What would a national emergency look like, and why hasn't Trump declared one yet? Dahlia Lithwick has answers and joins What Next, Slate's new daily news podcast, 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. Subscribe to What Next on Apple Podcasts, or wherever you lis...
Jan 11, 2019•21 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Jan 05, 2019•1 hr 1 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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 ami...
Dec 22, 2018•50 min•Transcript available on Metacast *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 ar...
Dec 08, 2018•1 hr 10 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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 Jim Acosta’s “hard pass” or permanent press pass, was revoked by the Trump administration after Acosta clashed with the President at a November 7th news conference.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@...
Nov 24, 2018•33 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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. Learn more about y...
Nov 10, 2018•1 hr 1 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Nov 03, 2018•23 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoic...
Oct 27, 2018•58 min•Transcript available on Metacast The courtroom can be a battlefield over money, people’s rights, and even their lives. For some cases, the consequences can affect us long after the verdict is read. Based on extensive interviews and court transcripts, Wondery’s new podcast LEGAL WARS puts you inside the jury box of some of the most famous court cases in American history. Subscribe to Legal Wars today at wondery.fm/amicus Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Oct 22, 2018•11 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Oct 13, 2018•58 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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...
Oct 01, 2018•1 hr 9 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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...
Sep 29, 2018•57 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Sep 24, 2018•1 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Sep 20, 2018•30 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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 th...
Sep 15, 2018•59 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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...
Sep 01, 2018•1 hr 1 min•Transcript available on Metacast You Don’t Own Meis 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 Bu...
Aug 18, 2018•42 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Aug 04, 2018•41 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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. Learn more about your ad ch...
Jul 21, 2018•53 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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. Podcas...
Jul 07, 2018•34 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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...
Jun 30, 2018•51 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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...
Jun 23, 2018•45 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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. Pod...
Jun 13, 2018•1 hr 12 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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 t...
Jun 09, 2018•1 hr 9 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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 Please let us know what you think of Amicus. Join the discussion of this episode on Facebook. Our email is amicus@...
May 26, 2018•47 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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@slat...
May 12, 2018•41 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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...
Apr 27, 2018•58 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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@sl...
Apr 14, 2018•47 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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 ...
Mar 31, 2018•1 hr 1 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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. Pleas...
Mar 17, 2018•54 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
