

Amicus With Dahlia Lithwick | Law, justice, and the courts
Slate Podcasts
A show about the law and the nine Supreme Court justices who interpret it for the rest of America.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.
Episodes
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Jun 20, 2020 • 1h 24min
Blockbusters: DACA and Title VII
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.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

Jun 6, 2020 • 56min
Race, Police, and The Law
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. 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

May 23, 2020 • 1h 3min
Immunity, Impunity, and Justice by the Numbers
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. 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

May 9, 2020 • 1h 4min
Big Days for Justice
Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Susan Hennessey, national security analyst and executive editor of Lawfare to discuss the ramifications of the Justice Department’s decision to drop the case against Michael Flynn. Later in the show, Lithwick is joined by veteran Supreme Court watcher Linda Greenhouse to unpack the new format for Supreme Court arguments: a teleconference carried live on C-SPAN, with a close look at the birth control case you might have missed. In the Slate Plus segment, Mark Joseph Stern on how Flushgate could affect post-pandemic openness at the Supreme Court and which justice is crushing the conference calls. 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

Apr 25, 2020 • 44min
States’ Rights
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. 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

Apr 11, 2020 • 53min
Why, Wisconsin?
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. 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

Mar 28, 2020 • 1h 1min
Protecting Democracy in a Pandemic
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. 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

Mar 14, 2020 • 56min
The Law of Public Health
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.Sign up for Slate Plus now to listen and support our show. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Feb 29, 2020 • 48min
Have Progressives Lost the Courts for Good?
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 JosephStern breaks down the headlines, cases, cert grants, and conundrums from the Supreme Court and federal appellate courts. To start your free two-week trial go to slate.com/amicusplusPodcast production by Sara Burningham. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Feb 26, 2020 • 14min
Election Meltdown, Professor Brendan Nyhan
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. Try Slate Plus free: slate.com/amicusplusPodcast production by Sara Burningham. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices