Amicus | SCOTUS, Meet The Broligarchs

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4 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 10 May 2025

⏱️ 67 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

After Silicon Valley’s yeet to the right after Donald Trump was elected in 2016, and the DOGE-ification of the federal government (read: chaos and abuse as the driving ethos of HR), it felt like high time to delve into the evolving relationship between tech billionaires like Elon Musk and Peter Thiel and the U.S. government. Their influence has massive implications for core constitutional issues such as mass surveillance, privacy, and deregulation. Kara Swisher joins Dahlia Lithwick on this week’s Amicus to highlight the dangers of tech giants' encroachment on government oversight and the implications of AI and cryptocurrency. This week’s episode concludes with a heartfelt tribute to Justice David Souter who died on Thursday. Dahlia and former Souter Clerk Mary-Rose Papandrea reflect on the late Justice’s humility, judicial philosophy, and the profound loss felt by his former clerks and the legal community. 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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0:00.0	Kate's just off to work after sleeping in the best bed in the business.
0:05.0	And my word, doesn't she look ready for anything?
0:08.0	Something about her smile is just brighter.
0:10.0	Her eyes seem glintier, and she just feels so much more...
0:15.0	Kateier?
0:16.0	Of course it's no surprise really, because last night she slept at Premier Inn,
0:20.0	and she got up to 15% off with business booker.
0:23.6	Get better sleep for your money. Premier Inn, rest easy. T's and C is apply.
0:29.6	I'm making a robot head with an Amazon box. I've painted it silver and daddy help me make...
0:35.6	At Amazon we're actually using paper bags for more of our deliveries.
0:38.5	And now I'm making a paper hot air balloon and I even made a little brown basket
0:43.2	and I'm making a dog that looks just like Monty.
0:45.6	Just one of the ways we've reduced the weight of our packaging by more than 40% since 2015,
0:50.7	which is still good for playtime.
0:52.7	Mom, where's the scissors?
0:55.7	To learn more, visit aboutamason.com.com.
0:57.8	U.K. forward slash sustainability.
1:06.1	I'm Dahlia Lithwick and this is Amicus, Slate's podcast about the courts and the law and the Supreme Court.
1:13.9	The nation lost a profoundly humble, brilliant, and consequential jurors this past week.
1:20.6	Like the character of an individual, the legitimacy of the court must be earned over time.
1:25.9	If the court's legitimacy should be undermined, the country would
1:30.0	also, in its very ability to see itself through its constitutional ideals. The court's
	...

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