Something Wicked This Way Comes: A SCOTUS Term Preview
Strict Scrutiny
Strict Scrutiny
4.6 • 5.7K Ratings
🗓️ 6 October 2025
⏱️ 93 minutes
🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS
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Summary
Kate, Leah, and Melissa preview what fresh hell SCOTUS has in store for us this term, including challenges to the Fourteenth Amendment and the Court’s continued obsession with fighting the culture wars. Then, after breaking down the latest legal news, the hosts welcome Lieutenant Governor of Illinois–and Senate candidate–Juliana Stratton to discuss Trump’s plan to deploy the National Guard to Chicago, how state and local governments can push back against this administration, and what gives her hope in this fight. Finally, a game to commemorate Chief Justice Roberts’ 20 long years on the Court. This episode was recorded live at the Athenaeum Center in Chicago.
Favorite things:
- Leah: Bone Valley: A True Story of Injustice and Redemption in the Heart of Florida, Gilbert King; Without Precedent: How Chief Justice Roberts and His Accomplices Rewrote the Constitution and Dismantled Our Rights, Lisa Graves; One Battle After Another; The Life of a Showgirl, Taylor Swift
- Kate: WBEZ Chicago; Block Club Chicago; Chicago Reader; The Chicago Sun-Times on Broadview; Heart the Lover, Lily King
- Melissa: Ta-Nehisi Coates and Ezra Klein Hash Out Their Charlie Kirk Disagreement; Tony Shalhoub’s Breaking Bread (CNN); Mexodus (Audible’s Minett a Lane Theater); Meghan Markle in Balenciaga
Get tickets for STRICT SCRUTINY LIVE – The Bad Decisions Tour 2025!Â
- 3/6/26 – San Francisco
- 3/7/26 – Los Angeles
Learn more: http://crooked.com/events
Order your copy of Leah's book, Lawless: How the Supreme Court Runs on Conservative Grievance, Fringe Theories, and Bad Vibes
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Strict scrutiny is brought to you by Americans United for Separation of Church and State. |
| 0:04.0 | You don't destroy 250 years of secular democracy without gutting precedent, shattering norms, and dropping a few billion. |
| 0:12.0 | The same people in groups that backed Project 2025 are part of a larger shadow network that's relentlessly pushing to impose a Christian nationalist agenda on our laws and lives. |
| 0:21.8 | Church-state separation is the bulwark blocking their agenda. |
| 0:25.2 | One of the last bastions of church-state separation is our public school system. |
| 0:29.4 | So they're pushing vouchers everywhere. |
| 0:31.6 | They're arguing for religious public schools. |
| 0:33.8 | Yes, you heard that right, religious public schools at the Supreme Court in a case that was on the court's docket from last term that we talked about on the podcast. |
| 0:42.2 | If you're listening to us, you're seeing the writing on the wall. |
| 0:45.0 | We can, we must fight back. |
| 0:47.1 | Join Americans United for separation of church and state and their growing movement because church-state separation protects us all. |
| 0:53.4 | Learn more and get involved at |
| 0:55.0 | AU.org slash crooked. |
| 0:58.0 | Mr. Chief Justice, may it please support. It's an old joke. When I argue, men, argues |
| 1:05.2 | against two beautiful ladies like this, they're going to have the last word. |
| 1:10.3 | She spoke not elegantly, but with unmistakable clarity. |
| 1:15.6 | She said, I ask no favor for my sex. |
| 1:20.6 | All I ask of our brethren is that they take their feet or fall next. Hello, Chicago. |
| 1:42.3 | You look really fantastic, not at all like a second city. |
| 1:51.0 | I think you are the first city tonight. |
| 1:56.0 | We are so excited to be here. |
| 2:00.0 | We are so excited to be here. We are strict scrutiny. |
... |
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