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And by confirmation, the new HBO film that details the explosive 1991 Supreme Court

nomination hearings of Clarence Thomas.

Confirmation premieres at 8 p.m. tonight, April 16th, on HBO.

Welcome to Amicus, Slate Supreme Court podcast.

I am Dahlia Lithwick, and I cover the High Court for Slate.

So this was a quiet week at the High Court.

It was the second of a two-week spring break away from oral arguments,

and so many court watchers have been focused on next week

when the justices are going to hear a great big case about President Obama's immigration policy.

We've also continued to track the utter non-progress of the effort to fill the vacant seat on the U.S. Supreme Court.

Barack Obama's nominee, Judge Merrick Garland, spent part of his week in so-called courtesy meetings with Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, who are still declining to give him a confirmation hearing, but quite happy to share oatmeal and eggs with the good judge.

Later on, in today's podcast, I'm going to speak with Minnesota Senator Al Franken,

a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, to get some sense of what the heck is happening

up there on Capitol Hill. But first, we're going to take a closer look at that immigration

case that's being argued Monday, called United States versus Texas. It centers on Obama's big executive order from 2014.

Remember that.

This is the president's deferred action for parents of American citizens and lawful permanent

residence, or DAPA, along with his expansion of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals

program, or DACA.

...