We are definitely slouching towards Gilead. I mean, again, I don't think I'm being hyperbolic in saying that.

He has 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, Slate's podcast about the courts and the Supreme Court and the law and the rule of law.

I'm Dahlia Lithwick.

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 assented about his fears for the overturning of Casey and Roe v. Wade. Not unrelatedly. 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 won 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-exing this special gift, legislation that was unconstitutional by its own terms right to Brett Kavanaugh

in the hopes that he would become the fifth vote to overturn Roe as early as next term.

Later on in the show, we'll talk to CNN's Joan Buscupik, who will hopefully help us understand

...