Executive Lawlessness: Leah Litman on the Supreme Court Enabling Presidential Overreach
The Intercept Briefing
The Intercept
4.8 • 6.3K Ratings
🗓️ 18 July 2025
⏱️ 39 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
During Donald Trump’s first term, the Supreme Court made some effort to check his power. But that era is over. The court has ruled that Trump cannot be prosecuted for actions he took as president, including for his role in the January 6 attack on the Capitol, and it just wrapped its latest term by restricting lower courts' power to block his unlawful orders on issues like birthright citizenship, abortion care, and immigrants’ basic rights.
“What the Supreme Court did is it limited lower courts’ ability to use what has been the most effective tool that lower courts have to reign in the Trump administration's lawlessness, which is to block a policy on a nationwide basis,” says Leah Litman, author of the new book, “Lawless: How the Supreme Court Runs on Conservative Grievance, Fringe Theories, and Bad Vibes.”
This week on The Intercept Briefing, newsroom counsel and correspondent Shawn Musgrave speaks with professor and attorney Litman and politics reporter Jessica Washington about how the Supreme Court’s right-wing supermajority is laying the legal foundation for unchecked executive lawlessness — and signaling to Trump that it won’t stand in his way.
Listen to the full conversation of The Intercept Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen.
You can support our work at theintercept.com/join. Your donation, no matter the amount, makes a real difference.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the Intercept Briefing. I'm Sean Musgrave, newsroom counsel and correspondent for The Intercept. |
| 0:10.5 | During President Donald Trump's first term, the U.S. Supreme Court seemed at least somewhat interested in holding him accountable to the law. |
| 0:17.2 | But even before Trump was re-elected, the Supreme Court showed signs that it wouldn't stand in his way in a second term. |
| 0:25.1 | Well, you've been watching a special report. |
| 0:27.5 | The nation's highest court has ruled that former President Donald Trump is entitled to some level of immunity from federal prosecution for official acts he took while in office. |
| 0:38.2 | Former President Donald Trump is immune from criminal prosecution for any so-called |
| 0:43.4 | official act taken as president. |
| 0:45.3 | Absolute immunity for core constitutional powers. |
| 0:51.2 | Last summer, the Supreme Court ruled that Trump couldn't be prosecuted for actions he took |
| 0:55.8 | as president, including for his role in the January 6th attacks on the Capitol. And this past June, |
| 1:01.2 | the Supreme Court finished its term by limiting lower court's authority to block any of Trump's |
| 1:06.1 | unlawful orders on issues like birthright citizenship, abortion care, and immigrants' basic rights. |
| 1:11.9 | The Supreme Court's conservative supermajority also greenlit Trump's horrific practice |
| 1:16.4 | of deporting people to countries they've never lived in, countries where they may face torture |
| 1:20.9 | and inhumane detention like South Sudan. The court did so with barely any explanation at all. |
| 1:26.9 | And for good measure, this term, the court also signed off on a slew of conservative attacks |
| 1:31.4 | on transgender and reproductive health care, pornography, and even basic representation of queer |
| 1:37.2 | people in public school classrooms. |
| 1:39.4 | All of these are perfectly legal and constitutional, according to Chief Justice John Roberts |
| 1:43.9 | and the six right-wing justices. Joining me now to Chief Justice John Roberts and the six |
| 1:44.7 | right-wing justices. Joining me now to discuss the Supreme Court and how we got here is Leah Littman, |
| 1:50.1 | a law professor at the University of Michigan and co-host of the Strict Scrutiny Podcast. |
... |
Transcript will be available on the free plan in 25 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Intercept, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of The Intercept and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.