Notorious RBG
Amicus With Dahlia Lithwick | Law, justice, and the courts
Slate Audio
4.6 • 3.4K Ratings
🗓️ 17 September 2016
⏱️ 37 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
We kick off a brand new season of our podcast with an episode devoted to the member of the Supreme Court bench who has garnered by far the most headlines since our last episode. That’s right, it’s the slavish fangirl edition of Amicus, in which we cave to the pressure of our listeners and fête the woman who had the temerity to call Donald Trump a “faker” this past July. Joining us to discuss the cultural phenomenon that is Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is MSNBC national reporter Irin Carmon, co-author of the bestselling biography Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg. We also hear from Cooper Sirwatka, a New York attorney and proud wearer of a full-color RBG tattoo.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome back to a brand new season of Amicus Slate Supreme Court podcast. I'm Dahlia Lithwick. I cover the High Court for Slate. |
| 0:12.1 | As I'm sure you already know, Friday, September 16th, the day of this taping is the federally mandated holiday Constitution Day. Yay! And as of the day of this taping, Friday, September 16th, Judge Merrick Garland has been waiting on a vote or a hearing for 184 days. |
| 0:30.8 | Now, when we last left you at the end of the 2015 term, the last handful of cases, blockbusters all had just come down, and the various |
| 0:39.6 | justices were fanning out for the summer where they would give speeches and travel and in |
| 0:44.6 | at least one instance, trash a presidential nominee. That's right, this is the slavish, |
| 0:50.5 | fan girl notorious RBG edition of amicus, in which we cave to the pressure of our listeners |
| 0:56.0 | and celebrate the woman who had the guts slash crazy temerity to call Donald Trump a faker last July, |
| 1:04.1 | Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. |
| 1:06.5 | Now, if you are not a Supreme Court wonk who covers other Supreme Court wanks, the whole notorious RBG phenomenon is kind of difficult to comprehend. |
| 1:17.5 | What started as a cult internet following a few years ago has turned into an all-out millennial circus. |
| 1:25.2 | And at 83, teeny little Justice Ginsburg with her collection of Lacey Jabots, |
| 1:30.5 | her punishing daily workout schedule, has been renamed Notorious RBG as a little hat tip to |
| 1:37.0 | Notorious BIG, the rapper who was murdered in 1997. |
| 1:41.7 | Her fans are Legion. |
| 1:43.3 | They fed her every day with their t-shirts, their tote bags, |
| 1:46.4 | their Halloween costumes, nail art, and tattoos, and just so you know, I have the tote bag. |
| 1:51.7 | To help us understand how a diminutive optogenarian, prone to sporting lacy gloves in public spaces, |
| 1:59.5 | who lived most of her life in the shadows, just |
| 2:02.7 | trying to get along, has become a rock star to feminist millennials is Irin Carmon. I've been |
| 2:09.1 | wanting to have her on the show for so long, so I'm very excited. She is a national reporter at |
| 2:14.1 | MSNBC. She covers women's issues and politics and culture and the law. And she co-authored a |
| 2:21.3 | biography of Ruth Bader Ginsburg last year called Notorious RB, The Life in Times of Ruth Bader |
... |
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