer for Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, a Maryland resident, husband and father, who was illegally deported to El Salvador in March due to what the government admits was an administrative error. Abrego Garcia was abruptly detained by ICE, torn from his family, and sent to a brutal Salvadoran prison despite having legal protections against deportation. The Justice Department now says Abrego Garcia must remain in the notorious CECOT prison in El Salvador. On Friday a district court judge in Maryland ordered his return.

Next, we turn to the Trump administration's disastrous tariffs. Slate's Mark Joseph Stern joins Dahlia to explore the legality of Trump’s latest, inexplicable round of tariffs against the rest of the world, and debate whether the Supreme Court will apply its so-called “major questions doctrine” when a Republican is in the White House.

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Bonus: Why Trump’s Attacks On Law Firms Are A Serious 1st Amendment Issue

Sat, 29 Mar 2025 07:05:00 GMT

This week’s very special state secret (but also not a state secret) bonus episode for Slate Plus members features Dahlia Lithwick and Slate’s Mark Joseph Stern on the latest seesaw between Big Law v. Trump. On Friday, Jenner & Block and WilmerHale both filed suit against the president, castigating him and his administration for his attacks on the law. Mark and Dahlia go over the cases and why Trump’s attacks on Big Law should be worrisome for people even outside of the legal profession.

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Trump’s Plan To Put A Chokehold On Voting

Sat, 29 Mar 2025 07:00:00 GMT

The Trumpian inversion of reality was threaded into so many areas of the law and active litigation this week.

Slate senior writer Mark Joseph Stern joins Dahlia Lithwick to discuss the apparent evaporation of judicial patience for Trump lawyers simultaneously claiming that a signal chat was not classified or subject to record preservation rules, AND the flights to El Salvador that were filmed for posterity on arrival at a prison were in fact state secrets. Together, they also think through the likelihood of the Supreme Court stepping into the Alien Enemies Act case at this early stage by just taking the Trump administration at its word that those summary renditions were totally legal and constitutionally correct.

Next, Dahlia Lithwick talks to Wendy Weiser, vice president for democracy at the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law School, about another Trumpian inversion of reality: his executive order titled “Preserving and Protecting the Integrity of American Elections”, which in fact is not about election integrity, but instead an extension of the Big Lie election theory that could disenfranchise millions of eligible voters.

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BONUS: Judge Boasberg Wants The Facts

Sat, 22 Mar 2025 07:05:00 GMT

In this week’s bonus episode of Amicus Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern are back in the rumpus room of jurisprudential nightmares. They listen into Friday afternoon’s hearing in Chief Judge “Jeb” Boasberg’s courtroom in Washington DC, where a Justice Department lawyer squirmed under the spotlight when pressed on the Trump administration’s flagrant defiance of Judge Boasberg’s Saturday evening order. In that hearing, Boarberg instructed the Administration to return Venezuelan men tossed onto planes to an El Salvadorean prison camp back to the United States so they could have some measure of due process. Next, they turn to this week’s sad BIg Law capitulation from Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP.

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The Rule of Law Took A Very Dark Turn This Week

Sat, 22 Mar 2025 07:00:00 GMT

If you’re overwhelmed by the sheer volume of lawless acts, constitutional crises (we count five), and huge Trump administration losses in court this week - honestly, same. But if anyone can render this swirling storm of lawsuits and orders and injunctions legible, and put them in terms that can help make sense of this moment, it’s Dahlia Lithwick. On this week’s show, Dahlia is first joined by Quinta Jurecic, a fellow in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution and a senior editor at Lawfare, to discuss the deeply worrying shift in the Trump regime’s posture toward judges and the rule of law, that’s been playing out inside and outside the courts this week. Next, Dahlia speaks with a lawyer who secured a big win against Elon Musk and DOGE this week in one of the USAID cases. Mimi Marziani explains the litigation strategy, and its limits.

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Extra: An Escalating Constitutional Crisis

Tue, 18 Mar 2025 20:41:00 GMT

In this urgent extra episode of Amicus, host Dahlia Lithwick and Slate's senior writer Mark Joseph Stern discuss the unfolding constitutional crisis triggered by the Trump administration's defiance of a court order to halt flights carrying Venezuelan migrants to be delivered to El Salvador’s so-called Terrorism Confinement Center - a vast foreign prison that could be described as a labor camp. Lithwick and Stern explore the timeline of events that unfolded in Federal Court Judge James Boasberg’s court this week, and on planes bound for El Salvador. Next, they try to parse the legal arguments put forth by the Justice Department, claiming apparently boundless power for President Trump to render anyone he deems a gang member. Finally, they discuss why the Trump administration has chosen this particular constitutional hill to die on, and how far Chief Justice John Roberts might be prepared to go along with it.

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Bonus: A Disappearance in New York

Sat, 15 Mar 2025 07:05:00 GMT

This week on our episode available exclusively to Slate Plus members, Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern discuss Judge William Alsup’s San Francisco hearing that ended in a reinstatement of terminated federal workers, and the ways judges are calling out Trump Administration misconduct. They also break down the Supreme Court cert grant in a case challenging Colorado’s conversion therapy ban, and the Trump Administration’s decision to effectively abduct and disappear lawful permanent resident, Mahmoud Khalil .

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Big Law Stands Up

Sat, 15 Mar 2025 07:00:00 GMT

Donald Trump continued his almost uninterrupted losing streak in the courts. Across the country we saw federal judges openly criticizing his administration officials and their lawyers for overreach, bullying and misrepresentations about not only their cases, but about norms and values. But Trump has both judges and law firms in his crosshairs. On this week’s show, former US Attorney Preet Bharara joins Dahlia Lithwick to discuss the role of lawyers and law firms and legal norms in a crisis of lawlessness, and the extent to which court victories alone can save democracy.

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BONUS: The Men of SCOTUS Want You to Drink Poop

Sat, 08 Mar 2025 08:05:00 GMT

Five out of nine justices agree that water doesn’t have to be sewage-free to be considered clean. This week’s SCOTUS opinion in City and County of San Francisco v Environmental Protection Agency basically rewrote the Clean Water Act to achieve that result. In this week’s bonus episode for plus members, Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern discuss the ruling, as well as Amy Coney Barrett and a growing gender divide among the justices. Next, a staged reading of the extraordinary epistolary response from Georgetown Law’s Dean Treanor to interim acting US Attorney for the District of Columbia “Eagle” Ed Martin’s attempt to intimidate that leading law school. Finally, a moment to note the courage being shown by some of the judges handling the many many cases against the Trump administration’s unconstitutional rampage through government.

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The Constitutional Truth At The Heart Of The DOGE Cases

Sat, 08 Mar 2025 08:00:00 GMT

Elon Musk’s moves at DOGE have been legally dubious from the start. And the more we learn, the more questions we have about this not-an-agency helmed by Musk –– who is apparently both in charge, and also not in charge. That’s why we wanted to talk with Kate Shaw, University of Pennsylvania law professor and co-host of the Strict Scrutiny podcast, about the very real constitutional issues raised by DOGE and Musk and his minions. Shaw spoke with Dahlia Lithwick about what is and isn’t legal about DOGE, and the impossible bind that creates for government lawyers tasked with defending his devastation of the government.

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Extra: What Trump’s First Big Loss At SCOTUS Means

Wed, 05 Mar 2025 19:00:00 GMT

On Wednesday morning the Supreme Court dealt a blow to the Trump administration's effort to withhold $2 billion promised for foreign aid work. Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern discuss the Court’s decision to reject the Trump administration's request to halt a lower court's order, by a five to four vote, compelling the State Department to resume payments. While Chief Justice John Roberts and Amy Coney Barrett sided with the court's liberal justices, Justice Samuel Alito offered a “stunned” dissent, reacting to the Court’s surprising rebuke to the Trump administration with few facts but plenty of fury.

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Bonus: Big Law, Little Courage

Sat, 01 Mar 2025 08:05:00 GMT

This week on the bonus episode exclusively available to Slate Plus listeners, Dahlia Lithwick hears from Balls and Strikes editor Jay Willis, about alarming threats leveled by this administration against big law firms, and contemplates the role of lawyers – all of them – in defending the law.

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When the Lawyers are Lawless

Sat, 01 Mar 2025 08:00:00 GMT

This past week has seen firings at the Pentagon, an Executive Order targeting a private law firm, the installation of a podcaster and January 6 denialist as #2 at the FBI, and an incident in which an audience member at an Idaho townhall was wrestled to the ground and led away in zip ties by private security that answer to no lawful police entity. Is this what happens when the lawyers, police officers, military officials and other law enforcement organizations who are meant to keep us all safe, are sidelined or conscripted into lawless behavior?

On this week’s episode of Amicus, Dahlia Lithwick speaks to Asha Rangappa, a former FBI special agent, editor at Just Security and author of the substack The Freedom Academy with Asha Rangappa. Asha explains what happens when people who are hellbent on using the law to break the law achieve positions of power, and whether the safeguards still in place can hold.

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Bonus: The Wonderful Wizard of DOGE

Sat, 22 Feb 2025 08:05:00 GMT

Who is actually running DOGE? That’s the question Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern are trying to answer on this week’s Amicus bonus episode exclusively for Slate Plus members. In public, it sure seems like the answer is Elon Musk, but in the courts, it’s…big shrug. Dahlia and Mark discuss the legal strategy behind not actually saying who is in charge of the not-quite-a-department (but also not an agency) currently dismantling the administrative state. Mark and Dahlia also talk about the limits of good judgeship in these very flooding-the-zone times.

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Long Live The King?

Sat, 22 Feb 2025 08:00:00 GMT

President Donald J Trump’s administration has been invoking a conservative legal theory as justification for his claim to possess king-like presidential powers. This new supercharged version of the “unitary executive theory” may just be extreme enough to stick in the craw of some conservative judges, but will it find a warm welcome when it inevitably lands at the Supreme Court, and should we brace for the overturning of 90 years of precedent in the form of Humphrey’s Executor? Dahlia Lithwick’s guest this week is Deepak Gupta, former senior counsel at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and founding principal of Gupta Wessler LLP, who is now fighting for his former colleagues' jobs in court. Gupta is also representing Gwynne A Wilcox, the Chair of the National Labor Relations Board who was fired via late night email in a case that is likely headed to SCOTUS.

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Bonus: Vindictive Justice

Sat, 15 Feb 2025 08:05:00 GMT

Dahlia Lithwick swaps her host chair in the Amicus Plus cigar bar for a seat opposite What Next host Mary Harris for this week’s edition of the new Slate Plus segment from What Next: Main Character.

Ed Martin had been defending a January 6 rioter in court, but then Trump appointed him as interim US attorney for the District of Columbia, so he just hopped over to the DOJ and asked a judge to have the charges dropped. Beyond that one obvious conflict of interest, Martin also took time to lick Elon Musk’s boots online, making him this week’s Main Character.

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The Gangster Presidency

Sat, 15 Feb 2025 08:00:00 GMT

On Monday, President Trump’s personal lawyer and Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove ordered prosecutors to drop federal corruption charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams. Adams had been courting President Trump for weeks, including with a pre-inauguration visit to Mar A Lago, but the shape of the deal struck between the accused Mayor and the incoming administration came into clear view with a flurry of Department of Justice resignations on Thursday. On this week’s episode of Amicus, Dahlia Lithwick speaks to Harry Litman, a former U.S. attorney, and host and executive producer of the podcast Talking Feds. Harry explains why the so-called “Thursday Night Massacre” is not the kind of scandal even this administration can shrug off while yelling something about the “deep state” and “weaponization”.

Next, Dahlia turns to the chaotic, destructive and dangerous “spontaneous disassembly” of much of the federal government currently taking place at the hands of Elon Musk with guest Sam Bagenstos, former general counsel of the United States Department of Health and Human Services until December 2024, also former general counsel for the Office of Management and Budget from January 2021 until June 2022. Now a professor at the University of Michigan, Sam explains what happens when the federal government stops working, and why persistently asking whether or not we’re in a constitutional crisis is simply the wrong question.

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Bonus: DOGE On The Docket

Sat, 08 Feb 2025 08:15:00 GMT

In this week’s members-only episode, Slate’s Mark Joseph Stern and Dahlia Lithwick discuss Pam Bondi's crusade against equity and inclusion that now threatens corporations with criminal investigations if they even talk about making their workplaces more diverse and inclusive. They also talk about why Elon hates USAID so much, and the lawsuits trying to save it.

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Trying To Undo A Coup, In The Courts

Sat, 08 Feb 2025 08:00:00 GMT

DOGE is running wild in the District of Columbia. Chaos reigns supreme. Trump 2.0 has been frightening and it’s all been happening so fast. But there are lots of people fighting back, as they try to slow the damage. And the courts are exactly where the pushback has been most fierce. One of the teams of people leading the charge includes former Judge Nancy Gertner, one of the many legal professionals suing the Trump administration. Judge Gertner's case is about the list of rank and file FBI agents threatened with retribution and the public disclosure of their names, because they did their jobs and prosecuted January 6th cases. Gertner is involved with a slew of cases from the State Democracy Defenders Fund. She talks with host Dahlia Lithwick about the many wins against the administration in court this past week, and whether they matter. Next, Slate senior writer Mark Joseph Stern joins Dahlia to update us on the DOGE litigation and the Birthright Citizenship cases.

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Bonus: Elon’s Right, The Federal Government Is At A Fork In The Road

Sat, 01 Feb 2025 08:15:00 GMT

Mark Joseph Stern and Dahlia Lithwick are back in the members-only cigar bar this week to talk about how Elon Musk has taken over running the federal government, the impact of threats and buyout offers on federal workers, and the attack on transgender Americans that have been a hallmark of Trump’s first two weeks in office.

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Trump’s American Takeover

Sat, 01 Feb 2025 08:00:00 GMT

If you’re punch-drunk and disoriented this week, come on in. Donald J Trump’s second administration is materializing at frightening speed and recklessness and it is hard (and stressful) to keep up with it all. Kim Lane Scheppele, the Laurance S. Rockefeller Professor of Sociology and International affairs at Princeton University, explains that the speed and viciousness of the legal orders in Trump 2.0 are evidence that America switched over to the fast track for autocracy on January 20th, 2025. An expert in the law of autocracy, Scheppele has seen firsthand what happened to constitutional courts and the democratic norms that governed them in Russia and Hungary and she joins Dahlia Lithwick on Amicus this week to explain how Trump’s executive orders on everything from government funding to transgender people in the military reveal a familiar global playbook that has chillingly familiar endpoints.

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Extra: The Federal Funding Freeze

Tue, 28 Jan 2025 21:10:00 GMT

Amicus is coming to you with an extra episode because of the five-alarm threat to the balance of power in the wake of Monday and Tuesday’s memos from the White House Office of Management and Budget freezing vast tranches of federal funding. As agencies, states, and nonprofits scramble to figure out if they can make payroll or even keep the lights on, a hugely significant legal battle is brewing over what, if any, actual restraint remains on this administration’s vision of presidential power. Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Professor Stephen Vladeck of Georgetown University Law Center to understand the ramifications of a flimsy memo that threatens the very structure of government as we know it in the United States.

The Impoundment Crisis of 2025 - by Steve Vladeck

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Bonus: A Glimmer of Hope In a Hellish First Week

Sat, 25 Jan 2025 08:15:00 GMT

This week, in a conversation exclusively for Slate Plus members, Mark Joseph Stern and Dahlia Lithwick review the week that was Trump. They discuss the victories (a sharp rebuke of Trump’s efforts to rescind birthright citizenship), and the awful (a hiring freeze, asking federal employees to rat on each other, and the pardons of insurrectionists).

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Trump’s Unconstitutional Rampage Against Immigration

Sat, 25 Jan 2025 08:00:00 GMT

It’s barely been a week and the torrent of horrible coming from the pens and mouth of President Trump is staggering. Many of the executive orders signed this week focus on immigration, and that is where we have our eyes trained as well. This week, to help us make sense of the whirlwind that threatens to upend the lives of millions of people Dahlia Lithwick talks to Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, Senior Fellow and former policy director at the American Immigration Council, a pro-immigrant nonprofit aiming to defend immigrants through litigation, advocacy, and more. Not all executive orders are created equal, and so Aaron leads us through what’s constitutionally possible, legally probable, and already swinging into action from Trump’s immigration edicts.

Aaron’s post about Bishop Mariann Edgar-Bunne: https://bsky.app/profile/reichlinmelnick.bsky.social/post/3lgdojbbjvk2y

Amicus’s October episode on the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 with Katherine Yon Ebright,

American Immigration Council: After Day One: A High-Level Analysis of Trump's First Executive Actions

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Extra: Deciphering The Lawlessness of Trump’s Executive Orders

Tue, 21 Jan 2025 21:00:00 GMT

Some very clear themes are already emerging from President Donald Trump’s executive orders; cruel, chaotic, and fear-stoking - yes, but also - they’re rife with shoddy drafting (is that you, ChatGPT?), sloppy lawyering, and some are wildly unconstitutional. In an extra episode of Amicus for plus members, Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern begin the work of parsing a few of the many, many executive orders raining down on America in the hours since Trump assumed office for the second time.

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Bonus: Biden’s Equal Rights Amendment Mirage

Sat, 18 Jan 2025 08:15:00 GMT

Justice Samuel Alito made a joke about reading Playboy for the articles. For some, that was the headline following arguments in Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton. But this case has huge implications for free speech on the internet that have the potential to affect much more than porn sites. In this special bonus episode available exclusively to Slate Plus members, Slate’s Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern talk about the arguments in a pivotal case that flew below the radar in the fog of the presidential transition. Speaking of the fog of presidential transition, Dahlia and Mark also discuss Joe Biden’s last-minute announcement that the Equal Rights Amendment is “the law of the land”, and what that actually means.

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The New Constitutional (dis)Order

Sat, 18 Jan 2025 08:00:00 GMT

Donald Trump becomes president again on Monday, and as Joe Biden leaves the White House, we’re on the brink of a massive change in how the law is interpreted. Pam Bondi’s confirmation hearing was one of a host of clues this week that we are in for a wild legal and constitutional ride. On this episode of Amicus, host Dahlia Lithwick is joined by constitutional scholar Professor Pamela Karlan to pick through what we learned this week about what the law is and what it is about to become –– from Jack Smith’s report, to the new (presumptive) Attorney General of the United States’ apparent ignorance of birthright citizenship and therefore the 14th amendment.

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TikTok Is Cooked, Trump Is Sentenced

Sat, 11 Jan 2025 08:00:00 GMT

While Donald J Trump was virtually fuming at his sentencing hearing in Judge Juan Merchan’s New York City courtroom on Friday morning, the nine justices of the US Supreme Court were taking their seats for oral arguments in the so-called TikTok ban case. And while it only took 40 minutes for the president elect’s sentence of an ‘unconditional discharge’ to be pronounced, the arguments over national security, the First Amendment, and an app that 170 million Americans use took a couple of hours longer.

Amicus has an analysis of all of it. First, Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern discuss whether and how Trump’s sentence matters, and what it tells us about the Supreme Court under Trump 2.0. Next, they’re joined by Gautam Hans, clinical Professor of Law at Cornell Law School, who specializes in constitutional law, technology law and policy, to discuss why the Supreme Court seemed so very ready to reach right past the First Amendment and grab for national security in order to uphold the TikTok ban.

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Bonus: Trump’s Racking Up Supreme Court Loyalty Points

Thu, 09 Jan 2025 19:15:00 GMT

How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.* There is a cluster-you-know-what of constitutional and legal news this week, so Amicus Plus is popping up a little early with a bonus episode to tackle the Trump prosecutions portion of the melee ahead of Friday’s very important TikTok-ban arguments. Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Andrew Weissman, co-host of the MSNBC podcast "Prosecuting Donald Trump” (recently re-launched as “Main Justice” for…. obvious reasons!) Andrew is also author of two New York Times bestsellers, The Trump Indictments and Where Law Ends: Inside the Mueller Investigation.

*We are not eating elephants. Please do not eat elephants.

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Bonus: Lawyer-Brained

Sat, 04 Jan 2025 08:05:00 GMT

Welcome to the Amicus Plus secret treehouse, where Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern give the legal news of the week some major side-eye. This week’s bonus episode could have had the subtitle: “The ‘Legally Possible’ Is Not Always The ‘Politically Plausible,’ But Has A Recent History of Happening Anyway” but … character limits. Dahlia and Mark respond to the response to their holiday mailbag special episode, Dear Jurisprudence—specifically, to a minor Bluesky meltdown over one listener’s fears of a third Trump term and an alleged bad case of lawyer-brain. Next, they examine why the Chief Justice’s conflation of court criticism and violence is particularly on-the-nose at this moment. Finally, why Justice Clarence Thomas’ successful flouting of a federal disclosure statute with seemingly lifelong impunity is actually a big deal.

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John Roberts’ New Year Blame Game

Sat, 04 Jan 2025 08:00:00 GMT

Happy (?) New Year. Amicus is gingerly stepping into 2025 and into the coming onslaught of Trump 2.0 with one of the country’s very best legal, constitutional and human guides –– civil rights litigator and 14th Amendment scholar Sherrilyn Ifill. Together, Sherrilyn and Dahlia navigate some of the most pressing questions facing the law, the legal profession, and those who care about it. In his end of year judicial report, Chief Justice John Roberts chose to claim the mantle of both embattled civil rights champions and also infallible monarchs while blaming pretty much everyone except the court for the high court’s plummeting legitimacy. What does it mean when the most powerful men in the world equate all criticism with threats of violence, and confuse victory with victimhood? What does it mean when Supreme Court justices decide to freelance and freestyle as trial court judges and appellate litigators at high court oral arguments? And what do lawyers and judges need to do to hold the line in the coming year, and the years that will follow?

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Bonus: Worst of SCOTUS 2024

Sat, 28 Dec 2024 08:05:00 GMT

Maybe you were trying to forget how bad 2024 was. Good news, we’re here to remind you. In this week’s bonus episode available exclusively to Slate plus members, Dahlia and Mark highlight the worst, and more worse from SCOTUS this year. Regulating laughing gas? Check. Presidential immunity? Check.

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Dead Amendment Walking

Sat, 28 Dec 2024 08:00:00 GMT

Maybe the court won’t listen to your complaints and questions - but we will. As a parting gift to you this year, Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern answer your questions about Trump, the courts and the constitution. Could Trump be president a third time? What does immigration law look like under Trump 2.0? And a deep dive into Dahlia and Mark’s comic book character psyches.

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Bonus: Hello, SCOTUS, Goodbye, TikTok?

Sat, 21 Dec 2024 08:05:00 GMT

We have a packed show for our loyal Slate Plus subscribers this week: the TikTok ban arguments, on the fast track, a case seeking to defund Planned Parenthood in South Carolina, and Texas AG Ken Paxton’s predictable but nonetheless deeply concerning anti-abortion lawsuit targeting a New York doctor. In better news: a Montana case that shows a way forward for holding fossil fuel companies to account for current and future climate fallout, a heartfelt apology slash correction on the subject of last week’s NLRB segment, AND a peek inside Mark’s attempt to perform jury duty. It’s a cornucopia of commentary. Happy Holidays!

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Defamation Stations!

Sat, 21 Dec 2024 08:00:00 GMT

It wasn’t a great week for speaking truth to power. ABC’s decision to settle Donald Trump’s defamation lawsuit to the tune of $16 million at the behest of parent company Disney sent shockwaves through newsrooms around the country. Coupled with Trump’s lawsuits pending against publishers, journalism prize organizations, CBS, and this week’s news that the President-elect is suing an Iowa pollster and the newspaper that published her poll for “election interference”, rising fears about the freedom of the press are pretty understandable. On this week’s Amicus, Dahlia Lithwick is joined by storied media columnist Margaret Sullivan and First Amendment scholar Sonja R West to understand the protections in place and the pinch points for a free press under Trump.

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Bonus: The Legislators Shuffling Down the Path of Least Resistance

Sat, 14 Dec 2024 08:05:00 GMT

With Donald Trump weeks away from returning to the White House, folks in Washington are making their moves. And for some, those moves are a soft shoe shuffle down the path of least resistance. On this week’s Amicus Plus bonus episode, Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Stern check in with Senators Manchin and Sinema, your favorite upper chamber “centrists”, who are perfecting the fine art of obeying in advance, with dire consequences for workers’ rights and the NLRB. The pair blocked the nomination of a pro-labor nominee to run the board, so incoming President Trump will have a full slate of anti-labor cronies to install in the organization.

Plus, Dahlia and Mark take a figurative trip to Hawaii, and the Second Amendment decision penned by Amicus’ favorite Hawaii Supreme Court Justice Todd Eddins, which lives rent-free in the heads of US Supreme Court gun nuts Justices Alito and Thomas.

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Chris Wray Just Made Way For Something Even Worse Than Kash Patel

Sat, 14 Dec 2024 08:00:00 GMT

Last week, we examined the deeply worrying prospect of Kash Patel, FBI director. This week, that possibility became even more worrisome with respect to the future of the FBI, all sparked by current director Christopher Wray’s announcement of his intention to step down. To kick off this week’s show, Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Slate senior writer Mark Joseph Stern, who explains why Wray’s decision is very bad news for the law and the rule of law.

Next, the planet: Last summer, we tried to absorb the sheer scale of the shift in the constitutional landscape following a run of cases at the end of the last term that gave the courts the power to reshape the administrative state from the bench, and to impede the tools of the environmental protection trade at a time when the climate is in crisis. But the news cycle moved on and the global climate alarm got snoozed again. That alarm was surely ringing again at One, First Street this week, when a case that could reshape the nation’s biggest environmental law was argued at the Supreme Court.

Seven County Infrastructure Coalition v. Eagle County, Colorado comes to the court as a dispute over how much review is due to a railroad plan that will carry waxy, crude oil through environmentally sensitive areas, and send said waxy crude on its way to already polluted and health blighted gulf communities. Sam Sankar of Earth Justice was on hand to explain how this weedy case paints a very clear picture of the Supreme Court conservative majority’s fondness for grabbing cases that are vehicles for achieving their preferred policy outcomes, but then finding themselves in a bit of a pickle when its time to craft a new test for an old problem.

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Bonus: Neil Gorsuch, Silently Judging

Sat, 07 Dec 2024 08:05:00 GMT

Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern break down the arguments in Skrmetti, this week’s Supreme Court case about the Tennessee law that restricts gender-affirming care for transgender minors. They especially note the near-silence of one Justice Neil Gorsuch, who previously penned the landmark 2020 majority opinion in Bostock v. Clayton County. Another apparent area of reticence for Justice Gorsuch? Ethics and recusals. Dahlia and Mark preview next week’s big environmental case, Seven County, from which Justice Gorsuch belatedly recused himself, without explanation. Finally, Senator Mitch McConnell, is horrified and furious at judges reconsidering their retirement plans for - gasp - nakedly political reasons.

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Meet Kash Patel, Donald Trump’s New Roy Cohn

Sat, 07 Dec 2024 08:00:00 GMT

What do people inside the Department of Justice think about their once-colleague and possible-future-overlord, Kash Patel? On this week’s Amicus, Dahlia Lithwick is joined by former US Attorney Joyce White Vance to discuss the frightening implications of Patel's potential nomination as FBI Director under the incoming Trump administration. They explore Patel's contentious history, including his time in the DOJ, his authorship of the Nunes memo, and his bottomless loyalty to Trump. They also discuss the broader consequences of Patel’s stated desire to use the Justice Department as a tool for political retribution, including threats to journalists and DOJ officials, and what his targeted individuals can do in the face of this new, chilling reality.

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Bonus: How To Cover Lawlessness On A Show About The Law

Sat, 30 Nov 2024 08:05:00 GMT

Each week, Dahlia Lithwick welcomes you to the show by saying “Amicus is Slate’s podcast about the courts, the law and the Supreme Court.” Sometimes that list includes the rule of law, sometimes democracy. In the wake of the election, Amicus and Slate’s jurisprudence team have been wrangling some big questions around what we do and how we do it. We are, as journalists and as a society, standing at the crossroads where a lawless SCOTUS and a lawless administration will meet. How do we cover the law, if the law is for suckers?

On this week’s bonus episode, Dahlia and Mark Stern take listeners behind the scenes for an inside view of the conversations we’re having in editorial meetings here at Slate, as we strive (always) to be worthy of the trust you place in us. And we want to hear from you. You can email us at amicus@slate.com

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The Right’s About-Turn on Parental Rights

Sat, 30 Nov 2024 08:00:00 GMT

When it comes to gender affirming care for teenagers, parents’ rights no longer matter. Doctors’ opinions no longer matter. Next week, the Supreme Court will hear arguments in United States. v Skrmetti, challenging Tennessee’s ban on healthcare for trans kids, and upending half a century of gender protection doctrine.

Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Chase Strangio, co-director of the ACLU’s LGBT & HIV Project, who will also be the first openly trans lawyer to argue at SCOTUS when he argues, alongside the Biden administration, representing the parents and physician of trans adolescents seeking care, in what will be the biggest trans rights case the court has ever heard. Chase and Dahlia dig through the doctrine to reveal the conservative legal movement’s deep hypocrisy when it comes to trans rights as compared to the rights of parents and doctors when it comes to abortion.

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Bonus: The Curtain Falls On The Trump Trials

Sat, 23 Nov 2024 08:05:00 GMT

Donald Trump is evading any semblance of accountability. For his crimes, he gets to be president. To find out what this means for democracy, we’re getting the (other) gang back together: Slate’s jurisprudence editor Jeremy Stahl, and The Law According to Trump host Andrea Bernstein. They talk with Dahlia about why maybe it’s actually a bad idea to let one man, and one man only, do all the crimes he wants.

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Can The Senate Save Us?

Sat, 23 Nov 2024 08:00:00 GMT

If you had forgotten the chaos of Trump 1.0, the frenzied first two weeks of transition to Trump 2.0 has surely been a stark reminder. A pair of random billionaires are claiming in advance that SCOTUS will back their extra-governmental plans for a slash and burn policy for federal agencies; accusations of sexual misconduct swirl around cabinet picks; nominations are being retracted and replaced, and while all of this happens we are waiting to see whether Republicans in the Senate will step into a role of moderation, or just roll over. This matters a lot with respect to what the federal judiciary is going to look like, how much scrutiny is applied to the most outlandish cabinet nominees, and the independence of the Justice Department.

On this week’s Amicus, Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, who has spent years investigating the dark money plot to control the courts, and who knows from firsthand experience why the justice department is different from other agencies.

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Bonus: You Broke It You Bought It, John Roberts

Sat, 16 Nov 2024 08:15:00 GMT

On this week’s bonus episode of Amicus, Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Stern analyze a week of shocking legal turnarounds as the rule of law begins to bend to the reality of a dictator-curious White House. To state the painfully obvious, this is not 2016. Trump 2.0 is a very different proposition in 2024, with a different Supreme Court and a different mandate. From Trump’s “clown car” cabinet nominations, to MAGA judge SCOTUS auditions, to the end of the road for Jack Smith’s cases, we’re entering a new era of extreme legal regime change.

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Matt Gaetz And The Clown Car Crash Into The Justice Department

Sat, 16 Nov 2024 08:00:00 GMT

Trump’s announcement of Matt Gaetz as his pick to head the Justice Department was met with gasps around the Capitol. Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Slate’s senior legal writer Mark Stern to, yes, gasp together, but also to dig into what this stunt Attorney General appointment means for the law and the rule of law.

Next, Dahlia talks to Dr. Mary Anne Franks, author of Fearless Speech about the new era of censorship we are entering under the unprecedented power of Elon Musk and the oligarchs screaming “free speech” as they sue in their forum-shopped court of choice.

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Trump’s Back, This Time Without Guardrails.

Sat, 09 Nov 2024 08:00:00 GMT

We are, most of us, still very much in the post-election fog. It’s early days and while the fog persists, some of the shape of the future is very clear: despite his felonies, his lies, his promised mass deportations and threats of vengeance, President Donald J Trump will re-enter the White House in 2025 better organized, with a clearer mandate, and with the seal of approval of the popular vote. On this week’s Amicus, Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Protect Democracy’s Ian Bassin to discuss navigating the challenges that lie ahead for American democracy, as we collectively struggle to make sense of this pivotal moment and to emerge from the fog with a flicker of hope.

