Sneak Preview: The Supreme Court's Worst Move Since Trump Returned to Office

Amicus With Dahlia Lithwick | Law, justice, and the courts

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News Commentary, Politics, Government, News

4.6 • 3.1K Ratings

🗓️ 24 June 2025

⏱️ 11 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this member-exclusive Opinionpalooza episode of Amicus, Dahlia Lithwick and co-host Mark Joseph Stern discuss the Supreme Court's shadow docket decision in the case of DHS vs. DVD, which allows for the deportation of migrants to third countries without due process or notice, despite the potential for torture and death. The Supreme Court's majority chose the opaque system of an unsigned, unargued, unbriefed and unreasoned order to issue a body-blow to the rule of law, undermining lower court rulings and Congressional statutes, specifically the Convention Against Torture. Dahlia and Mark discuss the Supreme Court’s accelerating trend of granting sweeping powers to the executive branch without proper justification, all while the Trump administration continues its pattern of defying lower court orders. Not great! Also not great? A brand new whistleblower report from a former rising star at the Department of Justice, claiming that Trump judicial nominee and current senior DoJ official, Emil Bove, deliberately ordered subordinates to defy court orders. This is a member-exclusive bonus episode, part of Amicus’ Opinionpalooza coverage of the end of the Supreme Court term. Listen to it now by subscribing to Slate Plus. By joining, not only will you unlock weekly bonus episodes of Amicus—you’ll also access ad-free listening across all your favorite Slate podcasts. You can subscribe directly from the Amicus show page on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Or, visit slate.com/amicusplus to get access wherever you listen. If you are already a member, consider a donation or merchAlso! Sign up for Slate’s Legal Brief: the latest coverage of the courts and the law straight to your inbox. Delivered every Tuesday. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm Dahlia Lithwick.
0:09.8	This is Amicus Slate's podcast about the courts, the law, and the Supreme Court.
0:15.4	While we continue to wait breathlessly for the justices to hand down briefed and argued cases in the coming
0:22.1	week so that they can wrap up the term as they do every other. The fact is that this term is
0:28.7	like no other. And a shadow docket decision that came down on Monday without fanfare, without
0:34.8	information about who even voted in the majority, and without any reasoning,
0:40.5	was a decision like no other. So we are popping up in peak opinion-palooza season for a bit of
0:48.8	shadow paloosa. This was a third country rendition case that is as seismic as anything we are waiting to get
0:57.5	in the days to come, with implications that pretty much dwarf much of the merits docket. It's not just
1:05.1	that Monday's decision will have massive impacts on thousands of people who just lost vitally important constitutional and statutory
1:12.7	protections. It's that the majority of the Supreme Court is telegraphing crystal clear signals
1:18.9	about the force of other court's orders and the ways in which they have created a presidency
1:24.2	that is pretty much immune from judicial oversight.
1:29.1	My co-host, Mark Joseph Stern, is popping up with me to talk over DHS v-DVD, which dropped
1:35.2	into the ether late Monday afternoon.
1:38.3	Hi, Mark.
1:39.4	Hi, Dahlia.
1:40.8	Mark, maybe let's start with the sort of slightly weedy background of this case.
1:47.0	What was the Trump administration attempting to do here?
1:50.4	So the Trump administration was trying to deport migrants to so-called third countries,
1:55.5	which are places where the migrant has never lived, often has never stepped foot in.
2:00.3	And the government specifically wants to
	...

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