Strict Scrutiny

What’s going to happen to the federal student debt relief plan? Melissa, Leah and Kate give listeners some answers as they break down last week’s Supreme Court oral arguments on the cases blocking 20 million borrowers from seeing between $10,000 and $20,000 of forgiveness on their federal student loans. They also discuss how those arguments could affect a pending federal court ruling that could fo...

Leah and Kate recap the arguments in the big Internet cases the Supreme Court heard last week. Plus, they look ahead to the upcoming arguments in the student debt cancellation cases-- and to an election in Wisconsin that you should all be watching. Follow Strict Scrutiny on Instagram and Twitter . Follow Crooked Media on Instagram and Twitter for more original content, host takeovers, and other co...

Danielle Citron , author of The Fight for Privacy: Protecting Dignity, Identity, and Love in the Digital Age , joins Leah and Melissa to preview two  Supreme Court cases that ask whether online platforms should be held liable for user-uploaded content. Plus, more drip-drip-drip from the investigation of the Dobbs  leak. Read The Fight for Privacy: Protecting Dignity, Identity, and Love in the Digi...

Leah and Kate talk to Jessica Valenti , writer of the Substack newsletter “ Abortion, Every Day ,” which documents the rapidly changing landscape of abortion rights in the U.S. after Dobbs. Plus, they highlight a federal court opinion that would allow people facing domestic violence orders to possess guns, and President Biden’s (brief) State of the Union comment about vetoing any national abortion...

Melissa and Kate talk with Sasha Issenberg , journalist and political science professor at UCLA, about his book The Engagement: America's Quarter-Century Struggle Over Same-Sex Marriage . Issenberg offers a glimmer of hope about the lasting legality of same-sex marriage, even in light of Justice Clarence Thomas’s concurring opinion in Dobbs . But he warns about the dangerous exemptions that could...

Melissa interviews Dahlia Lithwick about her best-selling book Lady Justice: Women, the Law, and the Battle to Save America . They discuss overlooked women who shaped the legal system, complicity in judicial culture, the problem with clerkships, and what it means to actually participate in rebuilding a broken system. The conversation was originally a virtual New York University Birnbaum Women’s Le...

Kate and Leah were live from the University of Pennsylvania in Strict Scrutiny's first live show of 2023! Penn Law Professor Jasmine E. Harris joined the hosts to recap arguments in a case that could impact disability rights. Kate and Leah recap two other arguments, in a case about immigration law and another about the ability to criminally prosecute corporations owned by foreign states. Plus, a m...

Kate, Melissa, and Leah recap the Supreme Court's the first oral arguments of 2023, which includes cases about union labor laws, attorney-client privilege, and Puerto Rico's sovereign immunity. Plus-- some theories about why the Court hasn't issued any opinions this term, and some breaking news in the investigation over the leaked Dobbs opinion. Listen to our past episode on the  303 Creative v. E...

Melissa, Kate, and Leah reconvene to preview the cases the Supreme Court will hear in its January sitting. Manny Pastreich , president of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) local 32BJ, joins us to lay out the stakes in a pair of cases involving labor unions. Get tickets for STRICT SCRUTINY LIVE – The Bad Decisions Tour 2025!  3/6/26 – San Francisco 3/7/26 – Los Angeles Learn more: ht...

Tomiko Brown-Nagin joins Melissa and Kate to discuss her book Civil Rights Queen: Constance Baker Motley and the Struggle for Equality. You may recognize the name Constance Baker Motley from Ketanji Brown Jackson's speech upon receiving her nomination to SCOTUS. Motley was the first black woman to be appointed to the federal bench-- and she and Justice Jackson share a birthday. Judge Motley's stor...

Before we can really get into the holiday spirit, we have to deal with the lump of coal the Supreme Court heard on December 7th: Moore v. Harper . The case is about a fringe legal theory that says that when it comes to regulating elections, state legislatures can do anything they want-- even violate the state constitution-- and state courts can’t intervene to stop them. It's bad, scary, foreboding...

The Supreme Court recently heard 2.5 hours of oral arguments in 303 Creative v. Elenis -- the case about a Colorado website designer who doesn't want to create wedding websites for gay couples. The arguments were absolutely bonkers, with justices invoking kids in KKK uniforms, Black mall Santas, dating sites for people seeking affairs, and re-education camps. Leah, Kate, and Melissa recap the argu...

Melissa and Kate recap oral arguments in a couple of cases that could limit the reach of federal fraud statutes, plus an immigration case out of Texas. And of course, there's the latest story out of the New York Times, spilling the tea on a years-long effort by conservative activists to ingratiate themselves with Supreme Court justices. On December 6th, the Supreme Court will hear arguments in Moo...

