Breakfast Table Redux
Amicus With Dahlia Lithwick | Law, justice, and the courts
Slate Audio
4.6 • 3.4K Ratings
🗓️ 28 June 2017
⏱️ 56 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The Supreme Court’s 2016 term may not have contained the usual number of blockbuster cases, but it did have its fair share of drama. Between the stonewalling of Merrick Garland, the filibustered confirmation of Neil Gorsuch, rumors about Anthony Kennedy’s possible retirement, and in the background, the White House offensive against the federal judiciary, court-watchers had no shortage of things to keep them up at night.
And so this week on Amicus, we pour a couple of our favorite court-watchers a big cup of coffee and plop some microphones down at Slate’s annual “Breakfast Table.” Mark Joseph Stern and Pamela Karlan join us to discuss what we learned about the justices this term and what we can expect from them in the fall.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi and welcome to Amicus Slate's podcast about the U.S. Supreme Court. |
| 0:06.4 | I'm Dahlia Lithwick. I cover the courts and the law for Slate Magazine. |
| 0:11.0 | The term ended this past Monday, unbelievably, with a slew of decisions, some of which you probably didn't hear about, and determinations of which cases to take next year, |
| 0:21.3 | plus an order in the ongoing travel ban litigation, plus the announcement or non-announcement |
| 0:27.2 | that there would be no retirement from Justice Anthony Kennedy. |
| 0:31.8 | And because it is the last week of the term, as is our want here at Slate, |
| 0:36.6 | we scrambled the greatest legal minds of our time |
| 0:39.9 | to do what is called the breakfast table, week-long discussion of the final cases with five |
| 0:47.5 | Supreme Court Watchers. But as is not our want, they have been in the manner of an Agatha Christie |
| 0:53.7 | novel picked off one by one. |
| 0:55.8 | So Judge Richard Posner was quickly summoned to his judicial and other obligations. |
| 1:01.3 | And then Walter Dellinger on Monday suffered a leg injury, which has benched him. |
| 1:06.1 | And so in the manner of an Agatha Christie novel, now we are three. |
| 1:10.5 | And yet, great minds they are. |
| 1:12.7 | So Mark, Joseph Stern, my colleague gets late, fellow court watcher. |
| 1:16.6 | Welcome back to the podcast. |
| 1:18.1 | Thank you so much. |
| 1:19.2 | Always a pleasure to be here. |
| 1:20.4 | Slightly embarrassing to be called a great legal mind alongside one of the greatest legal minds, but I'll take it. |
| 1:27.1 | And the other great legal mind is Professor Pam Carland of Stanford Law School, formerly of the Justice Department under Obama, and a tremendous oral advocate in her own right. |
| 1:38.4 | So Pam, Carlin, welcome to Then There Were Three Breakfast Table Edition. |
| 1:43.6 | Well, like Mickey Rooney, I'm just happy to be in the show. |
... |
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