The Un-American Project

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

Slate Podcasts

News Commentary, Politics, Government, News

4.6 • 3.1K Ratings

🗓️ 3 May 2025

⏱️ 80 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Whether it’s attempting to overturn birthright citizenship, effectively stripping citizenship from American children, or claiming Alien Enemy Act war powers under an imaginary invasion, Trump’s anti-immigrant moves are outlandishly unconstitutional. They are also being met with significant pushback from judges, even conservative ones. On this week’s Amicus, Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Slate senior writer Mark Joseph Stern who explains the landmark ruling from a Trump-appointed judge in the southern district of Texas that declared the administration's use of the Alien Enemies Act is unlawful. Next, Amanda Frost, University of Virginia law professor and author of You Are Not American: Citizenship Stripping from Dred Scott to the Dreamers, joins Dahlia to explain what Birthright Citizenship really means, and all the ways Trump is working to redefine what it means to be an American, including stripping citizenship from children and denaturalizing adults. Want more Amicus? Join Slate Plus to unlock weekly bonus episodes with exclusive legal analysis. Plus, you’ll 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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Kate's just off to work after sleeping in the best bed in the business.
0:05.0	And my word, doesn't she look ready for anything?
0:08.0	Something about her smile is just brighter.
0:10.0	Her eyes seem glintier, and she just feels so much more...
0:15.0	Kateier?
0:16.0	Of course it's no surprise really, because last night she slept at Premier Inn,
0:20.0	and she got up to 15% off with business booker.
0:23.6	Get better sleep for your money.
0:25.6	Premier Inn, rest easy. T's and C is apply.
0:29.6	I'm making a robot head with an Amazon box. I've painted it silver and daddy help me make...
0:35.6	At Amazon we're actually using paper bags for more of our deliveries.
0:38.6	And now I'm making a paper hot air balloon
0:41.0	and I even made a little brown basket
0:43.5	and I'm making a dog that looks just like Monty.
0:45.7	Just one of the ways we've reduced the weight of our packaging
0:48.0	by more than 40% since 2015, which is still good for playtime.
0:52.6	Mom, where's the scissors?
0:55.6	To learn more, visit aboutamason.com.com.
0:57.8	U.K. forward slash sustainability.
1:03.4	I'm Dahlia Lithwick, and this is Amicus, Slate's podcast about the courts and the law and the Supreme Court.
1:13.5	Every single child born in the United States, if this executive order goes into
1:17.0	a fact, and that's 3.6 million children a year on average, every single one of those families
	...

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