Melissa, Kate, and Leah preview the cases that the Supreme Court will hear in December-- from election law shenanigans, to discrimination as protected speech, to making fraud great again.  Get tickets for STRICT SCRUTINY LIVE – The Bad Decisions Tour 2025!  3/6/26 – San Francisco 3/7/26 – Los Angeles Learn more: http://crooked.com/events Order your copy of Leah's book, Lawless: How the Supreme Cou...

On Saturday, the New York Times published a piece about a former anti-abortion leader's claim that he was told the outcome of a 2014 Supreme Court case before it was public. The story offers a glimpse at a years-long campaign by conservative activists to obtain access to and ingratiate themselves with Supreme Court justices. It's really wild and really disturbing-- so Leah, Kate, and Melissa conve...

Rebecca Nagle , host of Crooked Media's This Land, joins Melissa, Leah, and Kate to recap the arguments in Haaland v. Brackeen . The case revolves around the Indian Child Welfare Act, which lays out a set of preferences for where Native American children can be placed for foster care and adoption. The challengers, white foster parents trying to adopt Native American children, are claiming a violat...

Leah, Kate, and Melissa recap the many, many hours of oral arguments in the affirmative action cases SCOTUS heard last week. Get tickets for STRICT SCRUTINY LIVE – The Bad Decisions Tour 2025!  3/6/26 – San Francisco 3/7/26 – Los Angeles Learn more: http://crooked.com/events Order your copy of Leah's book, Lawless: How the Supreme Court Runs on Conservative Grievance, Fringe Theories, and Bad Vibe...

On Halloween, the Supreme Court will hear pair of cases challenging affirmative action in university admissions. Spooky! Janai Nelson , President and Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, joins Melissa, Kate, and Leah to preview the cases. Listen to an episode on race conscious remedies from our spin-off show, Irrational Basis Review Get tickets for STRICT SCRUTINY LIVE – The Bad Decis...

Kate talks with Deborah Tuerkheimer about her recent book, Credible: Why We Doubt Accusers and Protect Abusers . A former prosecutor and leading authority on sexual violence, Deb's book examines why we are primed to disbelieve allegations of sexual abuse--and how we can transform a culture and a legal system structured to dismiss accusers. This episode contains discussions of sexual violence. Plea...

Kate, Melissa, and Leah recap some of the cases argued at the Supreme Court last week: Reed v. Goertz , National Pork Producers Council v. Ross , and Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts v. Goldsmith .  Plus, there's a lot to catch up on in court culture, including judges trying to cancel cancel culture, and another round of Ginni Tonics. Get tickets for STRICT SCRUTINY LIVE – The Bad Decisi...

Melissa, Kate, and Leah welcome Sam Sankar of Earthjustice and Deuel Ross of NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund to recap  arguments the Supreme Court heard this week in two big cases. Sackett v. EPA is a challenge to the EPA’s authority to regulate wetlands, and Merrill v. Milligan is a Voting Rights Act case out of Alabama that’s really about whether Congress may ensure the representation a...

It feels like we're still processing the end of last term, but alas, the first Monday in October is upon us. Kate, Melissa, and Leah kick off season 4 of Strict Scrutiny with a look ahead at what's sure to be another heinous Supreme Court term.  Get tickets for STRICT SCRUTINY LIVE – The Bad Decisions Tour 2025!  3/6/26 – San Francisco 3/7/26 – Los Angeles Learn more: http://crooked.com/events Ord...

For the University of Michigan's Homecoming weekend, we held a special live recording for our season finale. Michelle Adams joins Kate and Leah to wrap up the justices' summer shenanigans and provide a look forward at the collegiate affirmative action cases coming before the Supreme Court this term. Plus, Sommer Foster, co-Executive Director at Michigan Voices , joins to talk to us about Reproduct...

Leah talks with Wilfred Codrington III about his article, " Purcell in Pandemic ," which appeared in the NYU Law Review. The Purcell Principle comes from a 2006 Supreme Court case about what makes an appropriate timeline for changing election laws. The principle wasn't clear to begin with, and has only gotten more confusing in litigation surrounding the 2020 election. Will we see it continue to pl...

Kate, Leah, and Melissa convene a panel to persuade you that the fight for progressive causes has to include state courts and state constitutions. To get the lay of the land and identify the challenges ahead, they welcome four guests: Miriam Seifter of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Jessica Bulman-Pozen of Columbia Law School, Daniel Nichanian of Bolts , and Alicia Bannon of the Brennan Cent...