As MAGA Republicans engage in extremist arm wrestling in the House Speaker race, and the sins of the 2020 election subversion scheme catch up with Donald Trump’s closest allies, Dahlia Lithwick is joined by brand new MacArthur “genius grant” recipient Ian Bassin of Protect Democracy to take a look at the stakes of this moment for American democracy. An attempt to walk and chew gum at the same time, Protect Democracy’s work focuses on the incremental ways the law can be applied to protect election workers and inhibit disinformation, while also looking to the big constitutional and cultural questions we have to answer if we’re going to reject authoritarianism.
The House is at it again, and there is no Speaker in the chair as of this recording. So many implications - for Presidential succession, for democratic governance, for legislative stalemate. Meanwhile violence escalates in the Middle East. How are these connected? We explore all these, and Akhil has some fascinating originalist analyses - of history you surely didn’t know; of structural reasons that the Speaker can’t be in the line of succession; and a new textual analysis. Meanwhile - why can’t the House act? Has this happened before? (Hint: yes) NOTE: CLE Credit Available for this episode by going to podcast.njsba.com after listening.
Liz and Andrew break down the mechanics of the vote for Speaker of the House, explain the incredibly narrow gag order issued by Judge Chutkan in the DC insurrection case against Donald Trump, and finish with a hilarious story of how Mike Lindell can't keep his terrible lawyers.
Melissa, Kate, and Leah recap the oral arguments the Supreme Court heard last week, including a big one about voting rights and redistricting (Alexander v. South Carolina State Conference of the NAACP). Plus, an update on the shenanigans around the Wisconsin Supreme Court and the tomfoolery in the Fifth Circuit.
Read ProPublica's reporting on how U.S. Representative James Clyburn was involved in the South Carolina redistricting plan that's now before the Supreme Court
Please consider donating the memorial fund for Maggie Rossman, a college classmate of Leah's who recently died from complications in childbirth
Follow @CrookedMedia on Instagram for more original content, host takeovers and other community events.
Get tickets for STRICT SCRUTINY LIVE – The Bad Decisions Tour 2025!
In this week’s big voting rights case, Alexander v. South Carolina State Conference of the NAACP, the Supreme Court heard arguments concerning whether to uphold a South Carolina congressional map that is avowedly partisan (everyone agrees it favors Republicans, but partisan gerrymanders are A-OK under SCOTUS precedent). What is disputed here is whether the mapmakers relied on race to reach their partisan aims. A three-judge panel in South Carolina found it to be a racial gerrymander, and threw out the map. In arguments on Wednesday, it became clear that the high court’s conservatives would rather toss out the evidence the lower court used to reach its decision, an unusual move for the highest court in the land, but perhaps the bed it’s made for itself after ruling partisan gerrymanders non justiciable in Rucho v. Common Cause in 2019. And so SCOTUS cos-played as a trial court for two hours on Wednesday.
On this week’s Amicus, Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Leah Aden, senior counsel at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund who argued the case on behalf of the South Carolina Conference of the NAACP, and Taiwan Scott - a South Carolina voter and individual plaintiff in the case, who says the electoral power of his Gullah Geechee community is suppressed by the gerrymander.
Liz and Andrew cover a bunch of stories, from the hapless Republican effort to find a Speaker of the House to this week at the Supreme Court & much, much more!
Liz and Andrew cover a bunch of stories, from the hapless Republican effort to find a Speaker of the House to this week at the Supreme Court & much, much more!
Liz and Andrew tackle all the stories in the news, from the dysfunctional House of Representatives to the latest developments in Fulton County, Georgia.
