The Hi and welcome back to Amicus this is Slate's podcast about the courts and the

law and the rule of law in the Supreme Court I'm Dahlia Lithwick. That's my beat and

2024 is already exhausting this past week in an order that explained nothing

the highest court in the land ruled by a five to four margin

on the issue we talked about on last week's show with Rochelle Garza, who gets to set immigration

policy the federal government or the state of Texas?

The majority sided with the Biden administration for now,

but the fact that there were four votes to give Greg Abbott the keys to border enforcement is a kind of

chilling reminder of how deeply unmoored this court has become from precedent and constitutional thought.

For the folks watching the New Hampshire primary this week to see whether the GOP could kick

its Trump addiction, no dice, and the question of whether a state can toss the former

president off the ballot is careening up to the court for argument in less than two weeks.

Meanwhile, jurors in a Manhattan courtroom

determined that Donald Trump would have to pay more than $83 million

for the harm caused by his defamation of E. Jean Carroll.

That is another absolutely staggering win for the journalist and her legal team. one thing that we noticed watching this particular trial

unfold over the last two weeks was the extent to which this legal battle

stands completely apart from the rest of Trump's many many

trials about the insurrection and state secrets and his business practices

because this was a trial that was just very starkly about

misogyny and sexual violence.

And we wanted to flag this for you because it fits into a presidential election that is already very much about misogyny and

...