Amicus With Dahlia Lithwick | Law, justice, and the courts

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. Sign up for Slate Plus now to listen and support our show.Podcast production by Sara Burningham. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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.Sign up for Slate Plus now to listen and support our show. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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. Sign up for Slate Plus now to listen and support our show.Podcast production by Sara Burningham.. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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.Sign up for Slate Plus now to listen and support our show. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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.Sign up for Slate Plus now to listen and support our show. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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. Sign up for Slate Plus now to listen and support our show. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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

Dahlia Lithwick 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.Sign up for Slate Plus now to listen and support our show. 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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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

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.Sign up for Slate Plus now to listen and support our show.Podcast production by Sara Burningham Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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

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

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. Sign up for Slate Plus now to listen and support our show.Podcast production by Sara Burningham. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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. Sign up for Slate Plus now to listen and support our show.Podcast production by Sara Burningham. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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. Sign up for Slate Plus now to listen and support our show.Podcast production by Sara Burningham. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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. Sign up for Slate Plus now to listen and support our show.Podcast production by Sara Burningham. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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

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

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. Sign up for Slate Plus now to listen and support our show.Podcast production by Sara Burningham. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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. Sign up for Slate Plus now to listen and support our show.Podcast production by Sara Burningham. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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

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. Podcast production by Sara Burningham. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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. Podcast production by Sara Burningham. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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. Sign up for Slate Plus now to listen and support our show.Podcast production by Sara Burningham. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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.Sign up for Slate Plus now to listen and support our show.Podcast production by Sara Burningham. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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. Sign up for Slate Plus now to listen and support our show.Podcast production by Sara Burningham.. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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. Sign up for Slate Plus now to listen and support our show.Podcast production by Sara Burningham. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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. Sign up for Slate Plus now to listen and support our show.Podcast production by Sara Burningham. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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. Sign up for Slate Plus now to listen and support our show.Podcast production by Sara Burningham. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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. Sign up for Slate Plus now to listen and support our show.Podcast production by Sara Burningham. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Urgent times call for urgent conversations as Professor Michele Goodwin and Rebecca Traister join Dahlia Lithwick for an emergency Amicus to discusswhat’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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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.Sign up for Slate Plus now to listen and support our show.Podcast production by Sara Burningham. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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.Sign up for Slate Plus now to listen and support our show. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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.Sign up for Slate Plus now to listen and support our show. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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

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.Sign up for Slate Plus now to listen and support our show.Podcast production by Sara Burningham. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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

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.If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get benefits like zero ads on any Slate podcast, bonus episodes of shows like Slow Burn and Political Gabfest—and you’ll be supporting the work we do here on Amicus. Sign up now at slate.com/amicusplus to help support our work.Podcast production by Sara Burningham. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hi Amicus listeners. Some of you might be familiar with The Waves, Slate’s podcast about feminism and gender, which has been around for years in various forms. The Waves went on hiatus at the beginning of the COVID pandemic, but I’m glad to say that it is back. Every Thursday, you’ll find a new episode in your feed, looking at the news and culture through the lens of gender. We thought Amicus listeners would enjoy this week’s episode, featuring a conversation between Slate's Christina Cauterucci and Robin Marty, author of The New Handbook for a Post-Roe America, gaming out the potential post-Roe future. If you like it, please subscribe to The Waves wherever you get your podcasts. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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.If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get benefits like zero ads on any Slate podcast, bonus episodes of shows like Slow Burn and Political Gabfest—and you’ll be supporting the work we do here on Amicus. Sign up now at slate.com/amicusplus to help support our work.Podcast production by Sara Burningham.. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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.If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get benefits like zero ads on any Slate podcast, bonus episodes of shows like Slow Burn and Dear Prudence—and you’ll be supporting the work we do here on Amicus. Sign up now at slate.com/amicusplus to help support our work.Podcast production by Sara Burningham. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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.Sign up for Slate Plus now to listen and support our show.Podcast production by Sara Burningham. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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. Sign up for Slate Plus now to listen and support our show.Podcast production by Sara Burningham. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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. Sign up for Slate Plus now to listen and support our show.Podcast production by Sara Burningham. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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. Sign up for Slate Plus now to listen and support our show. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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. Sign up for Slate Plus now to listen and support our show.Podcast production by Sara Burningham. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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.Sign up for Slate Plus now to listen and support our show.Podcast production by Sara Burningham. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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.Sign up for Slate Plus now to listen and support our show.Podcast production by Sara Burningham. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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. Sign up for Slate Plus now to listen and support our show.Podcast production by Sara Burningham. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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. Sign up for Slate Plus now to listen and support our show.Podcast production by Sara Burningham. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.