Amicus With Dahlia Lithwick | Law, justice, and the courts

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A show about the law and the nine Supreme Court justices who interpret it for the rest of America.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.

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Recent Reviews
  • P. Johns
    Excellent
    Episode “bleeding out” w ER doc & Idaho’s abortion lawsuit is “ear opening” required listening before SCOTUS oral arguments. Host Dahlia L. has been writing some of the most pointed and clarifying on Dobbs/post-Roe landscape. Glad to have her writing and this podcast so I can listen and share. Note: Please say “women” instead of “pregnant people” - If we can’t even say this is an attack on “every biological woman” then nobody else will either.
  • LynnieGoll
    Justice SotoMayor retiring
    First off all I know is what I’ve learned from watching and listening. With that said, I thank you for all that I have learned from you. I just wanted to say on the topic of Justice SotoMayor, how fast did you forget about Justice Merrick Garland?!? You don’t think Joe Mansion and Kyrsten Sinema wouldn’t hold that seat open?!? Thank you for everything!
  • midwestBlue
    apr 6
    you can’t include jack smith in holding back court accountability of trump. jack smith is kicking butt aka the Hague prosecutor. merrick garland/hand wringer is to blame for waiting too long to go after criminal trump and he dumped all this responsibility on jack smith. merrick garland needs to resign for his poor job performance.
  • Meiopic
    First Slate Plus separate episode
    The (wonderful) episode with Juliette Kayyem seems to be duplicated as the slate plus special episode…
  • Law aficionado
    All the good stuff is now behind the paywall
    I really enjoyed this show until all the Supreme Court opinions reviews got moved for subscribers only. The “main” show is now just another political podcast, and it is not Dahlia’s forte. I understand the need for revenue but I will now listen to the competition.
  • Ma Joad
    Ugh, the ads!
    Love Dahlia, but can’t listen during a workout bc there are so many ads, frankly I fwd through them.
  • mollyfishny
    Pro-life NO they’re Anti-abortion
    Love this show. But stop calling them pro-life!
  • sfncar
    Excellent!!
    The mifepristone episode is astounding!! Essential listening (several times) for anyone who cares. Wow, just wow.
  • VSLNew
    Essential
    This podcast is more important than ever for all the court news
  • *GEMenhir
    Interview of Barbara McQuade
    Love Dahlia & B. McQuade!!! Great interview and interesting highlights of her book. I already bought it.
  • blm175
    Really?
    Gives examples of all the dirty tricks conservatives are pulling then says yeah but we all just want to hear good things about our guys so it’s kinda both sides do this but offers no examples of liberals pulling all these dirty tricks. EXACTLY what I would expect from an MSNBC contributor. And yes I have seen a lot of MSNBC. Was hoping this would be better.
  • CAGiacomo
    Barb McQuade’s book
    This podcast is unfailingly smart and illuminating. Regardless, this episode on disinformation is a standout. Should be shared far and wide, including all civics and politics classes.
  • J. Sims, Jr.
    Love it
    "...finds our listeners crying into their Saturday morning beer..." (part of a recent question lead-up from Dahlia)...i mean with lines like that what else needs to be said? I have no criticisms of this podcast. Dealing with Slate's bottomless pit of invitations to subscribe is a small price to pay to have access to Dahlia's deep and keen insights, never mind getting to hear her engage with other prophetic voices who know how to ask tough questions of our society and frequently themselves provide the tough answers that we need but hate to hear. Bravo bravo bravo, Dahlia, and please keep pressing.
  • N books 1900
    Not balanced
    Advocacy for liberal beliefs.
  • Elizabeth Bercaw
    Great Guests/Great Host
    Where would I be without Dahlia’s sharp insight and drive to get to the meat of the matter? Her guests are equally valuable when it comes to interpreting current legal news and how these cases affect all Americans. I come away with a greater understanding than before.
  • Free Rider007
    Calm down, Mark Joseph Stern
    Dahlia Lithwick is absolutely terrific, but her sidekick Mark Joseph Stern’s hyperventilating style is irritating and doomed this podcast for me.
