When you see videos of masked men tasing brown people in grocery stores or Home Depot parking lots becoming the new ice-enforced Jim Crow zones, it's worth remembering that this, all of this, has been delivered to the American people with the John Roberts Supreme Court's assistance. It's also worth considering if and how the Supreme Court can restrain any of these

democracy demolishing excesses.

And with the end of the latest Supreme Court term, we just got a whole lot of new data points

on that proposition.

I take these rulings together as this remarkable assertion of power for powers sake.

I'm Dahlia Lithwick, host of Amicus, Slate's podcast about the courts and the law.

Over the past month and a half, we've been peppered with rulings on everything from defunding

Planned Parenthood to birthright citizenship and universal injunctions.

And that's only half of the story.

Beyond the argued cases, the Supreme Court has been stepping in to do the Trump administration

a solid by overruling federal district courts on its shadow docket.

It really seems to be as straightforward as well.

Previously, it was a Democratic president and now it's a Republican president.

We've been breaking down the weedy details of Supreme Court news, giving smart, non-lawyer

people like you, the context you need to understand the seismic changes being authored by the

highest court in the land. It's an attack really on the legal system itself in favor of a system that the judges can manipulate to their will.

All of the episodes in this series are now available.

And if you become a Slate Plus subscriber, you'll get access to a whole bunch of bonus episodes too.

Listen to Opinion Paloosa on Amicus Now.

Follow AMI, CUS NowNow wherever you listen to podcasts.