Leah Litman on the Grievance and Conspiracy Theories That Run SCOTUS

Straight White American Jesus

Axis Mundi Media: Bradley Onishi + Daniel Miller

News, Politics

4.7 • 1.8K Ratings

🗓️ 11 August 2025

⏱️ 35 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this episode of 'Straight White American Jesus,' host Brad Onishi welcomes Leah Litman, a professor of law at the University of Michigan Law School , author of "Lawless," and co-host of the podcast 'Strict Scrutiny.' They discuss the political nature of the Supreme Court. Litman highlights conservative grievances, the rise of conspiracy theories influenced by these grievances, and the implications for judicial decisions affecting voting rights, LGBT equality, and reproductive rights. They explore the detrimental impact of originalism and the influence of the Federalist Society on judicial appointments. The conversation concludes with potential reforms to democratize the Supreme Court, including court expansion and ethics codes. Subscribe for $5.99 a month to get bonus content most Mondays, bonus episodes every month, ad-free listening, access to the entire 800-episode archive, Discord access, and more: ⁠⁠https://axismundi.supercast.com/ Lawless: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Lawless/Leah-Litman/9781668054628 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Axis Mundi.
0:12.4	I just think not using politics to try to change the court is just insanity.
0:24.1	You are just letting them get away with their takeover and capture of the court.
0:31.0	And they, like, the court is political.
0:33.4	There's just no getting around that.
0:35.1	And so you need to acknowledge that if you want to change it.
0:38.8	You can't traffic in this alternative reality and just wish cast that we had a totally different Supreme Court and hope that one day it will return to that.
0:49.5	Like that is not how any of this works.
0:52.9	And so it is that is is addressed to democratic, political officials
0:57.8	and elites who do not seem to be able to get the message. Welcome to straight white American
1:06.9	Jesus. I'm Brad Onishi, author of returning for war, the extremist history of white
1:11.6	Christian nationalism, and what comes next, and the founder of Axis Moody Media. Today I welcome
1:16.7	Leah Littman to the podcast. Leah is a professor of law at the University of Michigan Law School
1:21.6	and the co-host of the very popular and very good podcast, strict scrutiny.
1:28.5	She's also the author of Lawless, book about the grievance, conspiracy theory, and bad
1:32.9	vibes currently running the Supreme Court.
1:36.2	I think we're all worried about the ways the court has given a free pass to Donald Trump
1:41.0	in his second term.
1:42.9	Lee and I speak about the ways that grievance is
1:44.7	fueling not just conservative politics in the country, but the conservative justices on
1:49.1	our highest court. That leads into a discussion of how that grievance produces conspiracy
1:56.0	theories in terms of the way that these justices are reading the law and how that leads to bad vibes and a bad situation for the rest of us.
	...

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