  • Taiko uchite
    Genuinely helpful analysis
    I’ve been enjoying Amicus free episodes for a few months now but I want to really commend the show on the Feb 3 episode with Prof Manisha Sinha. The “in the weeds” stuff is often actually very helpful to me making up my mind about the issues. Dahlia has been asking really good questions of the guests, so that the detailed responses fit into a more coherent picture. And I felt like Sinha’s historical arguments were the clarity I needed, against a backdrop of right wing propaganda and mushy liberal talking heads. Even the lawyer for Colorado wasn’t bringing this stuff up in TV interviews after the oral arguments. I also really liked Dahlia’s interview with Judge Michael Luddig.
  • V-Spain
    Amicus Plus
    Tried listening to the non-Plus version and 50% of it is commercials for the Plus version. I won’t be signing up for either.
  • Mommy7520
    Dahlia, please stop upspeaking!
    You have important things to say, but I cannot listen to you when you do this. The rising inflection as you say your sentence makes you sound like a valley girl or Kardashian when I know in reality you are a very smart person. Please take note and maybe get a vocal coach.
  • CookieManster
    Great Show!
    Thank you Dahlia! Your conversation with Molly Jong Fast was excellent.
  • Worldwalker123
    Host is too biased for podcast to be enjoyable
    I’ll start by saying the Amicus podcast has so much potential but due to the not subtle bias of the host the show is only okay at best. The host is intelligent, well spoken and well researched. The issue is that b/c of snippy and snarky comments and an overt left leaning opining as if fact, the host (and sometimes the guests) destroys the credibility of each episode. One feels like they are listening to only one side of each issue / case. The host’s bias is so predictable that I felt to walk away from each episode ‘educated’ that I needed to hear and understand the contrary point of view. Often we seek out content that reinforces and rewards or belief system. Sadly the host and guests are speaking directly to those people. At the level of SCOTUS rarely do we have black & white choices to make. Our host approaches each episode as if complex choices have simple answers and that those answers almost always align with a singular political philosophy. For those of us that simply want to understand and learn, the nonstop progressive presentation of SCOTUS happenings is just too much. I think I survived five episodes before I realized this wasn’t education. Back to the search bar to see if I can find a non-opining SCOTUS show. I’ll check back occasionally but I suspect the tone and bias won’t change.
  • RachMcclan
    Best for those who like accountability!
    AMAZING Podcast! I look forward to every drop to better understand the hypocrisy that is the Supreme Court.
  • Sfgrgkhdgb
    Dropping from my feed in 2024-Doing damage to the courts through terrible analysis
    I was hoping this would be an informative podcast. Unfortunately, all you learn is the political bias of the hosts. Their analysis seems to be consistently “I disagree with this ruling so the judge is either evil or incompetent”. They seem to genuinely not understand that the judiciary isn’t supposed to rule based on polling data. Worth listening to if you want insights into how bad legal education has become and how some on the left view the role of the courts.
  • SportsFanDar2016
    Please cover the legality of anti BDS laws. Why can’t we boycott certain countries?
    Cover anti BDS laws
  • sydwms
    Texas abortion law episode
    It’s extraordinarily frustrating you paywall information (mifepristone) every pregnant person needs while espousing in this episode the obvious fact that most people needing abortion healthcare are not in a financial spot to travel or take on the immense expenses
  • Cenzano
    Hostile toward listeners
    I get it: I’m white. Not only that, but I’m a man. I regularly take my lumps because I’m part of the majority in the horrific decisions being made over the course of history. A couple of episodes ago, I couldn’t help but feel two things: attacked and confused. She unabashedly kept stressing the latest topic was because of “mostly white males.” She loves stressing it like someone who feels green-lit to make disparaging remarks about obese people, but this episode was more like a drunk person going off on minorities. If we fight for equality for one group or the other, or want equality for a few groups but think it’s OK to beat on this group, we keep all of these fights going. One would think someone as smart as Dahlia would understand this. If I’m not going to be included in an otherwise equal world, why do I bother standing up for the wrongs I see or hear? Why am I reading books to get a better understanding of a minority’s plight so I can speak more coherently when talking to others?
  • pschmidt1126
    Hey Dems..still think the Supreme Court doesn’t matter?
    Well it DOES matter…always has. My entire life Ive watched my fellow Dems just not care enough about the courts. Every show Dahlia gives the reasons why it matters(why its always mattered). Let’s just hope its not too late to save our democracy.
