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

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...

Dahlia Lithwick is joined by My Name Is Pauli Murray directors, Betsy West and Julie Cohen, and by Professor Patricia Bell-Scott, a consulting producer on the film and professor emerita of women’s studies and human development and family science at the University of Georgia. Professor Bell-Scott’s biography,  The Firebrand and the First Lady: Portrait of a Friendship: Pauli Murray, Eleanor Rooseve...

Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Professor Michael Heller, one of the authors of Mine! How the Hidden Rules of Ownership Control Our Lives , for the latest installment of Amicus’ summer season of episodes exploring books and films about the law.  Podcast production by Sara Burningham. Sign up for Slate Plus now to listen and support our show. Need to set up your Slate Plus feed? If you subscribed thro...

Continuing Amicus’ summer season of deep dives into books, films, and ideas beyond the confines of the Supreme Court chamber, Dahlia Lithwick is joined by historian and chair of African American studies at Emory University professor Carol Anderson to talk about her book The Second . They discuss the long anti-Black history of gun laws in the United States and how race defines gun rights today.  Po...

In the first of Amicus ’ summer season of conversations, Dahlia Lithwick tackles one of the major challenges of this moment: how to fix American democracy.  Dahlia is joined  by the Nation’s Elie Mystal and former chief of staff for Sen. Harry Reid and author of Kill Switch , Adam Jentleson . In a discussion that was taped as part of the Crosscut Festival , they discuss the filibuster, voting righ...

A Supreme Court brain trust gathers for this year’s Amicus Breakfast Table. Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Melissa Murray , professor at NYU School of Law and co-host of the podcast Strict Scrutiny ; Jeffrey Fisher , Stanford Law School professor and co-director of Stanford’s Supreme Court Litigation clinic; Perry Grossman *, senior staff attorney at the New York Civil Liberties Union’s Voting Right...

As the big decisions for the term start to cascade down from the high court, Dahlia Lithwick is joined by one of the nation’s foremost thinkers and writers about the Supreme Court: Dean Erwin Chemerinsky of Berkeley Law School. Together, they unravel the ruling on the Affordable Care Act, try to discern the significance of the unanimous decision in Fulton, and Dean Chemerinsky outlines why he’s ca...

Dahlia Lithwick and Slate’s Mark Joseph Stern offer analysis of the big decisions due from SCOTUS any minute, and Dahlia hosts a conversation with Rep Katie Porter about the need for laws to shore up toppled norms.  In our Slate Plus segment, Mark returns to discuss the Stanford law student targeted by the Federalist Society. Nicholas Wallace nearly missed out on getting his diploma after fellow l...

Hi Amicus listeners. Some of you might be familiar with The Waves, Slate’s podcast about feminism and gender, which has been around for years in various forms. The Waves went on hiatus at the beginning of the COVID pandemic, but I’m glad to say that it is back. Every Thursday, you’ll find a new episode in your feed, looking at the news and culture through the lens of gender. We thought Amicus list...

Dahlia Lithwick is joined by two independent abortion providers, Amy Hagstrom Miller of Whole Women's Health and Tammi Kromenaker of Red River Women's Clinic, to share their reactions to two huge pieces of news in reproductive rights and health this week: the Supreme Court’s Dobbs grant, and SB8 in Texas. Then, Ian Milhiser of Vox and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island join Dahlia to discuss ...

Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Preet Bharara, former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, host of Stay Tuned with Preet , and author of Doing Justice . Bharara gives an insider’s view of Rudy Giuliani’s current plight, they also discuss this week’s ruling from a federal judge rebuking former attorney general Bill Barr. If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus...

In the wake of the conviction of former police officer Derek Chauvin in the murder of George Floyd, journalism professor Allissa Richardson joins Dahlia Lithwick to discuss what it is to bear witness while Black in America, and why the media needs to stop airing the videos. (This is the interview with Vanita Gupta that Dahlia mentions. In our Slate Plus segment, Mark Joseph Stern and Dahlia probe...

Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Professor Ciara Torres-Spelliscy , a Brennan Center fellow and professor at Stetson University, to discuss how, when it comes to corporate influence over politics, money talks - but should it actually speak? From Georgia boycotts to campaign finance, and Mitch McConnell’s apparent new take on Citizens United.  In our Slate Plus segment, Mark Joseph Stern joins Dahlia t...