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Strict Scrutiny

SCOTUS Squabbles Go Public

Strict Scrutiny

Strict Scrutiny

News, Philosophy, Society & Culture, Government

4.6 • 5.7K Ratings

🗓️ 20 April 2026

⏱️ 98 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Melissa, Kate, and Leah break down an absolute boatload of beefs: Trump vs. Pope Leo, Sonia Sotomayor vs. Coach Brett Kavanaugh, Clarence Thomas vs. progressives, and Ketanji Brown Jackson vs. the shadow docket, before covering some of the week’s other legal news, including the Harvard Crimson’s reporting on conservative judges’ ideological litmus tests for clerkships. Then, they break down the Court’s opinion in Chevron v. Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana, before previewing some upcoming oral arguments at One First Street, including the “crimmigration” case, Blanche v. Lau.

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Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Strict scrutiny is brought to you by Americans United for separation of church and state.

0:04.4

Since the nation's founding, the values of religious liberty and pluralism have been central to the American identity.

0:10.0

These values are now under accelerated attack.

0:12.9

The government has no authority to pick and choose which religious beliefs to promote and which to marginalize,

0:18.4

because religious freedom for only some is religious freedom for not.

0:21.9

The Trump-Vance administration's Religious Liberty Commission is pursuing a culture of Christian nationalism

0:26.7

that seeks to divide and isolate people across our nation.

0:30.6

The fatally flawed way this commission was assembled makes clear that the predetermined outcome isn't just un-American.

0:36.2

It's against the law.

0:37.1

The Trump-Fance

0:38.1

administration has failed to uphold our country's proud religious freedom tradition, and we will

0:42.7

hold them accountable. Be part of the movement that's pushing back and standing up for freedom.

0:47.1

Register to attend today at thesrf.org.

0:51.7

Mr. Chief Justice, may please report.

0:55.0

It's an old joke, but when I argue, men, argues against two beautiful ladies like this, they're going to have the last word.

1:04.0

She spoke not elegantly, but with unmistakable clarity, she said, I ask no favor for my sex.

1:14.8

All I ask of our brethren is that they take their feet off our necks. Hi, everyone. It's Leah. After we recorded our regular episode, The New York Times,

1:39.4

specifically Jody Cantor and Adam Liptack, released a bombshell story about the origins of the shadow

1:44.9

docket, and they obtained the original documents behind what was, in important respects,

1:49.9

the birth of the modern shadow docket. And that's the Supreme Court's 2016 decision to stay

1:54.3

the clean power plan with no explanation before the plan went into effect and before

1:58.6

lower courts had issued opinions about its legality.

...

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