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Deep Breath, Here We Go

Wed, 06 Nov 2024 22:30:00 GMT

In this extra episode of Amicus, Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern wade through the immediate aftermath of the election. Will splitting the ticket on abortion protect abortion rights nationally? (No) What will the federal government look like at 12:02 pm on January 20th, 2025? (very different than at 11:58 am that day) Are all of Brett Kavanaugh’s wildest unitary executive dreams about to come true? (looks likely!)

This special episode of Amicus is possible thanks to the support of our Slate Plus subscribers. If you’re not a member but you’d like to access weekly bonus episodes with exclusive legal analysis and to access ad-free listening across all your favorite Slate podcasts, you can subscribe directly from the Amicus show page on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Or, visit slate.com/amicusplus to get access wherever you listen.

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Bonus: The Gilded Age Election

Sat, 02 Nov 2024 07:05:00 GMT

Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern tackle the plutocrats plundering the 2024 election. Elon Musk is in court in Pennsylvania over the petition lottery that looks an awful lot like illegal vote buying. (A federal judge rejected Musk’s delay tactic to have the election lottery case removed to federal court, and the case is already on the docket in state court). Musk is also paying for unwitting vote canvassers to be loaded into U-Hauls to knock on doors around the state, and his super PAC is behind some very misleading ads purporting to be in support of Harris-Walz. All of which reminds us, didn’t the US Supreme Court unleash much of this insanity on American elections with their Citizens United decision? Oh yeah. Also in the cigar bar this week, one last round of pre-election feelingsball.

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The Great Big Pre-Election Freedom and Democracy Show

Sat, 02 Nov 2024 07:00:00 GMT

This week’s show is unapologetically long, deep, and hopeful. Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Yale history professor Timothy Snyder to talk about his new book, On Freedom, and to have the audacity to re-imagine freedom on the precipice of an election that could turn the United States hard right into tyranny. Next, Dahlia is joined by Rick Hasen, Director of the Safeguarding Democracy Project at UCLA Law School, for a gut-check about how the election might go, legally speaking, and a reminder that “too early to call” is a pro-democracy posture on election night—even as the former guy almost certainly claims victory before the clock strikes midnight—regardless of the actual results.

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Bonus: Georgia (Phew.) North Carolina (Wut?) Florida (Plot Twist!)

Sat, 26 Oct 2024 07:05:00 GMT

In this week’s members-only bonus episode of Amicus, Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern tackle Georgia’s MAGA state election board, the chilling of protected political speech when it comes to abortion rights, and the Supreme Court’s scheduling of arguments in a key trans healthcare case. Warning: one of these stories contains some good news.

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The 1798 Law Inspiring Trump’s Mass Deportation Dreams

Sat, 26 Oct 2024 07:00:00 GMT

It’s easy to dismiss nativist rhetoric as mere Trumpy “locker room talk.” But when it comes to immigration, deportation and even detention, rhetoric about foreigners and violent invaders is actually a legal long game. Toward the end of the summer of 2023, Katherine Yon Ebright, counsel in the Brennan Center’s Liberty and National Security Program, noticed that rightwing anti immigration groups and the Trump campaign had started talking in earnest about using a very old law with a very dark history, in order to do very chilling things to immigrants. She started researching the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, the sole operative part of the notorious Alien and Sedition Acts. By October 2024, Donald Trump was invoking the statute in most of his stump speeches, saying he intends to use it to carry out the mass deportations of non-citizens, without due process and with domestic law enforcement deployed to full effect. We are already seeing Texas trying to use the language of “foreign invasion” to achieve exactly these ends. On this week’s Amicus podcast, Dahlia Lithwick asks Katherine Yon Ebright to help the rest of us catch up with her deep dive on this dangerous law, and to explain why we should take the threats to use it literally and seriously.

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Bonus: It’s The First Amendment, Stupid

Sat, 19 Oct 2024 07:15:00 GMT

Out: Smokey cigar bars. In: Soft, padded rooms smelling of the finest disinfectants. That’s where we find Dahlia Lithwick and Slate senior writer Mark Joseph Stern on this week’s Bonus episode exclusively for Slate Plus members.

They talk about the latest from Nebraska, where efforts to restore voting rights to thousands of cornhuskers have won in court, but maybe too late to have a real impact at the polls. Mark also brings us up to date on Ron DeSantis’ wild (and very unconstitutional) efforts to ban ads about Florida’s abortion laws.

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How To Steal A Presidential Election

Sat, 19 Oct 2024 07:00:00 GMT

You’re nervous. We’re nervous. As we stop for gas with almost two weeks to go before November 5th, we’re kicking the tires of American democracy to see if it’s roadworthy. On this week’s show, Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Matthew Seligman, one of the authors of How to Steal a Presidential Election, to examine the legal avenues available to Donald J Trump and his band of merry lawyers to subvert the presidential election. Seligman answers Amicus listeners’ most common election question: Can MAGA electors refuse to certify the election if they disagree with the outcome?

Next, Dahlia talks to retired respected conservative federal judge J Michal Luttig, who is raising the alarm about the Supreme Court’s willful ignorance when it comes to defending democracy from Donald J Trump. Judge Luttig says part of the blame for the January 6th insurrection lies with the Supreme Court, and warns the court’s majority is poised to tip the scale for Trump this time around.

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Bonus: Cleanup on Aisle Fifth Circuit

Sat, 12 Oct 2024 07:15:00 GMT

On this week’s bonus episode, exclusively for Slate Plus members, Slate’s Mark Joseph Stern and Dahlia go over this week’s arguments in Garland v VanDerStok, the case concerning untraceable, unlicensed DIY gun kits also known as ghost guns. Amicus plus listeners, brace yourselves for some possible good news. Next, Dahlia and Mark turn their attention to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ loose relationship with the First Amendment, especially when it comes to intimidating broadcast media for airing ads in support of reproductive rights. And Mark finds some dark humor emerging from SCOTUS’ decision to review the Fifth Circuit’s bonkers finding that nuclear waste storage is unconstitutional. Happy first week of term, all!

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27 Years On Death Row

Sat, 12 Oct 2024 07:00:00 GMT

“Prosecutors elicited perjury and a man's gonna go to his death. We can't allow that to happen.” – Paul Clement, October 9th, 2024.

This week the US Supreme Court heard arguments in the latest chapter in the complex and prolonged legal battle involving Richard Glossip, who has been on Oklahoma's death row since his conviction for a 1997 murder-for-hire. Following two independent investigations into allegations of prosecutorial misconduct, suppression of material evidence, and a history of inadequate defense counsel, Oklahoma’s Attorney General took the bold step of confessing to constitutional error in the case and supporting a new trial. But Oklahoma’s State Supreme Court is pressing on with Glossip’s execution, and so, on Wednesday morning, the High Court heard a case long on the appearance of process and short on actual justice. Don Knight, Richard Glossip’s attorney of almost 10 years, provides insights into the flawed process, and the shocking revelations from newly discovered evidence boxes. This case highlights broader questions about justice, fairness, and trust in the American legal system…. Leading us to an update from the latest inductee to the Lady Justice Hall of Fame – Amicus listener Barbara Hausman-Smith, and her one-woman protest at One First Street. Listen to the end of the show to find out what links this 76-year-old grandmother from Maine to the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and SCOTUS’s landmark decision to legalize equal marriage in Obergefell in 2015.

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What We’re Watching This New Supreme Court Term

Sat, 05 Oct 2024 07:00:00 GMT

Democracy had a pretty rough ride at the Supreme Court last term. Presidents have criminal immunity now! Agency experts aren’t the experts anymore! Sure, you can convert that rifle into an automatic weapon! And guess what? More horrors await us this term.

But we are not going to spend this last episode before the start of a new term dispassionately picking over a smattering of cases for a lawyerly preview, or helplessly doom spiraling. Instead, we will hear from two women who refuse to blithely accept what the High Court is handing down—two women who have decided to do something, in very different ways.

You’re going to find out why one of these women will head to SCOTUS on Monday in the suit she wore to argue before the High Court 44 years ago. Dahlia Lithwick will ask the other woman, Skye Perryman of Democracy Forward, about the legal theories, doctrine tracking, and litigation strategies her organization is deploying to fight for democracy in the courts –– even (and especially) in courthouses and cases far from One First Street, where until now, the conservative legal movement has had almost free reign. Because any honest preview of the new Supreme Court term needs to look wider and deeper than the handful of cases docketed for the coming weeks.

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Bonus: The RFK Jr Ballot Mess in North Carolina Was Just the Beginning

Wed, 02 Oct 2024 07:00:00 GMT

State Supreme Courts are vital to the functioning of American democracy. They are also where voting rights are enforced or eviscerated. This is especially true of North Carolina’s State Supreme Court, a battleground court in a battleground state. On a special bonus episode of Amicus, Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Stern (your Amicus Plus dream team) are joined by Justice Allison Riggs of North Carolina’s State Supreme Court for an in-depth interview on what’s at stake in North Carolina this year, and the path forward for progressive priorities and jurists in state courthouses.

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Bonus: The Supreme Court’s Death Row Jurisprudence

Sat, 28 Sep 2024 07:15:00 GMT

With Dahlia Lithwick out this week, Mark Stern welcomes Madiba Dennie, deputy editor at Balls and Strikes and author of 'The Originalism Trap,' into the Amicus bonus cigar bar rumpus room of dreams (although, Madiba actually turns out to be sipping piña coladas and getting caught in the rain in St. Croix). They cover recent Supreme Court cases on the death penalty, spotlighting the travesties in the execution of Marcellus “Khaliifah” Williams, and previewing the case of Richard Glossip, which will be heard in the first week of the new Supreme Court term. Williams' case features unreliable witnesses, racial bias, and destroyed evidence, while Glossip's case has an unusual twist—the prosecutor doesn't want him executed. Madiba and Mark discuss these cases and the broader implications for the death penalty in America. Can growing public outrage over these travesties drive change?

Paywalled Episode Description:

This episode is member-exclusive. Listen to it now by subscribing to Slate Plus. By joining, not only will you unlock exclusive SCOTUS analysis and weekly extended episodes of Amicus, but you’ll also access ad-free listening across all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of our show page. Or, visit slate.com/amicusplus to get access wherever you listen.

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The Next Supreme Court Gun Fight

Sat, 28 Sep 2024 07:00:00 GMT

In this week's Amicus, Mark Joseph Stern steps in for Dahlia Lithwick to preview the upcoming Supreme Court term and dive into the high-stakes case of Garland v. VanDerStok. This critical case examines the legality of 'ghost guns'—untraceable firearms that can be assembled at home from kits bought online. Stern talks with Eric Tirschwell, executive director and chief litigation counsel of Everytown Law, the litigation arm of Everytown for Gun Safety. Stern and Tirschwell discuss the profound public safety implications of this case and the dramatic decrease in ghost gun-related crimes following the Biden administration’s introduction of the rule at the heart of the case. They also uncover the role of dark money in funding lawsuits aimed at eroding gun safety laws, and how it compares to the anti-abortion legal strategies of the Christian right.

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Bonus: Leonard Leo and the Ohio Gerrymandering Crisis

Sat, 21 Sep 2024 07:15:00 GMT

On this week’s bonus episode, Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Stern dive into how Ohio Republicans hijacked the state's redistricting process and manipulated ballot language to maintain their power. Spoiler: it's as Orwellian as it sounds. Mark and Dahlia discuss new reporting on Opus Dei, and Leonard Leo's victim-claiming.

This episode is a wild ride through America's democratic challenges, it’s also member- exclusive. Listen to it now by subscribing to Slate Plus. By joining, not only will you unlock exclusive SCOTUS analysis and weekly extended episodes of Amicus, but you’ll also access ad-free listening across all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of our show page. Or, visit slate.com/amicusplus to get access wherever you listen.

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The Chief Justice Tips His Hand

Sat, 21 Sep 2024 07:00:00 GMT

Chief Justice John Roberts has been labeled by some as the serious centrist at the court, and he seemed to embrace and internalize that. But the New York Times’ revelations about behind-the-scenes maneuvers favoring Trump in last term's insurrection cases shattered that illusion once and for all. The Chief’s stance in these cases surprised the Roberts-as-twinkly-eyed-institutionalist brigade, but did not, apparently, shock this week’s guest, Linda Greenhouse. Greenhouse was the New York Times Supreme Court correspondent for 30 years, and is the author of Justice on the Brink: A Requiem for the Supreme Court.

As we head into another pivotal Supreme Court term, Dahlia Lithwick and Greenhouse turn their expert SCOTUS watching lens on how the High Court got so leaky, why the Chief was so unprepared for the public backlash to his decision in the immunity case, and whether the Chief is so much Team Trump that we should worry about the election cases inevitably headed his way.

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and weekly extended episodes. Plus, you’ll access ad-free listening across all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of our show page. Or, visit slate.com/amicusplus to get access wherever you listen.

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Bonus: North Carolina's Supreme Court Stopped Early Voting Before it Started

Sat, 14 Sep 2024 07:15:00 GMT

Absence makes the heart grow fonder (we missed Mark Joseph Stern as much as you did). This week, Mark is back to talk with Dahlia about the presidential debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump. They also discuss RFK Jr’s worm-brained plot to mess up early voting in North Carolina, and why state supreme courts will be pivotal in the 2024 election.

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Why Ron DeSantis Hates Direct Democracy

Sat, 14 Sep 2024 07:00:00 GMT

Republicans from Ohio to Arkansas, from South Dakota to Florida and from Nebraska to Missouri have been throwing everything at trying to keep abortion ballot measures from actually reaching voters. In this week’s Amicus - a deep look at efforts to stifle and chill direct democracy in the states, post Dobbs. Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Jessica Valenti, the author of Abortion: Our Bodies, Their Lies, and the Truths We Use to Win, and Lauren Brenzel, the campaign director for Yes on 4 in Florida, about the playbook that’s being used to threaten ballot initiatives to protect abortion rights in states around the nation.

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Bonus: Trump Was Showing His Hand All Along

Sat, 07 Sep 2024 07:00:00 GMT

In this week’s Slate Plus-exclusive episode, we talk with Andrea Bernstein, the host of our series The Law According to Trump. Bernstein speaks with Dahlia about the series and what she learned about Trump, the courts, and how the former president’s intentions have been clear from the very beginning.

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Subvert the Election, But Make It Legal

Sat, 07 Sep 2024 07:00:00 GMT

The 2024 election is already underway, with some states already sending out ballots for mail-in voting. But as democrats are basking in the waning glow of their brat summer, the republican party spent the summer on a “protect the vote” tour, spearheaded by RNC co-chair and DJT daughter-in-law Lara Trump. It’s a pretty clever step — from “Stop the Steal” to “Protect the Vote” — and it’s just one of the lessons the MAGA party learned from the failed attempt to overturn the 2020 election. This week on Amicus: what’s changed in election law since 2020, and what it means for the vote in 2024. Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Ari Berman, Mother Jones' national voting rights correspondent and author of Minority Rule: The Right-Wing Attack on the Will of the People―and the Fight to Resist It.

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The Legal Fallout of Trump’s Immunity

Sat, 31 Aug 2024 07:00:00 GMT

In the last episode of our series The Law According to Trump, we try to figure out what it all means. In the months since SCOTUS gave Trump even more immunity than he asked for, the people prosecuting the former president are finding themselves in uncharted waters. How are they doing?

Slate’s Jurisprudence editor Jeremy Stahl talks with host Andrea Bernstein about how Jack Smith has tweaked the election interference cases, as well as how Trump’s legal approach has changed since the Supreme Court ruled for him in Trump v. U.S..

Listen to Andrea Bernstein on We Don’t Talk About Leonard, Trump Inc., and Will Be Wild. Andrea is also the author of American Oligarchs: The Kushners, the Trumps, and the Marriage of Money and Power.

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The Forgotten Jan 6th Case Against Trump

Sat, 24 Aug 2024 07:00:00 GMT

Former President Donald J Trump keeps figuring out ways to escape criminal liability. The Supreme Court has thrown a wrench into the insurrection case and delayed sentencing in the campaign finance hush money case, while a Florida judge helped him slip out from under charges of recklessly mishandling classified documents… at least, for now.

But Trump has seen less success defending himself in civil courtrooms - including two judgments against him in defamation cases brought by writer E. Jean Carroll. Trump owes tens of millions of dollars.

On this episode of our series “The Law According to Trump,” is the civil court path to holding Trump to account in a way that actually sticks? Damon Hewitt, President and Executive Director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, speaks with host Andrea Bernstein about his case that uses the 150-year-old KKK Act to make Trump face consequences for his actions on January 6th.

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Don’t Pardon Trump’s Pardons

Sat, 17 Aug 2024 07:00:00 GMT

The power of the presidential pardon is a holdover from America’s colonial roots. But no one had used it like former President Trump. Over and over he kept pardoning his allies, and then, he’d welcome them back into the fold. . It seemed like he was rewarding these criminals for their loyalty, and belittling whole categories of crime, like fraud, campaign finance violations, and corruption. Is that what was really happening?

This week in our series called The Law According to Trump, we go deeper into Trump’s use of the pardon with Ciara Torres-Spelliscy. Torres-Spelliscy is a professor of law at Stetson University and the author of Corporate Citizen?: An Argument for the Separation of Corporation and State and Political Brands. Torres-Spelliscy speaks with host Andrea Bernstein about how Trump’s pardoning has hurt democracy, and what it means for the future of the country.

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Michael Cohen and the Trump Lawyers Who Get Burned

Sat, 10 Aug 2024 07:00:00 GMT

Even before he was president, Donald Trump was known for stiffing his lawyers. But considering how the stakes changed once he took the Oval Office, not getting paid seemed like a pleasant option. During and after his presidency, lawyers who represented Trump have pleaded guilty in election fraud cases, campaign finance cases and more. So why do they keep representing him? Is this risk of jailtime worth the reward of…well, what is the reward?

In this next installment of The Law According to Trump, another lawyer speaks with us about representing Donald Trump. Danya Perry is Michael Cohen’s attorney (yes, that Michael Cohen). She offers insight into why lawyers still want to represent Trump, and what the ethical implications are - personally and professionally.

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Why Donald Trump Sues Everyone

Sat, 03 Aug 2024 07:15:00 GMT

In the first in a new series, The Law According to Trump, Amicus begins an extensive exploration of Donald Trump's tumultuous relationship with the courts and legal system, focusing on Trump's use of lawyers and lawsuits to enhance his brand, wealth, and power. In the past few months, attention has rightly been on several blockbuster federal cases involving former President Trump, all the way up to and including his immunity case at the Supreme Court, but Trump’s history with the law goes back much further and is much broader than the election subversion cases.

While Dahlia Lithwick takes a well-deserved break, Amicus is very lucky to have award-winning investigative journalist Andrea Bernstein in the host chair. Andrea has covered five trials against Trump or his company for NPR, is the author of American Oligarchs: the Kushners, the Trumps, and the Marriage of Money and Power, and she has also hosted three podcasts that touch on Trump and the law, including, most recently “We Don’t Talk About Leonard.”

This episode delves into Trump's history of litigation with a close eye on how he has used nuisance lawsuits. Slate’s jurisprudence editor Jeremy Stahl joins Andrea to outline the many people and organizations the former President has sued since leaving office. Then, former US Attorney Jim Zirin, author of Plaintiff in Chief: A Portrait of Donald Trump in 3500 Lawsuits, fills us in on the history of Trump’s love of litigation.

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Judge David Tatel and a New Perspective on the Court

Sat, 27 Jul 2024 07:15:00 GMT

It’s not just us feeling exhausted right? It’s been a totally wild past few weeks. That’s why we are taking off the next few weeks to bring you a special series we’re calling “The Law According to Trump.” Andrea Bernstein, the host of WNYC’s Trump Inc., will be stepping into the host chair for Dahlia Lithwick in the month of August to explain how the former president uses the law to his advantage, and how he has gamed the judicial system to his advantage for decades before he entered political life. Andrea joins Dahlia to preview the series.

Later in the show, Dahlia talks with Judge David S. Tatel. Tatel served on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, and became prominent for both his jurisprudence and his blindness. His new memoir, Vision, was published last month and every young lawyer should read it. On this week’s show Judge Tatel discusses the book, which details his experience on the federal appeals court and his blindness. They also talk about his concerns for the current Supreme Court and its recent approach to the law.

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SCOTUS Doesn’t Have To Be This Way

Sat, 20 Jul 2024 07:00:00 GMT

So President Biden finally signaled an openness to maybe possibly thinking about Supreme Court reform. Too little, too late, perhaps - but also, desperately needed, certainly. The US Supreme Court views itself as separate and apart from all other courts - including international counterparts. What could Americans learn from other courts? One of the world’s most respected jurists, retired Canadian Supreme Court Justice Rosalie Silberman Abella, joins Dahlia Lithwick on this week’s Amicus for a very special conversation about the role of constitutional courts in democracy, and where SCOTUS may be veering off track.

Without Precedent: The Supreme Life of Rosie Abella

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Judge Aileen Cannon Closes Trump Mar-a-Lago Classified Documents Case

Mon, 15 Jul 2024 21:27:00 GMT

The judge overseeing the stolen classified documents case at former President Trump’s Mar-A-Lago Club has dismissed the case, ruling that Jack Smith’s appointment as special counsel was unconstitutional. This decision will likely be appealed. It’s a big swing, on a Trump trial question that’s very possibly heading on a fast track up to the United States Supreme Court. That sinking feeling is becoming pretty familiar, huh? In a special episode of Amicus for our Slate Plus subscribers, Dahlia Lithwick speaks to Matthew Seligman who had argued for the constitutionality of the special counsel last month in Judge Cannon’s courtroom in Florida.

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Opinionpalooza: Supreme Court Mailbag

Sat, 13 Jul 2024 07:15:00 GMT

This is part of Opinionpalooza, Slate’s coverage of the major decisions from the Supreme Court this June. We kicked things off this year by explaining How Originalism Ate the Law. The best way to support our work is by joining Slate Plus. (If you are already a member, consider a donation or merch!)

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As the dust settles on an extraordinary Supreme Court term, you, our listeners, have questions, lots of questions. On this week’s Amicus Plus bonus episode, Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern delve into the Amicus mailbag (inbox) to answer questions about what just happened at SCOTUS, and what might happen next, as the consequences of their decisions start to ricochet in our lives.

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Opinionpalooza: This SCOTUS Decision Is Actually Even More Devastating Than We First Thought

Sat, 13 Jul 2024 07:00:00 GMT

Administrative law may not sound sexy. And maybe that’s because it truly isn’t sexy. But it is at the very center of the biggest decisions this past Supreme Court term, and also widely misunderstood. In this week’s show, we asked Georgetown Law School’s Professor Lisa Heinzerling to come back to help hack through the thorny thicket of administrative law so we can more fully understand the ramifications of a clutch of cases handed down this term that – taken together – rearrange the whole project of modern government. The Supreme Court’s biggest power grab for a generation isn’t just about bestowing new and huge powers upon itself, it’s also about shifting power from agencies established in the public interest to corporations, industry and billionaires.

This is part of Opinionpalooza, Slate’s coverage of the major decisions from the Supreme Court this June. We kicked things off this year by explaining How Originalism Ate the Law. The best way to support our work is by joining Slate Plus. (If you are already a member, consider a donation or merch!)

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Opinionpalooza: The Supreme Court End-of-Term Breakfast Table

Sat, 06 Jul 2024 07:00:00 GMT

What just happened??? Despite going into June clear-eyed and well informed about the Supreme Court’s conservative supermajority, the number of huge cases before it, and the alarming stakes in so many of those cases…we are, nonetheless, shocked. The October 2023 term came to a shuddering end on Monday July 1st and Dahlia Lithwick, Mark Joseph Stern, Steve Vladeck and Mary Anne Franks are here to help parse some monumental decisions, some smaller cases with big ramifications, and what we can understand about the Justices who made those decisions for the rest of us, and the Justices who dissented.

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Opinionpalooza: The Supreme Court Puts Presidents Above the Law

Mon, 01 Jul 2024 21:30:00 GMT

The Supreme Court’s conservative majority rounded out the term by gifting massive unprecedented power to commit criminal wrongdoing to presidents. A court that already put a thumb on the scale for former President Donald J Trump by slow talking and slow walking the immunity case in exactly the way he hoped, has now thrown out the scale in favor of a brand new sweeping, monarchic immunity ruling in favor of the former president and any future insurrection-prone presidents. Trump v United States provides that US Presidents may enjoy wide-ranging immunity from criminal prosecution because coups are constitutional as long as you make them official. This episode delves into the decision’s implications for democracy, and for presidential power, while also providing historical context. We also look ahead to the legal battles looming in the various Trump trials at all their various stages. What does this do to the Georgia indictments? The classified documents case? And the felony counts for which Trump will be sentenced next week? Host Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Slate’s Mark Joseph Stern, senior writer on the courts and the law, and Professor Corey Brettshnieder, who teaches constitutional law and political theory at Brown University and is the author of the new book The Presidents and the People: Five Leaders Who Threatened Democracy and the Citizens Who Fought to Defend It.

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Opinionpalooza: The Day SCOTUS Became President

Sat, 29 Jun 2024 07:00:00 GMT

While most everyone was reacting to Thursday’s Presidential debate, we had our eyes trained on the Supreme Court. It was again (surprise!) bad. SCOTUS determined that sleeping outside was illegal in Grants Pass v Johnson. They limited the scope by which insurrectionists could be charged for their actions on January 6, 2021 in Fischer v United States. The unelected robed leaders then laid a finishing blow in Loper Bright Enterprises v Raimondo, overturning the decades-long guidance of the longstanding Chevron doctrine and upending the ways in which government agencies can regulate the things they regulate like; clean air, water, firearms your retirement account and oh, medical care.

This term has signaled something especially troubling. While you can certainly be concerned about Trump or Biden being president once again, you should be more worried about how the justices at the Supreme Court have basically made themselves the end-all-be-all of every legislative matter, regardless who wins presidential contests. It should also come as no surprise who will benefit from these decisions (rich people with yachts).

Host Dahlia Lithwick speaks with Slate’s Mark Joseph Stern and Professor Pam Karlan, co-director of Stanford law school’s Supreme Court Litigation Clinic to go over Friday’s rulings and to break down what it means that federal agencies will no longer be able to, you know, do anything reasonable.

Listen to an interview with a doctor helping unhoused people in Grants Pass, OR.

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Opinionpalooza: SCOTUS and MAGA’s Shared Vision For Government Comes Into View

Thu, 27 Jun 2024 22:17:32 GMT

What’s this? A bonus Opinionpalooza episode for one and all? That’s right! The hits just keep coming from SCOTUS this week, and two big decisions landed Thursday that might easily get lost in the mix: Ohio v EPA and SEC v Jarkesy. Both cases shine a light on the conservative legal movement (and their billionaire funders’) long game against administrative agencies. In Ohio v EPA, the Court struck down the EPA’s Good Neighbor Rule, making it harder for the agency to regulate interstate ozone pollution. This decision split along ideological lines, and is part of a stealthy dismantling of the administrative state. SEC v Jarkesy severely hinders the agency’s ability to enforce actions against securities fraud without federal court involvement, and the decision will affect many other agencies. In her dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor pointed out how this power grab by the court disrupts Congress's ability to delegate authority effectively. Project 2025 just got a jump start at SCOTUS, and we have two more big administrative cases yet to come, the so-called Chevron cases: Loper Bright v Raimondo and Relentless, Inc. v Department of Commerce. This is shaping up to be a good term for billionaires and a court apparently hungry to expand its power. Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Slate’s own Mark Joseph Stern (of course) and they are saved from any regulatory confusion by environmental and administrative law all-star, Lisa Heinzerling, the Justice William J. Brennan, Jr., Professor of Law at the Georgetown University Law Center, who served in the EPA under President Obama.

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Opinionpalooza: The Vanishing Emergency Abortion Decision

Wed, 26 Jun 2024 22:07:45 GMT

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court issued two important decisions in its traditional fashion: a box of printed copies for those journalists in the press room, and furious SCOTUS website refreshing for those who were not.

Murthy v Missouri was one of the closely watched social media cases of the term, about “jawboning” or when and if the government can ask/prod/urge private social media companies to moderate content in the interest of things like public health or election integrity, or whether such conduct constitutes censorship. Snyder v US concerned corruption and the difference between bribes and gratuities under a federal corruption law.

Somewhere in between the publishing of these opinions, however, the court inadvertently and very briefly published what may or may not be its opinion in a pair of emergency abortion cases, Moyle v United States and Idaho v United States. The Court spokeswoman urged us all to pay no attention to the early draft. Chaos ensued. On this extra, members-only episode of Amicus, Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Mark Joseph Stern to try to get our arms around a day of big news, including the “now you see it, now you don’t” abortion news at the highest court in the land.

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Opinionpalooza Bonus: It’s Always God, and Always Taxes

Sat, 22 Jun 2024 07:15:00 GMT

Louisiana lawmakers believe the United States is such a godly nation that they simply must put the Ten Commandments (the Protestant ones) into all of the state’s classrooms.

Meanwhile, SCOTUS decides a shoot-for-the-moon tax case that would have overturned much of the U.S. tax code.

Slate’s Mark Joseph Stern joins Dahlia Lithwick in this week’s super secret subscriber-only episode.

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Rahimi and The Roberts Court’s All New, Also Old, Second Amendment Doctrine

Sat, 22 Jun 2024 07:00:00 GMT

Another major case for the “not a loss/not exactly a win” pile this term at SCOTUS. A majority of the Supreme Court’s conservative majority said what we knew all along - adjudicated domestic abusers shouldn’t hold onto second amendment rights and the guns that they are statistically, horrifyingly, apt to use to harm their intimate partners. In an 8-1 decision in United States v Rahimi, the Roberts Court looked frantically for a way to reverse out of – while still technically upholding – its bonkers extreme originalism-fueled Bruen decision from two terms ago.

This week Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern are joined by Kelly Roskam, the Director of Law and Policy at the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions.

Later in the show, Mark and Dahlia look under the hood of Department of State v Munoz - an immigration case decided this week that Justice Sotomayor says is sewing seeds for the end of marriage equality as we know it.

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Opinionpalooza: SCOTUS Says Yes to Bump Stocks, No to Gun Safety Regulation

Sat, 15 Jun 2024 07:00:00 GMT

A bump stock is an attachment that converts a semi automatic rifle into a weapon that can fire as many as 800 rounds per minute - an intensity of gunfire matched by machine guns. The deadliest mass shooting carried out by a single shooter in US history - the October 2017 Las Vegas massacre - was enabled by a bump stock. On Friday, the US Supreme Court struck down a Trump-era bump stock ban introduced in the wake of that tragedy, in which 60 people were killed and hundreds more injured. Writing for a perfectly partisan six to three majority, gun enthusiast and ultra conservative Justice Clarence Thomas, decided the administration had overstepped its authority enacting the ban, and based the decision in a very technical, very weird reading of the statute. On this Opinionpalooza edition of Amicus, Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Slate’s senior writer on the courts and the law - Mark Stern, and David Pucino, Legal Director & Deputy Chief Counsel of Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence. Together, they discuss the careful reasoning and research behind the ban, Justice Thomas’ self-appointment as a bigger gun expert than the agency charged with regulating guns - the ATF, how the gun industry used its own “amicus flotilla” from extreme groups to undermine the agency, and how the industry will use this roadmap again. But, please don’t despair entirely, you’ll also hear from David about hope for the future of gun safety rules.

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Opinionpalooza: Don’t Call the Mifepristone Case a Win

Thu, 13 Jun 2024 20:39:57 GMT

What do you call a case where there’s no standing and yet the lawsuit is still standing? FDA v Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine AKA the mifepristone case, AKA the case that tried to raise a zombie law from the dead, and will now continue to roam the lower courts in search of a national abortion ban.

While the Comstock Act was not mentioned in the US Supreme Court’s unanimous decision to maintain the legal status quo on abortion pills, the overton window just got wedged open a little wider.

In this Opinionpalooza extra episode of Amicus, Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern discuss SCOTUS’ abortion pill decision in depth and explore the consequences of a case that was doomed to fail before even this Supreme Court, but is also doomed to return to haunt us.

