What We Got Wrong About SCOTUS in 2025

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

Slate Podcasts

News Commentary, News, Politics, Government

4.6 • 3.1K Ratings

🗓️ 27 December 2025

⏱️ 71 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Over the past calendar year, the Supreme Court’s center has shifted to the right and then more to the right, and the justices’ decisions have time and again facilitated Trump’s agenda. But the Roberts majority is not simply focused on what the current president wants; it has its sights set on a larger project: voting. Suppressing and constraining and problematizing the core function of democratic rule. In this episode, Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern reflect on the significant developments at the Supreme Court over the past year with an eye toward the implications of the court's decisions on democracy, voting rights, and the erosion of checks and balances. Looking back at the past year at One First Street, Dahlia and Mark trace the cases that reveal the court’s long game, with elections coming quickly, and discuss the forces for and against democracy being exerted within and without the high court. Then, they turn to the urgent matter of what you and I can do about it. If you want to access that special 50% discount for Slate Plus membership, go to slate.com/amicusplus and enter promo code AMICUS 50. This offer expires on Dec 31st 2025. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is Amicus Slate's podcast about the courts and the law and the Supreme Court.
0:08.9	I'm Delia Lithwick.
0:09.9	And I'm Mark Joseph Stern.
0:11.7	Happy holidays.
0:12.6	And welcome to the in-between, this liminal space between Hanukkah and Christmas and New Year, where we all collectively dwell in a kind of seasonal purgatory.
0:24.4	It's as though we're lost down the back of the sofa in winter, waiting for someone to check the cushions and pull us into the new year.
0:32.6	Which feels like the perfect time to take a beat and make some big assessments. I'm not saying we're making
0:39.1	resolutions, but it might be helpful to think about what we've learned in this past year at the
0:44.6	Supreme Court and in the law. And the only person that I want to do that kind of jurisprudential soul
0:50.7	searching with is you, my right or die, marches of stern.
0:55.3	Oh, the feeling is so mutual, Dahlia Lithwick.
0:58.9	So on this end of year edition of Amicus, we are going to ask, what does the Roberts majority
1:05.6	really want?
1:07.7	And how much closer did they get to achieving that in calendar year 2025?
1:14.7	But before we get to that, we have an urgent announcement.
1:18.6	This is the last time in calendar year 2025 that we will be urging you to join Slate Plus
1:24.4	at the start of the show. And that's because you have only three days left to take advantage of the special discount for Amicus listeners.
1:32.3	Through the end of the year, which is so close, we are running a special 50% discount offer for Slate Plus membership.
1:39.0	This deal is exclusive to slate.com slash amicus plus at checkout, enter the promo code amicus 50 to get a year of full access to all of Slate's content for just $59.
1:52.5	Join today and you can listen to our excellent and existential dear jurisprudence bonus episode right after this one.
2:00.0	Our cherished amicus plus plusketeers have been sending
2:03.9	in their burning questions about the courts and the law and the Supreme Court, and we have selected
	...

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