Amicus With Dahlia Lithwick | Law, justice, and the courts - Eric Holder's Supreme Court Protest
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4.5 • 6K Ratings
🗓️ 16 July 2022
⏱️ 47 minutes
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Summary
Dahlia Lithwick is joined by former Attorney General Eric Holder as Amicus begins its summer season while the Supreme Court is in recess. General Holder describes his feelings when, as President Barack Obama’s Attorney General, he realized he could not in good conscience take part in the long-held tradition of the AG arguing an “easy case” before the Supreme Court. The issue? That same court had just eviscerated the Voting Rights Act in a case that will forever bear his name: Shelby County v Holder. General Holder wants us to take the steps beyond anger at the assault on voting rights, and move forward with joy toward action. His book, Our Unfinished March, is both a history of how voting rights became broken, and an action plan for delivering the promise of democracy: that the people pick their leaders.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I was distraught. I was angry. I was very troubled by what the court had done in Shelby County |
| 0:10.7 | versus Holder. And that's something that to this day disturbs me. The notion that my |
| 0:15.5 | name is associated with the case that eviscerated the crown jewel of the civil rights movement. |
| 0:30.8 | Hi and welcome to Amicus. This is Lates podcast about the courts and the law and the rule of |
| 0:36.6 | law and the US Supreme Court and I am Diolithmic and that's my beat at the late. And this mid-July |
| 0:44.4 | Saturday is the court closes its doors and the justice is jet off on speaking tours or sneak out |
| 0:51.3 | of steak houses by the back door. We at Amicus like to take a step back from the day-to-day news cycle |
| 0:57.3 | and step into a sort of reflective mode and we bring you conversations about books and documentaries |
| 1:04.0 | and plays and even law review articles that might help inform how we all think about court's |
| 1:10.2 | justice, jurisprudence, the rule of law but maybe through a wide lens or from a totally unexpected |
| 1:18.0 | angle. And so we're kicking off this summer season with a book and a man that made me really think |
| 1:24.1 | about America's Democratic predicament and the court's place in that predicament in some new |
| 1:31.0 | ways. Former Attorney General Eric Holder's new book is called Our Unfinished March, The Violent Past |
| 1:38.5 | and Impairled Future of the Vote. And it is about gerrymandering and voting rights and it was written |
| 1:45.8 | by General Holder with Sam Coppelman. Our unfinished march was published in May by One World Press. |
| 1:52.5 | It is simultaneously a road map of how voting rights became broken, hint they were born that way, |
| 2:00.4 | and a warning of how much more completely they may still be eroded. And what can be done to |
| 2:07.0 | restore the basic principle that in a democracy the people pick their leaders. Eric Holder was |
| 2:14.3 | Attorney General of the United States under President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2015. He was the |
| 2:20.5 | first African American to hold that position. He now serves as chairman of the National Democratic |
| 2:27.2 | Redistricting Committee which was established to help the party redraw congressional lines. General |
| 2:34.1 | Holder, it is an honor and a treat to welcome you to the podcast. Well thanks to all you for having |
... |
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