  • Pa$:63dhi
    Dahlia Lithwick
    Dahlia Lithwick needs to learn to speak in an appropriately serious manner, rather than repeatedly laughing, giggling, or overly dramatic, while discussing gross and devious topics. Some issues are not junior high school cute topics.
  • From Flyover Country
    Chicago seven or eight?
    I was a youth in Chicago in 1968/69. I know why the trial went from 8 to 7. We seemed to call it the trial of the Chicago 7 at the time. Why is Posner referring to it as Chicago 8? BTW years later I lived in New Haven. So Bobby Seale was on my radar for awhile.
  • arjemom
    Approach to Discussing Law Highly Accessible
    I’m not sure I’m ready to become a slate plus member, but I really appreciate the way Dahlia and guests speak about the law. It’s easy to understand without making you feel stupid. I appreciate that it feels like a conversation among friends. Concepts are well explained, and even though the US Justice System has been hijacked by billionaires, at least this podcast will be there right beside you, holding your hand, while it happens.
  • bnppia
    Elizabeth Warren is deeply worried
    Great podcast and episode! Senator Warren is great!
  • historyty7
    Dianne Feinstein
    Your fawning remembrance of Senator Feinstein was disturbing. Feinstein voted for Kavanaugh, Gorsuch, Barrett, Alito and Thomas, and yet you describe her a a champion of women and their rights. She tolerates and enabled CIA spying on Americans only until it was revealed they were spying on her. She was so addicted to power that she continued to run even after it was obvious to Democrats like me and millions of others that she no longer could do the job. And she personally profited off her votes in favor of the Iraq war and failed to hold anyone accountable for the lies, torture and criminality that came from her support. Please do better, Dahlia.
  • CEG 2316
    Pulling Back the Curtain
    Extremely informative show with Joseph Stern. His explanations made the issues so understandable! Thank you both!
  • comingoutofthekitchen
    Guns
    Love the gun show!!!!! FINALLY! Someone who was in the know of the thing we postal people saw years ago!!!! We had to sort/case and deliver those hateful NRA letters and we saw this coming!
  • Barrann55
    Highly Recommended
    Wonderful podcast, very informative, with great comments and contributions. And with Dahlia’s unique voice makes this podcast even more special. I truly appreciate Dahlia’s contribution by informing us through this podcast. It’s just amazing podcast! Love it.
  • Leopholis
    Terrible Podcast
    I listened to about two-thirds of the interview with Mark Elias but had to stop. I couldn’t take hearing anymore of the lies from this blatantly partisan hack. Everything he accused the Republicans of doing the Dems are guilty of doing in spades. Another thing, why would any Republican vote for the so called “for the people act “ when it was written to ensure that no Democrat would ever lose another election. This was the most biased interview I have ever heard on this podcast, and that is going a long way considering all the guests who have libeled Clarence Thomas.
  • Billybill1984
    Right?
    Stop asking “Right?” You need an 8th grade English teacher
  • Mooj58
    Great even for non-lawyers
    Great look at Supreme Court even for non-lawyers like me. Dahlia Lithwick is a national treasure and Mark Joseph-Stern is an incredible collaborator. I subscribe to Slate Plus and bought her book so I won’t miss a thing. I learn so much and deeply enjoy each and every episode.
  • BoppinBill
    Dahlia
    Does a terrific job of bring diverse an knowledgable guests to her podcast. She shared that she had, like much of the media covering the court, been too restrained in questioning rulings, motivations and reasoning of the justices. She also has a book out (look for the pink cover). Lifetime appointments with no code of ethics? Lets all think about that!
