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

Dahlia is joined by Mary Trump and Norm Ornstein to discuss how a single Trump-appointed judge’s attempt to stick a fork in the Justice Department’s criminal investigation into potential mishandling of classified materials is part of a systemic story about American justice. And they discuss the kinds of reform needed to protect democracy and repair the judiciary. And how to handle our collective t...

Law Professor and former journalist Amy Gajda joins Dahlia Lithwick to discuss her latest book, Seek and Hide: The Tangled History of the Right to Privacy . They chart a course through early conceptions of privacy to today’s fraught battles over privacy and dignity in the age of surveillance capitalism. Need to set up your Slate Plus feed? If you subscribed through Slate.com, check out our FAQ at...

The quality of dignity is not strained. Judge Victoria Pratt presided for years over Municipal Court in Newark, New Jersey. Her experiences form the foundation of her book, The Power of Dignity: How Transforming Justice Can Heal Our Communities . In the third of Amicus’ summer season of big-picture conversations, Dahlia Lithwick and Judge Pratt explore what everyone, up to and including Supreme Co...

In the second of Amicus’ Summer Series of interviews that step out of the day to day of jurisprudence to look at justice and the Supreme Court through a wide-angle lens, Dahlia Lithwick is joined by actor and playwright Heidi Schreck. Schreck created and starred in the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award - nominated “What the Constitution Means to Me” and is a fierce advocate for abortion rights. Togeth...

Dahlia Lithwick is joined by former Attorney General Eric Holder as Amicus begins its summer season while the Supreme Court is in recess. General Holder describes his feelings when, as President Barack Obama’s Attorney General, he realized he could not in good conscience take part in the long-held tradition of the AG arguing an “easy case” before the Supreme Court. The issue? That same court had j...

Dahlia L​​ithwick hosts Amicus’ annual term-ending breakfast table conversation, featuring Slate’s own Mark Joseph Stern, Professor Katherine Franke and Professor Nikolas Bowie . They dig into the biggest decisions of the term, and step back to survey where the court is headed, and where it’s already been.  Sign up for Slate Plus now to listen and support our show. Need to set up your Slate Plus f...

The term is over, and the ground upon which all Americans stood, has fundamentally shifted. Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Professor Dorothy Roberts to discuss the reality of forced birth and family separation upon marginalized peoples in America. Dorothy is the author of Torn Apart: How the Child Welfare System Destroys Black Families --and How Abolition Can Build a Safer World, and of Killing the...

Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern on Kennedy v Bremerton School District : a referendum on the status of truth at the high court, and another nail in the coffin of the establishment clause.  Slate Plus members have access to the whole interview.  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 subscri...

Well it happened, Roe v Wade has been swept away and Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Mary Ziegler, a law professor at the University of California, Davis, and the author of “Dollars for Life: The Anti-Abortion Movement and the Fall of the Republican Establishment.” And then we turn to the other blockbuster decision this week, in New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v Bruen. Dahlia talks to the...

Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern react to the Supreme Court’s decision in Carson v Makin, a blockbuster religious liberty case that sees the court traveling a long way in a short time, and trampling the establishment clause along the way,  Slate Plus members have access to the whole interview.  Sign up for Slate Plus now to listen and support our show. Podcast production by Sara Burningham. ....

Dahlia Lithwick is joined by CNN legal analyst Joan Biskupic and election law Professor Richard Hasen for what could be called “Amicus: Wheels Coming Off Edition”. We’re still waiting for a bevy of blockbuster decisions, and despite Chief Justice John Roberts’ solemn wish to steady the ship, events at the January 6th select committee seem destined to scupper it. Joan, Rick and Dahlia talk about wh...

Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Ryan Goodman, professor of Law at NYU and co-editor-in-chief of Just Security. While we wait for the High Court to release opinions in a heaving pile of cases, the main constitutional action of the week was in Congress. Ryan Goodman has been piecing together the events of January 6th, and what led to it, for the past year and a half with colleagues at Just Security and...

Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Mark Joseph Stern to tee up the final weeks of the Supreme Court term. Several blockbusters are still to come, from abortion to gun rights to religious liberty to climate action—and then there’s the shadow docket. Mark and Dahlia break it all down with insights into what to expect and what to watch for.  Dahlia also spoke with former Attorney General Eric Holder this w...

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’...