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. Get more Amicus with Slate Plus. Join to unlock weekly bonus episodes with exclusive legal analysis—plus ad-free listening across all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe directly from the Amicus show page on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Or visit slate.com/amicusplus to get access wherever you listen. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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  1. 20h ago

    By The People | Two Steps Forward, One Step Back

    Long before the Supreme Court handed down the landmark Obergefell ruling on equal marriage in 2015, activists were canvassing door-to-door, courting any lawmaker who would listen, and losing at the local level—a lot. Their scrappy determination helped convince family members, neighbors and eventually the rest of the country that the Constitution's guarantees of liberty and equality applied to same-sex couples.  In Episode 3 of By the People, equal marriage campaign architect Marc Solomon joins Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern to trace the movement’s "quixotic" beginnings in 2001. As this series continues to explore how ordinary Americans—not just nine justices—can interpret and enforce the Constitution, the campaign for equal marriage offers examples and tools that dedicated citizens can use to make constitutional meaning. The episode also confronts an uncomfortable question: If popular pressure can produce a ruling you love, like Obergefell, it can produce one you might not, like the court’s decision to enshrine an individual right to bear arms in 2008’s D.C. v. Heller. Dahlia and Mark discuss what happens when popular constitutionalism is retrofitted as originalism, and why no constitutional win, no matter how  popular, is ever truly permanent. By the People is Slate’s end-of-term project exploring how ordinary Americans have shaped the meaning of the Constitution outside the Supreme Court. You can read the full package of articles accompanying this series at slate.com/bythepeople The justices publish their opinions a few dozen times a year. Dahlia and Mark share theirs every week. Slate Plus gets you all of it: Amicus ad-free with a weekly bonus segment, and no paywalls anywhere on Slate. Join now. Visit slate.com/amicusplus to get access wherever you listen. You can subscribe directly from the Amicus show page on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.  Need to set up your Slate Plus feed? If you subscribed through Slate.com, check out our FAQ at slate.com/podcastfaqs for easy instructions. Members subscribed via Apple Podcasts get automatic access—no setup required. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    By The People | Two Steps Forward, One Step Back

  2. 22h ago ·  Bonus • Slate Plus Only

    Bonus: Trump Asks SCOTUS To Help Him Rig the Midterms

    With the AC units working overtime in a sweltering smokeless cigar bar, Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern focus on two specific blasts of hot air from the past week. First up: the Trump administration’s emergency request for the Supreme Court’s permission to implement an assault on mail-in voting—and ensure chaos ahead of the midterm elections. Next, the hosts discuss what to make of the snag in Todd Blanche’s bid for confirmation as U.S. attorney general. Later: Shirin Ali is one of many fabulous Slate writers who are contributing to our By the People project. She joins Mark and Dahlia to talk about interviewing the families of activists killed while fighting for voting rights in the 1960s—and what those survivors had to say about today’s siege on polling places and mail ballots. 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.

    Bonus: Trump Asks SCOTUS To Help Him Rig the Midterms

  3. 6d ago ·  Bonus • Slate Plus Only

    Bonus: Mass Shooters’ Weapon of Choice Gets a Huge Boost

    On this week’s Amicus Plus, cohosts Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern send the smokeless cigar bar to New Jersey—the source of two major and not-very-welcome surprises in recent days. First up: a lopsided decision from the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals striking down the Garden State’s ban on assault weapons and large-capacity magazines, in which some very liberal jurists sided with the broadest possible reading of the Second Amendment. Next: the announcement that about 400 noncitizens have voted in New Jersey over the last few years due to the state’s own software glitch. Both of these developments represent some wildly unfortunate timing. The Supreme Court will take up the constitutionality of assault-weapons bans this coming term. And Trump’s mega-MAGA Justice Department is champing at the bit to suppress votes in the midterm elections under the false claim that noncitizen voting is a widespread and epic phenomenon across the country. (It’s not.) 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.

  4. Jul 25

    By the People | For the Children

    In 1867, an 8-year-old girl named Elizabeth Turner became the epicenter of a legal battle that would help define what freedom really meant after the Civil War. Days after Maryland abolished slavery, her former enslaver had her re-indentured under a sham "apprenticeship" law used to seize Black children. Elizabeth’s mother—and thousands of other parents—refused to accept it.  In this second episode of By the People, legal scholar Lyle Cherneff guides Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern through a Union Army general's archive of letters that documented the plight of Black parents who petitioned, marched, and filed habeas corpus claims to win their children back. These parents read the new constitutional guarantees of freedom for themselves, and demanded they be enforced, long before any Supreme Court told them what those words meant. The resulting case, In re: Turner, helped end the practice of racialized child "apprenticeship" and shaped the meaning of the 13th and 14th amendments. But the parents who fought for it were nearly written out of the story. In this episode, we seek to restore that record, tracing a direct line from their fight to ordinary Americans’ resistance to ICE raids today.   By the People is Slate’s end-of-term project exploring how ordinary Americans have shaped the meaning of the Constitution outside the Supreme Court. You can read the full package of articles accompanying this series at slate.com/bythepeople The justices publish their opinions a few dozen times a year. Dahlia and Mark share theirs every week. Slate Plus gets you all of it: Amicus ad-free with a weekly bonus segment, and no paywalls anywhere on Slate. Join now. Visit slate.com/amicusplus to get access wherever you listen. You can subscribe directly from the Amicus show page on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.  Need to set up your Slate Plus feed? If you subscribed through Slate.com, check out our FAQ at slate.com/podcastfaqs for easy instructions. Members subscribed via Apple Podcasts get automatic access—no setup required. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    By the People | For the Children

  5. Jul 19 ·  Bonus • Slate Plus Only

    Bonus: What Happened to Todd Blanche?

    Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche wasn’t acting like a man who feels the need to convince anyone of anything during his big job interview on the Hill. In this Amicus bonus episode, Madiba Dennie of Balls and Strikes joins Mark Joseph Stern to parse Blanche’s haughty and dismissive performance during this week’s confirmation hearings, which will have major implications for justice in America. Later, Madiba and Mark discuss Elena Kagan and Amy Coney Barrett’s appearances before House and Senate committees. The justices requested funding for a major security overhaul for the Supreme Court—but were much less interested in accepting any oversight or accountability to go along with all that $$$. 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.

    Bonus: What Happened to Todd Blanche?

  6. Jul 18

    By the People | Who Owns the Constitution?

    For the better part of two centuries of U.S. history, the American people understood that they—and not the Supreme Court—were the final arbiters of the Constitution. But in recent decades, nine unelected justices have claimed that mantle for themselves. Now, with the high court's claim of neutrality and legitimacy crumbling, an urgent question must be answered: Can "We the People" restore our power to interpret the Constitution—and if so, how? In the first installment of the series By the People, Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern try to find out how and when this notion of judicial supremacy took over, with the help of Larry Kramer, legal scholar and author of The People Themselves: Popular Constitutionalism and Judicial Review. You can read the full package of articles accompanying this series at slate.com/bythepeople The justices publish their opinions a few dozen times a year. Dahlia and Mark share theirs every week. Slate Plus gets you all of it: Amicus ad-free with a weekly bonus segment, and no paywalls anywhere on Slate. Join now. Visit slate.com/amicusplus to get access wherever you listen. You can subscribe directly from the Amicus show page on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.  Need to set up your Slate Plus feed? If you subscribed through Slate.com, check out our FAQ at slate.com/podcastfaqs for easy instructions. Members subscribed via Apple Podcasts get automatic access—no setup required. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    By the People | Who Owns the Constitution?

  7. Jul 12 ·  Bonus • Slate Plus Only

    Bonus: Playing Footsie With Despair

    Our Breakfast Table conversation is over and our superstar panel has left the building. Join us for the afterparty! Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern transform the smokeless cigar bar into the Supreme Court’s hottest new club, with a listener Q&A on court reform, Title IX, law school, and much more. This is part of Opinionpalooza, Slate’s coverage of the major decisions from the Supreme Court. The best way to support our work is by joining Slate Plus. (If you are already a member, consider a donation or merch!) 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.

    Bonus: Playing Footsie With Despair

  8. Jul 11

    The Term the Court Stopped Pretending

    The Supreme Court just wrapped one of its most consequential terms in decades—and Amicus brought together three heavyweight legal experts to break down the damage. Their conversation centers on the biggest themes of the recent term: Congress has been sidelined completely; the Court is the final arbiter of all things; hubris has become the methodology, and the midterms should worry us all.   Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern are joined by civil rights lawyer Sherrilyn Ifill, legal historian Nikolas Bowie, and Supreme Court expert Stephen Vladeck. The panel dissects a term defined by judicial supremacy: the gutting of the Voting Rights Act in Callais and Milligan, the “unitary executive” power grab in Trump v. Slaughter, the birthright citizenship fight that never should have been argued, and a shadow docket that increasingly infects the merits docket. They trace how the court has hollowed out Congress' power to legislate, rewritten the meaning of the Reconstruction Amendments, and applied its own rules with striking inconsistency—all while shrugging off any need to justify itself. The conversation closes with a hard question: What can actually be done about a court that’s this unaccountable? The panel offers concrete ideas, from congressional hearings on court reform to a new Voting Rights Act—and the hosts preview Amicus' upcoming series, By the People. This is part of Opinionpalooza, Slate’s coverage of the major decisions from the Supreme Court. The best way to support our work is by joining Slate Plus. (If you are already a member, consider a donation or merch!) 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. Need to set up your Slate Plus feed? If you subscribed through Slate.com, check out our FAQ at slate.com/podcastfaqs for easy instructions. Members subscribed via Apple Podcasts get automatic access—no setup required. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    The Term the Court Stopped Pretending
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A show about the law and the nine Supreme Court justices who interpret it for the rest of America. Get more Amicus with Slate Plus. Join to unlock weekly bonus episodes with exclusive legal analysis—plus ad-free listening across all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe directly from the Amicus show page on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Or visit slate.com/amicusplus to get access wherever you listen. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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