Welcome to Alicus, Slate's Legal Affairs podcast. I'm Dahlia Lithwick, Slate's Supreme Court correspondent.

And we thought we'd kick things off this week with a little court audio from this past Monday.

This is Chief Justice John Roberts, sampling Eminem, the rap star, in an argument about what kind of speech falls outside

of First Amendment protection because it qualifies as what's known as a true threat.

You know, dad and make a nice bed for mommy at the bottom of lake, tie a rope around a rock.

This is during the context of a domestic dispute between, you know, a husband and wife,

there goes mama, splashing in the water, no more fighting with dad, you know, all that stuff.

Now, under your test, could that be prosecuted? No, because if you look at the context of these

statements. Because Eminem said it instead of somebody else.

This case called Alonis versus U.S.

involves a self-described aspiring rapper who uses very violent language on Facebook

in reference to his estranged wife, his children, an elementary school,

his former co-workers, and a female FBI agent.

Later on in today's podcast, we're going to talk to a scholar of rap music in the law

about how rap music has been invoked in courtrooms.

But before that, we want to turn to another case, argued this week, Young v. United

Parcel Service. This case centers on whether UPS had the obligation to accommodate a pregnant driver who wanted to be assigned a lighter lifting load for the duration of her pregnancy. UPS said to Peggy Young, no, we won't give you that accommodation. They put her on unpaid leave. She lost her benefits, including her health benefits, and sued under a statute that says

that employers have to accommodate pregnant workers. Joining me to talk about that case is Sam Beganstas,

who teaches law at the University of Michigan Law School and argue the case on behalf of Peggy Young.

Sam, welcome to Amicus.

Thanks for having me.

So one thing that's a little bit complicated is the facts of the case here, which really have to do with, it seems to me, the vagaries of what you have to lift to work at UPS. So can you set the table for us and explain to us who your client Peggy Young is and what her job at UPS

...