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The first week of the new term has come and gone, and things are heating up… literally. Kirti Datla, director of Earthjustice’s Strategic Legal Advocacy Program, joins Melissa and Leah to discuss the term’s biggest climate case: Suncor v. Commissioners of Boulder County. They break down whether Boulder County’s lawsuit against oil and gas companies can move forward, or if the Court will shut it down based on federal law. Then, they dive into Samuel Alito’s big, bad book press tour and his reflections on Dobbs—including the friendships he says he lost along the way. Plus they cover Kash Patel’s engagement, Kimberly Guilfoyle’s corruption controversies, and Pete Hegseth’s announcement of a public execution. Finally, Melissa talks with Professor Bernadette Atuahene about her new book: Plundered: How Racist Policies Undermine Black Homeownership in America. Favorite Things:  Leah: So Unexplained: Justice Alito’s Non-Responsive Emergency Docket Defense | Steve Vladeck’s Substack: One First | Jon Ossoff V. Mike Collins Debate | Marquette Poll  Melissa: Cherry Baby by Rainbow Rowell   Take the Strict Scrutiny survey. New Strict merch available here. You can now listen to Strict Scrutiny for CLE credits in California, New York, Texas, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Washington, and Oregon! More info at crooked.com/strict_cleGet tickets for STRICT SCRUTINY LIVE on November 6th in Washington, DC: Crookedcon.comBuy Melissa’s book, The U.S. Constitution: A Comprehensive and Annotated Guide for the Modern ReaderBuy Leah’s book, Lawless, now out in paperback Follow us on Instagram, Threads, and BlueskyFor a transcript of an episode of Strict Scrutiny please email [email protected]

This Monday officially kicks off a new Supreme Court term, and the cases and controversies are already heating up. Leah, Kate, and Melissa dig into the Court’s decision to allow the administration to resume “third-country removals,” as well as its decision to take up a new case challenging the administration’s policy of indefinitely detaining immigrants who cross the border illegally. Then, it’s time for the first argument previews of the term! Cases this week include one that could have significant implications for holding oil and gas companies accountable for climate change, and a challenge involving the constitutionality of federal laws affecting veterans’ benefits. Finally, Kate and Leah talk with Kelly Lytle Hernández, professor of history at UCLA, about her new book, Racist by Design: Two Centuries of U.S. Immigration Control.Favorite Things:  Leah: The Love Hypothesis | The Public Shaming of John Roberts  Kate: Should I Stay or Should I Go?  Melissa: ‘A Different World’ Renewed for Season 2 | Swan Song by Earl Spencer  Take the Strict Scrutiny survey. New Strict merch available here. You can now listen to Strict Scrutiny for CLE credits in California, New York, Texas, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Washington, and Oregon! More info at crooked.com/strict_cleGet tickets for STRICT SCRUTINY LIVE on November 6th in Washington, DC: Crookedcon.comBuy Melissa’s book, The U.S. Constitution: A Comprehensive and Annotated Guide for the Modern ReaderBuy Leah’s book, Lawless, now out in paperback Follow us on Instagram, Threads, and BlueskyFor a transcript of an episode of Strict Scrutiny please email [email protected]

In the fifth and final installment of our Hot Supreme Court Reform series, Kate speaks with Gabe Roth, executive director of Fix the Court. What would a meaningful and enforceable set of ethics rules look like for the Supreme Court justices? Why isn’t there an Inspector General for the judiciary? How are there no real rules around recusals? Roth makes the case for these nonpartisan reforms and more. Take the Strict Scrutiny survey. New Strict merch available here. You can now listen to Strict Scrutiny for CLE credits in California, New York, Texas, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Washington, and Oregon! More info at crooked.com/strict_cleGet tickets for STRICT SCRUTINY LIVE on November 6th in Washington, DC: Crookedcon.comBuy Melissa’s book, The U.S. Constitution: A Comprehensive and Annotated Guide for the Modern ReaderBuy Leah’s book, Lawless, now out in paperback Follow us on Instagram, Threads, and BlueskyFor a transcript of an episode of Strict Scrutiny please email [email protected]

