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

In light of the Uvalde school shooting, we’re rebroadcasting a special audio presentation from Amicus that originally aired in 2018. Dahlia Lithwick spoke to three educators who survived gun violence at their schools. Heather Martin was a student at Columbine during the 1999 mass shooting; Mary Ann Jacob was library clerk at Sandy Hook at the time of the 2012 shooting; and Ken Yuers was a teacher...

Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Ambassador Norm Eisen to discuss The Big Picture: democracy, the Rule of Law and the new volume he has co-written and edited,  Overcoming Trumpery: How to Restore Ethics, the Rule of Law, and Democracy . Norm and Dahlia look back to January 6th 2021, and ahead to the coming hearings and the midterms.  In this week’s Amicus Plus segment, Dahlia is joined by Mark Joseph...

In a special live panel discussion in partnership with the Crosscut Festival, this week’s Amicus tackles the post-leak landscape and potential post- Roe fallout from Justice Samuel Alito’s draft opinion in Dobbs . An all-star panel, featuring law professor and podcast host Melissa Murray, journalist and bestselling author Jessica Bruder, and Slate’s news director Susan Matthews—host of the upcomin...

In a special episode for Slate Plus members, Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Slate’s Mark Joseph Stern for in-depth analysis of the stunning leaked draft opinion from Justice Samuel Alito in Dobbs v Jackson Women's Health Organization, the abortion case that is poised to overturn 50 years of jurisprudence and Roe v Wade. Sign up for Slate Plus  now to listen and support our show. Podcast production b...

On this episode of Amicus – in studio edition! – host  Dahlia Lithwick  is joined by Professor  Lawrence O. Gostin , professor of global health law, at Georgetown University, among many other things. They talk about the federal district court in Florida’s decision to lift the mask mandate for public transportation. While it may seem like a small deal given that the mandate was set to expire in a f...

On the great legal history episode of Amicus, host  Dahlia Lithwick  is joined first by  David Gans , director of the Human Rights, Civil Rights, and Citizenship Program at the Constitutional Accountability Center. While GOP Senators used the Ketanji Brown Jackson hearings to take potshots at important ideas like unenumerated rights and substantive due process to score points with their base, the...

It was a week: Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s confirmation hearings, Justice Clarence Thomas in the hospital, Ginni Thomas’ tweets in the hands of the Jan. 6 committee, and an out-of-the-blue redistricting decision on the shadow docket.  First, Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Angela Onwuachi-Willig, dean of Boston University Law School, to discuss why the Senate Judiciary Committee is a terrible venue...

In a Slate Plus-exclusive episode, Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern look ahead to next week’s hearings and lend their expert opinions on what’s likely to come up, what really matters, and who’s got the whole thing upside down.   Sign up for Slate Plus now to listen and support our show. Podcast production by Sara Burningham. Need to set up your Slate Plus feed? If you subscribed through Slate...

Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Professor Anita Hill to discuss confirmation hearings past and future, the unfinished work of equality, and whether the current Supreme Court can be part of that work.  In our Slate Plus segment, Slate’s senior jurisprudence editor Nicole Lewis and senior writer Mark Joseph Stern discuss the worrying news buried in a shadow docket “win” for redistricting, a unanimous d...

Election denialism and disinformation threaten the integrity of U.S. elections, but what can we do about this growing crisis? In this week’s Amicus, Dahlia Lithwick talks to election-law professor Rick Hasen about his new book Cheap Speech: How Disinformation Poisons Our Politics–and How to Cure It . Slate Plus members have access to an extended version of this interview.  Sign up for Slate Plus n...

As President Joe Biden announces his pick to replace Justice Stephen Breyer on the Supreme Court, Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Olivia Warren, a former clerk of nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, and Slate’s own Mark Joseph Stern to discuss Judge Jackson’s character, her qualifications, and the qualities she’ll bring to the highest court in the land if confirmed.  In our Slate Plus segment, membe...

Dahlia Lithwick interviews Rep. Adam Schiff about his work on the Jan. 6 select committee and his fears for our democracy. Next, Dahlia is joined by pre-eminent election-law scholar Professor Franita Tolson, who clears up any confusion about what happened in the shadow-docket order concerning Merrill v Milligan , which appears to have kicked away the remaining protections of the Voting Rights Act’...

As Justice Stephen Breyer announces his intention to step down from the Supreme Court, Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Judge Nancy Gertner to discuss why now, what now, and who now. Judge Gertner is a former federal judge, member of the White House’s Supreme Court Reform Commission, Harvard Law professor … and she’s known Justice Breyer for decades. They discuss what’s changed on the court and wax no...

In the wake of two major vaccine-mandate decisions at the high court this week, Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Andy Slavitt, former senior adviser to Biden’s White House pandemic response team. Slavitt was also the acting administrator of the Centers of Medicare and Medicaid Services from 2015 to 2017. He hosts the In the Bubble podcast, and is the author of Preventable: The Inside Story of How Lead...

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...

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. Need to set...

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. 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 Appl...

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 b...

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 t...

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 S...

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 Polic...

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’...

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...

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 right...

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 pr...