Amicus With Dahlia Lithwick | Law, justice, and the courts - Sneak Preview: Unanimous Opinions Out Front, Desperate Dealmaking Out Back

This is part of Opinionpalooza, Slate’s coverage of the major decisions from the Supreme Court this June. The best way to support our work is by joining Slate Plus. (If you are already a member, consider a donation or merch!)Also! Sign up for Slate’s Legal Brief: the latest coverage of the courts and the law straight to your inbox. Delivered every Tuesday.

Dahlia Lithwick hosts an 'Opinionpalooza' special of Amicus, covering Thursday’s decisions from the Supreme Court. She and Mark Joseph Stern dive into Ames vs. Ohio Youth Department, discussing Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson’s opinion on reverse discrimination, Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s refreshing nod to the establishment clause in the Catholic Charities case, and Justice Kagan’s narrow decision in Mexico’s lawsuit against US gun sellers; a decision that was not the win the gun lobby hoped for. Together, they reveal the strategy emerging from the court’s liberals this term. The episode wraps up with a deep dive into an uptick in dismissed cases and its potential link to audacious former Supreme Court clerks.

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What Next | Daily News and Analysis - She Was Tortured. America Shut Her Out.

Since January, the Trump administration has suspended the right to claim asylum at the southern border. One narrower form of protection—for those who had been tortured by their governments—was supposed to remain. But lawyers have realized that even that appears to be gone.

Guest:  Mark Betancourt, freelance reporter covering immigration from DC, who wrote “This Ethiopian Woman Was Tortured by Her Government. The US is Sending Her Home Anyway” for KQED.

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Podcast production by Ethan Oberman, Elena Schwartz, Paige Osburn, Anna Phillips, Madeline Ducharme, Isabel Angell, and Rob Gunther.


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What Next | Daily News and Analysis - Can Zionism Survive This War?

After 20 months of war, with violence erupting far from the Middle East, where is the future of Zionism headed?

Guest:  Isaac Saul, Tangle executive editor and author of “I think I’m leaving Zionism, or Zionism is leaving me.”

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Podcast production by Ethan Oberman, Elena Schwartz, Paige Osburn, Anna Phillips, Madeline Ducharme, Isabel Angell, and Rob Gunther.


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What Next | Daily News and Analysis - George Floyd Square, Five Years Later

Five years after George Floyd’s murder sparked nationwide protests, the legacy of that movement is still being written in Minneapolis and America writ large—even as some attempt to erase it.

Guest:  

Marcia Howard, president of the teacher chapter of Minneapolis Federation of Teachers

Brandt Williams, senior editor covering race, class and communities for MPR News.  

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Podcast production by Ethan Oberman, Elena Schwartz, Paige Osburn, Anna Phillips, Madeline Ducharme, Isabel Angell, and Rob Gunther.


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What Next | Daily News and Analysis - Can the U.S. Learn from the U.K.’s Post-Brexit Mess?

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: voter discontentment at the two major parties is creating an opening for a far-right populist with an anti-immigration, protectionist agenda that economic experts warn would be devastating. 

With a Trump trade deal in hand, can Keir Starmer and Labour give British voters something to vote for, rather than just against?

Guest: Anand Menon, professor of European Politics and Foreign Affairs at Kings College London. 

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Podcast production by Ethan Oberman, Elena Schwartz, Paige Osburn, Anna Phillips, Madeline Ducharme, Isabel Angell, and Rob Gunther.


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What Next | Daily News and Analysis - TBD | So Long, Elon

His time in Washington was brief, but we’ll be picking up the pieces for a long time. What Elon’s exit signals for the future of DOGE, and Musk’s political career. 


Guest: Kate Conger, reporter for the New York Times covering X and other technology companies.


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Slate Books - ICYMI: Will MomTok Actually Change Mormonism?

Candice Lim and Kate Lindsay are joined by Sara Petersen, author of Momfluenced, to chat about season two of The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives. Mormon women once pioneered mommy blogging, so how did we get from vlogging to…swinging? The influencers who make up the reality show cast, known as “MomTok,” claim their racy antics are breaking stigmas and modernizing gender roles. In reality, they’re weaponizing their misunderstanding of feminism for their own personal gain. 

This podcast is produced by Daisy Rosario, Vic Whitley-Berry, Candice Lim, and Kate Lindsay.

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Amicus With Dahlia Lithwick | Law, justice, and the courts - This End Of Term At SCOTUS Is Unlike Any Other in History

The end (of the Supreme Court term) is nigh. This week, Amicus goes into June Opinionpalooza mode with some meta-analysis of what to look out for as the Supreme Court delivers dozens of decisions over the next month or so. Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern say this is a term-ending unlike any other, partly because the number of cases pinging onto the high court’s shadow docket means the term may never really, truly, actually, end. And even when the shadow docket cases are decided, there is no real law that emerges, just a few lines of unsigned chicken scratch. Beyond the big merits cases concerning everything from birthright citizenship to healthcare for trans minors to racial gerrymandering to defunding Planned Parenthood, and beyond the brief, unbriefed, unargued emergency docket cases, the Supreme Court’s conservatives are in a power struggle with the very president they crowned quasi-king. 

In a conversation recorded live on Friday at the WBUR Festival in Boston, Mark is joined by Professor Jed Shugerman of Boston University Law School, where they discuss the bad originalism and poor judgment that led to the Roberts’ court’s embrace of a little something called unitary executive theory that has become the Trump administration’s carte blanche. 

Want more Amicus? Join Slate Plus to unlock weekly bonus episodes with exclusive legal analysis. Plus, you’ll access ad-free listening across all your favorite Slate podcasts. You can subscribe directly from the Amicus show page on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Or, visit slate.com/amicusplus to get access wherever you listen.


Get Slate’s latest coverage of the courts and the law straight to your inbox. Delivered every Tuesday. https://slate.com/legalbrief

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What Next | Daily News and Analysis - TBD | The Drone Wars

The war between Ukraine and Russia is being fought increasingly via drone —and NATO and US military leadership is training troops for future conflicts that will pit man against machine.

Guest: Jake Epstein, senior defense reporter for Business Insider.

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Podcast production by Evan Campbell and Patrick Fort.

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What Next | Daily News and Analysis - Legally Dead—And Pregnant

Adriana Smith was nine weeks pregnant when she was declared brain dead in February—far enough along that her fetus showed cardiac activity.  The hospital then refused to let her family decide whether or not they want to keep Smith on life support long enough for the fetus to be delivered.

Guests:  

Imani Gandy, Editor-at-Large for Rewire News Group, covering law and courts and co-host of the podcast “Boom! Lawyered.”

Mary Ziegler, law professor at UC Davis, author of Personhood: The New Civil War Over Reproduction.

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Podcast production by Ethan Oberman, Elena Schwartz, Paige Osburn, Anna Phillips, Madeline Ducharme, Isabel Angell, and Rob Gunther.


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