It’s been a long summer, but Leah, Kate and Melissa are back together to break down the biggest cases and legal battles coming to the Supreme Court this term. Starting in October, the justices will hear challenges involving AR-15s and semi-automatic rifles, religious exemptions for schools receiving government funding, and the latest redistricting fights in Missouri and the 8th Circuit. Plus, Trump’s big arch updates and allegations that a government contractor illegally funneled nearly $200,000 to a Susan Collins super PAC. Then, Melissa sits down with National Association of Black Journalists President and Crooked’s Long Play cohost Errin Haines to discuss news outlets suing the President over press access. After, Leah talks to Columbia graduate and author Mahmoud Khalil about his new book, No Land to Stand On, the administration’s crackdown on pro-Palestinian speech, and the treatment of people in ICE custody.  Favorite Things:  Leah: ProPublica | Gil Duran, Nerd Reich; Naomi Klein & Astra Taylor End Times Fascism | Alyssa Edwards’ response to Ken Paxton  Kate: Daniel Immerwahr’s How to Hide an Empire | Ari Berman and Pema Levy in Mother Jones on Callais and the New New Jim Crow | Nikole Hannah-Jones’s NYT Piece  Melissa: Propublica’s piece on Susan Collins |  Charles Spencer, Swan Song | Raphael Warnock, The Crooked Parts Made Straight | Zak Cheney-Rice, No One Can Fix School Segregation Alone | Stacey Abrams at LCCR Gala  Take the Strict Scrutiny survey. New Strict merch available here. You can now listen to Strict Scrutiny for CLE credits in California, New York, Texas, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Washington, and Oregon! More info at crooked.com/strict_cleGet tickets for STRICT SCRUTINY LIVE on November 6th in Washington, DC: Crookedcon.comBuy Melissa’s book, The U.S. Constitution: A Comprehensive and Annotated Guide for the Modern ReaderBuy Leah’s book, Lawless, now out in paperback Follow us on Instagram, Threads, and BlueskyFor a transcript of an episode of Strict Scrutiny please email [email protected]

In the fourth installment of our Hot Supreme Court Reform September series, Leah sits down with former FTC Chair Lina Khan and Lev Menand, both of Columbia Law School, to talk through ways to limit how much SCOTUS can mess with federal agencies. Lev makes the case for stripping SCOTUS of its jurisdiction over administrative law and sending those cases to a specialized court, and Lina discusses venue and standing issues—reforming who gets to sue and where. Take the Strict Scrutiny survey. New Strict merch available here. You can now listen to Strict Scrutiny for CLE credits in California, New York, Texas, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Washington, and Oregon! More info at crooked.com/strict_cleGet tickets for STRICT SCRUTINY LIVE on November 6th in Washington, DC: Crookedcon.comBuy Melissa’s book, The U.S. Constitution: A Comprehensive and Annotated Guide for the Modern ReaderBuy Leah’s book, Lawless, now out in paperback Follow us on Instagram, Threads, and BlueskyFor a transcript of an episode of Strict Scrutiny please email [email protected]

Melissa and Leah cover this week’s legal horrors out of the Trump administration, including the President’s ban on certain media outlets from the White House, as well as his attacks on the Kennedy Center and the Presidential Records Act. Also covered: Kash Patel on bestiality, ammosexual wins of the week, a proposed ballot measure in Idaho to protect reproductive freedom, and Donald Trump Jr.’s Russian oligarch sugar daddy. Then, Melissa sits down with Crooked’s very own Alex Wagner to talk about her new book The Steal: Four Right-Wing Hard-Liners, One Republican Presidency, and the Raid on America's Courts. Check out Alex’s show, Runaway Country, wherever you pod. Favorite things: Leah:Alex Wagner’s The Steal; PONIES (Peacock); The Women of Yesteryear, Kate Manne (More to Hate); The Retirement Plan, Sue Hincenbergs Melissa: The Steal; Kash Patel getting roasted on social media Take the Strict Scrutiny survey. New Strict merch available here. You can now listen to Strict Scrutiny for CLE credits in California, New York, Texas, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Washington, and Oregon! More info at crooked.com/strict_cleGet tickets for STRICT SCRUTINY LIVE on November 6th in Washington, DC: Crookedcon.comBuy Melissa’s book, The U.S. Constitution: A Comprehensive and Annotated Guide for the Modern ReaderBuy Leah’s book, Lawless, now out in paperback Follow us on Instagram, Threads, and BlueskyFor a transcript of an episode of Strict Scrutiny please email [email protected]

