Amicus | Don’t Give Up on the Law Just Yet

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Slate Podcasts

News, News Commentary, Politics

4.6 • 6K Ratings

🗓️ 2 August 2025

⏱️ 54 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

It’s easy to give up on the courts right now. SCOTUS is throwing down unreasoned decisions expanding Donald Trump’s authority, and Senate Republicans keep confirming the president’s cronies to lifetime judgeships, tarnishing the entire judiciary with their corruption. But there are judges—courageous, hard-working men and women—who have chosen a different path and are fighting to protect democracy and restore our civil rights. In his new book, Better Judgment: How Three Judges Are Bringing Justice Back to the Courts (out Sept. 2), Reynolds Holding tells the story of three of these judges and how they are laying the groundwork for a post-Trump future in which the courts serve as guardians of liberty rather than instruments of autocracy. Holding speaks with co-host Mark Joseph Stern about these judges’ refusal to accept business as usual and vision of a court that truly delivers equal justice to all. Want more Amicus? Join Slate Plus to unlock weekly bonus episodes with exclusive legal analysis. Plus, you’ll access ad-free listening across all your favorite Slate podcasts. You can subscribe directly from the Amicus show page on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Or, visit slate.com/amicusplus to get access wherever you listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:29.7	We've grown up surrounded by beauty ideals that promised confidence but often delivered shame.
0:35.6	In a special episode of a millennial mind,
0:37.9	I sat down with Nicola Adams to explore how appearance-based compliments and body talk
0:43.0	shape our self-worth without us realising it.
0:45.9	In partnership with the Dove Self-Esteen project,
0:48.4	we unpack the tools to change the conversation for ourselves and for future generations.
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0:55.3	body confidence journal at Dove.com forward slash Y2K. I'm Mark Joseph Stern, and this is Amicus, Slate's podcast about the courts, the law, and the
1:21.1	Supreme Court.
1:22.5	Courts still have a very important role to play, and we need not to forget them.
1:27.5	A question I've been asking myself a lot these days is whether the law still matters.
1:32.7	We live under a president who thinks he's a king and a Supreme Court that often lets him rule
1:37.6	like one. It's easy to start wondering why we should care about the law at all when those
1:43.4	who swore to uphold it seem more
1:45.2	intent on breaking it. A lot of this despair centers on the courts, where law should be the
1:51.2	coin of the realm, but raw partisan power has become the true currency. I've spent much of Trump's
1:57.5	second term criticizing judicial rulings, and more and more, the response is,
	...

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