Amicus With Dahlia Lithwick | Law, justice, and the courts

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Amicus With Dahlia Lithwick | Law, justice, and the courts
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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.

  1. Bonus: A Glimmer of Hope In a Hellish First Week

    1 DAY AGO · BONUS • SLATE PLUS ONLY

    Bonus: A Glimmer of Hope In a Hellish First Week

    This week, in a conversation exclusively for Slate Plus members, Mark Joseph Stern and Dahlia Lithwick review the week that was Trump. They discuss the victories (a sharp rebuke of Trump’s efforts to rescind birthright citizenship), and the awful (a hiring freeze, asking federal employees to rat on each other, and the pardons of insurrectionists). 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.

    25 min

  2. 2 DAYS AGO

    Trump’s Unconstitutional Rampage Against Immigration

    It’s barely been a week and the torrent of horrible coming from the pens and mouth of President Trump is staggering. Many of the executive orders signed this week focus on immigration, and that is where we have our eyes trained as well. This week, to help us make sense of the whirlwind that threatens to upend the lives of millions of people Dahlia Lithwick talks to Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, Senior Fellow and former policy director at the American Immigration Council, a pro-immigrant nonprofit aiming to defend immigrants through litigation, advocacy, and more. Not all executive orders are created equal, and so Aaron leads us through what’s constitutionally possible, legally probable, and already swinging into action from Trump’s immigration edicts.  Aaron’s post about Bishop Mariann Edgar-Bunne: https://bsky.app/profile/reichlinmelnick.bsky.social/post/3lgdojbbjvk2y Amicus’s October episode on the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 with Katherine Yon Ebright,  American Immigration Council: After Day One: A High-Level Analysis of Trump's First Executive Actions 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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    1h 6m
  3. Extra: Deciphering The Lawlessness of Trump’s Executive Orders

    6 DAYS AGO · BONUS • SLATE PLUS ONLY

    Extra: Deciphering The Lawlessness of Trump’s Executive Orders

    Some very clear themes are already emerging from President Donald Trump’s executive orders; cruel, chaotic, and fear-stoking - yes, but also - they’re rife with shoddy drafting (is that you, ChatGPT?), sloppy lawyering, and some are wildly unconstitutional. In an extra episode of Amicus for plus members, Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern begin the work of parsing a few of the many, many executive orders raining down on America in the hours since Trump assumed office for the second time. 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.

    41 min
  4. Bonus: Biden’s Equal Rights Amendment Mirage

    JAN 19 · BONUS • SLATE PLUS ONLY

    Bonus: Biden’s Equal Rights Amendment Mirage

    Justice Samuel Alito made a joke about reading Playboy for the articles. For some, that was the headline following arguments in Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton. But this case has huge implications for free speech on the internet that have the potential to affect much more than porn sites. In this special bonus episode available exclusively to Slate Plus members, Slate’s Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern talk about the arguments in a pivotal case that flew below the radar in the fog of the presidential transition. Speaking of the fog of presidential transition, Dahlia and Mark also discuss Joe Biden’s last-minute announcement that the Equal Rights Amendment is “the law of the land”, and what that actually means. 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.

    16 min

  5. JAN 18

    The New Constitutional (dis)Order

    Donald Trump becomes president again on Monday, and as Joe Biden leaves the White House, we’re on the brink of a massive change in how the law is interpreted. Pam Bondi’s confirmation hearing was one of a host of clues this week that we are in for a wild legal and constitutional ride. On this episode of Amicus, host Dahlia Lithwick is joined by constitutional scholar Professor Pamela Karlan to pick through what we learned this week about what the law is and what it is about to become –– from Jack Smith’s report, to the new (presumptive) Attorney General of the United States’ apparent ignorance of birthright citizenship and therefore the 14th amendment.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    1h 1m

  6. JAN 11

    TikTok Is Cooked, Trump Is Sentenced

    While Donald J Trump was virtually fuming at his sentencing hearing in Judge Juan Merchan’s New York City courtroom on Friday morning, the nine justices of the US Supreme Court were taking their seats for oral arguments in the so-called TikTok ban case. And while it only took 40 minutes for the president elect’s sentence of an ‘unconditional discharge’ to be pronounced, the arguments over national security, the First Amendment, and an app that 170 million Americans use took a couple of hours longer.  Amicus has an analysis of all of it. First, Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern discuss whether and how Trump’s sentence matters, and what it tells us about the Supreme Court under Trump 2.0. Next, they’re joined by  Gautam Hans, clinical Professor of Law at Cornell Law School, who specializes in constitutional law, technology law and policy, to discuss why the Supreme Court seemed so very ready to reach right past the First Amendment and grab for national security in order to uphold the TikTok ban. 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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    1h 3m
  7. Trump’s Racking Up Supreme Court Loyalty Points

    JAN 9 · BONUS • SLATE PLUS ONLY

    Trump’s Racking Up Supreme Court Loyalty Points

    How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.* There is a cluster-you-know-what of constitutional and legal news this week, so Amicus Plus is popping up a little early with a bonus episode to tackle the Trump prosecutions portion of the melee ahead of Friday’s very important TikTok-ban arguments. Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Andrew Weissman, co-host of the MSNBC podcast "Prosecuting Donald Trump” (recently re-launched as “Main Justice” for…. obvious reasons!) Andrew is also author of two New York Times bestsellers, The Trump Indictments and Where Law Ends: Inside the Mueller Investigation. *We are not eating elephants. Please do not eat elephants. 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.

    31 min
  8. Bonus: Lawyer-Brained

    JAN 5 · BONUS • SLATE PLUS ONLY

    Bonus: Lawyer-Brained

    Welcome to the Amicus Plus secret treehouse, where Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern give the legal news of the week some major side-eye. This week’s bonus episode could have had the subtitle: “The ‘Legally Possible’ Is Not Always The ‘Politically Plausible,’ But Has A Recent History of Happening Anyway” but … character limits. Dahlia and Mark respond to the response to their holiday mailbag special episode, Dear Jurisprudence—specifically, to a minor Bluesky meltdown over one listener’s fears of a third Trump term and an alleged bad case of lawyer-brain. Next, they examine why the Chief Justice’s conflation of court criticism and violence is particularly on-the-nose at this moment. Finally, why Justice Clarence Thomas’ successful flouting of a federal disclosure statute with seemingly lifelong impunity is actually a big deal. 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.

    23 min
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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.

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