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BONUS: An Anti-Student, Anti-Abortion Case Lands with Your Favorite Texas Judge

Sat, 08 Jun 2024 07:15:00 GMT

They say ‘don’t mess with Texas,” but leaving the state for abortion care is, in fact, still very much messing with Texas! Two professors at the University of Texas at Austin say abortion isn’t healthcare, and therefore they do not need to provide accommodations to their students who miss class to obtain abortion care out of state.

The two professors are part of a lawsuit seeking to overturn elements of Title IX, the federal statute that includes protections for people who seek abortion care. And by extraordinary good luck (and design) , this case lands in the lap of everyone’s favorite Amarillo judge, Mathew Kasmaryck.

Dahlia talks with Slate’s Mark Joseph Stern about the case.

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The Supreme Court’s Appeal to Heaven

Sat, 08 Jun 2024 07:00:00 GMT

Over the past 15 years, the journalist and author Katherine Stewart has been charting the rise of Christian Nationalism in the United States. On this week’s Amicus, Stewart joins Dahlia Lithwick and Rachel Laser of Americans United for Separation of Church and State to discuss the worrying signs of the growing power of extremist christian ideologies at the highest court in the land. Together, they trace shifts in jurisprudence that have emboldened and empowered some of the most extreme fringes of the extreme Christian right, and explain how the changing legal landscape is enabling right wing religious fever dreams to become explicit policy in a document like Project 2025. They all agree on this one thing: This is an episode about much more than flags.

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BONUS: When Originalism Works

Sat, 01 Jun 2024 07:15:00 GMT

In our Originalism series, we made a lot of noise highlighting the tricks, traps, failures and shortcomings of this theory of constitutional interpretation. But what if progressives could actually use originalism to combat the revanchism coming from the ultra conservative Justices on the Supreme Court?

This episode features Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern in conversation with civil rights lawyer Sherrilyn Ifill. Ifill is the inaugural Vernon E. Jordan, Jr., Esq. Endowed Chair in Civil Rights at Howard University. Previously, Ifill was the head of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. Ifill makes the case that taking a serious, originalist stance on the 13th, 14th and 15th amendment (we’re looking at you, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson!) can be part of the progressive answer to the radical lurch to the right at the US Supreme Court.

This conversation was recorded at our live show at 6th & I in Washington, D.C., on May 14th, 2024.

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Will the Supreme Court Step Into Trump’s Hush Money Conviction?

Sat, 01 Jun 2024 07:00:00 GMT

As a jury in Lower Manhattan responded with “guilty” to all 34 felony counts in former President and presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald J. Trump’s hush money trial on Thursday, dozens and dozens more questions began to swirl. Will Trump appeal? On what grounds? Will Justice Juan Merchan sentence Trump to jail time? Will the US Supreme Court intervene? Is the gag order still active and in place? Luckily, we have the perfect guest on Amicus to answer all those questions to the extent that it is humanly and expert lawyerly possible. Ryan Goodman is the Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Professor of Law at New York University School of Law. He served as special counsel to the general counsel of the Department of Defense (2015-16). He is also the founding co-editor-in-chief of the national security online forum, Just Security, a vital resource if you are trying to follow the many trials and appeals of Donald J Trump.

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Opinionpalooza: The Court of King Alito

Fri, 31 May 2024 17:06:00 GMT

Business as usual at the Supreme Court is the institutional response to the unusual business of Justice Samuel Alito’s letter writing about his flag-flying wife. In this bonus episode for Slate Plus members, Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern knit together the yarns of jurisprudence with injudicious symbolic support for insurrection and christian nationalism - so you don’t get lost in this tangle. As the justices hand down cases and turn down congressional requests for recusal, Dahlia and Mark trace the link between bending the facts and discarding the record to suit Justice Alito’s narrative in his opinions, in his non application of the ethics code, and in his lack of humility in the flag fiasco.

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SPECIAL: Trump Guilty on All 34 Counts

Fri, 31 May 2024 01:37:07 GMT

After six weeks of arguments and testimony and a little under 12 hours of deliberation, a Manhattan jury voted to convict former President Trump of 34 felony counts in his hush money trial. Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Slate’s jurisprudence editor Jeremy Stahl, who was in court for the historic guilty verdict and has followed the case over the past six weeks, to talk about how the verdict was reached, what comes next, and why the former President is unlikely to be headed to jail any time soon.

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Opinionpalooza: A Bad June Rising At SCOTUS

Sat, 25 May 2024 07:00:00 GMT

As we stand poised at the threshold of June, we brace ourselves for the fire hose of opinions headed our way in the next four or so weeks.

But why? Why –even as the Court is taking on fewer cases – is there an absolute dogpile of decisions, with no map for what will come down or when, beyond a SCOTUS-adjacent cottage industry in soothsaying and advance-panic and guessing? Dahlia Lithwick takes us through a whirlwind of Supreme Court decisions and controversies, expertly assisted by Professor Steve Vladeck (whose New York Times bestseller The Shadow Docket came out in paperback this week) and Mark Joseph Stern in untangling the complex web of legal, political, and personal dramas enveloping the nation's highest court. From Justice Alito's flag-flying fiasco, to the forces shaping the court’s docket, to its divisive rulings, this episode could well be titled “Why Are They Like This?” As the court's term hurtles towards its frenetic close, Dahlia and her guests dissect the legal and ethical ramifications of the justices' actions, both on and off the bench. Tune in to this must-listen episode of Amicus for an eye-opening exploration of the Supreme Court's turbulent session, the ideological battles at play, and what it all could mean for the fundamental principles of democracy and the rule of law. Whether you're a legal aficionado or simply concerned about the direction of the country, this episode is the end-of-term preview you really need to understand what the heck is happening over the next few weeks.

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Opinionpalooza: Justice Alito Flies the Flag for Racial Gerrymanders

Thu, 23 May 2024 21:52:43 GMT

In this Opinionpalooza emergency bonus episode, Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern discuss Thursday’s decision in Alexander v. South Carolina NAACP, highlighting the implications for racial gerrymandering and voting rights. They delve into Justice Alito's majority opinion, Justice Kagan's dissent, and Justice Thomas's concurrence. This decision would seem to effectively close the door permanently on racial gerrymander claims in federal courts. Dahlia and Mark discuss how this decision makes justice - and democracy - inaccessible for plaintiffs already shut out of the political system through racist maps with political excuses. In recent years, the Supreme Court has gutted the Voting Rights Act and now seems intent on hollowing out equal protection and diluting the reconstruction amendments; the constitutional provisions central to building a thriving diverse democracy.

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How Originalism Ate The Law: What We Can Do About It

Sat, 18 May 2024 07:15:00 GMT

Plus members have early access to this capstone live panel discussion recorded at Sixth & I in Washington D.C. on May 14th. This episode will be available free beginning May 22nd.

In the third and final part of our How Originalism Ate the Law series, Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern are joined by Justice Todd Eddins of the Hawaii Supreme Court and Madiba Dennie, author of The Originalism Trap. Being trapped by originalism is a choice, one that judges, lawyers, and the American people do not have to accede to. Our expert panel offers ideas and action points for pushing back against a mode of constitutional interpretation that has had deadly consequences. And they answer questions from our listeners.

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Alito’s Stars and Gripes

Sat, 18 May 2024 07:00:00 GMT

Justice Samuel Alito’s wife didn’t attend the January 6th 2021 “Stop the Steal” rally (unlike fellow SCOTUS spouse Ginni Thomas), but in January 2021, in a leafy Alexandria, Virginia cul-de-sac, the New York Times reports that the Alito household was engaged in a MAGA-infused front yard spat with the neighbors, even as the Justice was deciding cases regarding that very election at the highest court in the land. Justice Alito told the New York Times his wife was responsible for the upside down stars and stripes flying from their flagpole and that it was in retaliation for an an anti-Trump sign.

It’s unseemly. Undoubtedly unethical. But this intra-suburban squabble, and the very clear implications it has for a public already aware of the Supreme Court’s dwindling legitimacy, is unlikely to evoke shame, amends, or recusal from Justice Alito. On this week’s Amicus, American legal exceptionalism sliced three ways: Dahlia Lithwick on the Justice and the Flag, Slate’s jurisprudence editor Jeremy Stahl on how Donald J. Trump’s criminal hush money trial ends, and Congressman Jamie Raskin on concrete steps to supreme court reform, how to get back the rights the Supreme Court has taken away, and what a binding ethics code would look like.

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BONUS: The Judges on the Front Lines of Originalism

Tue, 14 May 2024 07:00:00 GMT

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Justice Todd Eddins of the Hawaii Supreme Court delves into his judicial philosophy, the pitfalls of originalism, and the importance of state constitutional rights. In this candid conversation with Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern, Justice Eddins discusses originalism’s challenges to impartial justice, the intricacies of applying historical context in modern law, and how state supreme courts can provide a check and balance against the US Supreme court to protect citizens’ rights.

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BONUS: A Year of Living Constitutionally

Sat, 11 May 2024 07:15:00 GMT

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Dahlia Litwick discusses AJ Jacobs’ unique exploration of living by originalism in his book, 'The Year of Living Constitutionally.' From wearing a tricorn hat to grappling with the Second Amendment by carrying a musket around, AJ delves deep into the principles of the Constitution. The conversation touches on the founding myths of our democracy, the Supreme Court, and the relevance of originalism today. By taking a textual approach to the Constitution and trying to live by the framer’s original intent and meaning, AJ highlights some of the modern pitfalls of adherence to originalism versus a more flexible approach to interpreting the Constitution.

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How Originalism Ate The Law: The Trap

Sat, 11 May 2024 07:00:00 GMT

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In the second part of our series on Amicus and at Slate.com, Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern are back on the originalism beat. This week they’re trying to understand the mechanisms of what Professor Saul Cornell calls “the originalism industrial complex” and how those mechanisms plug into the highest court in the land. They’re also asking how and why liberals failed to find an effective answer to originalism, even as the various “originalist” ways of deciding who’s history counts, what constitutional law counts, which people count, were supercharged by Trump’s SCOTUS picks. Madiba Dennie, author of The Originalism Trap, highlights how the Supreme Court turned to originalism to gut voting rights. In 2022, the US Supreme Court’s originalism binge ran roughshod over precedent and unleashed Dobbs and Bruen on the American people - Mark and Dahlia talk to a state Supreme Court justice about what it’s like trying to apply the law amid these constitutional earthquakes.

In today’s Slate Plus bonus episode, Dahlia talks to AJ Jacobs about his year of living constitutionally, and she confesses to an attempt to smuggle contraband into One, First Street.

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BONUS: Why Conservatives Created Originalism

Sat, 04 May 2024 07:15:00 GMT

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How did the conservative legal movement co-opt an academic theory and transform it into a radically revanchist policy tool for the Supreme Court? And what’s the liberal response?

In this bonus extended interview exclusive to Slate Plus subscribers, Dahlia Lithwick talks to Professor Jack Balkin about his book, Memory and Authority: The uses of history in constitutional interpretation.

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How Originalism Ate the Law: The Trick

Sat, 04 May 2024 07:00:00 GMT

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In this, the first part of a special series on Amicus and at Slate.com, we are lifting the lid on an old-timey sounding method of constitutional interpretation that has unleashed a revolution in our courts, and an assault on our rights. But originalism’s origins are much more recent than you suppose, and its effects much more widespread than the constitutional earthquakes of overturning settled precedent like Roe v Wade or supercharging gun rights as in Heller and Bruen. Originalism’s aftershocks are being felt throughout the courts, the law, politics and our lives, and we haven’t talked about it enough. On this week’s show, Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern explore the history of originalism. They talk to Professor Jack Balkin about its religious valence, and Saul Cornell about originalism’s first major constitutional triumph in Heller. And they’ll tell you how originalism’s first big public outing fell flat, thanks in part to Senator Ted Kennedy’s ability to envision the future, as well as the past.

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BONUS: Trump’s Chilly New York Trial

Sat, 27 Apr 2024 07:15:00 GMT

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In today’s bonus episode only for Slate Plus members, Jeremy Stahl gives Dahlia Lithwick a view from inside the courtroom of Donald Trump’s hush money trial.

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Democracy Dies at SCOTUS

Sat, 27 Apr 2024 07:00:00 GMT

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This past week (that lasted about a year) at the Supreme Court began badly and only went downhill from there. By Wednesday, justices were trying to set aside the facts of women being airlifted out of states where they can no longer access care to protect their major organs and reproductive future, if that emergency healthcare indicates an abortion - in favor of pondering the spending clause. On Thursday, the shocking reality of the violent storming of the Capitol on January 6th 2021, and former President Trump’s many schemes to overturn the election and stay in power, were relegated to lower-case concerns as opposed to ALL CAPS panic over hypothetical aggressive prosecutors.

On this week’s Amicus, Dahlia Lithwick is joined by leading constitutional scholar and former assistant Professor Pam Karlan of Stanford Law School and a former deputy assistant attorney general in the Civil Rights Division of the United States Department of Justice. Slate’s senior legal writer Mark Joseph Stern also joins the conversation about the MAGA justices flying the flag in arguments in Trump v United States.

In today’s bonus episode only for Slate Plus members, Jeremy Stahl gives Dahlia Lithwick a view from inside the courtroom of Donald Trump’s hush money trial.

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BONUS: Abortion Gaslighting is Back at SCOTUS

Wed, 24 Apr 2024 22:00:00 GMT

We are dropping into your feed with an extra episode exclusively for Slate Plus members to tackle some of the urgent items on Amicus’ beat. We are smack in the middle of a life and death, democracy-defining week at the US Supreme Court.

Wednesday morning, the court heard arguments in Moyle v. United States, the consolidated case tackling what levels of care pregnant patients can be provided in emergency rooms in states with draconian anti-abortion laws.

And on Thursday morning, the High Court will hear Trump v. United States, the case in which the former president - who is currently spending much of his time slouched at the defendant’s table in New York City - will claim a kind of vast sweeping theory of immunity that roughly translates as - “when you’re president, they let you do it. You can do anything”. In this extra episode of Amicus, Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern dig into what happened in the EMTALA arguments Wednesday morning and then look ahead to Thursday’s arguments in the immunity case.

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BONUS: January 6th Apologia, SCOTUS-Style

Sat, 20 Apr 2024 07:15:00 GMT

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Twelve Jurors and One Angry Ex-President

Sat, 20 Apr 2024 07:00:00 GMT

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The first criminal trial of Donald Trump is finally here. This week, hundreds of possible jurors filed through Judge Juan Merchan’s courtroom in lower Manhattan. The selection process was a preview of some of the challenges and pitfalls in the first ever criminal trial of a sitting or former President. On this week’s show, Slate’s senior legal writer Mark Joseph Stern sits down with Slate jurisprudence editor and Chief Law of Trump™ correspondent Jeremy Stahl to discuss what we learned this week, and what we can expect when the trial truly gets underway next week.

In today’s bonus episode only for Slate Plus members, Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern welcome Justice Clarence Thomas back from his long weekend, with a close listen to the January 6th case that was argued before the court on Tuesday. Fischer v United States is raising more alarm bells about the conservative justices’ posture toward armed insurrection. They also dig into Justice Elena Kagan’s opinion in a potentially tricky TitleVII case that, miraculously for this court, went pretty well in terms of civil rights protections in the workplace. Listen now by subscribing to Slate Plus. By joining, not only will you unlock exclusive SCOTUS analysis and weekly extended episodes of Amicus, but you’ll also access ad-free listening across all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of our show page. Or, visit slate.com/amicusplus to get access wherever you listen.

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BONUS: The Zombie Abortion Law Apocalypse Is Here

Sat, 13 Apr 2024 07:15:00 GMT

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In today’s bonus episode only for Slate Plus members, Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern discuss the outrageous ruling that creates (but really, revives) a de facto total ban on abortions in Arizona. They also explain why the EMTALA case from the show isn’t being talked about as much as the recent mifepristone case was.

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The Jurisprudence of Bleeding Out

Sat, 13 Apr 2024 07:00:00 GMT

Get your tickets for Amicus Live in Washington DC on May 14th here.

We shouldn’t be surprised that we have to keep saying it, but here we are: the Supreme Court (notably trained as lawyers) will soon make decisions about how doctors (notably trained as doctors) can treat pregnant patients in the emergency room. Moyle v. United States - consolidated with Idaho v. United States - is the result of an Idaho lawsuit challenging EMTALA, a federal law requiring hospitals to do whatever they can to stabilize whoever comes through their ER doors with a medical emergency. Sometimes this requires abortion care, and for a faction of conservative advocates, this cannot stand.

Ahead of oral arguments the week after next, we wanted to get a sense of what healthcare looks like for pregnant women experiencing medical emergencies now, and how this case threatens to undermine that care in the future. This week, Dahlia Lithwick speaks with Dr. Dara Kass, an emergency medicine physician, about what EMTALA was built to do, what ER physicians are being asked to do, and what will happen should Idaho prevail in this case.

Later in the show, Slate’s Mark Joseph Stern joins to discuss the hullabaloo over when, if, and how Justice Sotomayor should be made to retire and the very gendered work of keeping SCOTUS from going off the rails (any more than it already has).

In today’s bonus episode only for Slate Plus members Dahlia and Mark discuss the outrageous ruling that creates (but really, revives) a de facto total ban on abortions in Arizona. They also explain why the EMTALA case from the show isn’t being talked about as much as the recent mifepristone case was. Listen to it now by subscribing to Slate Plus. By joining, not only will you unlock exclusive SCOTUS analysis and weekly extended episodes of Amicus, but you’ll also access ad-free listening across all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of our show page. Or, visit slate.com/amicusplus to get access wherever you listen.

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BONUS: Florida Abortions, Racial Gerrymanders, Clarence Thomas’ Clerks

Sat, 06 Apr 2024 07:15:00 GMT

Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern kick off a separate Amicus Plus conversation for subscribers, discussing the recent rulings from Florida’s Supreme Court on abortion rights and legalizing marijuana. They also discuss the South Carolina redistricting case that’s still stuck somewhere between draft opinions at SCOTUS, despite being argued way back in October, and despite the fact that the delay has cost plaintiffs the opportunity for representation as the racial gerrymander in question slides into place for the 2024 election. Finally, they pull up a chair and help themselves to a slice of frittata at brunch with the Thomases, to discuss the Crystal Clanton controversy: her clerking journey, her ties to Justice Clarence Thomas, and the ethical implications of all of it.

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When Gag Orders Become Campaign Performance Indicators

Sat, 06 Apr 2024 07:00:00 GMT

After weeks of the Trump trials (and the run-up to the Trump trials) becoming ever more engrossing spectator sports, both the public and the media may have lost sight of some of the stakes. They also may have lost sight of the truth of what the legal system can actually deliver in terms of protecting democracy from Donald J Trump.

On this week’s Amicus, Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Juliette Kayyem to dissect Trump's impact on legal, national security, and ideological fronts. Kayyem brings her national security expertise to discuss the evolution of Trump's tactics from stochastic terror to direct incitement. Together, they explore the implications for democracy of a presidential campaign where one candidate issues violent threats and tries to intimidate judges. Kayyem lays out in stark terms the kinds of focus and planning needed in the coming months.

Juliette Kayyem is a national security expert, Harvard lecturer, CNN analyst, Atlantic contributor, and author of 'The Devil Never Sleeps: Learning to Live in an Age of Disasters.' Avowedly not a lawyer, she approaches America’s political predicament using counter-terrorism approaches to Trump’s movement and preparations for the 2024 elections.

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When RAGA Rhymes with MAGA

Sat, 30 Mar 2024 07:00:00 GMT

It’s not quite red-yarn-on-a-corkboard, but given how often we’ve been thinking about the Republican Attorneys General Association (RAGA) over the years, it may as well be. The group has become a vital component of the conservative legal movement, with pay-to-play access afforded to corporate donors to boot. Despite all the money changing hands and obvious conflicts of interest, few have heard of them - and that’s very intentional.

This week we’re joined by Lisa Graves of True North Research to talk about how an organization representing the chief legal officers in half the states in the union has become a national policy juggernaut, pushing legislation and litigation to assist polluters, harm women and LGBTQ families, torment immigrants and even steal elections, all absent any significant oversight or consequences.

In this week’s bonus plus segment, Slate’s very own Mark Joseph Stern joins to discuss coverage of the oral arguments in the mifepristone case (including the hugely significant takeaway most of the analysis missed), and the reasons Neil Gorsuch hates nationwide injunctions.

And finally, following on from last week, thinking about the language we use to describe first trimester abortions.

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How The Mifepristone Case Reached SCOTUS

Sat, 23 Mar 2024 07:00:00 GMT

Well, it happened again. The hIgHeSt CoUrT will hear arguments Tuesday in a case based on made up facts! This time it’s mifepristone, the abortion drug at the center of Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v FDA.

The claim was that the FDA approval process (three decades ago), for mifepristone, one of two medication abortion drugs, was haphazard and slapdash.. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine also argued that the FDA’s 2021 decision to allow telemedicine abortion and mailing of abortion pills violates a 19th-century anti-vice law called the Comstock Act.

This week on the show Dahlia Lithwick speaks with Carrie N. Baker, Smith College professor and author of the forthcoming book Abortion Pills: US History and Politics. Baker says taking away the rights to access abortion pills in the mail could have catastrophic consequences for pregnant people, drug development, and privacy for all Americans.

In this week’s subscribers-only segment, Slate’s Trump Law correspondent Jeremy Stahl gives us the updates on some of the cases against the former president - including the “a lot ton” of money he owes in New York, like starting on Monday.

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Who Gets to Lie Online?

Sat, 16 Mar 2024 07:00:00 GMT

While all eyes and brains are on what SCOTUS thinks about making Trump emperor-king, a lesser known case will be heard Monday that could have a huge impact on how social media can (or cannot) keep election workers safe this year. Murthy v. Missouri arrives at the high court as the result a lawsuit filed by the attorneys general of Missouri and Louisiana, along with a group of social media users—including some doctors and right-wing commentators—who argued that officials in the Biden administration censored their online speech about COVID-19, the 2020 election, among other issues The plaintiffs don’t claim that the administration directly silenced their speech. Instead, they argue that, by working with social media companies to limit the spread of misinformation, the government unlawfully chilled the free expression of their ideas.

Gowri Ramachandran serves as deputy director in the Brennan Center’s Democracy program.The amicus brief filed by her team from the Brennan Center in Murthy draws the Justices attention to another aspect of election disinformation . Ramachandran explains to host Dahlia Lithwick that combating election disinformation has always been important, but it is especially critical now, as election workers struggle to keep on top of voting issues.

Later in the show for Slate plus subscribers, Mark Joseph Stern joins to talk about the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals taking a swing at teens’ access to contraception, and a new effort to combat the scourge of judge-shopping.

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The Lies Destroying America

Sat, 09 Mar 2024 08:00:00 GMT

It’s not just the justices on the Supreme Court who can’t seem to agree with each other anymore. As we slide into Trump v. Biden 2 (The Second One), it seems like voters can’t seem to come to a consensus on just about anything either, including the facts they are arguing over. Author and superstar litigator Barbara McQuade argues in her new book Attack From Within: How Disinformation is Sabotaging America the information we consume is crucial to the health of our democracy. She speaks with Dahlia Lithwick about America’s problems with dis- and mis-information, and how we can solve them.

In this week’s Amicus Plus members-only segment, Dahlia is joined by her co-pilot in the jurisprudence news cockpit, Mark Joseph Stern to talk about President Biden's SOTU SCOTUS FU, why Alabama's legislative quick fix for its theocratic state supreme court's IVF decision is unlikely to hold, and the meta story of the meta data in the liberal justices’ concurrence in Monday’s Supreme Court decision to restore former President Trump to the Colorado primary ballot.

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Yes, You Can Vote for an Insurrectionist

Mon, 04 Mar 2024 21:54:53 GMT

This episode is member-exclusive.

ROTATING RED LIGHT!!! The Supreme Court ruled early Monday that alleged insurrectionist Donald Trump can remain on the Colorado republican primary ballot, and that no state may remove him, even if they want to. That’s Congress’ job. The 9-0 decision wasn’t unexpected, but the broad reasoning used by five of the court’s conservative justices certainly was, to the chagrin of the liberals and Amy Coney Barrett.

In this special emergency episode, Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Slate’s very own pocket justice league, Mark Joseph Stern and Jeremy Stahl, to discuss what this blockbuster result in Anderson says about the court’s consolidation of power and how it has helped Trump in so many ways.

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The IVF Decision We Should Have Seen Coming

Sat, 02 Mar 2024 08:00:00 GMT

It was a wild week at the High Court (another seven days crammed with a year’s worth of news). SCOTUS heard cases about bump stocks, and how Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito would do as Facebook content moderators. The Supreme Court also finally found the time to put a thumb on the scale for serially indicted alleged insurrector-in-chief former President Donald J Trump. We’ll talk about all those things with Slate’s very own Mark Joseph Stern.

But what we’re really focused on this week is the Alabama Supreme Court’s recent decision finding that frozen embryos are children, and the unshakeable sense that the coverage of this so far has had a slightly myopic quality, as though this case is purely about IVF, and carving out IVF, when in fact the entire movement for fetal personhood sweeps in many more people and rights than just those seeking assisted reproductive technology. We’re joined by a preeminent expert on matters of law, medicine, reproductive health, and biotechnologies, Dr. Michele Goodwin. Dr. Goodwin is the author of Policing The Womb: Invisible Women and The Criminalization of Motherhood. She explains (again) why we should have seen this decision coming from miles (and centuries) away.

Later in the Slate Plus segment, Mark returns to discuss this week’s SCOTUS arguments and the big news that legislative turtle and legal hellscape architect Mitch McConnell will be stepping down from his role as leader of Republicans in the Senate later this year.

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A Series of Lawsuits That We Call an Election

Sat, 24 Feb 2024 08:00:00 GMT

Dahlia Lithwick is drinking from the firehose of legal news again and this week is joined by election law professor Rick Hasen to figure out why we’re all still hanging on for the Supreme Court to make a call in former President Donald J Trump’s sweeping claim to immunity from prosecution over the events of January 6th, how Americans could actually achieve a real right to vote, and why no-one’s paying attention to a pair of incredibly consequential social media cases being argued at SCOTUS next week.

In our Slate Plus segment, Dahlia and Slate’s own Mark Joseph Stern discuss the bonkers but very very real implications of the Alabama Supreme Court decision to bestow personhood on embryos being used in fertility treatment, creating an impossible legal landscape for clinics and those struggling to become pregnant. Next, they sift through Justice Samuel Alito’s grievance debris in a recent dissent to find the deeply worrying signposts toward overturning equal marriage rights. Finally, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court pleads with SCOTUS to clear up the mess it made of gun laws with its decision in Bruen.

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Fani Willis and a Tale of Two Ethics Violations

Sat, 17 Feb 2024 08:00:00 GMT

The future of the Fulton County, Georgia election subversion case against Donald J. Trump and many many accused co-conspirators was cast into doubt this week as the court saw evidentiary hearings in the defence’s motion to disqualify Fulton County AG Fani Willis. Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Slate’s chief Law of Trump correspondent Jeremy Stahl to discuss why, even with a very high bar for removing Willis from the case, the court was dragged through some tawdry details that are bound to come back to hurt the prosecution, one way or another.

Later in the show, executive director and co-founder of Court Accountability, Alex Aronson, talks with Dahlia about what could possibly be done to make Supreme Court justices follow reasonable recusal guidelines (we’re looking at you, Justice Thomas), and whether the American electorate might at last be finding an appetite for court reform.

In the Slate Plus segment, Jeremy returns to the podcast martini lounge to discuss what might be the first Trump case to reach a criminal trial. They also discuss the latest on Trump’s claim of blanket immunity.

To catch up on the ever-breaking Trump trial news, check out https://slate.com/news-and-politics/jurisprudence

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Is SCOTUS Afraid of Holding Trump to Account?

Sat, 10 Feb 2024 08:00:00 GMT

Oral arguments at the Supreme Court Thursday in Trump v. Anderson revealed a lot about some of the justices’ commitment to the primacy of originalism. Noah Bookbinder, president of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, joins Dahlia Lithwick to discuss why his organization took up and pursued the long shot case to try to keep former President Donald J Trump off the ballot in Colorado. While the Supreme Court appeared to have little appetite for taking the big swing to find that Trump had disqualified himself from office when he engaged in an insurrection, Noah insists the case is far from having been in vain - eloquently highlighting the dangerous potential consequences of inaction. It's a chilling reminder of what’s at stake.

Next, Dahlia is joined by slate senior writer Mark Joseph Stern to discuss whether the liberal justices have some grand bargain in mind as they offered multiple off-ramps for Trump’s side, despite dozens of bipartisan briefs arguing for Trump to be kept off the ballot, the court’s originalist’s sudden concern for consequences in this case, when they have had no interest in weighing the life and death consequences for ordinary people in cases concerning guns and abortion. Finally, they tackle a worrying undercurrent to Thursday’s arguments: an apparent capitulation to threats of chaos and violence as a basis for deciding constitutional cases.

In our Slate Plus segment, Mark sticks around to discuss a landmark gun decision out of the Hawaii Supreme Court, and why it’s a problem that DOJ’s special counsel, Robert Hur, issued a report declining to prosecute, but affirming that Joe Biden is old (hint: the problem isn’t that he’s old).

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The Trump Trials Doomsday Clock Just Ticked a Second Closer to Midnight

Tue, 06 Feb 2024 23:00:00 GMT

This episode is available exclusively to Slate Plus members. After weeks of waiting, the DC Circuit Court of Appeals has handed down a decision in Donald J Trump’s appeal for sweeping immunity from prosecution for any of his actions while in office on grounds of a kind of post-presidential enduring presidenty-ness. The panel of three judges wrote: “We cannot accept former President Trump’s claim that a President has unbounded authority to commit crimes that would neutralize the most fundamental check on executive power — the recognition and implementation of election results,”

In this extra episode of Amicus, exclusive to our Slate Plus members, Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Slate senior writer Mark Joseph Stern and Slate’s jurisprudence editor Jeremy Stahl to answer the huge questions this decision now sparks - will the Supreme Court step in? If so, when? Are there votes to stay the decision while the court mulls, or to expedite a hearing? All of this, of course, is set against the countdown to November 2024 and whether Donald Trump will be tried for alleged criminal acts to overturn the 2020 election before the American People go to the ballot box this time.

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The Neglected Constitutional History That Disqualifies Trump

Sat, 03 Feb 2024 08:00:00 GMT

There haven’t been that many insurrections in the United States, which means the case law ahead of next week’s arguments in Trump v. Anderson (the 14th Amendment, Section 3 disqualification case) is pretty thin. And so we, and presumably the justices, must rely on text and history to understand the intent of the drafters of the Reconstruction Amendments. Civil war and reconstruction historian Professor Manisha Sinha, signatory of one amicus brief and cited in another, explains that the history is crystal clear. Trump must be disqualified from the ballot. After weeks of discussing concerns about the strategic, political implications of this case, this week Dahlia Lithwick tackles the text and the history head-on, in a case that’s almost a natural experiment in applying originalism on its own terms.

Donald Trump and the Apex of MAGA Misogyny

Sat, 27 Jan 2024 08:00:00 GMT

Despite Donald Trump’s efforts, there will be a significant cost for his continued defamation of E. Jean Carroll (And it’s $83.3 million!!). For much of the proceedings he sat behind Carroll muttering under his breath and posting three-dozen times on Truth Social in one night about the unfairness of the judge and the court. But zoom out, and Trump’s actions at the trial and toward women generally have far bigger implications than the size of the check he’ll have to write. This week, Vanity Fair’s Molly Jong-Fast joins Dahlia Lithwick to explain how Trump has fanned the flames of GOP misogyny playing out in every aspect of our politics, from the GOP primary to the leadership in the House of Representatives to women who have been raped in states with no access to abortion. And she asks what it ultimately says about our justice system that 80-year-old E. Jean Carroll is the one prepared to take the stand against the man who assaulted her.

In this week’s Amicus Plus segment, Slate’s Mark Joseph Stern discusses the Supreme Court’s 5-4 decision that kinda sorta resolved the battle between federal immigration authorities and Texas Governor Greg Abbott, and the horrifying turn the conservative turn has taken on capital punishment this week.

