Amicus With Dahlia Lithwick | Law, Justice, And The Courts

Dahlia Lithwick joins Trumpcast as a special guest co-host for an intimate conversation with journalist E. Jean Carroll, author of "What Do We Need Men For." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A flurry of decisions this week, but few big-ticket items. Mark Joseph Stern takes us through  the opinions and dissents in Flowers v Mississippi, Gundy v United States and American Legion v American Humanist Association. Dahlia Lithwick is also joined by Jed Shugerman and Andrew Kent of Fordham University Law School, two of the authors of the Harvard Law Review article, Faithful Execution and Article II, which examines whether the constitution holds the President to some higher standard than just not doing crimes. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When Justice Clarence Thomas wrote a 20 page concurrence to the Indiana abortion law case last week, Adam Cohen’s phone started blowing up. In making an argument linking abortion rights to eugenics, Justice Thomas repeatedly cited Cohen’s book, Imbeciles: The Supreme Court, American Eugenics, and the Sterilization of Carrie Buck Adam Cohen joins Dahlia Lithwick to explore the history of eugenics in the U.S. and to examine  Justice Thomas’ motives and logic for bringing the argument into the abortion debate.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A swathe of draconian abortion laws have been passed by states around the country in the past few weeks, but Alabama outdid them all. Legislators there are clearly hoping Justice Kavanagh will nullify Roe v Wade with a stroke of a pen, but there are quite a few other factors at play here and this week Dahlia Lithwick is joined by just the right women to explore those factors. Professor of Law Melissa Murray of NYU discusses the history and significance of Roe, and CNN legal analyst Joan Biskupic, who also authored the new book “The Chief, the Life and Turbulent times of Chief Justice John Roberts”, joins Dahlia to dissect Roberts’ record and reservations when it comes to reproductive rights.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Judges are at the center of every conversation on Amicus, but never as guests on the show. Until today. Dahlia Lithwick has a wide-ranging and illuminating conversation with Robert Lasnik, Senior United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington. Judge Lasnik answers questions about how cases are selected, where the judiciary has fallen short in response to #metoo, whether justices should hit back against criticism or maintain a lofty silence, and why Bob Dylan looms large in his courtroom  (more details in this 2011 LA Times article). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mark Joseph Stern guest hosts and digs into two cases in the Supreme Court this week. First, the court’s questioning if Title VII of the Civil Rights Act extends to LGBTQ protections. Then, the addition of the citizenship question on the 2020 census. Finally, Dahlia interviews Richard Rothestein, author of “The Color of Law”, about the history of residential segregation.  Podcast Production by Danielle Hewitt Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dahlia Lithwick is joined by former department of Justice spokesperson Matt Miller and Fordham Law Professor Jed Shugerman for a read of the (redacted)  Mueller report.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Harvard Law School Professor Carol Steiker, co-author of Courting Death: The Supreme Court and Capital Punishment to explore recent death penalty cases before the Supreme Court and why the 8th amendment has raised tensions among the justices. This episode is brought to you by The Great Courses Plus.  Get your free trial, plus 50% off your monthly plan at TheGreatCoursesPlus.com/Amicus. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern unpack the arguments in the North Carolina and Maryland gerrymander cases heard by the Supreme Court this week, and Aaron Belkin of advocacy group Pack the Courts tells us why packing the courts is becoming a serious topic in the Democratic presidential race. Please let us know what you think of Amicus. Join the discussion of this episode on Facebook. Our email is amicus@slate.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dahlia Lithwick pans back this week to assess what’s holding and what’s buckling in terms of norms and institutions, two years and change into the Trump presidency. She’s joined by Ian Bassin of Protect Democracy, a new kind of litigation shop looking at global trends toward authoritarianism and trying to resist those trends in the United States. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dahlia Lithwick is joined by conservative lawyer Stuart Gerson and finds common ground over the President’s declaration of a national emergency so he can build the wall.  And Leah Litman helps us take a lawyerly look at Michael Cohen’s testimony before congress this week. This episode is brought to you by The Great Courses Plus. For one month free, go to thegreatcoursesplus.com/AMICUS. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode is brought to you by Simplisafe. Start protecting your home today at simplisafe.com/amicus. Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Dean Risa Goluboff and Vice-Dean Leslie Kenrick of the University of Virginia School of Law. Together, they tackle issues of race in government, gender in the law, plus religion and reproductive rights in the court. Please let us know what you think of Amicus. Join the discussion of this episode on Facebook. Our email is amicus@slate.com. Podcast production by Sara Burningham. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Predictive policing technology is spreading across the country, and Los Angeles is the epicenter. A small group of LA activists are in a lopsided campaign against billions of dollars in city, federal, and Silicon Valley money using algorithms to predict where and when the next crime is going to occur, and even who the perpetrators are going to be. Today, AMICUS is here to introduce you to Hi-Phi Nation, a new podcast from Slate. In this episode, host Barry Lam embeds with the Stop LAPD Spying coalition for a week in Skid Row and investigates how state-of-the-art predictive policing programs work. He then talks to sociologists and philosophers about how big data is changing the relationship between police and the communities they serve. We then turn to the justice of using statistical predictions for the purposes of profiling and police intervention. This is part 1 of 2 on the use of statistical algorithms in criminal justice. Guest voices include the LAPD police commissioners, Hamid Khan, Jamie Garcia, Sarah

Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Sharon McGowan, legal director of Lambda Legal, to discuss how they’re fighting the trans ban following SCOTUS decision to lift the injunctions on the policy going into action.  Also, Dahlia gets the latest on the Mueller investigation from Joyce White Vance, former US attorney in the Northern District of Alabama, including why Mueller didn’t charge Roger Stone with conspiracy. Please let us know what you think of Amicus. Join the discussion of this episode on Facebook. Our email is amicus@slate.com. Podcast production by Sara Burningham. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

UPDATE: On the evening Friday January 18th, after production of this episode of Amicus had wrapped, special counsel spokesman Peter Carr issued the following statement: "BuzzFeed’s description of specific statements to the Special Counsel’s Office, and characterization of documents and testimony obtained by this office, regarding Michael Cohen’s Congressional testimony are not accurate.” Ben Smith, editor-in-chief of Buzzfeed News says the publication stands by its reporting. Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Asha Rangappa, a former FBI special agent specializing in counterintelligence investigations and now a senior lecturer at Yale University’s Jackson Institute for Global Affairs. Together, they unpack the counterintelligence angle of the Mueller probe. Please let us know what you think of Amicus. Join the discussion of this episode on Facebook. Our email is amicus@slate.com. Podcast production by Sara Burningham. This episode is brought to you by the following advertisers: Simplisafe, start protecting your ho

What would a national emergency look like, and why hasn't Trump declared one yet? Dahlia Lithwick has answers and joins What Next, Slate's new daily news podcast, Plus: Was it weird that Ruth Bader Ginsburg wasn't at work this week? Tell us what you think by leaving a review on Apple Podcasts or sending an email to whatnext@slate.com. Follow us on Instagram for updates on the show. Podcast production by Mary Wilson and Jayson De Leon. Subscribe to What Next on Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Joan Biskupic, CNN legal analyst and author of the upcoming book The Chief: The Life and Turbulent Times of Chief Justice John Roberts, to unpack John Roberts’ State of the Judiciary address, and to examine the state of the Chief Justice. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Before news of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s lung surgery broke, Dahlia Lithwick sat down for a revealing conversation with the screenwriter Daniel Stiepelman about the RBG biopic he penned, On The Basis of Sex. Stiepelman also happens to be Justice Ginsburg’s nephew, and this episode offers an insider’s view of the most well-known, but not always fully understood, justice on the court. Please let us know what you think of Amicus. Join the discussion of this episode on Facebook. Our email is amicus@slate.com. Podcast production by Sara Burningham. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

*This week's show was recorded before Friday's filings concerning Paul Manafort and Michael Cohen, but the merits of the discussion stand. Mimi Rocah, a former federal prosecutor in the Southern District of New York, now a Criminal Justice Fellow at Pace Law School draws out the themes of the Mueller investigation. Plus Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Riyaz Kanji, an attorney for the Creek Nation, to explore the fascinating questions and disgraceful history involved in Carpenter v Murphy,  a case argued by Kanji before the Supreme Court last week. The case started with a murder and now involves questions of sovereignty over 3 million acres in Oklahoma.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Ted Boutrous, who represented CNN and Jim Acosta in their case against the White House. Jim Acosta’s “hard pass” or permanent press pass, was revoked by the Trump administration after Acosta clashed with the President at a November 7th news conference. Dahlia Lithwick and Ted Boutros examine questions of due process and free speech thrown up by the case. Please let us know what you think of Amicus. Join the discussion of this episode on Facebook. Our email is amicus@slate.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices