Stacking the Courts with Dahlia Lithwick

Why Is This Happening? The Chris Hayes Podcast

MS NOW, Chris Hayes

Versant Media, Chris Hayes, Why Is This Happening?, The Chris Hayes Podcast, Versant, Government, Politics, Withpod, Society & Culture, News, Msnbc, Ms Now

4.6 • 8.9K Ratings

🗓️ 25 February 2020

⏱️ 50 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The future of our courts will be decided in the 2020 election. While the Trump administration grabs headlines with scandal after scandal, gaffe after gaffe, behind the scenes they are quietly chipping away at their central agenda of reshaping the courts. It’s a transformation happening at an historic rate, where one in four circuit judges is now a Trump appointee. They’ve already flipped the balance of the Supreme Court to a 5-4 conservative majority. If given another four years, Donald Trump would lock down the federal judiciary for decades to come. Senior legal correspondent for Slate Dahlia Lithwick has reported on all of this. From the President’s affinity for using the courts as a weapon to the changed dynamic of the Supreme Court in the wake Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation, Lithwick documents what the rule of law looks like in the Trump years. Listen as we discuss exactly what’s at stake this November. RELATED: Why I Haven’t Gone Back to SCOTUS Since Kavanaugh by Dahlia Lithwick Trump’s Lawyers’ Impeachment Defense Will Reshape the Office of the President by Dahlia Lithwick Why Trump's Lawyers Should Talk Like Lawyers by Kate Shaw SPEECH, INTENT, AND THE PRESIDENT by Kate Shaw Plaintiff in Chief: A Portrait of Donald Trump in 3,500 Lawsuits by James Zirin YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE The Meaning of Impeachment with Kate Shaw (Jan 6) Trans Rights with Chase Strangio (Sept 23, 2019) The Rule Of Law in the Era of Trump with Kate Shaw (May 22, 2018) Separating Immigrant Families with Lee Gelernt (June 5, 2018)

Transcript

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0:00.0	I don't think that generally I've seen a lot of resistance at the Supreme Court level
0:06.9	to the way that this Jeff Sessions and Bill Barr, Justice Department, have been sort
0:12.2	of careening through history, trying to break stuff.
0:15.9	Hello, and welcome to Wise is Happening with me, your host, Chris Hayes.
0:23.7	I just got a chance to see an amazing documentary.
0:26.0	I'm hoping we have the directors on at some point.
0:28.7	It's called The Fight, and it's about the first several years, the Trump administration
0:32.2	and the ACLU.
0:33.0	And it's a dear friend of mine, Elise Steinberg, is one of the filmmakers.
0:35.8	She also was one of the filmmakers on Weiner.
0:37.9	And the film follows a bunch of ACLU lawyers through the first few years, the Trump administration,
0:44.6	including early footage of legal learned, was there an immigration attorney and who's been
0:49.1	on this podcast coming out of the Brooklyn courthouse to get an injunction on the Muslim ban.
0:54.3	That first weekend was instituted.
0:56.2	And in the background of the shot is your humble podcaster, Chris Hayes, who had gone
0:59.5	there to report on it.
1:01.2	And I'm actually calling into MSNBC at that moment.
1:03.8	And it's a really great movie.
1:05.2	And, you know, the conceit of the work that they do in the ACLU and Chase Strangio is
1:10.0	another figure in it who's been on this podcast is that the courts mean something in America.
1:15.1	And one means of preserving rights for people is struggle through the courts.
1:19.6	And I think there's been a lot to credit that view in the Trump years.
	...

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