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Greg Abbott and the Battle for the Texas Border

Sat, 20 Jan 2024 08:00:00 GMT

The immigration fight on the U.S. - Mexico border keeps getting uglier - not between the U.S. and its southern neighbor, Mexico, but between the federal government and a Texas administration apparently unconcerned by constitutional supremacy. Earlier this month, members of the Texas Military Forces took over a public park in Eagle Pass, TX at the behest of Gov. Greg Abbott. The park, on the banks of the Rio Grande, is near a frequently used border crossing. Last weekend, Texas forces blocked Federal Border Patrol agents from reaching a woman and two children who had drowned trying to cross the river into the United States.

The move by Abbott is certainly shocking, but it’s an example of ways the state is trying to intervene in federal police powers and responsibilities. In a series of increasingly urgent filings, the Justice Department is pleading with the Supreme Court to intervene to let Federal agents enforce Federal laws.

Rochelle Garza, president of the Texas Civil Rights Project, joins the show to discuss how the cruelty of Abbott’s approach is undermining Texas communities and creating a constitutional crisis that may originate in Texas, but will not remain there.

Dahlia is joined by SCOTUS-whispering wingman Mark Joseph Stern in today’s Slate Plus segment to discuss why the High Court’s response to Texas’ game of chicken with the Feds is so dangerously sluggish. Next, they explore the oral arguments in the big Chevron-overturning vehicle that is Loper Bright, a case that was supposed to be about fishermen but is actually about overturning tens of thousands of agency law decisions and grabbing power from the elected branches and handing it to the judiciary.

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The Supreme Court Gave Itself Huge Extra Powers and It’s Becoming a Big Problem

Sat, 13 Jan 2024 08:00:00 GMT

There’s an ever-growing queue of cases concerning Donald Trump headed for the Supreme Court that threaten to further dent the legitimacy of an institution that has tumbled in the public’s estimation in the last few years. This week’s show examines some of the interlocking issues raising the already sky-high stakes at One, First Street. First, Dahlia Lithwick kicks off the show with an update from Slate’s Law of Trump chief correspondent Jeremy Stahl about arguments in Trump’s immunity appeal at the DC Circuit Court this week. Next, we turn to a conversation with Professor Ben Johnson, an Associate Professor of Law at the University of Florida Levin College of Law. He recently wrote about the very long history of how the Supreme Court granted itself vast power to shape the law and policy by picking and choosing not only which cases it would hear, but also which questions it would answer when it hears those cases. Next week’s arguments in Loper Bright Enterprises v Raimundo are a case in point, and the question of questions also poses a conundrum for a court in a downward legitimacy spiral, as a parade of Trump cases head toward the High Court.

In this week’s Amicus Plus segment, Dahlia is joined by Slate’s Jeremy Stahl to discuss the bread and circus of closing arguments in the Trump Organization civil fraud trial in New York, and the next phase of litigation involving the former President and E Jean Carroll that gets underway next week.

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Deja Coup: Donald Trump and the Slow Civil War

Sat, 06 Jan 2024 08:00:00 GMT

On January 6, 2021, supporters of Donald J Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol building hoping to stop Joe Biden from becoming president.Three years later, a quarter of Americans believe the FBI instigated the events of that day.

This week on Amicus, we’re trying to understand the myth-making that helped foment the riot, and the religious fervor that binds and buoys Trump’s supporters today. Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Jeff Sharlet, author of “The Undertow: Scenes From a Slow Civil War” to explore the stories and symbols that are shaping Trump’s march toward fascism, and to figure out what place the rule of law has in this struggle.

In this week’s Amicus Plus segment, Slate’s dynamic legal duo of Mark Joseph Stern and Jeremy Stahl break down the latest in Trump’s cascading court cases, and the Texas abortion case that’s on a fast track to the Supreme Court.

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The Very Worst of SCOTUS 2023

Sat, 30 Dec 2023 08:00:00 GMT

From the Chief Justice seeing the funny side of stalking and harassment, to Justice Samuel Alito’s tiny violin, to fighting in the footnotes and a bench dissent snapback, to THAT painting, it’s been quite a year at One, First Street. Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Stern are back with their bottom 10 picks for the Supreme Court’s worst moments of 2023. But don’t despair, there is a glimmer of hope, one part of the SCOTUS beat sucked less this past year… Stay tuned to hear Dahlia and Mark reveal what facet of the Supreme Court multiverse actually improved in 2023.

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The Many Trials of Donald J. Trump

Sat, 23 Dec 2023 08:00:00 GMT

This week, the Colorado Supreme Court determined in a pivotal decision that Donald J Trump should not appear on the ballot in the state's Republican primary. Meanwhile the high court is already involved in the possible briefing of another Trump case (about presidential immunity) and has agreed to docket another involving the obstruction of the vote certification on Jan 6 2021. And we haven’t even mentioned the Georgia case. Basically, Trump is going to have a very lawyer-y 2024. So where do all these cases sit right now? Slate’s Jeremy Stahl joins Amicus host Dahlia Lithwick to give us an update.

In this week’s Amicus Plus segment, Slate’s Mark Joseph Stern joins the show to talk about Rudy Giuliani’s defamation lawsuit and the $150 million he owes election workers. Mark and Dahlia also discuss the latest in ProPublica’s continued deep dive into the finances of Clarence Thomas.

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Texas Abortion Laws’ Cruel Outcomes

Sat, 16 Dec 2023 08:00:00 GMT

Earlier this week, the Texas Supreme Court said Kate Cox couldn’t have an abortion.Cox’s doctors had diagnosed the fetus with Trisomy 18, an almost certainly fatal genetic condition. On top of that, there were concerns about whether or not Cox would be able to have children again in the future if she continued with this pregnancy. None of this was enough for nine judges in Texas to allow Cox to have an abortion.

Cox’s story isn’t unique. Amanda Zurawski almost died after a Texas court said she couldn’t have an abortion. Today, she’s the lead plaintiff in Zurawski v. State of Texas. She joins Amicus this week to show the real, human effects of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. Zurawski is joined by one of the lawyers representing her in the case, Jamie Levitt.

In this week’s Amicus Plus segment, Slate’s Mark Joseph Stern talks about another made-up case that this time, won’t make it to SCOTUS.

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Billionaires Had a Bad Week at the Supreme Court

Sat, 09 Dec 2023 08:00:00 GMT

When Moore v United States landed on the Supreme Court docket, it threatened to take a big swing at any future wealth tax and maybe cut the legs out from under the government’s ability to collect a lot of other tax. But as arguments unfolded Tuesday at One, First Street, it became clear that some of the Justices had studied up on the tax code and were cooling on blowing a big hole in it.

To understand why Moore made it all the way up to SCOTUS in the first place, and why the facts don’t match claims from the plaintiffs, Dahlia Lithwick is joined by law professor and author of Big Dirty Money, Professor Jennifer Taub. Together they talk about the billions behind the case, the tax law, and the arguments inside the chamber.

Next, Dahlia is joined by Slate’s Mark Stern, who covered Moore for the magazine, to discuss Justice Alito's non-recusal from the case, his BFF David Rivkin Jr., and why the plaintiffs Mr and Mrs Moore bear a striking resemblance to some other, recent, fabled SCOTUS plaintiffs.

In this week’s Amicus Plus segment, Mark Stern hangs on to talk about the Title VII case this week that didn’t go *that badly*, and why that’s still not good, and to explain why Justice Elena Kagan has had it up to here with false first principles.

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Remembering Sandra Day O’Connor

Sat, 02 Dec 2023 08:00:00 GMT

Former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor died Friday at the age of 93. Amicus host Dahlia Lithwick is joined by former O’Connor clerk and renowned First Amendment scholar RonNell Andersen Jones to talk about the Justice’s trailblazing career, her judicial philosophy, and the combination of humility and strength that marked her time on the court, and away from it.

Later in the show, Dahlia celebrates the joyous return of Mark Joseph Stern to share some big announcements AND to discuss SEC v Jarkesy. As Mark explains, the conservative justices seemed ready, willing, and able to take another swing at the administrative state (AKA functioning government).

Mark Stern stays with us for this week’s Amicus Plus segment, taking us through some good ol’ vote suppressing stuff from MAGA-stacked lower courts choosing to ignore last term’s big voting rights decision in Allen v Milligan. Remember that time Chief Justice John Roberts and Brett Kavanagh saved voting rights? Turns out these lower courts are saying - not so much.

Dahlia’s book Lady Justice: Women, the Law and the Battle to Save America, is also available as an audiobook, and Amicus listeners can get a 25 percent discount by entering the code “AMICUS” at checkout.

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From "The Political Scene": Trump's Vindictive Second Term Agenda

Sat, 25 Nov 2023 08:00:00 GMT

While Amicus takes a break to digest turkey and count our blessings, we're sharing this episode of The Political Scene from our friends at The New Yorker.

What would a second Trump Administration look like in comparison to the first, and how would America’s democratic institutions fare?

In recent weeks, Americans have begun to get a clearer picture of what a second Donald Trump Administration could look like. Some clues have come from organizations like the Heritage Foundation, which has laid out policy proposals for the Trump campaign. Others have come from the former President himself. Trump has said he would appoint a prosecutor to “go after” Joe Biden and his family; on Veterans Day, this past weekend, he pledged to root out opponents and critics who he said “live like vermin within the confines of our country.” “Trump wants to get rid of all of these guardrails that protect the government from becoming a spoil system,” the staff writer Jane Mayer says, including by firing members of the federal civil service. Ultimately, how different would a second Presidency be from the last time that Trump was in the White House? “There are two words that I would say really underscore the difference this time, and why Trump in 2024 is arguably a much bigger threat in many ways than he was even eight years ago,” the New Yorker staff writer Susan B. Glasser says. “The two words are ‘retribution’ and ‘termination.’ ” The staff writer Evan Osnos joins Mayer and Glasser to weigh in.

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Is The Federalist Society Over?

Sat, 18 Nov 2023 08:00:00 GMT

Donald J Trump is signaling a split with the conservative legal movement’s kingmakers, The Federalist Society. Instead, the presumptive Republican Presidential nominee is planning a radical (and radically lawless) remaking of American government in his image. On this week’s show, Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Amanda Hollis Brusky, professor of politics at Pomona College and author of Ideas with Consequences: The Federalist Society & the Conservative Counterrevolution, and coauthor of Separate But Faithful: The Christian Right’s Radical Struggle to Transform Law and Legal Culture. Together, they explore what the split between the right’s legal project of 40 years and the man who hopes to be the next Republican President means for the law, the rule of law, and the U.S. Supreme Court.

In this week’s Amicus Plus segment, Dahlia is joined by Jay Willis of Balls and Strikes to discuss the Supreme Court’s new ethics code. Spoiler: It’s not really new. As Jay says, think of it more like frat house rules published for the benefit of naive parents.

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Dunking On Trump's Lawyers Might Not Be The Win You Think It Is

Sat, 11 Nov 2023 08:00:00 GMT

If we are to take Donald J. Trump seriously (and at this stage it’s surely a fool’s errand not to), then the rule of law and democracy are on the line if (when) he becomes the Republican nominee for 2024. What role will the former President’s many many legal woes play in the coming months? A clearer picture is emerging after testimony for the prosecution wrapped in the civil fraud trial against Trump and his adult sons in their roles at the helm of the Trump Organization in New York City this past week. That picture is of a political candidate claiming to be the victim of an unprecedented legal witch hunt. In other words, as the trials proceed within the courts, a political trial is underway on the courtroom steps, at campaign stops, and in the media. On this week’s show, Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Professor Eric Posner, of the University of Chicago Law School, author of The Demagogue's Playbook: The Battle for American Democracy from the Founders to Trump, to discuss political trials - their history and their risks.

Next, Dahlia is joined by Madiba Dennie - attorney, columnist, professor, and deputy editor at Balls and Strikes - to recap oral arguments in United States v Rahimi, the big gun case considering whether adjudicated domestic abusers have a right to keep and bear arms.

In this week’s Amicus Plus segment, listeners will have access to an extended version of Dahlia’s interview with Madiba Dennie, analyzing whether election results are moving some of the justices away from the all you can eat originalism buffet.

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The Right to Bear Arms and Terrorize Your Partner

Sat, 04 Nov 2023 07:00:00 GMT

Next week, the Supreme Court will hear arguments in one of the most significant—and potentially deadly—cases of the term - United States v Rahimi. The case, a follow on from New York State Rifle & Pistol Association Inc. v. Bruen, has the potential to weaponize the court’s Second Amendment extremism against victims of domestic abuse and protect adjudicated abusers. Dahlia Lithwick is joined by gun safety advocate Shannon Watts, founder of Moms Demand Action, to find out the potential real life-and-death consequences of pursuing originalism literally back to when women were property and muskets were muzzle-loaded. They also discuss why the right is so keen to pursue gun rights through the courts, rather than through the democratic process.

In this week’s Amicus Plus segment, Dahlia is joined by Jay Willis, editor in chief of Balls and Strikes, to discuss oral arguments in a pair of cases concerning First Amendment concerns when politicians block dissenting voices on social media, the Trump-related trademark t-shirt dispute that is barely SFW, and Justice Clarence Thomas’s personal luxury RV loan forgiveness program.

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Watching Trump Shrink in Court

Sat, 28 Oct 2023 07:00:00 GMT

On this week’s show, Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Slate’s Jurisprudence Editor, Jeremy Stahl. Jeremy is also the lucky person tasked with helming Slate’s coverage of the many many criminal and civil trials of Donald J Trump and Amicus listeners can expect to hear a lot from Jeremy over the next year. After a week of big news across a number of the former President’s courtroom battles, Jeremy gives us a survey of the legal landscape and some vital pointers about what really matters, what’s nonsense, and what we should be watching and listening for in the coming weeks.

In this week’s Amicus Plus segment, Jeremy Stahl sticks around to have a behind the scenes chat about how Slate’s jurisprudence team is tackling the thorny issue of reporting on the Trump trial - sorting wheat from chaff and stakes from horse race.

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Donald Trump's John Gotti Moment

Sat, 21 Oct 2023 07:00:00 GMT

As MAGA Republicans engage in extremist arm wrestling in the House Speaker race, and the sins of the 2020 election subversion scheme catch up with Donald Trump’s closest allies, Dahlia Lithwick is joined by brand new MacArthur “genius grant” recipient Ian Bassin of Protect Democracy to take a look at the stakes of this moment for American democracy. An attempt to walk and chew gum at the same time, Protect Democracy’s work focuses on the incremental ways the law can be applied to protect election workers and inhibit disinformation, while also looking to the big constitutional and cultural questions we have to answer if we’re going to reject authoritarianism.

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Justice Samuel Alito Got Out Of Bed on The Perry Mason Side

Sat, 14 Oct 2023 07:00:00 GMT

In this week’s big voting rights case, Alexander v. South Carolina State Conference of the NAACP, the Supreme Court heard arguments concerning whether to uphold a South Carolina congressional map that is avowedly partisan (everyone agrees it favors Republicans, but partisan gerrymanders are A-OK under SCOTUS precedent). What is disputed here is whether the mapmakers relied on race to reach their partisan aims. A three-judge panel in South Carolina found it to be a racial gerrymander, and threw out the map. In arguments on Wednesday, it became clear that the high court’s conservatives would rather toss out the evidence the lower court used to reach its decision, an unusual move for the highest court in the land, but perhaps the bed it’s made for itself after ruling partisan gerrymanders non justiciable in Rucho v. Common Cause in 2019. And so SCOTUS cos-played as a trial court for two hours on Wednesday.

On this week’s Amicus, Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Leah Aden, senior counsel at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund who argued the case on behalf of the South Carolina Conference of the NAACP, and Taiwan Scott - a South Carolina voter and individual plaintiff in the case, who says the electoral power of his Gullah Geechee community is suppressed by the gerrymander.

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Senator Elizabeth Warren is Deeply Worried About SCOTUS

Sat, 07 Oct 2023 07:00:00 GMT

Following oral arguments in a case aimed at demolishing Senator Elizabeth Warren’s brainchild - the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Senator Warren to talk about how far this Supreme Court is prepared to go to fulfill right wing deregulatory fantasies.

Next, Dahlia talks to investigative reporter Andrea Bernstein, part of the team behind We Don’t Talk About Leonard, a new podcast collaboration between ProPublica and On the Media. Andrea explains the mechanisms developed by Leonard Leo that have reshaped the courts over the past two decades, drawing a line from Leo’s state-level judicial influence campaigns, to that Alaskan fishing trip involving Justice Samuel Alito, to this week’s arguments in the payday loan case CFPB v CFSA.

In this week’s Amicus Plus segment, Andrea Bernstein sticks around to talk us through this week in court in New York City, in former President Donald Trump’s business fraud trial. Why did he choose to sit and glower and what did the limited gag order tell us about what the former President can rant about online and outside the court?

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A Monumental SCOTUS Term Begins: Our Reluctant Curtain-Raiser

Sat, 30 Sep 2023 07:00:00 GMT

Refusing to play the traditional first Monday in October game, Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern squint through the cloud of ethics scandals enveloping the High Court to see a docket aimed squarely at unfettering commerce from outside supervision, with a side order of second amendment extremism. What could possibly go wrong?

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SCOTUS Is Not Done With Guns and Abortion

Sat, 23 Sep 2023 07:00:00 GMT

Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Ryan Busse, a former gun-industry executive turned gun-safety advocate, who is now running for governor in his home state of Montana. As the right to bear arms for domestic abusers is set to be argued at SCOTUS this term, Dahlia and Ryan discuss how gun culture has been radicalized in order to… sell more guns. They also examine how that radicalization has reached the Supreme Court, and threatens our safety, and our democracy.

Next, Dahlia is joined by Alison Block MD, a family doctor and abortion provider who is also executive producer and host of The Nocturnists podcast’s Post-Roe America season. The season lifts the voices of healthcare workers and abortion providers around the country, scrambling to survive in the confusing legal landscape created by Dobbs. The conversation highlights the impossible bind for red state abortion providers forced to choose between caring for patients and criminalization, and how providers in neighboring states are trying to keep up with unquenchable demand for care.

In this week’s Amicus Plus segment, Dahlia is joined by Slate’s Mark Joseph Stern to discuss why they never ever want to go to the all-male rich dude Lord of the Flies camp that is Bohemian Grove, why it’s pretty shocking that Justice Clarence Thomas did, and how the latest Propublica reporting shows the scheme in sharp relief: interest groups founded and funded by billionaires wanted to end the regulatory state, and they found a justice ready to change his mind and do just that. Dahlia and Mark also discuss why the abortion pill banning Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk is all of a sudden so worried about misogyny.

Dahlia’s book Lady Justice: Women, the Law and the Battle to Save America, is now out in paperback. It is also available as an audiobook, and Amicus listeners can get a 25 percent discount by entering the code “AMICUS” at checkout.

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The Supreme Court We Deserve?

Sat, 16 Sep 2023 07:00:00 GMT

Dahlia Lithwick is joined by award-winning documentarian and lawyer Dawn Porter for a conversation about two projects shining a light on the law and how we can shape it: Porter’s new Showtime documentary series Deadlocked: How America Shaped the Supreme Court, and the paperback release of Dahlia’s book Lady Justice: Women, the Law, and the Battle to Save America.

Together they trace the political shifts and cultural earthquakes from the Warren Court to the Burger, Rehnquist and now Roberts Court, and they discuss how the courts current crisis of legitimacy cannot be cured with a moratorium on criticism. In both Lady Justice and Deadlocked a truth surfaces: when it comes to the rule of law, there is no “plan b”, so the challenge to Dawn’s audience, Dahlia’s readers and Amicus listeners is the same: to use the law as a tool for progress and justice.

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Alabama Double-Dares SCOTUS Over Voting Maps

Sat, 09 Sep 2023 07:00:00 GMT

Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Marc Elias, who has litigated more election and voting cases than almost anyone, to talk about Alabama’s disregard for SCOTUS’ decision in the big Voting Rights Act case of last term, and why the lawlessness is the point. They also delve into the dangers of tying the disqualification of former President Donald J Trump from office under Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment to the outcomes in his criminal trials. And why, when it comes to defending democracy, depending on the courts may make sense in the short term, but faces serious problems in the long term.

In this week’s Amicus Plus segment, Dahlia is joined by Slate’s Mark Joseph Stern to discuss Justice Samuel Alito’s chosen venue to publish a love letter to Senator Dick Durbin, Chief Justice John Roberts’ chosen venue to publish a love letter to Justice Brett Kavanaugh, and why a major religious freedom case is looking more and more like a fake spike.

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Citizen Justice: The Environmental Legacy of William O. Douglas

Sat, 26 Aug 2023 07:00:00 GMT

In Amicus’ summer series of conversations about books that expanded our thinking about justice and the courts, beyond the churn of headlines, Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Judge Margaret M McKeown of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth CIrcuit, to discuss her book Citizen Justice: The Environmental Legacy of William O. Douglas―Public Advocate and Conservation Champion

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The Family Roe

Sat, 12 Aug 2023 07:00:00 GMT

In Amicus’ summer series of conversations about books that expanded our thinking about justice and the courts, beyond the churn of headlines, Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Joshua Prager to discuss his book The Family Roe: An American Story, about the unknown lives at the heart of Roe v Wade.

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The Fear of Too Much Justice

Sat, 29 Jul 2023 07:00:00 GMT

In Amicus’ summer series of conversations about books that expanded our thinking about justice and the courts, beyond the churn of headlines, Dahlia Lithwick is joined by death penalty lawyer, professor and author Stephen Bright to discuss his new book, The Fear of Too Much Justice: Race, Poverty, and the Persistence of Inequality in the Criminal Courts.

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Zero-Sum Justice

Sat, 15 Jul 2023 07:00:00 GMT

In the first of Amicus’ summer series of conversations about books and podcasts that have helped us look at the Supreme Court from a different angle, Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Joel Anderson, host of Season 8 of Slate’s Slow Burn podcast: Becoming Justice Thomas. They talk about the experiences and people who helped shape Justice Thomas’ worldview and how deeply his jurisprudence is rooted in a kind of “cruel to be kind” ethos from his childhood. And why he was so blind to the challenges and suffering of so many Black women in his life.

Next, Dahlia talks to Heather McGhee, Author The Sum of Us: WHAT RACISM COSTS EVERYONE AND HOW WE CAN PROSPER TOGETHER, about her books and podcast, and what they can teach us about a Supreme Court that is inclined to frame the world as zero-sum.

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Supreme Arrogance

Sat, 08 Jul 2023 07:00:00 GMT

In our final Opinionpalooza episode of 2023, Slate’s Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern host the Amicus annual “breakfast table” round-up at the end of the Supreme Court term, and they’re joined by:

Jamelle Bouie, former chief political correspondent at Slate and current New York Times Opinion columnist and political analyst for CBS News.

Sherrilyn Ifill, former President and Director Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, and newly appointed head of Howard University’s inaugural Vernon E. Jordan, Jr., Esq. Endowed Chair in Civil Rights.

Professor Stephen Vladeck, the Charles Alan Wright Chair in Federal Courts at the University of Texas School of Law, author of the New York Times bestselling book, "The Shadow Docket: How the Supreme Court Uses Stealth Rulings to Amass Power and Undermine the Republic."

In this week’s Amicus Plus segment, Dahlia and Mark loosen their ties, pour a snifter of brandy and hit the cigar bar of jurisprudence for a final discussion of the term that was; why progressives are still struggling to find an answer to the court’s torque to the right, and resisting the media’s urge to put a moderate bow on each extreme term.

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MAGA SCOTUS Is Back

Sat, 01 Jul 2023 07:00:00 GMT

This episode is a part of Opinionpalooza. Slate’s coverage of Supreme Court decisions. If you would like to help us continue to cover the courts aggressively, please consider joining Slate Plus. And sign up for the pop-up newsletter to see the latest every week in your inbox.

As the Supreme Court’s June term wraps up with a slew of awful decisions, Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Slate’s own Mark Joseph Stern to analyze 303 Creative LLC v Elenis, a case with startling implications for the dignity and equal treatment of LGBTQ couples and families. They also discuss the new reporting that shines light on the hall of mirrors that brought the case to court. Then, Dahlia and Mark are joined by Dalié Jiménez, Professor of Law at the University of California, Irvine School of Law, and Director of the Student Loan Law Initiative at UCI Law to discuss the court’s decision to strike down the Biden administration’s student loan forgiveness program.

Finally, Dahlia turns to Michaele Turnage Young of the NAACP LDF to take a closer look at Thursday’s affirmative action decision, which outlawed race-conscious admissions in most higher education contexts.

In this week’s Amicus Plus segment, Dahlia is joined by Slate’s Mark Joseph Stern to answer a listener question about something that has us all scratching our heads in the wake of Moore v Harper, and look ahead to some gun safety litigation that’s winding its way up to the High Court.

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The End of Affirmative Action

Thu, 29 Jun 2023 20:00:00 GMT

This episode is a part of Opinionpalooza. Slate’s coverage of Supreme Court decisions. We consider this coverage so essential that we’re taking down the paywall for all of it. You can sign up for the pop-up newsletter to see the latest every week in your inbox.

In an emergency episode of Amicus, Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Slate’s own Mark Joseph Stern to analyze SCOTUS’ decision to wipe out affirmative action in college admissions. They find Chief Justice John Roberts’ majority opinion has some curious carve-outs that will keep lawyers busy, and college admissions tutors and applicants… baffled.

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Moore v Harper Was a Win for Democracy, A Big Loss For Donald Trump.

Tue, 27 Jun 2023 21:58:54 GMT

This episode is a part of Opinionpalooza. Slate’s coverage of Supreme Court decisions. We consider this coverage so essential that we’re taking down the paywall for all of it. If you would like to help us continue to cover the courts aggressively, please consider joining Slate Plus. And sign up for the pop-up newsletter to see the latest every week in your inbox.

In deciding against the bonkers (technical legal term) “Independent State Legislature Theory” in Moore v Harper, the Supreme Court chose not to take a wrecking ball to American democracy. Judge Michael Luttig, a counsel of record in the case, is relieved but not surprised. In this emergency episode of Amicus, Judge Luttig tells Dahlia Lithwick that Tuesday’s decision may have big repercussions at the Department of Justice, in Jack Smith’s investigation of former President Trump’s role in January 6th.

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Supreme Court Politics One Year On From Dobbs

Sat, 24 Jun 2023 07:00:00 GMT

This episode is a part of Opinionpalooza. Slate’s coverage of Supreme Court decisions, and the other legal happenings in June. We consider this coverage so essential that we’re taking down the paywall for all of it. If you would like to help us continue to cover the courts aggressively, please consider joining Slate Plus. And sign up for the pop-up newsletter to see the latest every week in your inbox.

On this one year anniversary of Dobbs, Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Anat Shenker Osorio to talk about how the political class still hasn’t found a way to communicate or act toward the court that delivered this suffering.

Next, Dahlia is joined by Slate’s own Mark Joseph Stern to talk about two important decisions that came down this week, one concerning the rights of criminal defendants and another about the U.S. President’s right to set immigration policy.

In this week’s Amicus Plus segment, Dahlia and Mark tackle more questions from the Slate Plus listener mail bag about the tension between establishment clause and equal protection claims in suits brought to fight back against Dobbs on religious grounds, and how to impeach terrible awful no-good judges.

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Samuel Alito and The Billionaire

Wed, 21 Jun 2023 21:30:00 GMT

This episode is a part of Opinionpalooza. Slate’s coverage of the final weeks of the Supreme Court’s term. We consider this coverage so essential that we’re taking down the paywall for all of it. If you would like to help us continue to cover the courts aggressively, please consider joining Slate Plus. And sign up for the pop-up newsletter to see the latest every week in your inbox.

Amicus is coming at you again with an emergency episode. Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Mark Joseph Stern to process ProPublica’s latest reporting on a growing theme of conservative supreme court justices with a penchant for luxury travel at the expense of billionaires (who also happen to be close friends with Leonard Leo of the Federalist Society). Dahlia and Mark also examine Justice Samuel Alito’s eye-popping pre-buttal of ProPublica’s piece about his Alaskan fishing trip with billionaire GOP donor Paul Singer, which Justice Alito chose to publish in the opinion pages of the Wall Street Journal.

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SCOTUS Wants To Drain The Swamp, Too

Sat, 17 Jun 2023 07:00:00 GMT

This episode is a part of Opinionpalooza. Slate’s coverage of Supreme Court decisions. We consider this coverage so essential that we’re taking down the paywall for all of it. If you would like to help us continue to cover the courts aggressively, please consider joining Slate Plus. And sign up for the pop-up newsletter to see the latest every week in your inbox.

Dahlia Lithwick is joined by environmental appellate lawyer Sean Donahue to discuss the far-reaching consequences of one of the biggest decisions so far this term. In Sackett v EPA, the court decided that as many as 90 million acres of wetlands no longer qualify for environmental protection. Together, they trace the case’s history, its claims, and what tools are left for lawyers fighting to protect the environment.

In this week’s Amicus Plus segment, Dahlia is joined by Slate’s Mark Joseph Stern to answer listener questions, including how to counter dodgy originalism arguments, and whether there’s anything that could stop Donald Trump from running or even assuming office if he’s convicted of a crime.

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Is A New Supreme Court Emerging?

Thu, 15 Jun 2023 21:00:00 GMT

This episode is a part of Opinionpalooza. Slate’s coverage of Supreme Court decisions. We consider this coverage so essential that we’re taking down the paywall for all of it. If you would like to help us continue to cover the courts aggressively, please consider joining Slate Plus. And sign up for the pop-up newsletter to see the latest every week in your inbox.

Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern join forces for this Opinionpalooza extra episode of Amicus where they discuss Haaland v Brackeen, a case that could have upended Indian Law, but didn’t. The case concerned the Indian Child Welfare Act, Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s majority opinion also reveals some tensions among the Supreme Court’s conservative justices. Together, Dahlia and Mark assess what another unexpected win can tell us about the shape of the current court.

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Can Trump Outrun The Law?

Wed, 14 Jun 2023 01:00:00 GMT

This episode is a part of Opinionpalooza. Slate’s coverage of Supreme Court decisions, and the other legal happenings in June. We consider this coverage so essential that we’re taking down the paywall for all of it. If you would like to help us continue to cover the courts aggressively, please consider joining Slate Plus. And sign up for the pop-up newsletter to see the latest every week in your inbox.

An extra episode of Amicus as the former President of the United States, Donald J Trump, is arraigned in federal court in Miami on 37 counts, entering a plea of not guilty. Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Ryan Goodman, co-editor-in-chief of Just Security, Professor of Law at NYU School of Law, a distinguished fellow at the National Institute of Military Justice, and former special counsel at the Department of Defense. Together, they step back from the spectacle to examine the challenge of prosecuting a former President over things that were supposed to be state secrets, and whether Trump can use politics to outrun justice this time.

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The Trump Indictment

Sat, 10 Jun 2023 07:00:00 GMT

Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern join forces again for an urgent look at Special Counsel Jack Smith’s indictment of former President Donald J Trump. Trump is facing 37 counts in seven charges in the case concerning his mishandling of classified documents, and trying to cover up that mishandling.

Then, Dahlia is joined by Amicus’ election law guiding light, Professor Richard L Hasen, for a close look at the big and shocking voting rights case decided at the Supreme Court this week. Professor Hasen takes us through the fascinating backstory of the case and what Chief Justice John Roberts’ majority opinion in Allen v Milligan can tell us about another big elections case Moore v Harper, and what we might be able to expect in the affirmative action decision that will also be coming down in the next couple of weeks.

Finally, Slate Plus members will have a chance to hear Dahlia and Mark answer listener questions, such as…. What is the progressive answer to originalism?

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Did John Roberts Really Just Save Voting Rights?

Thu, 08 Jun 2023 20:00:00 GMT

Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern join forces for this Opinionpalooza extra episode of Amicus discussing a seismic Supreme Court decision on voting rights. In his majority opinion in Allen v Milligan, Chief Justice John Roberts pushes back against his own long-standing stance on voting rights. Join Dahlia and Mark in this bonus episode to find out why.

