Dear Justice Kavanaugh, “I’m American, Bro”

Slate News

Slate Podcasts

Politics, News, News Commentary

4.5 • 6K Ratings

🗓️ 13 September 2025

⏱️ 53 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In this week’s episode of Amicus, we delve into the recent Supreme Court shadow docket order in Noem v. Vasquez-Perdomo, which in essence legalized racial profiling by roving ICE patrols, and in practice may have ushered in America’s “show your papers” era for Americans with brown skin, who speak Spanish, and/or go to Home Depot in work clothes. Join Dahlia Lithwick and Ahilan Arulanantham, a longstanding human rights lawyer and law professor, as they unpack what this unargued, unreasoned, unsigned and (in Kavanaugh’s case) uncited decision means for both immigrants and U.S. citizens, for 4th amendment doctrine, and for the lower courts expected to parse SCOTUS’ tea leaves. Want more Amicus? Join Slate Plus to unlock weekly bonus episodes with exclusive legal analysis. Plus, you’ll access ad-free listening across all your favorite Slate podcasts. You can subscribe directly from the Amicus show page on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Or, visit slate.com/amicusplus to get access wherever you listen.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Ah, Benny's parents, thanks for coming.
0:02.3	Hiya.
0:02.9	So, Benny has really blossomed this term.
0:05.6	You're telling me, he outgrew his bike. We sold it, on eBay.
0:09.6	Oh, that's not quite what I meant.
0:11.1	It's free to sell on there?
0:12.3	Free to sell?
0:13.5	Easy too. Sold Benny's bike, your guitar, my jacket.
0:16.8	You sold my guitar?
0:19.9	Shall we talk about Benny?
0:22.1	When it's this easy to sell for free, you can't help but say when it's eBay.
0:26.7	Things people love. T's and Cs apply, excludes vehicles.
0:30.2	Ready to launch your business? Get started with the commerce platform made for entrepreneurs.
0:34.9	Shopify is specially designed to help you start, run and grow your business
0:39.0	with easy customizable themes that let you build your brand, marketing tools that get your
0:43.7	products out there. Integrated shipping solutions that actually save you time, from startups to scale
0:48.8	ups, online, in person and on the go. Shopify is made for entrepreneurs like you.
0:58.7	Sign up for your $1 a month trial at Shopify.com slash setup.
1:04.0	I'm Dahlia Lithwick.
1:08.6	This is Amicus, Slate's podcast about the courts and the Supreme Court and the law.
1:10.5	Thank you for being with us. This was another week teeming with political violence in America,
1:32.3	another week in which free speech and guns and respected world leaders raping and trading young girls,
	...

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