  • wjhn
    Feedback
    Much good, but also frustrating, consequential lapses, like in the July 15 “Zero-Sum” show with Heather McGhee when Dahlia Lithwick said, “neoliberalism is as much a culprit here as is conservatism,” and specifically describing the “high water mark” of New Deal attempts to “rectify centuries of oppression and racial discrimination” as “still getting it wrong,” due to results like “redlining.” Leaving aside the maddening, self-defeating, oversimplified both-sides-ism here (the attempt should not be negated because bad things resulted in our complicated and racist world, but more should be tried toward the good), it’s even more wrong because (frustratingly) the term “neoliberal” does not mean a “new” version of liberalism or leftism in the way “neoconservative” or “neoclassical” or “neocolonial” do; instead, “neoliberal” is the ultra *right* wing, laissez-faire economic principle of an unregulated free market as the highest goal, as promoted by Milton Friedman and implemented by Reagan and Thatcher on the right and Clinton from the center, and weaponized by corporate-corrupted, omnicidal gangster capitalists who have successively and successfully victimized the poor and robbed the shrinking middle to lavish ever more profits on the obscenely rich 1% while tearing apart our social safety nets and civil fabric, and turning the planet to disease and dust. It’s bad enough the bad faith right wing has skewered language and truth and demonized “liberal,” but their sick “conservative” economic predation is also called “neoliberal(!)” which is linguistically correct but politically unfortunate for the left, because not only do many people hear “neoliberal” as “new liberal” like it seems to mean, instead of “old conservative” like it actually means, we have people like Dahlia in positions of influence getting it wrong on the front end, too. The left needs more guts and better messaging, and the dim, self-beleaguering media needs to stop congratulating itself for constantly and co-dependently jumping into right wing traps with false equivalencies. Hey, progressives and mainstream media? Let’s boldly state truth upfront instead of mewling half truths out of “both sides” of our mouths, which just helps perpetuate right wing hate, lies, profiteering, and injustice. Yes?
  • James Tripoli
    Smart but disingenuous
    The podcast is honestly a pleasure to listen to, but the hosts can be dishonest on the scale of Fox News. SCOTUS cases are rarely black and white, but Dahlia deceptively presents certain decisions in those terms. Coming from a dyed-in-the-wool liberal, this is not acceptable.
  • peacemouse
    MJS is a co-pilot?
    If Mark Joseph Stern is actually Dahlia's co-pilot, as she has said not a few times (she could just be brown-nosing, which she does a lot with nearly every guest) it's time to bring him out from behind the paywall and treat him like a real cohost, and not just as Dahlia's moneymaker, or give him his own show and make Dahlia stand on her own as a host that listeners want to become slate plus members to hear more of
  • ADG47
    More than just leaning Left
    I was looking for a neutral or balanced podcast. This is heavily left. Limited to no effort to present both sides.. too many opinions. Not enough review of the legality of cases.
  • El cids
    RG
    How can you review the Affirmation Action case and not one mention of Asian Americans? They were the lead plaintiff in the case. Come on, you can do better.
  • BellevueLiz
    Excellent for illuminating the "so what"
    I already liked the pod before, but the recent pivot to more clearly highlighting the "so what" of legal matters has been incredible. Huge kudos to the whole pod team for bravely acknowledging that judicial reporting needed to change, for thinking deeply about what a new model would look like, and for becoming an even more impactful voice by focusing on why any of it matters. Where before I'd listen to new episodes if I had time, now I set a new ep at the top of my playlist and make time without exception. Keep up the great work!
  • Pandora#43008
    Joined Slate for Amicus!!
    I am a 52 year old Caucasian PPCM SURVIVOR (pregnancy induced heart failure DX in 2008, ER CSection at 33 weeks, misdiagnosed sent home after 4 days weighing 30 lbs heavier than when I went in. No one listened to me. Ended up airlifted to Northwestern in Chicago on a ventilator, brain hemorrhage & 3 strokes. Was a Dental Hygienist for 20 years now disabled). I am an admin for a online support group for PPCM Survivors and I recommend they all listen to Amicus on Slate & Read Lady Justice (I have to do audio books because of my vision issues from my strokes). We have Survivors in restricted states that if they get PG again will relapse & die. I use this podcast to educate our group on the SCOTUS so that they can vote OUR Issues when they vote vs their economic station. My Grandmother was a Suffragette, I have her silk sash, I was raised to be an activist and I am doing my best and SLATE AMICUS is an amazing resource!!!
  • hopeful for our nation
    Look forward to this podcast
    Like the way host and guests can distill cases to essence in understandable chunks
  • sayporkypig
    Excellent
    Love Dahlia on this pod. Mark Joseph Stern is the bomb.
  • mindcentric
    Such an essential, rock solid program
    Dahlia rocks! Such an essential, rock solid program
  • ibbird
    Dahalia is the best
    I read Dahilia’s book too. Brought me to tears. Dahilia thank you for being a real person with emotions, empathy & reason while reporting on the Courts. I’m sorry I can’t afford to join, but you are definitely worth it. I anxiously await all your podcasts. The best podcast on the courts.
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