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How SCOTUS Enabled The Explosion of Anti-Trans Laws

Sat, 03 Jun 2023 07:00:00 GMT

This episode is a part of Opinionpalooza. Slate’s coverage of Supreme Court decisions. You can sign up for the pop-up newsletter to see the latest every week in your inbox.

On this week’s Amicus, a sobering interview between Dahlia Lithwick and the ACLU's Chase Strangio. Chase is deputy director for Transgender Justice with the ACLU’s LGBT and HIV Project and a nationally recognized expert on trans rights. . The sheer number and breadth of proposed new laws targeting trans people is breathtaking, and they are coming from some familiar quarters if you follow the Supreme Court and abortion law. This conversation helps to set the stage for the end of the Supreme Court’s term by looking beyond the cases being decided this month at One, First Street, and toward the legal landscape, and the systems and groups that are shaping that landscape for the rest of us. In the second half of the show, Dahlia is joined by her jurisprudential co-pilot Mark Stern. They talk about why everyone on Twitter hates Mark (hint: people have strong feelings about Justice Alito’s recusal ethics), the labor case that was not as bad for unions as maybe could have been (but is still NOT GREAT), and Mark floats his theory that Supreme Court Justices just don’t want to go back to the office full time and that’s why we’re getting a dribble of decisions now… And might get a firehose of them later this month.

In this week’s Amicus Plus segment, we return to Washington DC and our Full Court Press live show at Sixth and I, where Mark and Dahlia were joined by Congressman Hank Johnson of Georgia’s 4th District. Rep. Johnson is the ranking member of the House Judiciary subcommittee that oversees the federal courts, including the Supreme Court. They talk court reform and modernizing the judiciary, and why term limits and court expansion are vital to both.

And don't forget to send your questions for Dahlia and Mark! amicus@slate.com, or find us on facebook at facebook.com/amicus

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Fixing The Court, One Story at a Time

Sat, 27 May 2023 07:00:00 GMT

Take your seats for a live show from Washington DC this week. This live show is part of Slate’s Full Court Press coverage, a provocation for the fourth estate to hold the third branch of government to account. Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Slate’s Mark Joseph Stern, Elie Mystal of The Nation, and Jay Willis of Balls and Strikes. As we perch on the precipice of another slew of catastrophic decisions this June, they unpack how Supreme Court reporting has failed to meet the moment - and crucially, what to do about it.

In this week’s Amicus Plus segment, listeners will hear the question and answer segment of the live show - with piercing audience questions such as: "Why do so many Democrats fail to take the court seriously?, and some vital advice for law students from Elie Mystal and Jay Willis. (Spoiler: Don't be Tom Cotton)

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Bonus: SCOTUS Nukes Wetlands Protections

Fri, 26 May 2023 07:00:00 GMT

In this bonus episode for Amicus Plus listeners, Dahlia Lithwick and Slate’s Mark Joseph Stern discuss the latest biggest Supreme Court decision: Sackett v EPA. It’s good news for developers and polluters, bad news for the rest of us.

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E. Jean Carroll and the Lawyer Who Beat Trump

Sat, 20 May 2023 07:00:00 GMT

Get your tickets for Amicus Live in Washington DC on May 24th here:

https://slate.com/live/amicus-live-may-24-in-washington-d-c-full-court-press.html

Dahlia Lithwick is joined by a pair of legal history-makers, E Jean Carroll and Roberta Kaplan. They discuss the landmark defamation and sexual abuse case they won against former President Donald J Trump; how the case came together, what tipped the balance in court, if vindication lasts, and what happens when the defendant won’t stop doing the same defamation over and over again.

In this week’s Amicus Plus segment, Dahlia is joined by Slate’s Mark Joseph Stern to talk about the Mifepristone arguments at the 5th Circuit, North Carolina’s abortion ban, and why Justice Kagan and Sotomayor are duking it out in the footnotes over Andy Warhol.

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The Supreme Court's Dangerous Return to Its Roots

Sat, 13 May 2023 07:00:00 GMT

Get your tickets for Amicus Live on May 24th.

On this week’s Amicus, we head to Seattle for a live taping of the show at the Cross Cut Festival with guest Michael Waldman, President of NYU Law School’s Brennan Center. Dahlia Lithwick asks him about his new book, THE SUPERMAJORITY: How the Supreme Court Divided America, and what the ongoing ethics scandals and plummeting public approval for the court mean for our democracy. They also look ahead to next month when the court’s legitimacy may be stretched even further by major decisions that fly in the face of the majority of public opinion.

In this week’s Amicus Plus segment, Dahlia is joined by Slate’s Mark Joseph Stern to talk about the decisions that came out this week concerning pork producers and public corruption, which delivered some surprising and depressingly unsurprising opinions. They also try to figure out how many more times E Jean Carroll might have to sue Donald Trump to halt his defamation demolition derby.

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Clarence Thomas and the Billionaires

Sat, 06 May 2023 07:00:00 GMT

After weeks of controversy, piled upon intrigue, heaped with scandal and topped with crisis at the Supreme Court, it can be hard to get your bearings. What’s illegal, what’s unethical, what’s just a bit hinky? And what does it really mean for an institution that is about to hand down decisions that reach into every part of our lives, from justice to climate, from youtube to universities? On this week’s Amicus, Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Lisa Graves from True North Research. Lisa ia a veteran investigator of the dark money spigot that has been flooding the Supreme Court and rewarding some of the justices, and the causes and people close to their hearts. If you can’t see the woods for the trees, Lisa will paint you a picture. And that painting will, of course, include; Clarence Thomas, Leonard Leo, Harlan Crow and Mark Paoletta.

In this week’s Amicus Plus segment, Dahlia is joined by Slate’s Mark Joseph Stern to talk about the possible end of Chevron deference the impacts for the administrative state, the Texas abortion case that is a case study in SB8 working exactly as it was intended, and why it is so puzzling that the Justices won’t rescue themselves from the ethics quagmire that’s sinking trust in SCOTUS.

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John Roberts’ Unfunny Stalking Jokes at SCOTUS

Sat, 22 Apr 2023 07:00:00 GMT

As laughter ricocheted around the Supreme Court chamber Wednesday, Professor Mary Anne Franks wondered if she could quite believe her ears. The matter of some hilarity, it seems, were messages sent by a convicted stalker to his victim. Individual messages that were among what one detective estimated to number in the hundreds of thousands - possibly as many as one million messages - sent by Billy Raymond Counterman to singer Coles Whalen. Counterman’s campaign of harassment drove Whalen away from performing, indeed drove her away from her home state. She moved across the country to get away. On this week’s Amicus, Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Professor Mary Anne Franks to discuss Counterman v Colorado and how the details of a cyber-stalking case were lost to free speech concerns about trigger warnings and "sensitivity". You can read Prof. Franks’ powerful piece on this here.

In this week’s Amicus Plus segment, Dahlia is joined by Slate’s Mark Joseph Stern to discuss the big fat settlement Dominion got in its defamation case against Fox News, and why it feels so unsatisfying, the religious liberty case you probably missed at the court this week, Groff v DeJoy. They also talk about how Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s continued absence from the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Senate Democrats’ workarounds for it, are like bringing a bubble blower to a knife fight.

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Anti-Abortion Lawyers Love this Zombie Law

Sat, 15 Apr 2023 07:00:00 GMT

There’s a terrible legal Easter egg in Judge Matthew J. Kacsmaryk’s ruling on the abortion medication, Mifepristone. And that same Easter egg makes an appearance in the Fifth Circuit’s partial stay. It’s the Comstock Act - a mostly forgotten 19th century vice statute that is suddenly the anti-abortion movement’s favorite zombie legislation. On a special extra episode of Amicus, Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Mary Ziegler, an expert on the law, history, and politics of reproduction, health care, and conservatism in the United States from 1945 to the present. Together, they tackle the chaos upon chaos of the past week’s medication abortion cases, and take a long hard look at the next steps in the anti-abortion movement’s fight for a nationwide ban.

In this week’s Amicus Plus segment, Dahlia is joined by Slate’s Mark Joseph Stern to discuss the “quid pro Crow” of Justice Clarence Thomas’ real estate deals with GOP mega donor, and avid court-watcher, and amicus-brief-funder Harlan Crow.

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Tennessee-Style Power Grabs are Coming to a State House Near You

Sat, 08 Apr 2023 07:00:00 GMT

On this week’s Amicus Dahlia Lithwick is first joined by Sherrilyn Ifill, former President and Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, to talk about Tennessee and the mounting evidence of Republican state houses and governors finding novel (but also depressingly old) ways to disenfranchise voters and subvert democracy. Ifill sounded the alarm about all of this in a prescient piece in Slate last month that deserves your attention.

Next, Dahlia is joined by Professor Stephen Vladeck on the opaque, unquestioned, and largely unquestionable, Supreme Court processes that undergird conservative contempt for the rule of law. Professor Vladeck’s book, The Shadow Docket -

How the Supreme Court Uses Stealth Rulings to Amass Power and Undermine the Republic is out in May.

In this week’s Amicus Plus segment, Dahlia is joined by Slate’s Mark Joseph Stern. There was, categorically, Too Much News this week, so Dahlia turned to Mark for an exclusive conversation for Slate Plus members about all the stuff we couldn’t cram into an already jam-packed main show. They start with what’s really not happening, and that is Supreme Court decisions - it’s April and there has been a mere smattering of decisions from the High Court. Mark and Dahlia try to figure out what the looming logjam might mean. Next, they talk yacht etiquette, gift grift, and Justice Clarence Thomas’ law breaking. And… Hey! Remember Wisconsin? It’s a big deal - Mark and Dahlia delve into why. Finally, the Supreme Court may not be issuing decisions, but it did deny a petition to overturn a stay of West Virginia’s extreme trans athlete ban. Mark has more on that decision and the shortcomings of a new Biden regulation about trans athletes.

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What To Expect When You're Expecting An Indictment

Sat, 25 Mar 2023 07:00:00 GMT

On this week’s Amicus, Dahlia Lithwick talks with Andrew Weissmann, former lead prosecutor in Robert S. Mueller’s Special Counsel’s Office and former Chief of the Fraud Section in the Department of Justice from 2015 - 2019.

Together, they tackle the tangled web of investigations into the former President, and the trajectory of possible indictments. And Andrew helps us hone in on some crucial details we may have missed in the fog of building barricades outside the Manhattan Criminal Courthouse.

Andrew Weissmann’s book, Where Law Ends, was published by Random House in 2021

In this week’s Amicus Plus segment, Dahlia is joined by Slate’s Mark Joseph Stern to understand how Trump judges could tank the economy, the latest on abortion in states trying grapple with the (entirely predictable) deadly consequences of the Dobbs decision, and why all this underlines why the Wisconsin Supreme Court election really matters.

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Lessons from The Trump Years for SCOTUS

Sat, 11 Mar 2023 08:00:00 GMT

Dahlia Lithwick is joined by political analyst Michael Podhorzer (ex AFL-CIO, now newly-minted substacker). Michael was one of the all-hands-on-deck responsible for shoring up the 2020 election against subversion, he’s a political data geek, and for Amicus’s purposes - he’s someone with a fascinating take on the Supreme Court, and all the ways we fail to truly understand it. Hear why Michael doesn't care about Leonard Leo, the lessons learned in the Trump years that we should be applying to the court, and the overarching agenda that both motivates and shapes the court’s jurisprudence.

In this week’s Amicus Plus segment, Mark Joseph Stern is away, so Dahlia is joined by the Award Winning™ Leah Litman to talk about loan forgiveness and major questions, the Texas suit being brought by women seriously harmed by the state's abortion ban, and the alarming implications of an amicus brief in an Indiana abortion case that questions the religious sincerity of, well, anyone who backs abortion rights.

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SCOTUS on the Internet: “It’s Complicated”

Sat, 25 Feb 2023 08:00:00 GMT

For every person screaming about Section 230 (looking at you, Ted Cruz), there are approximately 0.0000001 Danielle Citrons, i.e. folks who actually understand it, what it does, and how it might be tweaked or interpreted to do better. Luckily, we have a whole Professor Danielle Citron on this week’s show. Professor Citron not only manages to make sense of Section 230 for us, she also takes us through this week's internet cases involving Twitter and Google, and content moderation and liability. She explains how eight out of nine justices apparently failed to read the briefs, instead deciding on an "it's so hard" shruggy head-scratch strategy instead. Danielle Citron’s latest book is The Fight for Privacy: Protecting Dignity, Identity, and Love in the Digital Age.

In this week’s Amicus Plus segment, Dahlia is joined by Slate’s Mark Joseph Stern to look ahead to next week’s arguments about the Biden administration’s student debt forgiveness program, and to romp through some of the decisions that came down from the Supreme Court this week. Finally, Mark and Dahlia reflect on the results of the primaries in the race to elect a new Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice. Could it be a Mark and Dahlia Amicus plus segment that is not all bad news?

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The "Stop the Steal" Fight That Never Ended

Sat, 11 Feb 2023 08:00:00 GMT

Wisconsin’s State Supreme Court heard one of the landmark cases of the 2020 presidential election. During oral arguments in Trump v Biden in December 2020, Justice Jill J Karofsky participated in proceedings via Zoom from her office inside the state capitol in Madison. Outside her office window, she could see armed protesters gathered in what she later viewed as a dry run for January 6th. In a 4-3 decision, with one Republican justice siding against Trump, the Wisconsin Supreme Court voted to uphold Biden’s victory in the state. On this week’s Amicus, Justice Karofsky speaks for the first time about the fallout from that case: Fallout in her personal life, for herself and loved ones. Fallout in her professional life, with an investigation and the threat of sanction for her line of questioning in oral argument. And beyond all that, the fallout for democracy—and for the role of jurists within that democracy.

In this week’s Amicus Plus segment, Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Slate’s Mark Joseph Stern to discuss the originalist Second Amendment ruling that puts women’s lives at risk, the looming prospect of a potential nationwide ban on a widely used, FDA-approved, abortion pill, and how the future of jurisprudence appears to be competing time machines.

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Absolutely No One Is Happy With the Dobbs Leak Investigation

Sat, 28 Jan 2023 08:00:00 GMT

First, there was the Dobbs case. Then there was the leaked opinion in the Dobbs case. Then there was the investigation into the leaked opinion in the Dobbs case. Then there was the report on the investigation into the leak. Then there was the supplemental report from the Marshal on the report on the investigation into the leak. AND THEN there was the revealing reporting from the NY Times’ Jodi Kantor on a court roiled by reports and investigating and leaks. This week, Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Jodi Kantor to dig through the reports, reporting and repercussions for the people who are inside One, First Street, and for the baffled majority who aren’t.

In this week’s Amicus Plus segment, Dahlia is joined by Slate’s Mark Joseph Stern to try to figure out why it’s taking so long for SCOTUS to hand down opinions this term, and to examine the very first decision of the term, disappointing in its unanimity and its negative impact on veterans.

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The Labor Case Before SCOTUS Has Big Implications for Democracy

Sat, 14 Jan 2023 08:00:00 GMT

The Supreme Court of the United States got back into the swing of things its first week back after New Years, with a case about cement workers and the rights of organized labor. The “swing” the court was getting “back into” with this case was potential precedent-busting. Dahlia Lithwick is joined on this week’s show by Terri Gerstein, director of the State and Local Enforcement Project at Harvard Law School’s Center for Labor and a Just Economy, to discuss what this case could mean for worker’s rights, and for democracy more broadly.

Next, Dahlia is joined by Brad Meltzer, a serial best selling author of so many kinds of books. This week Brad has two books coming out, I Am John Lewis for the kids, and The Nazi Conspiracy - The Secret Plot to Kill Roosevelt, Stalin, and Churchill. Brad and Dahlia discuss legal writing, book bans, and what these two seemingly very different books have in common.

In this week’s Amicus Plus segment, Dahlia is joined by Slate’s Mark Joseph Stern for an update on abortion legislation at the state and national level. They discuss the smoke and mirrors of the new republican house majority’s “Born Alive” Bill, and the devastating fallout if Virginia’s 15 week ban gets passed.

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Why are We Still Obsessed with Roe v Wade?

Sat, 31 Dec 2022 08:00:00 GMT

For some, 2022 was the year Roe v Wade was overturned. For millions more, abortions rights had been functionally inaccessible for decades. Beyond shaky precedent, Roe was a vessel into which America threw all sorts of hopes, beliefs and fears. But how did this legal decision become a symbol of so much? On this week’s show, host Dahlia Lithwick is joined by abortion law expert Mary Ziegler, who’s new book, Roe: The History of a National Obsession, tries to find the roots of Roe’s incessant pull, and to unpack the meaning from the meta.

In this week’s Amicus Plus segment - the worst of jurisprudence 2022. In a year marked by quite a few legal gut punches, Dahlia is joined by Mark Joseph Stern to run through the most bonkers rulings from the most out-of-control federal judges. They also find a path to hope for justice in 2023.

Want a behind-the-scenes look at how we create the show? Check out Slate's Pocket Collections for research and reading lists, as well as additional insights into how we think about the stories behind the episodes.

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“Is This How We Do Law Now?”

Sat, 17 Dec 2022 08:00:00 GMT

The highest court in the land has ignored the need for standing, the trial record, and of course precedent this past year––and it matters. Host Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Sherrilyn Ifill, former president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, and a senior fellow at the Ford Foundation. They discuss Sherrilyn’s thought-provoking piece this month in the New York Review of Books, which opens out into a big-picture discussion of what this Supreme Court’s tendency to reach out and grab cases, and erase trial records, or fill in the blanks on standing, even on claims, means for whose voices are heard at the highest court in the land, and who merits consideration in its decisions.

In this week’s Amicus Plus segment, Dahlia is joined by Mark Joseph Stern to talk about oral arguments in the big elections case concerning the Independent State Legislature Theory (Moore v. Harper), and in the Oregon wedding website case that threatens civil rights public-accommodations law (303 Creative), plus the Washington right-wing party circuit’s special guest du jour, Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

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The Blockbuster Case You Probably Haven’t Heard About

Sat, 03 Dec 2022 08:00:00 GMT

When Christian conservatives lost in Masterpiece Cake Shop back in 2018, they regrouped and picked up the trail of breadcrumbs from Justice Clarence Thomas’ dissent that suggested a freedom of speech approach. Next week, the Supreme Court will hear arguments in 303 Creative v Elenis - another case that takes aim at Colorado’s anti discrimination laws. This time, arguments about whether a website designer has the right to advertise that she will not design websites for same-sex weddings, will be focused on freedom of speech. But as this week’s guest, Hila Keren, argues, excluding people from the marketplace and humiliating them in the process is not a matter of free speech, and it is a matter progressives have been largely silent about. Together, Dahlia Lithwick and Professor Keren dig deep into a case that hasn’t been given the attention its potential wide-ranging consequences demand.

In this week’s Amicus Plus segment, Dahlia is joined by Mark Joseph Stern to talk about another big case - this past week’s arguments in US v Texas, including brazen judge-shopping, nationwide injunction-slapping, and President Biden’s immigration policy. Then Mark explains exactly what is - and isn’t - in the same sex marriage bill that’s making its way to President Biden’s desk.

Dahlia’s book Lady Justice: Women, the Law and the Battle to Save America, is also available as an audiobook, and Amicus listeners can get a 25% discount by entering the code “AMICUS” at checkout.

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Religious Liberty and the Right to Vacation in Jackson Hole

Wed, 23 Nov 2022 08:00:00 GMT

When the New York Times built on previous reporting in Politico and Rolling Stone about an evangelical christian ministry that sought to sell access to and influence Supreme Court Justices with fancy dinners and donations, the Hobby Lobby leak dominated the headlines. But there is so much more to this story. To discuss how the headlines fit into a larger narrative of dark money and a captured court, Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island. Senator Whitehouse is Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Federal Courts, Oversight, Agency Action, and Federal Rights and co-author of The Scheme: How the Right Wing Used Dark Money to Capture the Supreme Court

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When You Take Away the Kids, You Take Away the Future

Sat, 19 Nov 2022 08:00:00 GMT

On this week’s Amicus, the case that threatens the Indian Child Welfare Act, but also threatens domino effects on tribal sovereignty and land rights. Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Rebecca Nagle, a Cherokee writer, advocate & language learner. Nagle is host of This Land podcast. Season 2 of the podcast was a deep and broad investigation into the background of the case at hand. Maggie Blackhawk also lends her expertise to the discussion, Professor Blackhawk (Find du Lac Band of Lake Superior Ojibwe) is professor of law at NYU and an award-winning interdisciplinary scholar and teacher of constitutional law, federal Indian law, and legislation, Together, they delve through a veritable grab bag of constitutional challenges from the plaintiffs in Brackeen v Haaland. Listen up, you’re about to learn a lot, we did.

In this week’s Amicus Plus segment, Dahlia is joined by Mark Joseph Stern to talk about how a Georgia judge overturned that state’s abortion ban, President Biden’s record and prospects for confirming judges, and death penalty cruelty on the shadow docket again.

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Affirmative Action on the Chopping Block

Sat, 05 Nov 2022 07:00:00 GMT

Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Professor Cara McClellan, former counsel at NAACP LDF, and founding Director of the Advocacy for Racial and Civil Justice Clinic, at University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School. Professor McClellan takes us through an extensive trial record largely ignored in oral arguments at SCOTUS this past week.

Then, Dahlia is joined by David Rothkopf whose book, American Resistance: The inside story of how the deep state saved the nation, details the folks who stuck around and tried to hold the line during the Trump years, and what we can learn from them.

In this week’s Amicus Plus segment, Dahlia is joined by Mark Joseph Stern to talk about the judges pushing back in gun cases post Bruen, and the lower courts defying Supreme Court precedent as they seek to curtail LGBTQ rights.

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The Supreme Court Case that Could Upend Democracy

Sat, 22 Oct 2022 07:00:00 GMT

Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Judge Michael Luttig for the definitive conversation on a giant elections case now on the calendar at the Supreme Court. Moore v Harper is a North Carolina redistricting case that is also a vehicle for the Independent State Legislature Theory - a so-called doctrine that could radically re-order democracy in America. Judge Luttig - a stalwart of conservative legal circles for decades - will argue the case as co-counsel alongside former Acting Solicitor General under Obama, Neal Katyal.

In this week’s Amicus Plus segment, Dahlia is joined by Mark Joseph Stern to talk about the blossoming of bonkers gun cases in the wake of last term’s SCOTUS decision in Bruen, a big case concerning consumer protections and much more…

Dahlia’s new book Lady Justice: Women, the Law and the Battle to Save America, is also available as an audiobook, and Amicus listeners can get a 25% discount by entering the code “AMICUS” at checkout.

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Bonus: Time to Celebrate Some Wins

Tue, 18 Oct 2022 08:00:00 GMT

Dahlia Lithwick is on the road with Amicus and Lady Justice. In this bonus episode, she’s joined by Loyola Law Professor, legal commentator and columnist Jessica Levinson for a conversation about what we can learn from the women lawyers who held the line during the Trump years, and how to respond to the steady drum beat of “Lock Her Up” threatening women around America today.

The conversation is available in full for Slate Plus members.

Dahlia’s new book Lady Justice: Women, the Law and the Battle to Save America,

Lady Justice is also available as an audiobook, and Amicus listeners can get a 25% discount by entering the code “AMICUS” at checkout. :https://books.supportingcast.fm/lady-justice

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Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson Gives SCOTUS a History Lesson

Sat, 08 Oct 2022 07:00:00 GMT

Dahlia Lithwick is joined by two key players from this week’s consequential voting rights cases at the US Supreme Court. The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund’s senior counsel Deuel Ross argued part of Merrill v Milligan at the High Court on Tuesday, and Evan Milligan of Alabama Forward is the named plaintiff in one of a pair of cases that argued that Alabama’s congressional maps are racially gerrymandered in violation of Section II of the Voting Rights Act. They take listeners inside the arguments, and provide vital context for the challenges faced by residents of Alabama’s Black Belt in accessing healthcare, infrastructure and not coincidentally, political representation.

Next, Dahlia is joined by Sam Sankar, Senior Vice President of Programs at Earth Justice to discuss what went down in Sackett v EPA, a case argued Monday that could have wide-ranging effects on the waters and wetlands of the United States.

In this week’s Amicus Plus segment, Dahlia is joined by Mark Joseph Stern to talk about the new dynamics of arguments with Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson taking her seat at the High Court, the conservative reaction to their favorite text and history rubric being applied by the first African American woman on the court (huh, they don’t love it?), and what to expect from a new filing in the Mar A Lago investigation that’s on its way to 1, First Street.

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A Hair-Raising SCOTUS Curtain-Raiser

Sat, 01 Oct 2022 07:00:00 GMT

Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Slate’s Mark Joseph Stern and Jay Willis of Balls and Strikes for a preview of the big cases headed our way this Supreme Court term. They tackle cases concerning voting rights, indigenous rights, environmental protection and affirmative action, before turning their attention to the tricky business of covering a court that is radically changed and how the traditionally deferential Supreme Court press corps needs to update its methods and reporting in response.

Dahlia’s new book Lady Justice: Women, the Law and the Battle to Save America, is also available as an audiobook, and Amicus listeners can get a 25% discount by going to slate.com/justice and entering the code “AMICUS” at checkout.

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Listen to Lady Justice

Mon, 26 Sep 2022 07:00:00 GMT

Dahlia Lithwick’s new book Lady Justice: Women, the Law and the Battle to Save America, tells the story of the women lawyers who stood up to Trump and stood up for those unseen and unrepresented by a brutal presidency, and the stories of the women who will fight on in the wake of life-altering decisions from a radicalized Supreme Court.

Lady Justice is also available as an audiobook, and Amicus listeners can get a 25% discount by entering the code “AMICUS” at checkout. https://books.supportingcast.fm/lady-justice

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The Sound of Worms Turning

Sat, 24 Sep 2022 07:00:00 GMT

Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Mark Joseph Stern for a romp through the jurisprudential headlines. It’s been a week. Highlights include: Donald Trump’s legal woes in the Mar-a-Lago classified documents investigation, and at the hands of New York Attorney General Tish James’ civil suit.

Then, we’re live at Politics and Prose in Washington DC, with a conversation between Dahlia Lithwick and Professor Michele Goodwin about women, the law and the rule of law. They discuss Dahlia’s new book Lady Justice: Women, the Law and the Battle to Save America, the day Dahlia decided to stop covering the Supreme Court from the inside, what the law can do for justice, and what it can’t.

Lady Justice is also available as an audiobook, and Amicus listeners can get a 25% discount by entering the code “AMICUS” at checkout. :https://books.supportingcast.fm/lady-justice

If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get an ad-free experience across the network and exclusive content on many shows—you’ll also be supporting the work we do here on Amicus. Sign up now at slate.com/amicusplus to help support our work.

In this week’s Amicus Plus segment, Dahlia and Slate’s Mark Joseph Stern also delve into retired Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer’s comments about Dobbs and the court’s legitimacy, and the death penalty decision that came down Thursday and what it tells us about Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s jurisprudence.

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Lady Justice and Charlottesville Nazis

Sat, 17 Sep 2022 07:00:00 GMT

Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Roberta Kaplan, who along with co-counsel Karen Dunn brought a successful civil suit against twenty-four neo-Nazi and white supremacist leaders responsible for organizing the racial- and religious-based violence in Charlottesville in August 2017. They discuss how the KKK Act of 1871 applied to discord channels and now January 6th defendants. And they explore the complicated relationship women find themselves in with the law in this moment, as defenders of rights but also as constitutional afterthoughts. Dahlia Lithwick’s new book is Lady Justice: Women, the Law and the Battle to Save America.

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The Law v Lawless Edition

Sat, 10 Sep 2022 07:00:00 GMT

Dahlia is joined by Mary Trump and Norm Ornstein to discuss how a single Trump-appointed judge’s attempt to stick a fork in the Justice Department’s criminal investigation into potential mishandling of classified materials, is part of a systemic story about American justice. And they discuss the kinds of reform needed to protect democracy and repair the judiciary. And how to handle our collective trauma so we can get it all done.

In this week’s Amicus Plus segment, Dahlia is joined by Mark Joseph Stern to talk about lawlessness at Mar a Lago, whether lawlessness at Mar-a-Lago, the Texas judge whose order this week nominally aims to cut access to HIV preventative medications, but is also setting his sights (again) on cratering the Affordable Care Act, and they probe if the current outbreak of reckless judging can be inoculated or will continue to spread unchecked.

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The Clash Between Privacy and Freedom of the Press

Sat, 27 Aug 2022 07:00:00 GMT

Law Professor and former journalist Amy Gajda joins Dahlia Lithwick to discuss her latest book, Seek and Hide: The Tangled History of the Right to Privacy. They chart a course through early conceptions of privacy to today’s fraught battles over privacy and dignity in the age of surveillance capitalism.

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Judge Victoria Pratt's The Power of Dignity

Sat, 13 Aug 2022 07:00:00 GMT

The quality of dignity is not strained. Judge Victoria Pratt presided for years over Municipal Court in Newark, New Jersey. Her experiences form the foundation of her book, The Power of Dignity: How Transforming Justice Can Heal Our Communities. In the third of Amicus’ summer season of big-picture conversations, Dahlia Lithwick and Judge Pratt explore what everyone, up to and including Supreme Court Justices, can learn from procedural justice, also known as procedural fairness. You can watch Judge Pratt’s viral Ted Talk here.

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What the Dobbs Decision Means to Me

Sat, 30 Jul 2022 07:00:00 GMT

In the second of Amicus’ Summer Series of interviews that step out of the day to day of jurisprudence to look at justice and the Supreme Court through a wide-angle lens, Dahlia Lithwick is joined by actor and playwright Heidi Schreck. Schreck created and starred in the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award - nominated “What the Constitution Means to Me” and is a fierce advocate for abortion rights. Together, they try to locate the spot at the intersection of politics, law, culture, media and art that might provide a space to adequately describe the impacts of the Dobbs decision. And that is where they find the galvanizing forces and creative feats of imagination that have served previous generations in the fight for equal rights, and that will fuel the fight to come.

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Eric Holder's Supreme Court Protest

Sat, 16 Jul 2022 07:00:00 GMT

Dahlia Lithwick is joined by former Attorney General Eric Holder as Amicus begins its summer season while the Supreme Court is in recess. General Holder describes his feelings when, as President Barack Obama’s Attorney General, he realized he could not in good conscience take part in the long-held tradition of the AG arguing an “easy case” before the Supreme Court. The issue? That same court had just eviscerated the Voting Rights Act in a case that will forever bear his name: Shelby County v Holder. General Holder wants us to take the steps beyond anger at the assault on voting rights, and move forward with joy toward action. His book, Our Unfinished March, is both a history of how voting rights became broken, and an action plan for delivering the promise of democracy: that the people pick their leaders.

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A Supreme Court Term Like No Other

Sat, 09 Jul 2022 07:00:00 GMT

Dahlia Lithwick hosts Amicus’ annual term-ending breakfast table conversation, featuring Slate’s own Mark Joseph Stern, Professor Katherine Franke and Professor Nikolas Bowie. They dig into the biggest decisions of the term, and step back to survey where the court is headed, and where it’s already been.

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SCOTUS Wraps, Precedent Collapses, and KBJ Takes her Oath

Sat, 02 Jul 2022 07:00:00 GMT

The term is over, and the ground upon which all Americans stood, has fundamentally shifted. Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Professor Dorothy Roberts to discuss the reality of forced birth and family separation upon marginalized peoples in America. Dorothy is the author of Torn Apart: How the Child Welfare System Destroys Black Families--and How Abolition Can Build a Safer World, and of Killing the Black Body: Race, Reproduction, and the Meaning of Liberty.

Then, Dahlia talks to Amy Westervelt of Drilled podcast to find out what West Virginia v EPA means for climate action, and the places the Biden Administration could still make progress.

For a behind the scenes look into some of the articles we read when we create the show, check out our Pocket collection at http://getpocket.com/slate.

Slate plus listeners will also have access to Dahlia’s conversation with Mark Joseph Stern, where they dig into some of the cases we couldn’t reach in the main show, including the Remain in Mexico decision and the alarming implications of the court taking up Moore v. Harper, which is all about the Independent State Legislature theory.

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Bonus: Praying at the 50 Yard Line and Dunking on the Libs

Tue, 28 Jun 2022 00:00:00 GMT

Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern on Kennedy v Bremerton School District: a referendum on the status of truth at the high court, and another nail in the coffin of the establishment clause.

Slate Plus members have access to the whole interview.

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Just Doing The Job They Were Put On The Court To Do

Sat, 25 Jun 2022 07:00:00 GMT

Well it happened, Roe v Wade has been swept away and Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Mary Ziegler, a law professor at the University of California, Davis, and the author of “Dollars for Life: The Anti-Abortion Movement and the Fall of the Republican Establishment.”

And then we turn to the other blockbuster decision this week, in New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v Bruen. Dahlia talks to the Duke Center for Firearms Law, Joseph Blocher.

In this week’s Amicus Plus segment, Dahlia and Slate’s Mark Joseph Stern process more of the fallout from Dobbs and Bruen, and also examine the other blockbuster-in-normal-times case that almost escaped notice.

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Bonus: Carson v Makin

Thu, 23 Jun 2022 00:30:00 GMT

Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern react to the Supreme Court’s decision in Carson v Makin, a blockbuster religious liberty case that sees the court traveling a long way in a short time, and trampling the establishment clause along the way,

Slate Plus members have access to the whole interview.

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Somewhere, John Roberts is Screaming into an Expensive Pillow

Sat, 18 Jun 2022 07:00:00 GMT

Dahlia Lithwick is joined by CNN legal analyst Joan Biskupic and election law Professor Richard Hasen for what could be called “Amicus: Wheels Coming Off Edition”. We’re still waiting for a bevy of blockbuster decisions, and despite Chief Justice John Roberts’ solemn wish to steady the ship, events at the January 6th select committee seem destined to scupper it. Joan, Rick and Dahlia talk about what’s to come in the most unusual last two weeks of June at the court that any of them can remember.

In this week’s Amicus Plus segment, Dahlia and Slate’s Mark Joseph Stern on why everybody needs to stop saying “today is the day we get Dobbs” (and why that day is likely to be the last possible day this term), on how this court overturns precedent without overturning precedent, plus Justices Barrett and Gorsuch go at it - some of the time.

Find the What Next episode Mark mentions with Leah Litman here.

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The January 6th Committee Revelations You Might Have Missed

Sat, 11 Jun 2022 07:00:00 GMT

Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Ryan Goodman, professor of Law at NYU and co-editor-in-chief of Just Security. While we wait for the High Court to release opinions in a heaving pile of cases, the main constitutional action of the week was in Congress. Ryan Goodman has been piecing together the events of January 6th, and what led to it, for the past year and a half with colleagues at Just Security and Protect Democracy. Goodman leads Dahlia through what we heard from the January 6th select committee on Thursday night: what was new, what was big, and the emerging roadmap for Attorney General Merrick Garland.

In this week’s Amicus Plus segment, Dahlia and Slate’s Mark Joseph Stern run down the SCOTUS decisions we got this week - including a stunning decision this week allowing border agents almost limitless protection from lawsuits for bad behavior.

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Our Guns Problem is a Democracy Problem

Sat, 04 Jun 2022 07:00:00 GMT

Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Mark Joseph Stern to tee up the final weeks of the Supreme Court term. Several blockbusters are still to come, from abortion to gun rights to religious liberty to climate action—and then there’s the shadow docket. Mark and Dahlia break it all down with insights into what to expect and what to watch for.

Dahlia also spoke with former Attorney General Eric Holder this week, and he made the clear and urgent case that if you want gun reform, you need to work on democracy reform. Attorney General Holder will be back on Amicus in July to talk about his book for our summer reading series.

In this week’s Amicus Plus segment, as the Supreme Court investigates clerks over the Dobbs leak, and in the wake of the revelations of Ginni Thomas’ involvement in efforts to overturn the 2020 election, Dahlia is in conversation with Noah Bookbinder of CREW about how to fix judicial ethics.

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When a Shooter Comes to Your School

Sat, 28 May 2022 07:00:00 GMT

In light of the Uvalde school shooting, we’re rebroadcasting a special audio presentation from Amicus that originally aired in 2018. Dahlia Lithwick spoke to three educators who survived gun violence at their schools. Heather Martin was a student at Columbine during the 1999 mass shooting; Mary Ann Jacob was library clerk at Sandy Hook at the time of the 2012 shooting; and Ken Yuers was a teacher at Rancho Tehama Elementary School when it suffered a school shooting in 2017. They discussed what they experienced, what it was like going back to the classroom, and what they want changed.

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Why the Coming January 6th Hearings are So Important

Sat, 21 May 2022 07:00:00 GMT

Dahlia is joined by Ambassador Norm Eisen to discuss The Big Picture: democracy, the Rule of Law and the new volume he has co-written and edited, Overcoming Trumpery: How to Restore Ethics, the Rule of Law, and Democracy. Norm and Dahlia look back to January 6th 2021, and ahead to the coming hearings and the midterms.

In this week’s Amicus Plus segment, Dahlia is joined by Mark Joseph Stern to talk about Ted Cruz’s victory at the Supreme Court, and what it means for what’s left of campaign finance law, the stunning decision out of the 5th circuit that questions the constitutionality of, well, pretty much the whole of the civil service… And Oklahoma’s new abortion ban law that picks up Texas’ vigilante reproductive regulation and runs with it.

We'll be back with another episode of Amicus on June 4th, when we’ll start coming to you weekly as the Supreme Court’s term hurtles to its conclusion and we are deluged with consequential decisions. Hoping you can join us to try to navigate the last few weeks of the term, and its fallout.

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Learning from Pre-Roe to Navigate Post-Roe

Thu, 05 May 2022 07:00:00 GMT

In a special live panel discussion in partnership with the Crosscut Festival, this week’s Amicus tackles the post-leak landscape and potential post-Roe fallout from Justice Samuel Alito’s draft opinion in Dobbs. An all-star panel, featuring law professor and podcast host Melissa Murray, journalist and bestselling author Jessica Bruder, and Slate’s news director Susan Matthews—host of the upcoming Season 7 of Slow Burn focusing on the road to Roe v Wade—get together to discuss the past, present, and future of reproductive liberty.

Podcast production by Sara Burningham.

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The (draft) Opinion of the Court on Abortion

Wed, 04 May 2022 07:00:00 GMT

In a special episode for Slate Plus members, Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Slate’s Mark Joseph Stern for in-depth analysis of the stunning leaked draft opinion from Justice Samuel Alito in Dobbs v Jackson Women's Health Organization, the abortion case that is poised to overturn 50 years of jurisprudence and Roe v Wade.

Podcast production by Sara Burningham.

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Rewriting Statutes Via Courts

Sat, 23 Apr 2022 07:00:00 GMT

On this episode of Amicus – in studio edition! – host Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Professor

Lawrence O. Gostin, professor of global health law, at Georgetown University, among many other things. They talk about the federal district court in Florida’s decision to lift the mask mandate for public transportation. While it may seem like a small deal given that the mandate was set to expire in a few weeks anyway, the decision was built on a very labored and tortured interpretation of the word “sanitation.” Professor Gostin explains that this case could have a chilling effect on government agencies. They also discuss why the decision by the Biden administration to appeal involved a lot of political calculous.

In our Slate Plus segment, Dahlia is joined by Mark Joseph Stern to talk about a death penalty decision at the Supreme Court and an upcoming case about school prayer.

Podcast production by Cheyna Roth.

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Fundamental Rights Doublespeak

Sat, 09 Apr 2022 07:00:00 GMT

On the great legal history episode of Amicus, host Dahlia Lithwick is joined first by David Gans, director of the Human Rights, Civil Rights, and Citizenship Program at the Constitutional Accountability Center. While GOP Senators used the Ketanji Brown Jackson hearings to take potshots at important ideas like unenumerated rights and substantive due process to score points with their base, the talking points became entrenched in political discourse. Does it matter? Of course it does.

Later in the show, Dahlia is joined by Rund Abdelfatah co-host and producer of NPR’s podcast Throughline. The podcast explores the history behind current events. Dahlia and Rund talk about Throughline’s episode Pirates of the Senate to take a closer look at the history behind the filibuster, and explore why so many of our ideas about the filibuster are just plain wrong.

In our Slate Plus segment, Dahlia is joined by Mark Joseph Stern on the Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson confirmation, a case creating a new constitutional bar against malicious prosecution, and more shadow docket shenanigans.

Podcast production by Sara Burningham and Cheyna Roth.

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Ketanji Brown Jackson: Asked and Answered

Sat, 26 Mar 2022 07:00:00 GMT

It was a week: Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s confirmation hearings, Justice Clarence Thomas in the hospital, Ginni Thomas’ tweets in the hands of the Jan. 6 committee, and an out-of-the-blue redistricting decision on the shadow docket.

First, Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Angela Onwuachi-Willig, dean of Boston University Law School, to discuss why the Senate Judiciary Committee is a terrible venue for a job interview and the ways in which Judge Jackson rose above it.

Next, Dahlia talks to Nate Persily of Stanford Law School about how the hearing interacts with the bigger picture of disinformation ecosystems, Ginni Thomas’ texts, and fills us in on the Wisconsin redistricting case. Finally, they discuss Prof. Persily’s almost 40-year friendship with Ketanji Brown Jackson.

In our Slate Plus segment, Dahlia and Mark Joseph Stern dig into judicial ethics and what shocked them this week.

Podcast production by Sara Burningham.

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A Ketanji Brown Jackson Confirmation-Hearing Preview

Sat, 19 Mar 2022 07:00:00 GMT

In a Slate Plus-exclusive episode, Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern look ahead to next week’s hearings and lend their expert opinions on what’s likely to come up, what really matters, and who’s got the whole thing upside down.

Podcast production by Sara Burningham.

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Anita Hill on the Supreme Court’s Future

Sat, 12 Mar 2022 08:00:00 GMT

Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Professor Anita Hill to discuss confirmation hearings past and future, the unfinished work of equality, and whether the current Supreme Court can be part of that work.

In our Slate Plus segment, Slate’s senior jurisprudence editor Nicole Lewis and senior writer Mark Joseph Stern discuss the worrying news buried in a shadow docket “win” for redistricting, a unanimous decision Monday, and the judges who seem intent on threatening national security by meddling with the military.

Podcast production by Sara Burningham.

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Why “Cheap Speech” Threatens Democracy

Sat, 05 Mar 2022 08:00:00 GMT

Election denialism and disinformation threaten the integrity of U.S. elections, but what can we do about this growing crisis? In this week’s Amicus, Dahlia Lithwick talks to election-law professor Rick Hasen about his new book Cheap Speech: How Disinformation Poisons Our Politics–and How to Cure It.

Slate Plus members have access to an extended version of this interview.

Podcast production by Sara Burningham.

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And the Nominee Is … Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson

Sat, 26 Feb 2022 08:00:00 GMT

As President Joe Biden announces his pick to replace Justice Stephen Breyer on the Supreme Court, Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Olivia Warren, a former clerk of nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, and Slate’s own Mark Joseph Stern to discuss Judge Jackson’s character, her qualifications, and the qualities she’ll bring to the highest court in the land if confirmed.

In our Slate Plus segment, members will hear more from Mark and Dahlia on the other big news of the week: the Supreme Court’s decision to take up a First Amendment case next term that could have sweeping implications for LGBTQ people—and for a lot of other folks besides. They also dig into Florida’s deeply disturbing “don’t say gay” legislation and Texas’ new vigilante directive targeting trans youth and their loved ones.

Podcast production by Sara Burningham.

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Politics Masquerading as Law

Sat, 12 Feb 2022 08:00:00 GMT

Dahlia Lithwick interviews Rep. Adam Schiff about his work on the Jan. 6 select committee and his fears for our democracy. Next, Dahlia is joined by pre-eminent election-law scholar Professor Franita Tolson, who clears up any confusion about what happened in the shadow-docket order concerning Merrill v Milligan, which appears to have kicked away the remaining protections of the Voting Rights Act’s Section II.

Slate Plus members will have access to Dahlia’s conversation with Mark Joseph Stern about shadow-docket shenanigans and Mark’s new beat: Madison Cawthorne, “everybody’s favorite insurrectionist-adjacent representative.”

Podcast production by Sara Burningham.

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Justice Breyer to Retire

Sat, 29 Jan 2022 08:00:00 GMT

As Justice Stephen Breyer announces his intention to step down from the Supreme Court, Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Judge Nancy Gertner to discuss why now, what now, and who now. Judge Gertner is a former federal judge, member of the White House’s Supreme Court Reform Commission, Harvard Law professor … and she’s known Justice Breyer for decades. They discuss what’s changed on the court and wax nostalgic about Justice Breyer and Justice Scalia’s Muppet stadium tour.

In our Slate Plus segment, Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Slate’s own Mark Joseph Stern to dig into some of the nastier commentary around possible nominees for Justice Breyer’s seat, and to figure out what the rest of the term might look like in light of this week’s news.

Podcast production by Sara Burningham.

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COVID in the Courtroom

Sat, 15 Jan 2022 08:00:00 GMT

In the wake of two major vaccine-mandate decisions at the high court this week, Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Andy Slavitt, former senior adviser to Biden’s White House pandemic response team. Slavitt was also the acting administrator of the Centers of Medicare and Medicaid Services from 2015 to 2017. He hosts the In the Bubble podcast, and is the author of Preventable: The Inside Story of How Leadership Failures, Politics, and Selfishness Doomed the U.S. Coronavirus Response.

In our Slate Plus segment, Dahlia is joined by Mark Joseph Stern for more analysis of the vaccine cases, plus a look at state efforts to bar participants in the Jan. 6 insurrection from office, several vitally important state Supreme ourt decisions and what they suggest, and the refusal of Neil Gorsuch to mask up at the high court.

Podcast production by Sara Burningham.

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2021 Was a Direct Response to 2020

Sat, 01 Jan 2022 08:00:00 GMT

Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Sherrilyn Ifill, president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, to reflect on the past year and her time at the head of the legendary civil rights organization as she prepares to step down in spring 2022.

In our Slate Plus segment, Dahlia is joined by Slate’s Mark Joseph Stern for the “Amicus Plus 2021 Hangover Edition,” in which they run down their biggest headaches from 2021 and look for signs of hope in the courts and the legal system for 2022.

Podcast production by Sara Burningham.

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Jan. 6: The Coup That Wasn’t, but Still Could Be

Sat, 18 Dec 2021 08:00:00 GMT

Almost a year later, are we seeing signs of some sort of accountability for the Jan. 6 insurrection? And why is that accountability so important and yet so hard to achieve? Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Walter Shaub, former director of the Office of Government Ethics, Shaub currently leads the Project on Government Oversight’s ethics initiative.

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Podcast production by Sara Burningham.

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The Purported Right to Abortion

Fri, 10 Dec 2021 22:00:00 GMT

Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Mark Joseph Stern for an emergency reading of the jurisprudential tea leaves in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decisions regarding Texas’ abortion ban, under SB8.

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Podcast production by Sara Burningham.

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Inside the Arguments in Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health

Sat, 04 Dec 2021 08:00:00 GMT

Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Julie Rikelman, senior director of litigation at the Center for Reproductive Rights, who argued for reproductive rights and liberty on behalf of Jackson Women’s Health in Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health at the Supreme Court this week. Together, they unpack the arguments and discuss the women missing from the narratives in the courtroom that day.

Then, Dahlia’s joined by Professor Katherine Franke, director of the Center for Gender and Sexuality Law at Columbia University and the founder and faculty director of the Law, Rights, and Religion Project at Columbia Law School. Professor Franke helps us examine how the Supreme Court’s conservative majority’s views on religious liberty undergirded Wednesday’s arguments, are set to influence the court’s jurisprudence, and will likely alter your constitutional rights.

In our Slate Plus segment, Slate’s own Mark Joseph Stern joins Dahlia for a frank discussion of the liberal justices’ performances in this week’s monumental abortion case, the gaslighting that maybe got us here, and then they look ahead to a big religious-liberty case coming up next week.

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Podcast production by Sara Burningham.

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Everybody Wants to Be Scalia

Sat, 20 Nov 2021 09:00:00 GMT

Dahlia Lithwick is joined by leading environmental lawyer and Harvard professor Richard Lazarus , author of The Rule of Five: Climate History at the Supreme Court, to discuss cases currently flying under many court-watchers’ radar, which could have a huge impact on our ability to respond to climate change.

In our Slate Plus segment, Slate’s senior jurisprudence editor Nicole Lewis joins Dahlia to discuss the Kyle Rittenhouse verdict, the criminal trial of Gregory and Travis McMichael and William Bryan in Georgia for the killing of Ahmaud Arbery, and the federal civil trial in Charlottesville of white supremacist groups, and what all three cases tell us about whiteness and justice in America.

Podcast production by Sara Burningham.

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Guns on the Subway and Vigilantes in Texas

Sat, 06 Nov 2021 10:00:00 GMT

Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Elizabeth Wydra, President of the Constitutional Accountability Center, a think tank, law firm, and action center dedicated to the project of using the original text, purpose and history of the Constitution to achieve progressive outcomes. Together, they take us inside the chamber for the big cases at the Supreme Court this week, concerning guns and abortion.

In our Slate Plus segment, Mark Joseph Stern joins Dahlia to discuss some significant orders concerning religious exemption and capital punishment, the cert grant that’s bad news for the climate, and whether some of the justices might be having a shadow docket hangover.

Podcast production by Sara Burningham

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The Supreme Court’s Role in Police Violence

Sat, 23 Oct 2021 10:00:00 GMT

Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Dean Erwin Chemerinsky of Berkeley Law School at the University of California to discuss a pair of brief opinions from the Supreme Court on qualified immunity for the police that came down this week. They hint that the high court may be ready to expand police immunity from lawsuits. Dean Chemerinsky’s new book, Presumed Guilty: How the Supreme Court Empowered the Police and Subverted Civil Rights, offers in-depth analysis of a legal regime in which, as he puts it “The police always win.”

In our Slate Plus segment, Mark Joseph Stern joins Dahlia to discuss the other comings and goings at the court, including Justice Clarence Thomas’s modeling of yet another apolitical justice who just happens to hang out with Sen. Mitch McConnell. No, you’re the partisan hack.

Podcast production by Sara Burningham.

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The Trump Court and the Roberts Court

Sat, 09 Oct 2021 10:00:00 GMT

Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Professor Lee Epstein, who studies judicial behavior using empirical legal research, to try to figure out what’s unprecedented partisanship and what’s clumsy PR from the justices as we embark upon a hugely consequential new Supreme Court term.

In our Slate Plus segment, Mark Joseph Stern joins Dahlia to talk about Justice Alito’s press-baiting speech last week, what’s happening with SB8, and to discuss whether we’re seeing some signs of accountability for some of the legal architects of former President Trump’s attempt to subvert the election.

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The Supreme Court’s Charm Offensive

Sat, 25 Sep 2021 10:00:00 GMT

Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Melissa Murray, Leah Litman, and Kate Shaw of the Strict Scrutiny podcast for a special Supreme Court term kick-off panel recorded at the Texas Tribune Festival. They tackle the big-ticket items facing the high court: abortion, guns, and maybe affirmative action. They also discuss the court’s struggle to shore up its legitimacy in the middle of a hard-right turn.

In our Slate Plus segment, Mark Joseph Stern joins Dahlia to thrash out what on earth is going on in all the various courts with Texas’ abortion law SB 8, how on earth the author of the how-to-do-a-coup memo is still a welcome after-dinner speaker in legal land, and what is Justice Stephen Breyer thinking, Part 483.

Podcast production by Sara Burningham.

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The Legal Repercussions of the War on Terror

Sat, 11 Sep 2021 10:00:00 GMT

This weekend marks the 20th anniversary of 9/11, and as the withdrawal from Afghanistan dominates the headlines, so does the conversation about the forever war and its implications. Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Baher Azmy, the legal director of the Center for Constitutional Rights. Azmy has been challenging the U.S. government repeatedly over the past two decades, litigating matters from the rights of Guantanamo detainees, to discriminatory policing practices, to government surveillance, to the rights of asylum seekers and accountability for victims of torture. Azmy is also the author of the chapter "Crisis Lawyering in a Lawless Space: Reflections on Nearly Two Decades of Representing Guantánamo Detainees" in the Crisis Lawyering collection from NYU Press.

In our Slate Plus segment, Dahlia is joined by Mark Joseph Stern to talk about a case concerning religious freedom in the execution chamber, which made it off the shadow docket and into the light of day. They also explore who on earth has standing in Texas’ SB 8 anti-abortion law.

Podcast production by Sara Burningham.

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Abortion, Surveillance, and Vigilantism: An American Story

Fri, 03 Sep 2021 10:00:00 GMT

Urgent times call for urgent conversations as Professor Michele Goodwin and Rebecca Traister join Dahlia Lithwick for an emergency Amicus to discuss

what’s new and what’s very old about SB 8, the law that allowed Texas to functionally overturn Roe v Wade. They also unpack what it really means when five justices on the Supreme Court hold up their hands as if to say “nothing we can do.”

Podcast production by Sara Burningham.

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Pauli Murray: Lawyer, Poet, Priest, Trailblazer

Sat, 28 Aug 2021 10:00:00 GMT

Dahlia Lithwick is joined by My Name Is Pauli Murray directors, Betsy West and Julie Cohen, and by Professor Patricia Bell-Scott, a consulting producer on the film and professor emerita of women’s studies and human development and family science at the University of Georgia. Professor Bell-Scott’s biography, The Firebrand and the First Lady: Portrait of a Friendship: Pauli Murray, Eleanor Roosevelt, and the Struggle for Social Justice,won the Lillian Smith Book Award.

In our Slate Plus segment, Mark Joseph Stern joins Dahlia to discuss this week’s terrible shadow docket decisions.

Podcast production by Sara Burningham.

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The Lawlessness of Property and Ownership

Sat, 14 Aug 2021 10:00:00 GMT

Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Professor Michael Heller, one of the authors of Mine! How the Hidden Rules of Ownership Control Our Lives, for the latest installment of Amicus’ summer season of episodes exploring books and films about the law.

Podcast production by Sara Burningham.

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“Braided In”: The Second Amendment and Anti-Blackness.

Sat, 31 Jul 2021 10:00:00 GMT

Continuing Amicus’ summer season of deep dives into books, films, and ideas beyond the confines of the Supreme Court chamber, Dahlia Lithwick is joined by historian and chair of African American studies at Emory University professor Carol Anderson to talk about her book The Second. They discuss the long anti-Black history of gun laws in the United States and how race defines gun rights today.

Podcast production by Sara Burningham.

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A To-Do List for Senate Democrats

Sat, 17 Jul 2021 10:00:00 GMT

In the first of Amicus’ summer season of conversations, Dahlia Lithwick tackles one of the major challenges of this moment: how to fix American democracy. Dahlia is joined by the Nation’s Elie Mystal and former chief of staff for Sen. Harry Reid and author of Kill Switch, Adam Jentleson. In a discussion that was taped as part of the Crosscut Festival, they discuss the filibuster, voting rights and court reform––and whether the Biden administration has left it too late to tackle all three.

Podcast production by Sara Burningham.

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An Elegy for the Voting Rights Act

Sat, 03 Jul 2021 10:00:00 GMT

A Supreme Court brain trust gathers for this year’s Amicus Breakfast Table. Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Melissa Murray, professor at NYU School of Law and co-host of the podcast Strict Scrutiny; Jeffrey Fisher, Stanford Law School professor and co-director of Stanford’s Supreme Court Litigation clinic; Perry Grossman*, senior staff attorney at the New York Civil Liberties Union’s Voting Rights Project; and of course, Slate’s own Mark Joseph Stern. Together, they analyze the shape of the court and the ramification of its decisions at the end of the 2020 term.

*Perry Grossman appeared on this podcast in a personal capacity, and views expressed do not necessarily represent the NYCLU.

Podcast production by Sara Burningham.

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Fulton: Bigger Than We Thought?

Fri, 18 Jun 2021 10:00:00 GMT

As the big decisions for the term start to cascade down from the high court, Dahlia Lithwick is joined by one of the nation’s foremost thinkers and writers about the Supreme Court: Dean Erwin Chemerinsky of Berkeley Law School. Together, they unravel the ruling on the Affordable Care Act, try to discern the significance of the unanimous decision in Fulton, and Dean Chemerinsky outlines why he’s calling on Justice Stephen Breyer to step down.

In our Slate Plus segment, Mark Joseph Stern explains the other big decision in Nestle v Doe, and whether the pessimism around Fulton is warranted.

Podcast production by Sara Burningham.

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From the Snapchat Cheerleader to Katie Porter’s Whiteboard

Sat, 05 Jun 2021 10:00:00 GMT

Dahlia Lithwick and Slate’s Mark Joseph Stern offer analysis of the big decisions due from SCOTUS any minute, and Dahlia hosts a conversation with Rep Katie Porter about the need for laws to shore up toppled norms.

In our Slate Plus segment, Mark returns to discuss the Stanford law student targeted by the Federalist Society. Nicholas Wallace nearly missed out on getting his diploma after fellow law students and the university mistook satire for defamation. Also Mark and Dahlia are getting “free speech for me but not for thee” tattoos.

Podcast production by Sara Burningham.

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The Conservative Legal Project Comes Home to Roost

Sat, 22 May 2021 10:00:00 GMT

Dahlia Lithwick is joined by two independent abortion providers, Amy Hagstrom Miller of Whole Women's Health and Tammi Kromenaker of Red River Women's Clinic, to share their reactions to two huge pieces of news in reproductive rights and health this week: the Supreme Court’s Dobbs grant, and SB8 in Texas. Then, Ian Milhiser of Vox and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island join Dahlia to discuss the courts and democracy, and why Clarence Thomas may be the most consequential justice for a generation.

In our Slate Plus segment, Mark Joseph Stern joins Dahlia to discuss why the justices feel emboldened to take up such blockbuster cases for next term.

Podcast production by Sara Burningham.

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Rudy and the Death of Truth

Sat, 08 May 2021 10:00:00 GMT

Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Preet Bharara, former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, host of Stay Tuned with Preet, and author of Doing Justice. Bharara gives an insider’s view of Rudy Giuliani’s current plight, they also discuss this week’s ruling from a federal judge rebuking former attorney general Bill Barr.

Podcast production by Sara Burningham.

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The Verdict, the Video, and the Unreasonable Burden of Proof

Sat, 24 Apr 2021 10:00:00 GMT

In the wake of the conviction of former police officer Derek Chauvin in the murder of George Floyd, journalism professor Allissa Richardson joins Dahlia Lithwick to discuss what it is to bear witness while Black in America, and why the media needs to stop airing the videos. This is the interview with Vanita Gupta that Dahlia mentions.

In our Slate Plus segment, Mark Joseph Stern and Dahlia probe the duplicity at the high court in this week's shocking juvenile life without parole decision, why justices insisting they're best friends really isn't the answer to calls for court reform, and a look ahead to the biggest case so far this term that you probably haven't heard much about.

Podcast production by Sara Burningham.

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Why Are Republicans Upset About Corporate Free Speech All Of A Sudden?

Sat, 10 Apr 2021 10:00:00 GMT

Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Professor Ciara Torres-Spelliscy, a Brennan Center fellow and professor at Stetson University, to discuss how, when it comes to corporate influence over politics, money talks - but should it actually speak? From Georgia boycotts to campaign finance, and Mitch McConnell’s apparent new take on Citizens United.

In our Slate Plus segment, Mark Joseph Stern joins Dahlia to discuss Justice Clarence Thomas’ anti-big-tech energy, why progressives need to stop pressuring Justice Stephen Breyer to retire, the rising tide of anti-trans bills around the country, and Joe Biden’s Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court of the United States.

Podcast production by Sara Burningham.

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Woulda, Coulda SCOTUS

Sat, 27 Mar 2021 10:00:00 GMT

Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Adam Cohen to talk about Supreme Inequality: The Supreme Court’s Fifty-Year Battle for a More Unjust America, and whether Merrick Garland should heed calls to reinvestigate Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

In our Slate Plus segment, Mark Joseph Stern on Cedar Point Nursery v Hassid, the big union case before the court this week, guns at the 9th Circuit, and Georgia’s vote-suppression legislation push.

Podcast production by Sara Burningham.

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Live From SXSW, With Sen. Jeff Merkley

Sat, 20 Mar 2021 10:00:00 GMT

Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Sen. Jeff Merkley of Oregon to discuss voting rights, democratic reform, and what it will take to get the For the People Act through Congress. This conversation was recorded as part of this year’s SXSW.

Slate Plus members have access to the whole interview.

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“An Injury To Their Electoral Prospects”

Sat, 13 Mar 2021 11:00:00 GMT

Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Jessica Ring Amunson, who argued Brnovich v DNC at the Supreme Court this month, to take us inside the arguments and the key questions, and also to look at the wider landscape for voting rights.

Then Dahlia’s joined by Jamal Greene who says Americans’ thinking about rights is all wrong, as they discuss his new book How Rights Went Wrong: Why Our Obsession With Rights Is Tearing America Apart.

In our Slate Plus segment, Mark Joseph Stern joins Dahlia to thrash out the major issues of the week we couldn’t get to in the main show, including racism at Georgetown University Law Center, Chief Justice John Roberts’ lone dissent, and the last of the kraken election cases batted away from the high court.

Podcast production by Sara Burningham.

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First Amendment Fallacies

Sat, 27 Feb 2021 11:00:00 GMT

Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Jameel Jaffer, executive director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, to try to unpack how the First Amendment has become the answer to everything and yet actually applies to so few of the speech issues we face.

In our Slate Plus segment, Mark Joseph Stern takes a look at Justice Clarence Thomas’ dissent this week that sounded a lot like an endorsement of the Big Lie of 2020: Just because there’s no evidence of voter fraud, doesn’t mean it didn’t happen.

Podcast production by Sara Burningham.

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Impeachment's Message and Meaning

Sat, 13 Feb 2021 11:00:00 GMT

Dahlia Lithwick is joined by renowned communications researcher and campaign adviser Anat Shenker-Osorio to talk about the messaging of impeachment outside the lens of the law. Then, Bob Bauer, former White House counsel under President Barack Obama and senior adviser to the 2020 Biden campaign, joins Dahlia to discuss the significance of this impeachment as a legal matter, and the next steps needed when the trial ends (in acquittal).

In our Slate Plus segment, Mark Joseph Stern on the guessing-game that is the law of Covid and death-penalty protocols in late-night SCOTUS orders.

Podcast production by Sara Burningham.

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Inside Impeachment

Sat, 30 Jan 2021 11:00:00 GMT

Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Daniel Goldman, who spearheaded the first round of impeachment hearings in the House in December 2019 as the senior adviser and director of investigations for the U.S. House of Representatives Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. They examine what impeachment last time can teach us about impeachment this time, and why we’ve got to stop thinking like lawyers when it comes to the Senate trial.

In our Slate Plus segment, Mark Joseph Stern joins Dahlia to discuss the attempted sub-coup at the Justice Department, the first Biden-era sightings of the long tail of Trump’s judicial appointments, and the conservative legal establishment’s choice to embrace Trumpists after Jan. 6.

Podcast production by Sara Burningham.

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The Domestic Terror Arm of MAGA

Sat, 16 Jan 2021 11:00:00 GMT

Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Juliette Kayyem, former assistant secretary at the Department of Homeland Security under President Barack Obama, currently serving as the faculty chair of the homeland security program at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, to look at the violent extremist elements of the MAGA movement and how counterterrorism tools can inform the response to the attack on the Capitol and President Trump’s “stochastic terrorism.”

In our Slate Plus segment, Mark Joseph Stern joins Dahlia to discuss developments in the judiciary in North Carolina and Pennsylvania, the high court’s decision to greenlight more federal executions in the last days of the Trump administration, and the first abortion case of the Amy Coney Barrett era.

Podcast production by Sara Burningham.

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The Predictability is Part of the Tragedy

Sat, 09 Jan 2021 11:00:00 GMT

Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Joshua Geltzer, a former senior director for counterterrorism at the National Security Council under President Barack Obama and the founding executive director of the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection at Georgetown Law. He also wrote this piece in February of 2019.

Podcast production by Sara Burningham.

