Amarica's Constitution - Staking our Claim

We’re back, and still waiting for the opinion in Trump v. Anderson, which gives us a chance to highlight important new evidence that has come to light - thanks in large part to Professor Amar’s great law student team.  It fatally undermines what seemed likely to be the reasoning the opinion was going to take.  Will it matter?  This is related to the role amici play in the Court ecosystem, and we look at how another case we had a brief in, Moore v. US, seemed to be possibly influenced by our brief by beginning our long-promised clip-based analysis of that oral argument. So a whole lot in a compact episode.  CLE is available from podcast.njsba.com.

Strict Scrutiny - The Alabama Supreme Court Embraces Fetal Personhood

Looks like we have to add a new segment to the show: Fetal Personhood Watch. Leah, Melissa, and Kate break down the decision from the Alabama Supreme Court that ruled frozen embryos used in IVF treatment are "extrauterine children." They also recap the oral arguments the US Supreme Court heard last week, including a bonkers case about EPA regulations. And then, for a special Court Culture segment, Sherrilyn Ifill joins the pod to talk about launching a new center about the Fourteenth Amendment at Howard University School of Law.

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Opening Arguments - Project 2025 Is Terrifying

Episode 1009    The Heritage Foundation's Project 2025 has been making headlines with its promises to set the next Republican president up with a full staff of loyal civil servants and a 920-page executive branch playbook--but what is actually in this thing, and what can we learn from it? Matt takes us through some disturbing echoes of 1933 Germany, which was a famously chill and cool time, showing us how the legal system has historically been used to turn democracies into autocracies. We learn that laws with the most boring names are often the scariest, and about the administrative violence of a well-timed memo.   1. Heritage Foundation's Mandate for Leadership (2023) 2. Presidential Personnel Database (Project 2025 job application) 3. Nazi Telegram with instructions for Kristallnacht (Nov 10, 1938)  

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Amicus With Dahlia Lithwick | Law, justice, and the courts - A Series of Lawsuits That We Call an Election


Dahlia Lithwick is drinking from the firehose of legal news again and this week is joined by election law professor Rick Hasen to figure out why we’re all still hanging on for the Supreme Court to make a call in former President Donald J Trump’s sweeping claim to immunity from prosecution over the events of January 6th, how Americans could actually achieve a real right to vote, and why no-one’s paying attention to a pair of incredibly consequential social media cases being argued at SCOTUS next week. 


In our Slate Plus segment, Dahlia and Slate’s own Mark Joseph Stern discuss the bonkers but very very real implications of the Alabama Supreme Court decision to bestow personhood on embryos being used in fertility treatment, creating an impossible legal landscape for clinics and those struggling to become pregnant. Next, they sift through Justice Samuel Alito’s grievance debris in a recent dissent to find the deeply worrying signposts toward overturning equal marriage rights. Finally, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court pleads with SCOTUS to clear up the mess it made of gun laws with its decision in Bruen.

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Opening Arguments - Embryos Are People, My Friend

Episode 1008   Today we are serving up a tasteful pairing of radically destructive activism from one supreme court with a refreshing adherence to basic Constitutional law from another. We start in Alabama, where the state's highest court just found with no any apparent legal, factual, or moral justification whatsoever that a few hundred frozen cells are legally equivalent to a "child"--because God, probably? Unclear! We then review a recent example of the U.S. Supreme Court doing exactly what it is supposed to do: reviewing and unanimously reversing an obvious Constitutional violation, in this case one which put a man who had been acquitted on mental health grounds at risk of the death penalty.   1. Alabama Supreme Court's decision in LePage v. Center for Reproductive Medicine, P.C. 2. Ketanji Brown Jackson's decision for a unanimous court in McElrath v. Georgia, 601 U.S. ____ (2024) [PDF] 3. Free downloadable version of the Century Schoolbook typeface  

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Opening Arguments - The Fani Willis Hearings – Your Comprehensive Guide 2

Episode 1007   It's Part 2! Fani testifies! It is high drama. Not only that, we hear from an incredible Cohen Brothers movie character for some reason. We also hear from Fani Willis's dad, someone who has led a fascinating life. Then finally, they put Wade's ex-partner Bradley on the stand and... try to make him talk for like 4 hours. It also takes a very dark turn.  

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Opening Arguments - The Fani Willis Hearings – Your Comprehensive Guide

Episode 1006   Part 1! We watched 17 hours of Fulton Country Superior Court so you don't have to! Cohabitating lawyers Matt and Casey are here to break down many of the legal issues, from the mundane to the outright bizarre. These hearings were truly extraordinary. Some of the craziest courtroom drama to ever happen in the real world.

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For the time being, any profit over and above the costs of operating the show, will go towards repair and accountability.

Strict Scrutiny - The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly From State Courts

Kate, Melissa, and Leah preview the cases the Supreme Court will hear this week, explain the latest news in the Trump criminal cases, and survey the significant decisions happening in lower courts.

Get tickets for STRICT SCRUTINY LIVE – The Bad Decisions Tour 2025! 

  • 6/12 – NYC
  • 10/4 – Chicago

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 Vibes

Follow us on Instagram, Threads, and Bluesky