Slate Crime and Justice Slate Podcasts

In this, the first part of a special series on Amicus and at Slate.com, we are lifting the lid on an old-timey sounding method of constitutional interpretation that has unleashed a revolution in our courts, and an assault on our rights. But originalism’s origins are much more recent than you suppose, and its effects much more widespread than the constitutional earthquakes of overturning settled precedent like Roe v Wade or supercharging gun rights as in Heller and Bruen. Originalism’s aftershocks are being felt throughout the courts, the law, politics and our lives, and we haven’t talked about it enough. On this week’s show, Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern explore the history of originalism. They talk to Professor Jack Balkin about its religious valence, and Saul Cornell about originalism’s first major constitutional triumph in Heller. And they’ll tell you how originalism’s first big public outing fell flat, thanks in part to Senator Ted Kennedy’s ability to envision the future, as well as the past.
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This week: A new DEA designation for cannabis means high times for pot smokers, but what about the industry? Felix Salmon, Emily Peck, and Elizabeth Spiers discuss the future of the cannabis business, Binance founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao’s lax, four-month prison sentence, and why Americans keep buying more cheap junk (but spend fortunes on ravioli). In the Plus segment: Elon Musk fired Tesla’s Supercharger network team: a bold move, or just a dumb one?
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Podcast production by Jared Downing and Cheyna Roth.
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Get your tickets for Amicus Live in Washington DC here. 

This past week (that lasted about a year) at the Supreme Court began badly and only went downhill from there. By Wednesday, justices were trying to set aside the facts of women being airlifted out of states where they can no longer access care to protect their major organs and reproductive future, if that emergency healthcare indicates an abortion - in favor of pondering the spending clause. On Thursday, the shocking reality of the violent storming of the Capitol on January 6th 2021, and former President Trump’s many schemes to overturn the election and stay in power, were relegated to lower-case concerns as opposed to ALL CAPS panic over hypothetical aggressive prosecutors. 
On this week’s Amicus, Dahlia Lithwick is joined by leading constitutional scholar and former assistant Professor Pam Karlan of Stanford Law School and a former deputy assistant attorney general in the Civil Rights Division of the United States Department of Justice. Slate’s senior legal writer Mark Joseph Stern also joins the conversation about the MAGA justices flying the flag in arguments in Trump v United States.

In today’s bonus episode only for Slate Plus members, Jeremy Stahl gives Dahlia Lithwick a view from inside the courtroom of Donald Trump’s hush money trial. 

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True crime is a hot topic for movies, television, and –yes– podcasts. At the center of many of these stories is a missing woman. In the She Has A Name podcast, veteran journalist Tonya Mosley tries to reconstruct the death –and life– of a woman who went missing in 1987, a woman who happens to be her long lost sister. On today’s episode of A Word, Jason Johnson is joined by Tonya Mosley to talk about uncovering the mystery around her sister Anita’s disappearance and death, and how the podcast helped her connect to a family that she never knew. 

Guest: Tonya Mosley, host of the podcast She Has A Name

Podcast production by Ahyiana Angel

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This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss the testimony of prosecution witness David Pecker in Donald Trump’s criminal trial, student protests against Israel’s war in Gaza, and the Supreme Court argument on presidential immunity. 
 
Here are some notes and references from this week’s show: 
Matthew Haag for The New York Times: David Pecker, Ex-National Enquirer Publisher, Details How He Aided Trump
Richard L. Hasen in the Los Angeles Times: Opinion: Why it’s hard to muster even a ‘meh’ over Trump’s New York criminal trial
J. David Goodman, David Montgomery, Jonathan Wolfe, and Jenna Russell for The New York Times: Campus Protests Over Gaza Intensify Amid Pushback by Universities and Police
Spectator Editorial Board for the Columbia Spectator: Is Columbia in crisis?
Minouche Shafik in The Wall Street Journal: Columbia University President: What I Plan to Tell Congress Tomorrow
David Schizer in CNN: Opinion: To combat antisemitism, start by following the law
Michael C. Dorf for Verdict: Federal Antidiscrimination Law Does Not Require Campus Crackdowns
J Oliver Conroy for The Guardian: ‘Media firestorm’: Israel protest at professor’s home sparks heated free-speech debate
C-SPAN: Supreme Court Hears Case on Former President Trump’s Immunity Claim
Ann Marimow for The Washington Post: Supreme Court seems poised to allow Trump trial, but not immediately
Ian Millhiser for Vox: Donald Trump already won the only Supreme Court fight that mattered

Here are this week’s chatters:
John: Stephen Clark for Ars Technica: Recoding Voyager 1—NASA’s interstellar explorer is finally making sense again
Emily: Abbie VanSickle for The Washington Post: Supreme Court Appeals Sharply Divided in Emergency Abortion Case and Angela Palermo for The Spokesman-Review: Idaho has lost 22% of its practicing obstetricians in the last 15 months, report say
David: Exploring a Secret Fort on airbnb; City Cast: Work with us.; and Eve O. Schaub for The Washington Post: Don’t waste your time recycling plastic
Listener chatter from Michael Starr in New York City: Patrick Page in All The Devils Are Here; Richard the Third by Paul Murray Kendall; and Nancy Shute for NPR: No Hunch Here: Richard III Suffered From Scoliosis Instead
 
For this week’s Slate Plus bonus segment, David, John, and Emily talk about a question before the Supreme Court: can a city regulate homelessness? See Amy Howe for SCOTUSblog: Court divided over constitutionality of criminal penalties for homelessness; Esteban L. Hernandez and Meira Gebel for Axios: Supreme Court weighs case that could affect Denver’s approach to homelessness and Alayna Alvarez: Denver’s urban camping ban brings 10 years of turmoil; and Eli Saslow and Todd Heisler for The New York Times: A Sandwich Shop, a Tent City and an American Crisis. 
 
In the latest Gabfest Reads, John talks with David E. Sanger about his new book, New Cold Wars: China’s Rise, Russia’s Invasion, and America’s Struggle to Defend the West.
 
Email your chatters, questions, and comments to gabfest@slate.com. (Messages may be referenced by name unless the writer stipulates otherwise.)
 
Podcast production by Cheyna Roth
Research by Julie Huygen
 
Hosts
Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz
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Who is Todd Blanche, Donald Trump’s attorney in the hush-money trial, and how did he end up representing the former president? 

Guest: Andrew Rice, features writer for New York Magazine. He’s also the author of The Year That Broke America.
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