Roe v Kavanaugh
Amicus With Dahlia Lithwick | Law, justice, and the courts
Slate Audio
4.6 • 3.4K Ratings
🗓️ 15 September 2018
⏱️ 56 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Professor Melissa Murray of NYU Law School, who gave blistering testimony at the Kavanaugh confirmation hearings last week. They talk Roe v Wade, when precedent counts and when it doesn’t, and what the likely confirmation of Kavanaugh to the Supreme Courts means for reproductive rights writ large. Plus, Dahlia Lithwick shares highlights from an on-stage conversation between her and Justice Elena Kagan this past week, where they covered division in the court and in the country, how Chief Justice Roberts steers the court through choppy waters, and civility.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I think it's obvious what this person will do if he's on the Supreme Court vis-a-vis reproductive rights. |
| 0:11.0 | This is, in some respects, a dangerous time for the court. People increasingly look at us and say this is just an extension of the political |
| 0:23.6 | process. |
| 0:27.7 | Hi, and welcome to amicus. This is Slate's podcast about the courts, the Supreme Court, and the rule of law. |
| 0:39.7 | I'm Dahlia Lithwick. I cover those things for Slate. And in an admittedly counterintuitive sort of way, I'm about to start this week's episode by talking about what we're not going to talk about. |
| 0:51.7 | This past week, word of a complaint against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh |
| 0:56.1 | surfaced. A woman had written a letter to her congresswoman and her senator detailing the |
| 1:02.7 | complaint that years and years ago Kavanaugh and another teen had violently assaulted, did not |
| 1:09.4 | rape her at a high school party. Judge Kavanaugh denies the |
| 1:13.5 | allegation. The Congresswoman in question will not discuss the letter. Senator Diane Feinstein, |
| 1:19.5 | who also received the letter, also says it was confidential and she promised as much. This woman |
| 1:26.0 | has decided not to come forward or to pursue the complaint. |
| 1:29.1 | That is her right. |
| 1:30.4 | And while this will not be the end of the matter for this woman, I think it's just the beginning of the matter for cable news. |
| 1:37.5 | It is the end of the matter for this episode of amicus. |
| 1:40.6 | We will assess Judge Kavanaugh's confirmation hearings and his adequacy to fill the seat vacated by Anthony Kennedy earlier this summer based on his record and last week's hearings. |
| 1:53.1 | Later on in the show, we have a treat. |
| 1:55.1 | We're going to hear parts of a live interview I did just this week with Justice Elena Kagan at the Hanasenish Community Day School in Brooklyn on Wednesday. |
| 2:04.3 | It was tremendous fun. We talked about faith and the independence of the court and empathy and surprise, civility. But first, back to Brett Kavanaugh. |
| 2:13.5 | So the hearings proved remarkable in many, many ways, including hundreds of protesters removed by force from the chamber and Senate Democrats protesting at many thousands of pages of documents they were unable to review and scrutinize before the proceedings. |
| 2:28.9 | With the Senate so closely divided at 5149, the votes of two moderate Republicans could presumably stymie |
| 2:37.7 | this nomination and thus unholy amounts of pressure have been brought to bear on Lisa Murkowski |
... |
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