We are definitely slouching towards Giliad. I mean, again, I don't think I'm being hyperbolic

in saying that. He is always voted against abortion rights when he had the chance. But then,

let's look at what he's trying to manage on this court right now.

Hi and welcome back to Amicus, Slates Podcast about the courts and the Supreme Court and the law

and the rule of law. I'm Diolithwick. I cover those things for Slate and it's mid-May and we're still

waiting for the end of a term that has been a little bit sluggish but might still bring some big

drama in the coming weeks. Last week, an off week for this show, the Supreme Court overturned a

40-some-year-old precedent just like that. In response, Justice Stephen Breyer, usually very, very

mellow, stressed-escented about his fears for the overturning of Casey and Roe v. Wade. Not

unrelated, Lee. This week's show will circle back to that very issue. It's an issue we touched on last

fall when Brett Kavanaugh was confirmed to the court. One of the experts who testified at his hearings

suggested at the time that he would forever change reproductive freedom in America. That expert

was Melissa Murray, who came onto the podcast to let us know what it might mean at the high court

that Anthony Kennedy was being replaced by Brett Kavanaugh. That seems like it was a thousand

years ago but it was in fact this past fall and now we're about to find out what's going to happen

maybe sooner than anyone expected. Over the last few weeks, we saw states from Georgia to Kentucky

to Ohio to Missouri pass extraordinarily draconian new abortion laws. Laws that pretty deliberately set

out to simply nullify the guardrails in place after Roe v. Wade. These states were quickly one up

just last week by Alabama, which passed a law that would send an abortion provider to prison for

99 years longer than any rapist if she terminated a pregnancy anytime after conception. Alabama

legislators were perfectly clear about the fact that they were fed xing this special gift.

Legislation that was unconstitutional by its own terms right to Brett Kavanaugh in the hopes

...