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 sys...
Jan 01, 2022•53 min
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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Dec 18, 2021•59 min
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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Dec 10, 2021•29 min
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 Univers...
Dec 04, 2021•1 hr 29 min
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...
Nov 20, 2021•1 hr 1 min
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 relig...
Nov 06, 2021•1 hr 5 min
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 “Th...
Oct 23, 2021•1 hr 7 min
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...
Oct 09, 2021•51 min
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 ...
Sep 25, 2021•42 min
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 ...
Sep 11, 2021•57 min
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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Sep 03, 2021•1 hr 5 min
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, ...
Aug 28, 2021•1 hr 4 min
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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Aug 14, 2021•1 hr 4 min
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. Learn ...
Jul 31, 2021•57 min
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. Podcas...
Jul 17, 2021•54 min
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 a...
Jul 03, 2021•1 hr 8 min
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 ...
Jun 18, 2021•47 min
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 ...
Jun 05, 2021•1 hr 21 min
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...
May 29, 2021•34 min
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 genera...
May 22, 2021•1 hr 20 min
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 Slo...
May 08, 2021•1 hr
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 j...
Apr 24, 2021•1 hr 3 min
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 Just...
Apr 10, 2021•59 min
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 product...
Mar 27, 2021•55 min
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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Mar 20, 2021•11 min
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...
Mar 13, 2021•1 hr 17 min
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...
Feb 27, 2021•46 min
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-...
Feb 13, 2021•1 hr 26 min
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 ...
Jan 30, 2021•56 min
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...
Jan 16, 2021•45 min
