347 episodes
Amicus With Dahlia Lithwick | Law, justice, and the courts Slate Podcasts
-
- News
-
-
4.6 • 2.9K Ratings
-
A show about the law and the nine Supreme Court justices who interpret it for the rest of America.
Want more Amicus? Join Slate Plus to unlock weekly member-exclusive episodes from Dahlia. Plus, you’ll access ad-free listening across all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe now on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of our show page. Or, visit slate.com/amicusplus to get access wherever you listen.
-
How Originalism Ate The Law: What We Can Do About It
Plus members have early access to this capstone live panel discussion recorded at Sixth & I in Washington D.C. on May 14th. This episode will be available free beginning May 22nd.
In the third and final part of our How Originalism Ate the Law series, Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern are joined by Justice Todd Eddins of the Hawaii Supreme Court and Madiba Dennie, author of The Originalism Trap. Being trapped by originalism is a choice, one that judges, lawyers, and the American people do not have to accede to. Our expert panel offers ideas and action points for pushing back against a mode of constitutional interpretation that has had deadly consequences. And they answer questions from our listeners. -
Alito’s Stars and Gripes
Justice Samuel Alito’s wife didn’t attend the January 6th 2021 “Stop the Steal” rally (unlike fellow SCOTUS spouse Ginni Thomas), but in January 2021, in a leafy Alexandria, Virginia cul-de-sac, the New York Times reports that the Alito household was engaged in a MAGA-infused front yard spat with the neighbors, even as the Justice was deciding cases regarding that very election at the highest court in the land. Justice Alito told the New York Times his wife was responsible for the upside down stars and stripes flying from their flagpole and that it was in retaliation for an an anti-Trump sign.
It’s unseemly. Undoubtedly unethical. But this intra-suburban squabble, and the very clear implications it has for a public already aware of the Supreme Court’s dwindling legitimacy, is unlikely to evoke shame, amends, or recusal from Justice Alito. On this week’s Amicus, American legal exceptionalism sliced three ways: Dahlia Lithwick on the Justice and the Flag, Slate’s jurisprudence editor Jeremy Stahl on how Donald J. Trump’s criminal hush money trial ends, and Congressman Jamie Raskin on concrete steps to supreme court reform, how to get back the rights the Supreme Court has taken away, and what a binding ethics code would look like.
Want more Amicus? Subscribe to Slate Plus to immediately unlock exclusive SCOTUS analysis and weekly extended episodes. Plus, you’ll access ad-free listening across all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of our show page. Or, visit slate.com/amicusplus to get access wherever you listen.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices -
BONUS: The Judges on the Front Lines of Originalism
Get your tickets for Amicus Live in Washington DC here.
Justice Todd Eddins of the Hawaii Supreme Court delves into his judicial philosophy, the pitfalls of originalism, and the importance of state constitutional rights. In this candid conversation with Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern, Justice Eddins discusses originalism’s challenges to impartial justice, the intricacies of applying historical context in modern law, and how state supreme courts can provide a check and balance against the US Supreme court to protect citizens’ rights.
This episode is member-exclusive. Listen to it now by subscribing to Slate Plus. By joining, not only will you unlock exclusive SCOTUS analysis and weekly extended episodes of Amicus, but you’ll also access ad-free listening across all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of our show page. Or, visit slate.com/amicusplus to get access wherever you listen. -
BONUS: A Year of Living Constitutionally
Get your tickets for Amicus Live in Washington DC here.
Dahlia Litwick discusses AJ Jacobs’ unique exploration of living by originalism in his book, 'The Year of Living Constitutionally.' From wearing a tricorn hat to grappling with the Second Amendment by carrying a musket around, AJ delves deep into the principles of the Constitution. The conversation touches on the founding myths of our democracy, the Supreme Court, and the relevance of originalism today. By taking a textual approach to the Constitution and trying to live by the framer’s original intent and meaning, AJ highlights some of the modern pitfalls of adherence to originalism versus a more flexible approach to interpreting the Constitution.
This episode is member-exclusive. Listen to it now by subscribing to Slate Plus. By joining, not only will you unlock exclusive SCOTUS analysis and weekly extended episodes of Amicus, but you’ll also access ad-free listening across all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of our show page. Or, visit slate.com/amicusplus to get access wherever you listen. -
How Originalism Ate The Law: The Trap
Get your tickets for Amicus Live in Washington DC here.
In the second part of our series on Amicus and at Slate.com, Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern are back on the originalism beat. This week they’re trying to understand the mechanisms of what Professor Saul Cornell calls “the originalism industrial complex” and how those mechanisms plug into the highest court in the land. They’re also asking how and why liberals failed to find an effective answer to originalism, even as the various “originalist” ways of deciding who’s history counts, what constitutional law counts, which people count, were supercharged by Trump’s SCOTUS picks. Madiba Dennie, author of The Originalism Trap, highlights how the Supreme Court turned to originalism to gut voting rights. In 2022, the US Supreme Court’s originalism binge ran roughshod over precedent and unleashed Dobbs and Bruen on the American people - Mark and Dahlia talk to a state Supreme Court justice about what it’s like trying to apply the law amid these constitutional earthquakes.
In today’s Slate Plus bonus episode, Dahlia talks to AJ Jacobs about his year of living constitutionally, and she confesses to an attempt to smuggle contraband into One, First Street.
Sign up for Slate Plus now to listen and support our show.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices -
BONUS: Why Conservatives Created Originalism
How did the conservative legal movement co-opt an academic theory and transform it into a radically revanchist policy tool for the Supreme Court? And what’s the liberal response?
In this bonus extended interview exclusive to Slate Plus subscribers, Dahlia Lithwick talks to Professor Jack Balkin about his book, Memory and Authority: The uses of history in constitutional interpretation.
This episode is member-exclusive. Listen to it now by subscribing to Slate Plus. By joining, not only will you unlock exclusive SCOTUS analysis and weekly extended episodes of Amicus, but you’ll also access ad-free listening across all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of our show page. Or, visit slate.com/amicusplus to get access wherever you listen.
Customer Reviews
Disappointed Slate+ member
I’m giving Dahlia five stars because she is an unparalleled legal journalist and an absolute delight to listen to, and also because I’m guessing she doesn’t have a lot of control over Slate’s subscriber model. But that model is disappointing. Amicus recently announced a weekly-free-episode-plus-bonus-episode-for-paid-subscribers model, but it seems the actual model is a formerly-free-episode-gets-cut-in-half-and-only-subscribers-have-access-to-the-second-half model. For example, episodes used to be over an hour. Now they are usually only 30-40 minutes, and the bonus episode is the same length or shorter. Substantively, the bonus episode often feels like the missing half of the free episode (like Pam Karlan on presidential immunity). If you’re going to charge subscribers for “bonus” content, Slate, make it an *actual bonus,* not the other half of an episode we used to get in full for free. We aren’t paying for bonus content, we are paying not to have a reduction in the content we used to get for free. This model feels gross and it’s really disappointing.
Cringe inducing bias
They don’t even try to hide their bias. At least better legal podcasts like “more perfect” had a visage of non-partisanship, though I do agree with some of what they say. They really need to work on how self-important, sullenly superior, and arrogant they sound while talking about it. It’s actually kind of embarrassing listening to them because you can tell they think they’re so smart/enlightened whenever they say obvious things.
Jack forgot Jamestown
And there it is — the country was founded for freedom of religion and Jack has run his new book onto the rocks of the New England myth. He’s ignoring Jamestown in 1607 — happily Anglican and looking to make money for the Queen and themselves.