The Supreme Court Case that Could Upend Democracy
Slate Daily Feed
Slate
3.9 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 22 October 2022
⏱️ 55 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Judge Michael Luttig for the definitive conversation on a giant elections case now on the calendar at the Supreme Court. Moore v Harper is a North Carolina redistricting case that is also a vehicle for the Independent State Legislature Theory - a so-called doctrine that could radically re-order democracy in America. Judge Luttig - a stalwart of conservative legal circles for decades - will argue the case as co-counsel alongside former Acting Solicitor General under Obama, Neal Katyal.
In this week’s Amicus Plus segment, Dahlia is joined by Mark Joseph Stern to talk about the blossoming of bonkers gun cases in the wake of last term’s SCOTUS decision in Bruen, a big case concerning consumer protections and much more…
Dahlia’s new book Lady Justice: Women, the Law and the Battle to Save America, is also available as an audiobook, and Amicus listeners can get a 25% discount by entering the code “AMICUS” at checkout
Need to set up your Slate Plus feed? If you subscribed through Slate.com, check out our FAQ at slate.com/podcastfaqs for easy instructions. Members subscribed via Apple Podcasts get automatic access—no setup required.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | I believe this is the most important case for American democracy, literally since the |
| 0:10.6 | founding of the nation. |
| 0:19.3 | Hi and welcome back to Amicus. |
| 0:21.5 | This is Slates podcast about the courts and the law, the rule of law, the U.S. Supreme |
| 0:25.9 | Court, and I'm Dahlia Lithwick and I cover those things for Slate.com. |
| 0:30.9 | And on today's show, we are hoping fingers crossed to have the definitive conversation |
| 0:36.4 | about more versus Harper. |
| 0:38.2 | That is arguably the most important case of the Supreme Court that everyone is talking |
| 0:44.2 | about, but not many of us fully understand. |
| 0:47.3 | And so to walk us through the ins and outs of the independent state legislature theory, |
| 0:54.1 | our guest is an icon, Judge Michael Ludig announced this week that he will be serving as |
| 1:00.2 | co-counsel in the case alongside Neil Cadiall, representing the voting rights groups in Morvy |
| 1:06.8 | Harper, which has just been added to the Supreme Court calendar for December 7th. |
| 1:12.8 | Judge Michael Ludig, a decades-long luminary in conservative legal circles, ended up playing |
| 1:19.4 | a central role in forstalling Donald Trump's 2021 bid to have Vice President Mike Pence |
| 1:26.0 | simply set aside the electoral college tallies and block the certification of the 2020 presidential |
| 1:32.8 | election. |
| 1:33.8 | Judge Ludig later testified about that effort before the January 6th committee. |
| 1:40.0 | Donald Trump and his allies and supporters are a clear and present danger to American |
| 1:59.1 | democracy. |
| 2:00.7 | And now the man who keeps insisting that he really is retired has thrown in with the voting |
| 2:06.2 | rights groups arguing in opposition to the so-called independent state legislature doctrine. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Slate, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Slate and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.

