Expand the Court: The Elie Mystal Interview
Gaslit Nation
Gaslit Nation
4.8 • 4K Ratings
🗓️ 16 October 2024
⏱️ 40 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
How do we protect ourselves from Trump’s MAGA Supreme Court? Expand the court like our lives depend on it, because they do! Elie Mystal, the Justice Correspondent for The Nation, and the author of the New York Times bestselling book Allow Me to Retort: A Black Guy’s Guide to the Constitution, joins Gaslit Nation to discuss urgently needed judicial reform and how to do it.
One of the first things the Nazis did was take over the judiciary in Germany. Republicans have long waged lawfare against our democracy, and now they’re just one election away from establishing a dictatorship. The far-right’s long-game has been met with hand-wringing, complacency, and neoliberalism from Democrats. And now we’re out of time, making court expanding an urgent priority for our nation, should Kamala Harris win.
But will the Supreme Court steal the election for Republicans, like they did for George W. Bush in 2000? That and Trump’s cult of toxic masculinity are discussed in this week’s Gaslit Nation, also featuring Terrell Starr of the Black Diplomats Podcast and Substack. This week’s bonus show, available for our subscribers at the Truth-teller ($5/month) level and higher, continues the conversation with a special focus on dangerous Attorney General Merrick Garland, and answers questions from our listeners at the Democracy Defender ($10/month) and higher for our bonus Q&A. Thank you to everyone who supports Gaslit Nation and makes our independent journalism possible – we could not make this show without you!
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This Thursday at 7pm ET, we’re making calls with Indivisible to hold onto the must-win Senate. RSVP here: https://www.mobilize.us/indivisible/event/628701/
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Transcript
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| 0:22.0 | Merchants Bank is a proud member, FDIC. The On the show today is eellee Mistal, the justice correspondent for the nation, he's also the author of the New York Times best-selling book, |
| 0:54.8 | Allow Me to Retort, a Black Guy's Guide to the Constitution. |
| 0:59.2 | Okay, Ellie, so you know that Star Wars, where is like help us obi one canobe you're our only hope that's basically this interview here |
| 1:10.0 | well I'm more r2 d2 than Luke Skywalker, right? |
| 1:13.6 | Like, all I can really do is like relay the message. |
| 1:16.6 | I can actually, you know, there's very little I can do. |
| 1:19.3 | We have so many questions here, including questions that were sent to me by listeners. |
| 1:22.6 | What needs to happen in terms of court reform |
| 1:26.3 | to protect us from Trump's Supreme Court |
| 1:30.1 | and his ideologue judges? |
| 1:32.3 | He packed 30% of the courts with federalist ideologues. |
| 1:35.8 | Court expansion is the only way. Court expansion is literally the only answer because the judges |
| 1:41.6 | that Trump left on the court, like the evil leave behind from a, you know, disgusting ex-boyfriend who leaves his toothbrush back at your place so he has an excuse to come back over. |
| 1:52.0 | The only way to unpack the court like that |
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