In the third installment of our Hot Supreme Court Reform September series, Leah sits down with Daphna Renan and Nikolas Bowie to discuss how judicial supremacy became the default operating system of the federal government, and how limiting the Supreme Court’s power to decline to enforce federal statutes is a crucial tool for reining it in. Niko and Daphna’s book is Supremacy: How Rule by the Court Replaced Government by the People. Enter the giveaway here! Take the Strict Scrutiny survey. New Strict Scrutiny merch available here. You can now listen to Strict Scrutiny for CLE credits in California, New York, Texas, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Washington, and Oregon! More info at crooked.com/strict_cleGet tickets for STRICT SCRUTINY LIVE on November 6th in Washington, DC: Crookedcon.comBuy Melissa’s book, The U.S. Constitution: A Comprehensive and Annotated Guide for the Modern ReaderBuy Leah’s book, Lawless, now out in paperback Follow us on Instagram, Threads, and BlueskyFor a transcript of an episode of Strict Scrutiny please email [email protected]

Kate, Leah and Melissa hop on to break down the Supreme Court’s decision to block the Trump administration’s Postal Service regulation announcing it would not deliver mail-in ballots unless states adopted a bunch of last-minute, unnecessary, burdensome, and impossible policies governing mail in ballots. They cover Trump’s tantrum over the decision, Brett Kavanaugh’s endlessly pathetic pick-me energy, and Sam Alito’s God tier false equivalencies. Take the Strict Scrutiny survey. New Strict merch available here. You can now listen to Strict Scrutiny for CLE credits in California, New York, Texas, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Washington, and Oregon! More info at crooked.com/strict_cle Get tickets for STRICT SCRUTINY LIVE on November 6th in Washington, DC: Crookedcon.com Buy Melissa’s book,The U.S. Constitution: A Comprehensive and Annotated Guide for the Modern Reader Buy Leah’s book, Lawless, now out in paperback Follow us on Instagram, Threads, and Bluesky For a transcript of an episode of Strict Scrutiny please email [email protected]

Melissa is joined by guest co-host Rashad Robinson, political strategist, media advocate, and former president of Color Of Change, to run through last week’s legal news, which involves SCOTUS’s latest shadow docket shenanigans, campaign finance fights, and Missouri Republican efforts to push a mid-cycle congressional redistricting plan that could eliminate a Democratic seat. Also: a Strict Scrutiny history lesson on the “segregation academies” created across the South in resistance to school integration, and how new proposed regulations from the Trump administration have the potential to utterly remake education and turn the dial back to a time when American education was racially divided. Then Melissa, Leah and Kate sit down with Niko Bowie & Daphna Renan to talk about their new book, Supremacy: How Rule by the Court Replaced Government by the People. Enter the giveaway for Supremacy here! Public comments on racial nondiscrimination in private schools here. Favorite Things:  Melissa:Rashad Robinson’s From Presence to Power: How to Take On the Fights That Matter--and Win; Where the Girls Were by Kate Schatz; A Marriage at Sea: A True Story of Love, Obsession, and Shipwreck by Sophie Elmhirst Rashad: U.S. Open specifically Coco Gauff, Frances Tiafoe, and Ben Shelton; ADULTS, The Scrub Episode (FX); The Disappearers by Marlon James  Take the Strict Scrutiny survey. New Strict merch available here. You can now listen to Strict Scrutiny for CLE credits in California, New York, Texas, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Washington, and Oregon! More info at crooked.com/strict_cleGet tickets for STRICT SCRUTINY LIVE on November 6th in Washington, DC: Crookedcon.comBuy Melissa’s book, The U.S. Constitution: A Comprehensive and Annotated Guide for the Modern ReaderBuy Leah’s book, Lawless, now out in paperback Follow us on Instagram, Threads, and BlueskyFor a transcript of an episode of Strict Scrutiny please email [email protected]

Nate Silver, Clare Malone, and Galen Druke discuss the most competitive Senate races heading into the midterms in this excerpt from their new podcast, Still Counting. To hear the rest, head over to Still Counting and subscribe! New episodes drop every Wednesday evening. You can request a transcript by emailing [email protected]. Include the podcast name, episode title, and air date. Please allow 48 hours for delivery.

In part two of our Hot Supreme Court Reform September series, Kate and the Brennan Center’s Alicia Bannon make the case for term limits for the Court. The idea has bipartisan support, but what would they look like in practice? And, crucially, does Congress have the power to impose them?  Take the Strict Scrutiny survey. New Strict merch available here. You can now listen to Strict Scrutiny for CLE credits in California, New York, Texas, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Washington, and Oregon! More info at crooked.com/strict_cleGet tickets for STRICT SCRUTINY LIVE on November 6th in Washington, DC: Crookedcon.comBuy Melissa’s book, The U.S. Constitution: A Comprehensive and Annotated Guide for the Modern ReaderBuy Leah’s book, Lawless, now out in paperback Follow us on Instagram, Threads, and BlueskyFor a transcript of an episode of Strict Scrutiny please email [email protected]

