Amicus With Dahlia Lithwick | Law, Justice, And The Courts

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.  Sign up for Slate Plus now to listen and support our show. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 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. Learn more about your ad choices.

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

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. 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. Learn more ab

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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 Letitia 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 s

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. 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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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. 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 cont

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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. Sign up for Slate Plus now to support our show. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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.  Sign up for Slate Plus now to support our show. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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. Sign up for Slate Plus now to listen and support our show. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dahlia L​​ithwick 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.  Sign up for Slate Plus now to listen and support our show. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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. . Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/a

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices