Attacks on the Separation of Church and State, The Lawless Supreme Court, and the Update on Public Schools

Getting Curious with Jonathan Van Ness

Sony Music

Science, Self-improvement, Comedy, Education, Society & Culture

4.9 • 21.5K Ratings

🗓️ 12 May 2025

⏱️ 39 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This week on The Monday Edit - we’re making public push back fun with Strict Scrutiny’s co-host Leah Litman talking all about her new book Lawless: How the Supreme Court Came to Run on Conservative Grievance, Fringe Theories, and Bad Vibes. We’re also talking about why public schools are becoming the battle ground for the separation of church and state with Alessandro Terenzoni, VP of Public Policy from Americans United for Separation of Church and State - we’re going IN on the supreme court this week, if you can’t already tell. Plus! We’re serving you a healthy dose of queer joy (like we always do over here on the Monday Edit, duh!). Leah Litman is a professor of law at the University of Michigan and a former Supreme Court clerk. In addition to cohosting Strict Scrutiny, she writes frequently about the Court for media outlets including The Washington Post, Slate, and The Atlantic, among others, and has appeared as a commentator on NPR and MSNBC, in addition to other venues. She has received the Ruth Bader Ginsburg award for her “scholarly excellence” from the American Constitution Society and published in top law reviews. Follow her on X @LeahLitman and Instagram @ProfLeahLitman. Alessandro Terenzoni is Vice President of Public Policy at Americans United. He leads Americans United’s policy team in its critical work to promote positive policy that defends and supports church-state separation at the federal and state levels. Before joining Americans United, he was Deputy Director of the Office for Civil Rights within the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Justice Programs. He led the office’s civil-rights enforcement and technical-assistance work, ensuring that DOJ grant recipients did not unlawfully discriminate based on race, sex, religion, disability, and other protected bases. Follow us on Instagram @gettingbetterwithjvn Jonathan on Instagram @jvn and senior producer Chris @amomentlikechris New video episodes Getting Better on YouTube every Wednesday. Senior Producer, Chris McClure Producer, Editor & Engineer is Nathanael McClure Production support from Julie Carrillo, Anne Currie, and Chad Hall Our theme music is also composed by Nathanael McClure. Curious about bringing your brand to life on the show? Email [email protected]. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	It's already Monday again, you guys.
0:04.0	Better Babes.
0:04.7	It's Jonathan Van Ness and welcome to The Monday Edit.
0:07.5	This week, like every week, I'm joined by our senior producer, Chris.
0:10.8	Say hi, Chris.
0:11.5	Hi, hi.
0:12.2	Y'all, we are here breaking down the news, pop culture, and expanding on the topics we're covering over on getting better.
0:17.6	We drop episodes of this show, The Monday Edit, every Monday and getting better
0:21.1	every Wednesday, wherever you get your podcasts. Plus, full video episodes on getting better on YouTube
0:26.9	are up now. Catch us there. Share, tell your people. Word of mouth is a huge deal in podcasts. So if you're
0:33.9	loving our content, please tell your friends. It means so much to us. Today, we've got a very special episode this week.
0:40.1	It's jam-packed.
0:41.7	A very Supreme Court slash Injustices of America forward episode.
0:46.3	We do have a healthy helping of queer joy and frivolity like we bring you every Monday,
0:50.8	but this week's episode is proudly presented by Americans United for separation
0:56.2	of church and state. Which, if you don't know or haven't caught their ads that we do over here
1:00.7	from time to time, Americans United is the only organization dedicated solely to defending the
1:07.1	separation of church and state. They are doing incredibly important work.
1:12.1	They are the shield protecting the foundational American principle of freedom of religion,
1:17.4	including the right to believe or not believe for all.
1:21.2	We'll be speaking with the vice president of public policy,
1:24.0	Alessandro Taranzoni, a little bit later on.
	...

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