How do you solve a problem like SCOTUS? Kate kicks off our Hot Supreme Court Reform September series with the New York Times’ Jamelle Bouie. They dig into the ins and outs of expanding the Court: what the process could look like, the argument for making the entire federal judiciary bigger, and how to avoid an FDR-style fail. Take the Strict Scrutiny survey.New Strict merch available here.You can now listen to Strict Scrutiny for CLE credits in California, New York, Texas, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Washington, and Oregon! More info at crooked.com/strict_cleGet tickets for STRICT SCRUTINY LIVE on November 6th in Washington, DC: Crookedcon.comBuy Melissa’s book, The U.S. Constitution: A Comprehensive and Annotated Guide for the Modern ReaderBuy Leah’s book, Lawless, now out in paperback Follow us on Instagram, Threads, and BlueskyFor a transcript of an episode of Strict Scrutiny please email [email protected]

In this bonus episode, Leah and Melissa break down the Supreme Court’s decision to let Trump move forward with plans for a White House ballroom, despite lower courts finding that the project cannot proceed without congressional authorization and appropriated funds. They also discuss a whistleblower’s allegations that the federal government is defying court orders on voting by mail, and new reporting from Jodi Kantor on the Supreme Court’s secretive policies governing when the justices’ papers and internal records will be made public. Take the Strict Scrutiny survey. New Strict merch available here. You can now listen to Strict Scrutiny for CLE credits in California, New York, Texas, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Washington, and Oregon! More info at crooked.com/strict_cle Get tickets for STRICT SCRUTINY LIVE on November 6th in Washington, DC: Crookedcon.com Buy Melissa’s book, The U.S. Constitution: A Comprehensive and Annotated Guide for the Modern Reader Buy Leah’s book, Lawless, now out in paperback Follow us on Instagram, Threads, and Bluesky For a transcript of an episode of Strict Scrutiny please email [email protected]

Kate and Leah break down last week's atrocious shadow docket order on the President's wildly illegal executive order concerning elections and absentee ballots, which furthers the administration's effort to, as Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson warns, "foment chaos ahead of the November elections." Then, after touching on other legal news from the week, Leah speaks with former Governor of North Carolina—and current Senate candidate—Roy Cooper about the Court’s gutting of election law and what he’ll do about it when he’s elected. Finally, we kick off Hot SCOTUS Reform September with a conversation about docket reform featuring One First’s Steve Vladeck. Look out for our bonus series on Supreme Court reform every Thursday in September! Favorite things: Leah: Pumpkin spice latte season; Taylor Swift’s Icon Session; Operation Metro Surge resistance takes center stage in State Fair art (MPR News); KBJ’s dissent in Trump v. California Kate: Paradiso 17, Hannah Lillith Assadi; Ordinary People, Extraordinary Times, Skye Perryman; The Political Supreme Court, Rachel A. Shelden; End Times Fascism, Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor; meeting Mikey Friedman and learning about Page Break; Dolly Parton tributes Take the Strict Scrutiny survey. New Strict merch available here. You can now listen to Strict Scrutiny for CLE credits in California, New York, Texas, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Washington, and Oregon! More info at crooked.com/strict_cleGet tickets for STRICT SCRUTINY LIVE on November 6th in Washington, DC: Crookedcon.comBuy Melissa’s book, The U.S. Constitution: A Comprehensive and Annotated Guide for the Modern ReaderBuy Leah’s book, Lawless, now out in paperback Follow us on Instagram, Threads, and BlueskyFor a transcript of an episode of Strict Scrutiny please email [email protected]

In the second episode of our Know Your Rights series, Leah and Melissa sit down with NYU Law’s Daniel Harawa to break down what you do—and don't—have to say when law enforcement stops you. They cover the difference between being seized and a consensual encounter, and the crucial distinction between knowing your rights on paper and using your judgment to stay safe in the moment. You can now listen to Strict Scrutiny for CLE credits in California, New York, Texas, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Washington, and Oregon! More info at crooked.com/strict_cle Get tickets for STRICT SCRUTINY LIVE on November 6th in Washington, DC: Crookedcon.com Buy Melissa’s book, The U.S. Constitution: A Comprehensive and Annotated Guide for the Modern Reader Buy Leah’s book, Lawless, now out in paperback Follow us on Instagram, Threads, and Bluesky For a transcript of an episode of Strict Scrutiny please email [email protected]