Bonus: The Gilded Age Election

Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern tackle the plutocrats plundering the 2024 election. Elon Musk is in court in Pennsylvania over the petition lottery that looks an awful lot like illegal vote buying. (A federal judge rejected Musk’s delay tactic to have the election lottery case removed to federal court, and the case is already on the docket in state court). Musk is also paying for unwitting vote canvassers to be loaded into U-Hauls to knock on doors around the state, and his super PAC is behind some very misleading ads purporting to be in support of Harris-Walz. All of which reminds us, didn’t the US Supreme Court unleash much of this insanity on American elections with their Citizens United decision? Oh yeah. Also in the cigar bar this week, one last round of pre-election feelingsball. This episode is member-exclusive. Listen to it now by subscribing to Slate Plus. By joining, not only will you unlock weekly bonus episodes of Amicus—you’ll also 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.