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Truth, Reconciliation, and Korematsu v United States

Sat, 02 Jan 2021 11:00:00 GMT

The incarceration of tens of thousands of Japanese Americans in the 1940s is one of the most shameful acts in American history. Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Judge Edward M Chen and Don Tamaki, members of the legal team that worked to clear Fred Korematsu’s name almost 40 years after his conviction, to discuss the overlooked context, corruption, and cover-up that enabled the policy, and to examine how the Supreme Court has yet to fully contend with the legacy of Korematsu v United States. They also unpack the lessons the case offers for the present moment.

The documentary discussed is Alternative Facts: The Lies of Executive Order 9066.

Podcast production by Sara Burningham.

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Justice Breyer, In His Own Words

Tue, 22 Dec 2020 13:19:08 GMT

Dahlia Lithwick talks to Justice Stephen Breyer of the US Supreme Court for a Slate Plus exclusive, as part of Slate’s 80 over 80 coverage.

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How Amy Coney Barrett is Already Making a Mark on the Court

Sat, 19 Dec 2020 11:00:00 GMT

Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson to talk about lessons learned from this election cycle, and what it’s like to be in the eye of the “unleash the kraken” storm.

Next, Dahlia talks with Professor Steve Vladeck of the University of Texas School of Law about Bill Barr’s departure from the Justice Department, and they try to shed some light on the latest signals emerging from the Supreme Court’s shadow docket.

In our Slate Plus segment, Mark Joseph Stern joins Dahlia for all the Supreme Court news we couldn’t cram into the main show, including analysis of the Covid closure cases and Mitch McConnell’s unprecedented lame-duck judicial appointment spree.

Podcast production by Sara Burningham.

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Trump’s Pardonpalooza

Sat, 05 Dec 2020 11:00:00 GMT

Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Jack Goldsmith, Harvard Law professor, senior Hoover Institution fellow, co-founder of the Lawfare blog, and co-author (with Bob Bauer) of After Trump: Reconstructing the Presidency. They unpack the presidential pardon power and try to figure out what Attorney General Bill Barr is up to with John Durham’s investigation of the investigation into the 2016 election.

In our Slate Plus segment, Mark Joseph Stern joins Dahlia to analyse what’s been happening at the Supreme Court in the last 14 days, including last week’s religious freedom decision weighing public worship in the pandemic, the latest Census case, and Justice Samuel Alito’s eagerness to hear from Pennsylvania.

Podcast production by Sara Burningham.

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"How Does This End Well?"

Sat, 21 Nov 2020 11:00:00 GMT

Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Joshua Matz to talk election lawsuits, Trump’s lawyers, Big Law, and whether the Biden administration will put “healing” ahead of justice in the post-Trump era.

In our Slate Plus segment, Mark Joseph Stern joins Dahlia to try to calibrate alarm about Michigan officials talking to the White House about certifying and uncertifying results. Plus, Amy Coney Barrett’s first SCOTUS vote on the death penalty and the State Supreme Court race in North Carolina that you might have missed, but has much to say about racism and the state of state of the judiciary.

Podcast production by Sara Burningham.

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Empty Suits

Sat, 07 Nov 2020 11:00:00 GMT

Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Amicus’ election law whisperer, UC Irvine election law professor Rick Hasen, to sift through the results, the non-calls, and the many, many lawsuits of this post-election moment.

Then, Dahlia is joined by Jim Zirin, former federal prosecutor and author of Plaintiff in Chief: A Portrait of Donald Trump in 3,500 Lawsuits, to map out the playbook the president is pulling from today and always--from his Supreme Court picks to all-caps claims of voter fraud.

In our Slate Plus segment, Mark Joseph Stern reports on the big case at the intersection of religious liberty and the right of LGBTQ people to become foster parents that was heard at the Supreme Court this week. And what, if anything, we can draw from Amy Coney Barrett’s first week on the bench (on the phone).

Podcast production by Sara Burningham.

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The Canaries in the Coal Mine of Justice

Sat, 31 Oct 2020 10:00:00 GMT

Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Sherrilyn Ifill, president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, to discuss voting and the crisis of legitimacy facing a Supreme Court embroiled in politics, the election, and an epochal shift to the right.

In our Slate Plus segment, Dahlia is joined by Brian Fallon of Demand Justice to discuss the whys and the wherefores of court reform.

Podcast production by Sara Burningham.

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The American Contest

Sat, 24 Oct 2020 10:00:00 GMT

Regardless of the outcome of the election, the Supreme Court has already entered a new era. Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Heather Cox Richardson for a big-picture conversation about what that means: minority rule and the court’s role, past and present, in changing visions of democracy.

In our Slate Plus segment, Mark Joseph Stern updates us on all the election-law cases. OK, not all of them—there are more than 300 cases going on in 46 states—but Mark brings us up to speed on the key cases and the worrying signals they send about what happens if the election results are contested.

Podcast production by Sara Burningham.

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The Litmus Test

Sat, 17 Oct 2020 10:00:00 GMT

Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Ilyse Hogue, the president of NARAL Pro-Choice America and the author of The Lie that Binds to discuss the Senate Judiciary Committee’s confirmation hearings for Judge Amy Coney Barrett and what her nomination to the Supreme Court means for reproductive rights.

In our Slate Plus segment, Dahlia is joined by Professor Pamela Karlan of Stanford Law School to discuss all the other questions that went unanswered at the hearings.

Podcast production by Sara Burningham.

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What Progressives Got Wrong About the Judiciary

Sat, 10 Oct 2020 10:00:00 GMT

Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Robert Raben, a former senior Hill staffer, former assistant attorney general in Bill Clinton’s Department of Justice, and founder of the Raben Group, for some real talk about next week’s Senate confirmation hearings. Next, Brian Kalt, Michigan State University College of Law professor and author of Unable: The Law, Politics, and Limits of Section 4 of the Twenty-Fifth Amendment, joins Dahlia to clarify what’s really on the table as Nancy Pelosi and Rep. Jamie Raskin introduce a bill that would form a commission to rule on the president’s fitness for office.

In our Slate Plus segment, Mark Joseph Stern on what you may have missed from the the start of the Supreme Court’s new term, the signal to LGBTQ people from Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito this week, and the worrying federal court decision about voting in Wisconsin.

Podcast production by Sara Burningham.

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Testing the Election

Sat, 03 Oct 2020 14:30:00 GMT

Dahlia Lithwick is joined by election law professor Rick Hasen of UC Irvine, author of Election Meltdown, for an update on the state of the election given the president’s COVID diagnosis.

They are joined by Professor Carol Anderson, Charles Howard Candler professor of African American Studies at Emory University, to discuss the president’s undermining of the election.

Podcast production by Sara Burningham.

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The Senate Judiciary Committee and Boxing Kangaroos

Sat, 26 Sep 2020 10:00:00 GMT

Dahlia Lithwick is joined by the Nation’s justice correspondent Elie Mystal and Slate’s Mark Joseph Stern for some hard truths about the future of the Supreme Court and what, if anything, Democrats can do about it.

In this week’s Slate Plus segment, Mark sticks around to delve into the worrying news coming out of Pennsylvania and other adventures in pre-election litigation.

Podcast production by Sara Burningham.

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Quiet Words That Remain

Thu, 24 Sep 2020 23:00:00 GMT

Marking the passing of a constitutional titan, Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Columbia Law professor and former law clerk to Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Gillian Metzger. And a special remembrance from Justice Ginsburg’s law school classmates Flora Schnall and Judge Carol Brosnahan.

Podcast production by Sara Burningham.

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A Conversation about Conversations with RBG

Mon, 21 Sep 2020 23:01:00 GMT

This is a replay of a special bonus live episode from the National Constitution Center. Dahlia Lithwick in conversation with Jeffrey Rosen about his 2019 book Conversations With RBG: Ruth Bader Ginsberg on Life, Love, Liberty, and Law.

Podcast production by Sara Burningham, with thanks to the National Constitution Center.

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Bill Barr’s American Carnage

Sat, 12 Sep 2020 10:00:00 GMT

What is Bill Barr doing, and why is he doing it? Donald Ayer, former U.S. attorney and principal deputy solicitor general in the Reagan administration and deputy attorney general under George H.W. Bush, on the attorney general’s ideology, how it predates Trumpism, and why it’s so dangerous.

In the Slate Plus segment, Mark Joseph Stern breaks down the latest voting breakdown in Wisconsin’s Supreme Court, the latest Census case dead end, and the stupidity of Trump’s latest SCOTUS list.

Podcast production by Sara Burningham.

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Dozens of Baby Bush v Gores

Sat, 29 Aug 2020 10:00:00 GMT

Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Kristen Clarke, president of the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, and Professor Samuel Bagenstos of the University of Michigan School of Law, to discuss the status of voting rights litigation as we count down to November’s election. Then Dahlia is joined by Slate’s own Mark Joseph Stern to talk about the alarming developments in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

In this week’s Slate Plus segment, Mark sticks around to explain the Supreme Court’s shadow docket, and why it matters.

Podcast production by Sara Burningham.

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Behind the Scenes of "The Class of RBG"

Sat, 15 Aug 2020 10:00:00 GMT

In July, Slate published "The Class of RBG,” a print piece and two podcast episodes about the nine other women in Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s Harvard Law School class. June Thomas talked to Dahlia Lithwick and Molly Olmstead about the making of the package on the July 26 episode of Working, Slate’s podcast about the creative process. We thought Amicus listeners would enjoy a slightly extended version of that interview.

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An Interview With Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Sat, 01 Aug 2020 09:00:00 GMT

Exclusive to Slate Plus members, Dahlia Lithwick’s January interview with Ruth Bader Ginsburg about the women of Harvard Law School’s class of 1959.

Go to Slate.com/RBG for more on all the women of the class.

Find the print version of this interview here.

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Amicus Presents: The Class of RBG Part Two

Sat, 25 Jul 2020 09:00:00 GMT

When Ruth Bader Ginsburg became the second woman appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court, the women who went to law school with her knew something of what it had taken to get there. In the second part of this special series, Dahlia Lithwick talks to Justice Ginsburg’s classmates about their lives in the law after Harvard, and to Justice Ginsburg herself about what women in the law today can take from their stories.

Read Slate’s full interview with Ruth Bader Ginsburg about her own time at Harvard Law School and her memories of her female classmates here. Read the full stories of each woman’s life here.

Archive of President Bill Clinton announcing his intent to nominate Ruth Bader Ginsburg to the Supreme Court courtesy; William J. Clinton Presidential Library.

Podcast production by Sara Burningham.

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Amicus Presents: The Class of RBG Part One

Tue, 21 Jul 2020 09:00:00 GMT

Dahlia Lithwick goes back to where one of the most influential legal careers in US history began—Harvard Law School, September 1956—to find out what we can learn from the other women of the class of 1959, and their notorious classmate.

Read Slate’s full interview with Ruth Bader Ginsburg about her own time at Harvard Law School and her memories of her female classmates here. Read the full stories of each woman’s life here.

Podcast production by Sara Burningham.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Coming Soon

Sat, 18 Jul 2020 09:00:00 GMT

Who were the other nine women of Harvard Law School's class of 1959? Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg remembers them all.

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Roberts vs. Trump

Fri, 10 Jul 2020 09:00:00 GMT

Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Dean Erwin Chemerinsky of Berkeley Law, associate law professor Zephyr Teachout of Fordham University, and Slate’s own Mark Joseph Stern to rake over the end of the Supreme Court term, taking a close look at the Trump financial records cases, the ministerial exception cases, and a landmark decision about tribal lands in Oklahoma.

Podcast production by Sara Burningham.

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What’s Left of Roe v. Wade?

Sat, 04 Jul 2020 09:00:00 GMT

Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Professor Melissa Murray of NYU School of Law and Jeffrey Toobin of the New Yorker for a round table discussion of the big abortion case of the term, why Chief Justice John Roberts chose to strike down the Louisiana abortion law in June Medical Services LLC v Russo, and why opinion about Roberts’ opinion seems to be divided along very gendered lines.

In the Slate Plus segment, Dahlia and Mark Joseph Stern break down the other big opinions of the week and their implications for executive power and the separation of church and state. Finally, they look ahead to what remains of the term.

Podcast production by Sara Burningham.

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Blockbusters: DACA and Title VII

Sat, 20 Jun 2020 09:00:00 GMT

Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Luis Cortes Romero, the attorney and DACA recipient who was part of the team that prevailed in this week’s DACA ruling. He will restore some of your faith in the American courts. And then Dahlia talks to Professor Pam Karlan about this week’s landmark LGBTQ employment rights case, in which she argued successfully for Title VII protections to apply to gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender employees.

In the Slate Plus segment, Mark Joseph Stern tries to help Dahlia figure out who this new Chief Justice John Roberts is and what that can tell us about the remaining (huge) opinions still to be issued this term.

Podcast production by Sara Burningham.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Race, Police, and The Law

Sat, 06 Jun 2020 09:00:00 GMT

Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Dean Angela Onwuachi-Willig of Boston University School of Law to share the feelings and thinking behind her letter to her students reflecting on recent protests and killings. (Also mentioned, the letter from the Washington State Supreme Court and the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court.)

Next, Vanita Gupta of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and former head of the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department in the Obama administration discusses America’s overpolicing problem and what’s needed for real change.

In the Slate Plus segment, Mark Joseph Stern on the midnight decision in a case brought by churches who objected to state lockdown orders, and why the GOP strategy to block voting by mail has a big swing state problem.

Podcast production by Sara Burningham.

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Immunity, Impunity, and Justice by the Numbers

Sat, 23 May 2020 09:00:00 GMT

A big show for the long weekend. First, Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Leah Litman of the University of Michigan Law School to discuss oral arguments in the Trump financial records cases, and to get granular with the question of who gets interrupted most in oral arguments over the phone. (Guess what? It’s gendered.)

Next, a big picture conversation about the rule of law and global justice before, during, and after COVID-19, with David Miliband of the International Rescue Committee.

In the Slate Plus segment, Mark Joseph Stern takes us through arguments in the faithless electors case, the big religious freedom case that most people missed, and why you shouldn’t read too much into the Supreme Court’s latest order regarding the Mueller Report.

Podcast production by Sara Burningham.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Big Days for Justice

Sat, 09 May 2020 09:00:00 GMT

Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Ian Bassin, former associated White House counsel from 2009-11 and co-founder of Protect Democracy for a look at the pain points, tensions, and glimmers of hope in how this constitutional democracy is handling the unprecedented challenges presented by COVID-19.

In the Slate Plus segment, Mark Joseph Stern on why Justice Elena Kagan is voting with the conservatives, the unanimous decision in Comcast Corp. v. National Association of African American Media and what it means for future civil-rights cases, and the crisis unfolding in the immigration courts.

Podcast production by Sara Burningham.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

States' Rights

Sat, 25 Apr 2020 09:00:00 GMT

Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Colorado State Attorney General Phil Weiser to talk about how states’ rights fit into the picture of America that’s emerging in this pandemic.

In the Slate Plus segment, Mark Joseph Stern joins Dahlia to talk about the big decisions that came down from the high court this week, and what they mean for other, even bigger, decisions yet to come this term.

Podcast production by Sara Burningham.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Why, Wisconsin?

Sat, 11 Apr 2020 09:00:00 GMT

Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Marc Elias, chair of Perkins Coie’s Political Law Group, he represents the Democratic National Committee and the Democratic Party of Wisconsin. Together, they reconstruct how the Supreme Court stepped into Wisconsin’s April election, and what the path to that decision—and the fallout from it—can teach us ahead of November.

In the Slate Plus segment, Mark Joseph Stern talks about Mitch McConnell’s continued campaign to stack the judiciary, the dissonance between conservative positions on election law and reproductive rights in the time of COVID, and the piece he wishes he and Dahlia had written together this week, but didn’t.

Podcast production by Sara Burningham.

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Protecting Democracy in a Pandemic

Sat, 28 Mar 2020 09:00:00 GMT

Podcast production by Sara Burningham.

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The Law of Public Health

Sat, 14 Mar 2020 06:00:00 GMT

Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Professor Michele Goodwin, Chancellor’s Professor of Law and Director of the Center for Biotechnology and Global Health Policy at the University of California Irvine School of Law. Professor Goodwin unpacks the oral arguments in this term’s big reproductive health case, June Medical Services, and delves into the history of racism and civil-rights trampling in the name of public health.

For plus members, Mark Joseph Stern joins Dahlia with what to expect from a SCOTUS closed to the public, the Obamacare case, and which record was met at the Supreme Court this week.

Podcast production by Sara Burningham.

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Have Progressives Lost the Courts for Good?

Sat, 29 Feb 2020 07:00:00 GMT

Dahlia Lithwick asks the new president of the American Constitution Society, Russ Feingold, if it’s too late for progressives to respond to the conservative steamroller that is the Federalist Society.

Slate Plus members have access to a bonus segment in which Slate’s Mark Joseph

Stern breaks down the headlines, cases, cert grants, and conundrums from the Supreme Court and federal appellate courts

Podcast production by Sara Burningham.

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Election Meltdown: The Debrief

Fri, 28 Feb 2020 10:00:00 GMT

Dahlia Lithwick and UC Irvine election law professor Rick Hasen look back on the last five weeks of the Election Meltdown series, asking what the key take-aways might be and what has already changed in terms of concerns for the integrity of this November’s election.

Follow all Slate’s voting rights coverage at slate.com/who-counts

Podcast production by Sara Burningham.

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Election Meltdown, Part 5

Sat, 22 Feb 2020 07:00:00 GMT

In the fifth and final part of this special series of Amicus, Dahlia Lithwick is joined live on stage in Washington by former Florida gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum, MacArthur fellow Professor Danielle Citron of Boston University law school, director of the ACLU’s voting-rights initiative Dale Ho, and election law professor Rick Hasen of the University of California, Irvine. Together, they pick themselves up from the rug of despair with a pile of can-do fixes for the stress points threatening the integrity of U.S. elections.

Rick Hasen’s new book Election Meltdown forms the basis for this special series of Amicus.

Podcast production by Sara Burningham.

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Election Meltdown: Dale Ho, ACLU

Sun, 16 Feb 2020 10:00:00 GMT

University of California, Irvine election law professor Rick Hasen talks to Dale Ho, director of the ACLU’s voting rights project, about the big voting-rights case Fish v Kobach, and the cases to watch as November’s presidential election approaches.

Join us for a live show on Feb. 19 in Washington.

Podcast production by Sara Burningham.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Election Meltdown, Part 4

Sat, 15 Feb 2020 07:00:00 GMT

In the fourth part of this special five-part series of Amicus, Dahlia Lithwick is joined by election law professor Rick Hasen and Professor Carol Anderson, Charles Howard Candler Professor of African American Studies at Emory University and author of One Person, No Vote: How Voter Suppression is Destroying Our Democracy.

Together, they try to sort through the rhetoric and the reality of “stolen” elections.

Rick Hasen’s new book Election Meltdown forms the basis for this special series of Amicus.

Join Slate for the Election Meltdown live show on Feb. 19 in Washington.

Podcast production by Sara Burningham.

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Election Meltdown - Professor Brendan Nyhan

Sun, 09 Feb 2020 10:00:00 GMT

Brendan Nyhan is a political science professor at Dartmouth College who focuses on misinformation and so-called fake news. His views on how fake news affects election outcomes might surprise you.

Join us for a live show on Feb. 19 in Washington.

Podcast production by Sara Burningham.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Election Meltdown, Part 3

Sat, 08 Feb 2020 07:00:00 GMT

In the third part of this special five-part series of Amicus, Dahlia Lithwick is joined by election law professor Rick Hasen to unpack the bag of dirty tricks that may be deployed in 2020’s election, and to examine the debris of the Iowa caucus debacle to find clues to what’s coming.

Rick Hasen’s new book Election Meltdown forms the basis for this special series of Amicus.

Join Slate for the Election Meltdown live show on Feb. 19 in Washington.

Podcast production by Sara Burningham.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Election Meltdown: Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson

Sun, 02 Feb 2020 11:00:00 GMT

Jocelyn Benson is all about election law. A former election law professor, she’s now Michigan secretary of state. Michigan, more specifically Detroit, has been at the center of recount controversies and accusations of vote-rigging. Secretary Benson tells Election Meltdown’s Rick Hasen how Michigan’s getting ready for November 2020.

Join us for a live show on Feb. 19 in Washington.

Podcast production by Sara Burningham.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Election Meltdown, Part 2

Sun, 02 Feb 2020 10:00:00 GMT

In the second part of a special five-part series of Amicus, Dahlia Lithwick is joined by election law professor Rick Hasen to take a close look at what happened with Michigan’s failed recounts in 2016, exploring how small mistakes can cause big problems in elections, and why democratic areas seem much more prone to incompetence in election administration.

Rick Hasen’s new book Election Meltdown forms the basis for this special series of Amicus.

Join Slate for the Election Meltdown live show on Feb. 19 in Washington.

Podcast production by Sara Burningham.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Impeachment's Aftermath

Sat, 01 Feb 2020 10:00:00 GMT

Episode Notes:

Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Barbara McQuade, professor of law at the University of Michigan and former U.S attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan, to explore the ramifications of the last two weeks in the Senate.

Join us for a live show on Feb. 19 in Washington.

Podcast production by Sara Burningham.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Election Meltdown: Maine Secretary of State Matt Dunlap

Sun, 26 Jan 2020 10:00:00 GMT

When Maine Secretary of State Matt Dunlap got the call inviting him to serve on President Donald Trump’s “Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity” he had no idea what he had signed up for. In this extended interview available only to Slate Plus members, hear how he ended up suing the commission and unveiling details of the real aims and motivations behind it.

Join us for the “Election Meltdown” live show on February 19th in Washington D.C.: https://slate.com/live/amicus-live-w-dahlia-lithwick-andrew-gillum-and-more.html

Podcast production by Sara Burningham.

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Election Meltdown, Part 1

Sat, 25 Jan 2020 10:00:00 GMT

Despite winning the Electoral College vote in 2016, President Donald Trump still claimed widespread voter fraud had robbed him of millions of votes. In the first part of a special five-part series of Amicus, Dahlia Lithwick is joined by election law professor Rick Hasen to explore how those claims bolstered voter suppression and now threaten the integrity of the 2020 election.

Rick Hasen’s new book Election Meltdown forms the basis for this special series of Amicus.

Join Slate for the Election Meltdown live show on Feb. 19 in Washington.

Podcast production by Sara Burningham.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A Trial That's Not A Trial

Sat, 18 Jan 2020 10:00:00 GMT

Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Neil Eggleston, White House Counsel during the last three years of the Obama Administration. He also represented the Office of the President in privilege litigation against the Starr Independent Counsel’s Office during the President Clinton Whitewater/Lewinsky investigation. Together, they take a close look at the lawyers surrounding the president, and at the legal strategies in play as the impeachment process moves into its trial phase.

Join us for a live show on February 19th in Washington DC: https://slate.com/live/amicus-live-w-dahlia-lithwick-andrew-gillum-and-more.html

Podcast production by Sara Burningham.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What Is Impeachment For?

Tue, 07 Jan 2020 22:20:36 GMT

In a conversation taped live at the Aspen Institute, Dahlia Lithwick speaks to former acting solicitor general of the United States Neal Katyal about impeachment, and how he approaches is it as an “extremist centrist.”

Katyal’s book, co-written with Sam Koppelman, Impeach: The Case Against Donald Trump, is out now.

This is a preview of a Slate Plus episode. To hear the episode in full, sign up for Slate Plus.

Come see Dahlia Lithwick chatting with Andrew Gillum, Rick Hasen, and other guests live at the Hamilton in Washington on Feb. 19.

Podcast produced by Sara Burningham.

Stay in touch: amicus@slate.com,

or find us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/amicuspodcast/

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Buckle Up, John Roberts

Sat, 04 Jan 2020 07:00:00 GMT

Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Slate’s own Mark Joseph Stern to discuss Chief Justice John Roberts’ New Year’s resolutions on the judiciary, impeachment, and this Supreme Court term. Stern’s book American Justice 2019: The Roberts Court Arrives is out now.

Podcast produced by Sara Burningham.

.Stay in touch: amicus@slate.com

Find us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/amicuspodcast/

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Divided Realities

Sat, 21 Dec 2019 07:00:00 GMT

Dahlia Lithwick is joined by three women using their legal experience to advocate for people trying to navigate the ever-changing, labyrinthine process of claiming asylum in the United States. It’s tough work, and they are volunteering in the face of mounting obstacles. Liz Willis and Dennise Moreno are from ASAP , and Kristin Clarens is with Project Adelante. Next, Dahlia talks to Susan Hennessy of Lawfare to understand the intertwined significance of impeachment, the Mueller Report, and the Department of Justice inspector general’s report.

Send in your questions for our Roberts Court special episode with Mark Joseph Stern on Jan. 4. Submit questions by Jan. 1 to amicus@slate.com.

Podcast production by Sara Burningham.

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Slate Presents: Lockdown

Wed, 18 Dec 2019 10:05:00 GMT

If you have any school-aged children in your life, you know that lockdown and active shooter drills have become a routine part of their school experience. These drills now take place in 95 percent of American schools.

What you’re about to hear is a collaboration between Slate and The Trace, a nonprofit newsroom covering gun violence in the United States. It’s an audio project featuring firsthand accounts from kids of all ages about what it’s like to go through these drills. We hear a lot about school shootings, but we’re only starting to have a larger conversation about how they affect even those kids who may never go through one.

You can hear more from the students at slate.com/lockdown.

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Impeaching Other Presidents

Sat, 07 Dec 2019 07:00:00 GMT

Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Kate Shaw, a professor of law at Cardozo Law School and the co-director of the Floersheimer Center for Constitutional Democracy. They talk about presidential speech, impeachment, and why figuring out what happens next involves taking a close look at what happened in 1868.

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Bonus: A Conversation About Conversations With RBG

Thu, 28 Nov 2019 05:00:00 GMT

A special bonus live episode from the National Constitution Center. Dahlia Lithwick in conversation with Jeffrey Rosen about his new book Conversations With RBG: Ruth Bader Ginsberg on Life, Love, Liberty, and Law.

Podcast production by Sara Burningham, with thanks to the National Constitution Center.

Slate’s Amicus on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/amicuspodcast/

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Your Move, Mitch

Sat, 23 Nov 2019 10:00:00 GMT

Dahlia Lithwick wants to know what’s next in the impeachment process, so she asks Professor Michael Gerhardt, an expert on constitutional law and the relationship between congress and the president. Then, former Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano takes us through the details of the DACA arguments at the SCOTUS. Napolitano rolled out DACA under President Obama and is now suing the federal government for rescinding it on behalf of thousands of students at the University of California, where she is now president.

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Live Bonus: Press Freedom

Sat, 16 Nov 2019 10:00:00 GMT

Recorded at the Miami Book Fair, in partnership with the Reporters Committee for the Freedom of the Press. Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Laura Moscoso from the Centro de Periodismo Investigativo in Puerto Rico; Norah Gamez-Torres, who covers Cuba for the Nuevo Herald and the MIami Herald; and Emily Michot from the Miami Herald, who worked with Julie K. Brown to break the Jeffrey Epstein story. This fascinating discussion serves as a timely reminder of the centrality of journalism to the health of our democracy.

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A Look at the Original Quid Pro Quo: Emoluments.

Sat, 09 Nov 2019 07:00:00 GMT

Dahlia Lithwick calls former prosecutor Mimi Rocah for an answer to a question Amicus listeners often ask. She then asks Sen.Sheldon Whitehouse, D-Rhode Island, if all hope is lost for the federal judiciary. Finally, she revisits emoluments with Deepak Gupta and pulls on threads that extend right into the impeachment investigation.

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Bonus: Impeachment and the “Spy Stuff”

Tue, 29 Oct 2019 09:00:00 GMT

Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Rep. Jim Himes of Connecticut, who sits on the House Intelligence Committee, to talk about the role of intelligence and counterintelligence in the Mueller probe, the impeachment inquiry, and the damage deep state fever dreams could do to law enforcement and oversight.

Podcast production by Sara Burningham.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Conservative Legal Resistance

Sat, 26 Oct 2019 06:00:00 GMT

Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Stuart Gerson of the conservative legal group Checks and Balances to talk about developments in the border-wall case he helped bring in El Paso, Texas; the view of impeachment from concerned conservatives; and the latest escalation in the Department of Justice’s investigation into the origins of the Russia investigation. Then Cyrus Habib, lieutenant governor of Washington state (and owner of the most impressive résumé of any guest ever on the show) shares a refreshingly optimistic take on the law and politics.

Podcast production by Sara Burningham.

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Impeachment Primer

Sat, 12 Oct 2019 06:00:00 GMT

Dahlia Lithwick is joined by all-star SCOTUS experts to walk us through this week’s biggest legal and constitutional developments. First, Laurence Tribe answers the questions Amicus listeners have been asking about the next steps in the impeachment process. Next, Pamela Karlan takes us inside the chamber for Tuesday’s oral arguments in a trio of Title VII cases at the high court.

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Get Ready for the Most Significant Supreme Court Term in a Decade

Sat, 05 Oct 2019 06:00:00 GMT

Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Dean Erwin Chemerinsky of the University of California, Berkeley School of Law, who explains the biggest cases facing the Supreme Court this term. Then Nancy Northup, president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights, explains why the justices have decided to take up June Medical Services v Gee, the first big abortion case of the Kavanaugh era.

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How Donald Trump Weaponizes the Law

Sat, 28 Sep 2019 06:00:00 GMT

Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Walter Dellinger to discuss impeachment, and the role of White House lawyers in “Ukraine-gate”.

And James Zirin, author of Plaintiff in Chief: A Portrait of Donald Trump in 3,500 Lawsuits , breaks down the President’s

history of weaponizing the law while trampling legal norms.

donorschoose.org/AMICUS

Podcast production by Sara Burningham.

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The Clerk’s Eye View of Justice John Paul Stevens

Sat, 14 Sep 2019 06:00:00 GMT

Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Professor Sonja West of the University of Georgia School of Law and Professor Jamal Greene of Columbia Law School, both former clerks to Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens. They discuss his life, legacy, and the lessons they learned from the late justice.

donorschoose.org/AMICUS

Podcast production by Sara Burningham.

Follow Slate’s Amicus on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/amicuspodcast/

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Redefining The Executive Power

Sat, 31 Aug 2019 06:00:00 GMT

Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Julian Mortenson, Professor of Law at the University of Michigan to discuss his work to re-frame the conversation around “the executive power”. His paper, “Article II Vests Executive Power, Not The Royal Prerogative” traces the constitutional history of the three words that have grown to encompass so much.

Podcast production by Sara Burningham

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Lawyers, Who Needs 'Em?

Sat, 17 Aug 2019 06:00:00 GMT

Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Rebecca Sandefur, who turns a sociologist’s eye to civil justice. Civil justice problems can lead to bankruptcy, homelessness, illness, family separation and poverty, but Sandefur says what makes it to the courts is just the “tip of the civil justice iceberg”.

Podcast production by Sara Burningham

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Let's Start with Race

Sat, 03 Aug 2019 06:00:00 GMT

Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Michele Goodwin, Chancellor’s Professor of Law at the University of California, Irvine, for a wide reaching conversation about race and gender and the stories America tells itself so it can sleep at night. Starting with Trump’s tweets about Baltimore, Professor Goodwin offers an expert survey of centuries of racist and sexist narratives in the legal system and the country at large. This week’s show also features excerpts from a live discussion Dahlia moderated at the 92 St Y with Heidi Shreck (What the Constitution Means to Me) and Professor Laurence Tribe (Harvard Law School).

Podcast production by Sara Burningham

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The End of an Era, and the Cult of the Constitution.

Sat, 20 Jul 2019 06:00:00 GMT

In a week marked by rising rancor, when racist rhetoric ricocheted out of the president’s twitter feed and into a chanting crowd at his reelection rally, the end of an era almost slid under the radar. Dahlia Lithwick reflects on the passing of Justice John Paul Stevens, and the more than symbolic shift from his jurisprudence, his character, to our current state of affairs at the high court and beyond. You can read more here. And Dahlia is joined by Professor Mary Anne Franks of the University of Miami Law School to talk about her book, “The Cult of the Constitution”, how growing up among christian fundamentalists helped her write a book about constitutional extremists, and why there’s still hope for America’s faulty founding document.

