How SCOTUS is Waging Electoral Warfare
Strict Scrutiny
Strict Scrutiny
4.6 • 5.7K Ratings
🗓️ 18 May 2026
⏱️ 107 minutes
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Summary
Kate and Leah break down the Supreme Court’s extension of a stay allowing for continued mail-order access to mifepristone, from the Court’s unconscionable failure to meet its own arbitrary deadline to the unhinged dissents from Justices Thomas and Alito. They also cover last week’s other legal news before speaking with Ari Berman, national voting rights correspondent for Mother Jones, about the devastating fallout from the Court’s ruling in the Voting Rights Act case, Louisiana v. Callais. Finally, Melissa speaks with Kenji Yoshino and David Glasgow about their book, How Equality Wins: A New Vision for an Inclusive America.
Favorite things:
- Kate: Kavanaugh Hegseth Patel Bar Cold Open (SNL); The Shadow Docket (Last Week Tonight with John Oliver); This Is Getting Dangerous, Jamelle Bouie (NYT); Lawyering Without Law (The Knight First Amendment Institute); Give Us the Ballot: The Modern Struggle for Voting Rights in America, Ari Berman
- Leah: Rock Music (Charli xcx); Sam Alito’s typos
Ari: Blame John Roberts for Destroying the Voting Rights Act (Mother Jones); Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory and Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom, David Blight; Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877, Eric Foner
Get tickets for STRICT SCRUTINY LIVE – The Bad Decisions Tour 2026!
6/20/26 – New York City
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Buy Melissa’s bestselling book, The U.S. Constitution: A Comprehensive and Annotated Guide for the Modern Reader
Preorder a signed paperback of Leah’s book, Lawless, here.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Strict Scrutiny is brought to you by Americans United for separation of church and state. |
| 0:04.2 | You're not alone if it feels like Groundhog Day, every morning when you read the news or even listen to what we're talking about here on strict scrutiny. |
| 0:11.1 | And while it's overwhelming, seeing the trajectory our country is on, we all show up every day, trying to find ways to make it better, to educate our neighbors, and to fight for democracy. |
| 0:20.2 | Our friends at Americans United have been doing the same thing, day in and to fight for democracy. Our friends at Americans |
| 0:21.4 | United have been doing the same thing, day in and day out, for almost 80 years. This year alone, |
| 0:26.4 | they filed three separate lawsuits against Trump's anti-Christian-Bias task force, which, spoiler alert, |
| 0:32.4 | is anything but unbiased. A.U has been tracking every mention of Christian nationalist rhetoric |
| 0:37.3 | from this administration |
| 0:38.4 | and partnering with many allied organizations to sue and protect our constitutional right |
| 0:43.3 | of church-state separation, the right that protects all of our abilities to be who we are and live |
| 0:48.3 | as we choose so long as we don't harm others. It's easy to get apathetic, as we're all seeing |
| 0:53.3 | and hearing these attacks on our freedoms |
| 0:54.9 | every single day and watching a religion be weaponized for a power grab. Now isn't the time to give up, though. |
| 1:00.8 | Now is the time to fight back against the growing authoritarianism in our country. Consider joining |
| 1:05.6 | Americans United for separation of church and state. Learn more by visitingau.org slash crooked because church state |
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