This is a case that I would expect that where he alive James Madison would sit by my side

and agree with what we're saying.

Dear diary, today I witness one facet of a constitutional crisis.

Hi and welcome to Amica's Slates podcast about the law and the rule of law and the courts.

I'm Dahlia Lithwick.

I cover many of those things for Slate.

It's been a busy few weeks for lawyers in America again.

The Supreme Court Clarence Thomas is suddenly signaling a desire to do away with longstanding

doctrine that protects newspapers.

And Chief Justice John Roberts has continued this new boom lit of siding with the courts

left wing this week in a case about whether the A.F. Amendment bars the execution of someone

suffering from dementia.

But the Supreme Court has absolutely nothing on the legal showstopper we witnessed before

the House Oversight and Reform Committee at which Michael Cohen, the president's longtime

lawyer testified on Wednesday.

And it was, wow, later on in the show we will take a very lawyerly look at that testimony

with Leah Lippmann who teaches law at UC Irvine School of Law.

But first we promised at the very top of last show that we would turn our eyes to emergency

declarations.

And we do that today looking to the southern border where the president declared a national

emergency two weeks ago that was two weeks in human time.

But I know feels like 12 years ago in human capacity to tolerate mayhem time.

...