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High Crimes and Misdemeanors

Sat, 06 Jul 2019 06:00:00 GMT

Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Frank Bowman, author of the upcoming book High Crimes and Misdemeanors, A History of Impeachment for the Age of Trump about the big question: Impeachment - historical precedent, constitutional roots and present day predicaments.

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Ready, Set, Gerrymander!

Sat, 29 Jun 2019 06:00:00 GMT

A round table round-up of the 2018 Supreme Court term with Dahlia Lithwick, Slate’s Mark Joseph Stern, Professor Pam Karlan of Stanford and Professor Leah Litman of the University of Michigan Law School. Analysis of the census case, the gerrymandering cases, and the down-docket items you might have missed, but whose repercussions you won’t.

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Flowers, Crosses, Clauses and Oaths

Sat, 22 Jun 2019 06:00:00 GMT

A flurry of decisions this week, but few big-ticket items. Mark Joseph Stern takes us through the opinions and dissents in Flowers v Mississippi, Gundy v United States and American Legion v American Humanist Association. Dahlia Lithwick is also joined by Jed Shugerman and Andrew Kent of Fordham University Law School, two of the authors of the Harvard Law Review article, Faithful Execution and Article II, which examines whether the constitution holds the President to some higher standard than just not doing crimes.

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Clarence Thomas Said What?

Sat, 08 Jun 2019 06:00:00 GMT

When Justice Clarence Thomas wrote a 20 page concurrence to the Indiana abortion law case last week, Adam Cohen’s phone started blowing up. In making an argument linking abortion rights to eugenics, Justice Thomas repeatedly cited Cohen’s book, Imbeciles: The Supreme Court, American Eugenics, and the Sterilization of Carrie Buck Adam Cohen joins Dahlia Lithwick to explore the history of eugenics in the U.S. and to examine Justice Thomas’ motives and logic for bringing the argument into the abortion debate.

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"Slouching Toward Gilead”

Sat, 25 May 2019 06:00:00 GMT

A swathe of draconian abortion laws have been passed by states around the country in the past few weeks, but Alabama outdid them all. Legislators there are clearly hoping Justice Kavanagh will nullify Roe v Wade with a stroke of a pen, but there are quite a few other factors at play here and this week Dahlia Lithwick is joined by just the right women to explore those factors. Professor of Law Melissa Murray of NYU discusses the history and significance of Roe, and CNN legal analyst Joan Biskupic, who also authored the new book “The Chief, the Life and Turbulent times of Chief Justice John Roberts”, joins Dahlia to dissect Roberts’ record and reservations when it comes to reproductive rights.

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A Judge, on Judging

Sat, 11 May 2019 06:00:00 GMT

Judges are at the center of every conversation on Amicus, but never as guests on the show. Until today. Dahlia Lithwick has a wide-ranging and illuminating conversation with Robert Lasnik, Senior United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington. Judge Lasnik answers questions about how cases are selected, where the judiciary has fallen short in response to #metoo, whether justices should hit back against criticism or maintain a lofty silence, and why Bob Dylan looms large in his courtroom (more details in this 2011 LA Times article).

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The Fight for LGBTQ Protections Under the Civil Rights Act

Sat, 27 Apr 2019 14:00:00 GMT

Mark Joseph Stern guest hosts and digs into two cases in the Supreme Court this week. First, the court’s questioning if Title VII of the Civil Rights Act extends to LGBTQ protections. Then, the addition of the citizenship question on the 2020 census. Finally, Dahlia interviews Richard Rothestein, author of “The Color of Law”, about the history of housing segregation.

Podcast production by Danielle Hewitt.

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Extra: Redactionist History

Thu, 18 Apr 2019 21:45:00 GMT

Dahlia Lithwick is joined by former department of Justice spokesperson Matt Miller and Fordham Law Professor Jed Shugerman for a read of the (redacted) Mueller report.

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Death Penalty Dust-Ups at the High Court

Sat, 13 Apr 2019 06:00:00 GMT

Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Harvard Law School Professor Carol Steiker, co-author of Courting Death: The Supreme Court and Capital Punishment to explore recent death penalty cases before the Supreme Court and why the 8th amendment has raised tensions among the justices.

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Kavanaugh and Kagan Had a Moment

Sat, 30 Mar 2019 07:00:00 GMT

Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern unpack the arguments in the North Carolina and Maryland gerrymander cases heard by the Supreme Court this week, and Aaron Belkin of advocacy group Pack the Courts tells us why packing the courts is becoming a serious topic in the Democratic presidential race.

Please let us know what you think of Amicus. Join the discussion of this episode on Facebook. Our email is amicus@slate.com.

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Extra Treat: The Emergency Declaration, a Law Professor and Some Sixth Graders Make a Podcast

Mon, 18 Mar 2019 17:00:00 GMT

Students from Hannah Senesh Community Day School interview Professor Stephen Vladeck of the University of Texas School of Law about whether the President's declaration is legal.

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Lawyers Are Tackling Our Democracy Problem Via the Take Care Clause

Sat, 16 Mar 2019 06:00:00 GMT

Dahlia Lithwick pans back this week to assess what’s holding and what’s buckling in terms of norms and institutions, two years and change into the Trump presidency. She’s joined by Ian Bassin of Protect Democracy, a new kind of litigation shop looking at global trends toward authoritarianism and trying to resist those trends in the United States.

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The Case Regarding the So-Called Emergency

Sat, 02 Mar 2019 07:00:00 GMT

Dahlia Lithwick is joined by conservative lawyer Stuart Gerson and finds common ground over the President’s declaration of a national emergency so he can build the wall. And Leah Litman helps us take a lawyerly look at Michael Cohen’s testimony before congress this week.

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Parsing the Shadow Docket

Sat, 16 Feb 2019 07:00:00 GMT

Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Dean Risa Goluboff and Vice-Dean Leslie Kenrick of the University of Virginia School of Law. Together, they tackle issues of race in government, gender in the law, plus religion and reproductive rights in the court.

Please let us know what you think of Amicus. Join the discussion of this episode on Facebook. Our email is amicus@slate.com.

Podcast production by Sara Burningham.

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What Did We Learn From The Trans Ban Injunction Decision?

Sat, 02 Feb 2019 08:00:00 GMT

Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Sharon McGowan, legal director of Lambda Legal, to discuss how they’re fighting the trans ban following SCOTUS decision to lift the injunctions on the policy going into action. Also, Dahlia gets the latest on the Mueller investigation from Joyce White Vance, former US attorney in the Northern District of Alabama, including why Mueller didn’t charge Roger Stone with conspiracy.

Please let us know what you think of Amicus. Join the discussion of this episode on Facebook. Our email is amicus@slate.com.

Podcast production by Sara Burningham.

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We’re Back to Where Mueller Began: Counterintelligence

Sat, 19 Jan 2019 08:00:00 GMT

UPDATE: On the evening Friday January 18th, after production of this episode of Amicus had wrapped, special counsel spokesman Peter Carr issued the following statement: "BuzzFeed’s description of specific statements to the Special Counsel’s Office, and characterization of documents and testimony obtained by this office, regarding Michael Cohen’s Congressional testimony are not accurate.” Ben Smith, editor-in-chief of Buzzfeed News says the publication stands by its reporting.

Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Asha Rangappa, a former FBI special agent specializing in counterintelligence investigations and now a senior lecturer at Yale University’s Jackson Institute for Global Affairs. Together, they unpack the counterintelligence angle of the Mueller probe.

Please let us know what you think of Amicus. Join the discussion of this episode on Facebook. Our email is amicus@slate.com.

Podcast production by Sara Burningham.

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The Threat of National Emergency

Fri, 11 Jan 2019 15:41:32 GMT

What would a national emergency look like, and why hasn't Trump declared one yet? Dahlia Lithwick joins What Next, Slate's new daily news podcast, to answer. Plus: Was it weird that Ruth Bader Ginsburg wasn't at work this week?

Tell us what you think by leaving a review on Apple Podcasts or sending an email to whatnext@slate.com. Follow us on Instagram for updates on the show.

Podcast production by Mary Wilson and Jayson De Leon.

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Chief Justice John Roberts, a Rock, and a Hard Place

Sat, 05 Jan 2019 05:00:00 GMT

Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Joan Biskupic, CNN legal analyst and author of the upcoming book The Chief: The Life and Turbulent Times of Chief Justice John Roberts, to unpack John Roberts’ State of the Judiciary address, and to examine the state of the Chief Justice.

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The Incrementalist RBG

Sat, 22 Dec 2018 08:00:00 GMT

Before news of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s lung surgery broke, Dahlia Lithwick sat down for a revealing conversation with the screenwriter Daniel Stiepelman about the RBG biopic he penned, On The Basis of Sex. Stiepelman also happens to be Justice Ginsburg’s nephew, and this episode offers an insider’s view of the most well-known, but not always fully understood, justice on the court.

Please let us know what you think of Amicus. Join the discussion of this episode on Facebook. Our email is amicus@slate.com.

Podcast production by Sara Burningham.

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Mapping the Mueller Investigation

Sat, 08 Dec 2018 07:00:00 GMT

*This week's show was recorded before Friday's filings concerning Paul Manafort and Michael Cohen, but the merits of the discussion stand. Mimi Rocah, a former federal prosecutor in the Southern District of New York, now a Criminal Justice Fellow at Pace Law School draws out the themes of the Mueller investigation. Plus Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Riyaz Kanji, an attorney for the Creek Nation, to explore the fascinating questions and disgraceful history involved in Carpenter v Murphy, a case argued by Kanji before the Supreme Court last week. The case started with a murder, and now involves questions of sovereignty over 3 million acres in Oklahoma.

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A Hard Line on Acosta’s Hard Pass

Sat, 24 Nov 2018 07:00:00 GMT

Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Ted Boutrous, who represented CNN and Jim Acosta in their case against the White House. Jim Acosta’s “hard pass” or permanent press pass, was revoked by the Trump administration after Acosta clashed with the President at a November 7th news conference. Dahlia Lithwick and Ted Boutros examine questions of due process and free speech thrown up by the case.

Please let us know what you think of Amicus. Join the discussion of this episode on Facebook. Our email is amicus@slate.com.

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“Taking a Wrecking Ball to Our Constitution”

Sat, 10 Nov 2018 07:00:00 GMT

Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Neal Katyal, former acting Solicitor General under President Barack Obama and co-author of this op-ed in The New York Times. Also on Amicus this week, Dale Ho, director of the ACLU’s voting rights project on why their current litigation over the 2020 census is so crucial, and concerning.

Please let us know what you think of Amicus. Join the discussion of this episode on Facebook. Our email is amicus@slate.com.

Podcast production by Sara Burningham.

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SPECIAL: The Deadly Shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue

Sat, 03 Nov 2018 09:00:00 GMT

Dahlia Lithwick and her son Coby talk to Rabbi Chuck Diamond about the deadly shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh. Diamond was the rabbi at Tree of Life for seven years and originally met Dahlia when she was 10 years old. The three of them discuss the generosity of the Squirrel Hill community, the healing process over the past week, and how to talk to kids about the tragedy.

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Docket Deep Dive and Is It Time to Freak Out About Voting?

Sat, 27 Oct 2018 06:00:00 GMT

Dahlia Lithwick talks with Slate’s own Mark Joseph Stern about what to look out for this term. Professor of law and political science at UC Irvine, Rick Hasen discusses how free and fair the midterm elections will be in light of recent Supreme Court rulings on voting rights.

Please let us know what you think of Amicus. Join the discussion of this episode on Facebook. Our email is amicus@slate.com.

Podcast production by Sara Burningham.

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Due Processing

Sat, 13 Oct 2018 06:00:00 GMT

Dahlia Lithwick talks with Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon about the “deep wounds” in the senate following Justice Kavanaugh’s confirmation. And she’s joined by Vox’s Matthew Yglesias who brings his nihilism about the institution of the Supreme Court to the show.

Please let us know what you think of Amicus. Join the discussion of this episode on Facebook. Our email is amicus@slate.com.

Podcast production by Sara Burningham.

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Live from Austin

Mon, 01 Oct 2018 06:00:00 GMT

In a special episode recorded live at Slate Day during Tribfest in Austin, Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Angela Onwuachi-Willig, Dean of Boston University Law School, Cristina Rodriguez, Leighton Homer Surbeck professor of law at Yale Law School, Stephen Vladeck, A. Dalton Cross professor of law at the University of Texas Law School and Adam White, director of the Center for the Study of the Administrative State at George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School for a deep dive on the fallout from the Kavanaugh hearings and the future of the Supreme Court absent a swing justice.

Please let us know what you think of Amicus. Join the discussion of this episode on Facebook. Our email is amicus@slate.com.

Podcast production by Sara Burningham.

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The Press, The President, and Enemy Construction.

Sat, 29 Sep 2018 06:00:00 GMT

This week Dahlia Lithwick looks at freedom of the press through the lens of legal scholarship. Lithwick is joined by Professor Lisa Sun of Brigham Young University’s J. Reuben Clark Law School and RonNell Andersen Jones, the Lee E. Teitelbaum Chair & Professor of Law, S.J. Quinney College of Law, University of Utah Law School. Their article “Enemy Construction and the Press” was published in the Arizona State Law Journal last year.

Please let us know what you think of Amicus. Join the discussion of this episode on Facebook. Our email is amicus@slate.com.

Podcast production by Sara Burningham.

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Introducing Slate Day

Mon, 24 Sep 2018 16:21:15 GMT

Join Dahlia Lithwick for a conversation on the Supreme Court with Angela Onwuachi-Willig, dean and professor of law at Boston University; Cristina Rodríguez, a professor of law at Yale University; Stephen Vladeck, professor of law at the University of Texas, and Adam White, director of the Center for the Study of Administration at George Mason University. Get your tickets here.

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SPECIAL: Surviving a School Shooting, From a Teacher's Point of View

Thu, 20 Sep 2018 09:30:00 GMT

In an intimate conversation, three educators who survived school shootings talk to Slate’s Dahlia Lithwick about the trauma of going back to the classroom.

For a transcript, visit Slate.com/TeacherPodcast

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Roe v Kavanaugh

Sat, 15 Sep 2018 06:00:00 GMT

Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Professor Melissa Murray of NYU Law School, who gave blistering testimony at the Kavanaugh confirmation hearings last week. They talk Roe v Wade, when precedent counts and when it doesn’t, and what the likely confirmation of Kavanaugh to the Supreme Courts means for reproductive rights writ large. Plus, Dahlia Lithwick shares highlights from an on-stage conversation between her and Justice Elena Kagan this past week, where they covered division in the court and in the country, how Chief Justice Roberts steers the court through choppy waters, and civility.

Please let us know what you think of Amicus. Join the discussion of this episode on Facebook. Our email is amicus@slate.com.

Podcast production by Sara Burningham.

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Back to School Protest Special

Sat, 01 Sep 2018 06:00:00 GMT

Student activism is back in America’s schools. Young people mobilizing around gun safety and social justice issues are heading back to school. We talk to Mary Beth Tinker, who took her fight for the right to protest at school all the way to the Supreme Court back in 1969. And we hear from noted First Amendment scholar Geoffrey R. Stone of the University of Chicago Law School, who tells us what rights students have to raise their voices—or wear t-shirt slogans—in schools today.

Please let us know what you think of Amicus. Join the discussion of this episode on Facebook. Our email is amicus@slate.com.

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Barbie, Bratz, and Who Owns Your Dreams?

Sat, 18 Aug 2018 06:00:00 GMT

You Don’t Own Me is Orly Lobel’s fascinating examination of a landmark legal battle between plastic dolls. The Mattel v MGA, Barbie v Bratz case exposed questions about gender, culture and rights in the workplace. This episode of Amicus takes you inside a case involving corporate espionage, intellectual property, and icons of American girlhood.

Please let us know what you think of Amicus. Join the discussion of this episode on Facebook. Our email is amicus@slate.com.

Podcast production by Sara Burningham.

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A Taftian Antidote to Trumpian Excesses

Sat, 04 Aug 2018 06:00:00 GMT

Amicus’ summer of exploring great legal writing continues this week with Jeff Rosen, whose biography of William Howard Taft reveals a president who was scrupulous in observing constitutional boundaries, and much happier on the bench than in the White House.

Please let us know what you think of Amicus. Join the discussion of this episode on Facebook. Our email is amicus@slate.com.

Podcast production by Sara Burningham.

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The Scalia Factor

Sat, 21 Jul 2018 06:00:00 GMT

In the first of a series of deep dives into great legal reads this summer, Dahlia Lithwick talks with Rick Hasen, author of “The Justice of Contradictions: Antonin Scalia and the Politics of Disruption” about civil discourse, rock star justices, and what Justice Scalia would have thought of President Trump.

Please let us know what you think of Amicus. Join the discussion of this episode on Facebook. Our email is amicus@slate.com.

Podcast production by Sara Burningham.

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The Argument That Could Reclaim the Supreme Court for Democrats

Sat, 07 Jul 2018 10:00:00 GMT

This week Dahlia LIthwick talks with Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, a Democratic senator from Rhode Island, about what we can expect over the next several months as Donald Trump nominates a new associate justice to the Supreme Court. He talks about why Democrats must care more about the Supreme Court, the danger of dark money, and the frustration of confirmation hearings.

Please let us know what you think of Amicus. Join the discussion of this episode on Facebook. Our email is amicus@slate.com.

Podcast production by June Thomas.

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With Kennedy Gone, What’s on the Chopping Block?

Sat, 30 Jun 2018 08:00:00 GMT

The Supreme Court’s 2017 term ended with some blockbuster opinions and, most dramatically, Justice Anthony Kennedy’s retirement announcement. On a special edition of Amicus, Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Slate legal writer Mark Joseph Stern and University of California, Irvine, law professor Leah Litman to discuss what it all means.

Yes, it's a Supreme Court Breakfast Table without a Breakfast Table!

Please let us know what you think of Amicus. Join the discussion of this episode on Facebook. Our email is amicus@slate.com.

Podcast production by June Thomas.

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Voting: Purging, Packing, Cracking, Standing

Sat, 23 Jun 2018 06:00:00 GMT

Dahlia Lithwick takes a close look at the two big voting rights cases decided by the Supreme Court earlier this week with Paul Smith who argued for the plaintiffs in the Wisconsin political gerrymander case Gill v. Whitford. On Monday, the court sent Gill back to the lower courts based on the theory that the plaintiffs had no standing. In the other case, Benisek v Lamone, which involved a Maryland gerrymander, the Justices delivered an unsigned opinion sending Benisek back saying it was too soon to decide. And we take a look at the implications of the court’s earlier decision on Ohio voter purges, a case that was also argued by Paul Smith.

Please let us know what you think of Amicus. Join the discussion of this episode on Facebook. Our email is amicus@slate.com.

Podcast production by Sara Burningham.

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Bonus: Live From the ACLU

Wed, 13 Jun 2018 21:00:00 GMT

Dahlia Lithwick moderates a discussion of civil rights and legal norms in the Trump era with the ACLU’s David Cole, president and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, Vanita Gupta, former White House chief ethics counsel under President George W Bush, Richard Painter, and former US attorney for the Northern District of Alabama, Joyce White Vance.

Please let us know what you think of Amicus. Join the discussion of this episode on Facebook. Our email is amicus@slate.com.

Podcast production by Sara Burningham.

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Religious Belief, Sincerely Held

Sat, 09 Jun 2018 06:00:00 GMT

An epic Amicus this week, with a thorough analysis of Masterpiece Cakeshop v Colorado Civil Rights Commission with Slate’s Mark Joseph Stern. What does is tell us about Justice Anthony Kennedy’s plans, and can it tell us anything about the travel ban case?

Then Dahlia Lithwick speaks with one of her heroes, the Rev. William Barber, about how progressives ceded the language of faith, morality, and the Constitution—and how they are reclaiming it.

Please let us know what you think of Amicus. Join the discussion of this episode on Facebook. Our email is amicus@slate.com.

Podcast production by Sara Burningham.

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The Impeachment Question

Sat, 26 May 2018 06:00:00 GMT

While President Trump demands an investigation into the investigators investigating the investigation, the clamour to impeach grows ever more fervent in some quarters. Dahlia Lithwick explores the legal and constitutional questions surrounding impeachment with constitutional scholar and Harvard Law Professor Laurence Tribe, co-author of To End a Presidency - The Power of Impeachment.

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The State of the State Attorneys General

Sat, 12 May 2018 06:00:00 GMT

As the ripples from New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman’s resignation after allegations of violence against women continue, Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey joins Dahlia Lithwick to discuss the role of State Attorneys General and how that’s changing under Trump. Attorney General Healey also talks about fighting—and winning against—the gun lobby in court.

Please let us know what you think of Amicus. Join the discussion of this episode on Facebook. Our email is amicus@slate.com.

Podcast production by Sara Burningham.

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Travel Ban 3.0 and Rinsing off Religious Animus for SCOTUS

Fri, 27 Apr 2018 16:46:00 GMT

This week Amicus takes you inside the chamber for a forensic discussion of the last, and possibly the most significant, oral arguments of this Supreme Court term. Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Josh Geltzer executive director of the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection at Georgetown University Law Center and former senior director for counterterrorism at the National Security Council.

Please let us know what you think of Amicus. Join the discussion of this episode on Facebook. Our email is amicus@slate.com.

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The Rule of Law and the Ethics of Poking the Bear

Sat, 14 Apr 2018 06:00:00 GMT

It seems as though a slow motion constitutional crisis may be upon us. In this episode of Amicus, Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Lawfare blog editor and senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, Ben Wittes, to assess the threats to the rule of law posed by presidential pique, and whether fired FBI director James Comey’s book could be used as a pretext for ending the Mueller probe.

Please let us know what you think of Amicus. Join the discussion of this episode on Facebook. Our email is amicus@slate.com.

Podcast production by Sara Burningham.

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Don't Call It an Abortion Case

Sat, 31 Mar 2018 06:00:00 GMT

On this week’s show, Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Priscilla Smith, director of the Program for the Study of Reproductive Justice at Yale Law School, to unpack the oral arguments in NIFLA v Becerra, the latest case on the calendar that seems to be about one thing but is being argued under the all-encompassing umbrella of speech.

Dahlia also speaks with Walter Dellinger, former acting solicitor general, about why President Donald Trump can’t get a lawyer. Spoiler: It’s because he lies.

Please let us know what you think of Amicus. Join the discussion of this episode on Facebook. Our email is amicus@slate.com.

Podcast production by Sara Burningham.

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All The President's Lawyers

Sat, 17 Mar 2018 06:00:00 GMT

This week Dahlia Lithwick calls on white-collar-crime specialist Jennifer Taub to follow the money in the Mueller investigation. She also speaks with Bob Bauer, a former White House counsel under President Barack Obama, about the relationship between presidents and their lawyers, and between this president and his lawyers. Bauer discusses when professional duty can stray into enabling, a question facing Trump’s personal and institutional lawyers as cases involving the president accumulate.

Please let us know what you think of Amicus. Join the discussion of this episode on Facebook. Our email is amicus@slate.com.

Podcast production by Sara Burningham.

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When Did Corporations Become People?

Sat, 03 Mar 2018 07:00:00 GMT

On this week’s show, Dahlia Lithwick is joined by UCLA Law Professor Adam Winkler to talk about his new book We the Corporations: How American Businesses Won Their Civil Rights. Together, they also examine what the constitutionalizing of corporate rights can tell us about the current gun debate.

And Dahlia steps inside the chamber for oral arguments in the hugely significant public sector union case we previewed last show. She is joined by the Solicitor General of Illinois, David Franklin, who argued the case. There were explosive contributions from the justices on the bench, but notable silence from the court’s newest member, Justice Neil M Gorsuch.

Please fill out the Slate podcast survey at slate.com/podcastsurvey

Please let us know what you think of Amicus. Join the discussion of this episode on Facebook. Our email is amicus@slate.com.

Podcast production by Sara Burningham.

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A Preview of a Union-Busting Case, and RBG’s Greatest Hits Tour

Sat, 17 Feb 2018 07:00:00 GMT

In this week’s episode, Professor Leah Litman joins Dahlia Lithwick to tune into Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s comments on #MeToo and due process. And for a full background check on the sexy-sounding Janus v. AFSCME case, which potentially poses an existential threat to public sector unions, Dahlia is joined by Professor Catherine Fisk of the U.C. Berkeley School of Law, who wrote about the case for SCOTUSblog.

Please let us know what you think of Amicus. Join the discussion of this episode on Facebook. Our email is amicus@slate.com.

Podcast production by Sara Burningham.

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Immigration: Whose Call is it Anyway?

Sat, 03 Feb 2018 07:00:00 GMT

This week the high court is on its winter break, but the team here at Amicus wanted to talk about DACA, the travel ban, and issues around immigrants, refugees, and the law. We talk Americanism. Who is American and how? What do the courts have to say about who can be here and who cannot? What role do the courts play in figuring out who belongs here and who doesn’t? To tackle these thorny and sometimes super-wonky questions, Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Stephen Vladeck who teaches law at the University of Texas. Vladeck’s teaching and research focus on federal jurisdiction, constitutional law, and national security law. He’s CNN's Supreme Court analyst, co-editor in-chief of the Just Security blog, and a senior contributor to the Lawfare blog.

Transcripts of Amicus are available to Slate Plus members several days after each episode posts. To learn more about Slate Plus, go to slate.com/amicusplus.

Please let us know what you think of Amicus. Join the discussion of this episode on Facebook. Our email is amicus@slate.com.

Podcast production by Sara Burningham.

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“The Gross Spectacle of a Divided Defense”

Sat, 20 Jan 2018 07:00:00 GMT

We’re inside the chamber for the high-profile case involving a death row inmate from Louisiana who’s asking for a new trial after his lawyer told the jury his client was guilty, despite the client’s insistence that he was innocent. Jay Schweikert, a policy analyst with the Cato Institute’s Project on Criminal Justice and co-author of an amicus brief filed in this case, joins Dahlia Lithwick to sift through the arguments and legal principles at play. Veteran Supreme Court reporter Linda Greenhouse talks about shifting positions from the solicitor General’s office, tees up a key case at the intersection of abortion and free speech that will be heard by the high court this term, and gives her take on the status of the truth in the courts and the country in the age of Trump.

Transcripts of Amicus are available to Slate Plus members several days after each episode posts. To learn more about Slate Plus, go to slate.com/amicusplus.

Please let us know what you think of Amicus. Join the discussion of this episode on Facebook. Our email is amicus@slate.com.

Podcast production by Sara Burningham.

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The Right Not to Vote

Sat, 06 Jan 2018 07:00:00 GMT

Sometimes the technical stuff is how you get to the crucial stuff. Next week, the Supreme Court will hear a case about Ohio’s voter purge, and the case rests on some sticky statutory interpretation questions. Up to 1.2 million voters may have been purged from Ohio’s rolls after they sat out a couple of elections and in this episode of Amicus, Dahlia Lithwick does a deep dive into the technicalities of the case. Dahlia and her guests also use this moment to take stock of the state of voting rights in the US. Dahlia talks with Mayor Joseph Helle of Oak Harbor, Ohio, a veteran who came home to find he’d been purged from the rolls after not voting while on active duty, and to the director of the ACLU’s Voting Rights Project, Dale Ho. Ho even cites his favorite Justice Antonin Scalia opinion.

Transcripts of Amicus are available to Slate Plus members several days after each episode posts. To learn more about Slate Plus, go to slate.com/amicusplus.

Please let us know what you think of Amicus. Join the discussion of this episode on Facebook. Our email is amicus@slate.com.

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#MeToo in the Courts

Sat, 23 Dec 2017 07:00:00 GMT

The cultural whirlwind of #MeToo has reached the judiciary, reluctantly bringing Dahlia Lithwick into the fray along with it. In a piece for Slate, she detailed her firsthand experiences with Judge Alex Kozinski. Dahlia’s was one of many accounts that that have now surfaced. Heid Bond was one of the first women prepared to go on the record. A former clerk to Judge Kozinski, she now writes romance novels under the name Courtney Milan. You can read Bond’s piece here and Judge Kozinski’s statement here. We speak with three of Kozinski’s accusers—Heidi Bond, Emily Murphy, and Leah Litman—and hear their ideas about what needs to change to allow women to work safely and successfully in a system often shrouded in secrecy. Then Dahlia is joined by Mark Joseph Stern for a run through the headline arguments and decisions from the Supreme Court in 2017 and a look ahead at what to expect in 2018.

Transcripts of Amicus are available to Slate Plus members several days after each episode posts. To learn more about Slate Plus, go to Slate.com/amicusplus.

Please let us know what you think of Amicus. Join the discussion of this episode on Facebook. Our email is amicus@slate.com.

Podcast production by Sara Burningham.

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Probing the Mueller Probe, and Inside the Chamber for Masterpiece Cakeshop

Sat, 09 Dec 2017 07:00:00 GMT

The Mueller investigation keeps keeping on as subtweets, speculation, and objections mount. Dahlia Lithwick speaks with Andrew Wright, a former associate counsel to President Barack Obama about the latest developments. Plus a deep dive into the oral arguments in the Masterpiece Cakeshop case with Roberta Kaplan, who successfully argued Edie Windsor’s case against the Defense of Marriage Act in 2013.

Transcripts of Amicus are available to Slate Plus members several days after each episode posts. To learn more about Slate Plus, go to slate.com/amicusplus.

Please let us know what you think of Amicus. Join the discussion of this episode on Facebook. Our email is amicus@slate.com.

Podcast production by Sara Burningham.

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Amicus: And Now a Word from the White House (AD-FREE)

Fri, 14 Oct 2016 20:00:00 GMT

After President Obama nominated Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court in March, there was widespread speculation that opposing his confirmation hearings could have political costs for Republican senators. But seven months later, it’s not clear how much the GOP’s continued obstructionism will matter to voters next month. On this episode, we discuss Obama’s handling of the Supreme Court vacancy with White House Counsel Neil Eggleston and Brian Deese, Senior Adviser to the President.

We also take a closer look at Peña Rodriguez v. Colorado, an important case about jury bias that was argued at the Supreme Court this week. Jeffrey Fisher, who represented the petitioner, joins us to explain why blatantly racist comments uttered by a juror in a criminal trial should invalidate that trial’s verdict.

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Podcast production by Tony Field.

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Amicus: 2016 Term Preview (AD-FREE)

Sat, 01 Oct 2016 16:00:00 GMT

The 2016 Supreme Court term gets underway next week, but don’t get too excited. Eager to avoid any more 4-4 split decisions, the eight remaining justices have cobbled together a caseload that steers clear of the big social questions that defined the court’s past two terms. SCOTUSblog founder and publisher Tom Goldstein joins us for our annual survey of what’s ahead.

We also speak with former federal judge Shira Scheindlin. In 2013, she ruled that stop-and-frisk tactics were being used unconstitutionally by the NYPD. Because of that ruling, she was accused this week by Donald Trump of being “very against police.”

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Please let us know what you think of Amicus. Our email is amicus@slate.com. Follow us on Facebook here.

Podcast production by Tony Field.

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Amicus: Notorious RBG [AD-FREE]

Sat, 17 Sep 2016 19:00:00 GMT

We kick off a brand new season of our podcast with an episode devoted to the member of the Supreme Court bench who has garnered by far the most headlines since our last episode. That’s right, it’s the slavish fangirl edition of Amicus, in which we cave to the pressure of our listeners and fête the woman who had the temerity to call Donald Trump a “faker” this past July. Joining us to discuss the cultural phenomenon that is Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is MSNBC national reporter Irin Carmon, co-author of the bestselling biography Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg. We also hear from Cooper Sirwatka, a New York attorney and proud wearer of a full-color RBG tattoo.

Amicus is brought to you by Upstanders, a new podcast from Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz and Rajiv Chandrasekaran. Hear stories of ordinary people

doing extraordinary things to create positive change in their communities. Listen and subscribe to Upstanders on iTunes now.

Transcripts of Amicus are available to Slate Plus members. Consider signing up today! Members get bonus segments, exclusive member-only podcasts,

and more. Sign up for a free trial today here.

Please let us know what you think of Amicus. Our email is amicus@slate.com.

Podcast production by Tony Field.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.