When RAGA Rhymes with MAGA

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3.9 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 30 March 2024

⏱️ 48 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

It’s not quite red-yarn-on-a-corkboard, but given how often we’ve been thinking about the Republican Attorneys General Association (RAGA) over the years, it may as well be. The group has become a vital component of the conservative legal movement, with pay-to-play access afforded to corporate donors to boot. Despite all the money changing hands and obvious conflicts of interest, few have heard of them - and that’s very intentional.

This week we’re joined by Lisa Graves of True North Research to talk about how an organization representing the chief legal officers in half the states in the union has become a national policy juggernaut, pushing legislation and litigation to assist polluters, harm women and LGBTQ families, torment immigrants and even steal elections, all absent any significant oversight or consequences.

In this week’s bonus plus segment, Slate’s very own Mark Joseph Stern joins to discuss coverage of the oral arguments in the mifepristone case (including the hugely significant takeaway most of the analysis missed), and the reasons Neil Gorsuch hates nationwide injunctions.

And finally, following on from last week, thinking about the language we use to describe first trimester abortions.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi and
0:05.0	this is Slate's podcast about the courts and the law and a Supreme Court that never comes up for air anymore, even as it journeys back and forth
0:15.4	between the modern day and the Gilded Age riding atop a zombie law that was once aimed
0:21.6	at obscenity, but gives them a chance to maybe create a national abortion
0:25.5	ban.
0:26.5	I'm Dahlia Lithwick.
0:27.5	I cover the courts and the law at Slate, and all eyes were on Skodis on Tuesday morning for a lengthy oral argument about
0:34.9	Miff Pristone. That's the case we previewed on last week's show with Carrie Baker. Not a ton of surprises
0:41.2	in the arguments beyond the fact that justices Samuel Alito and
0:45.2	Clarence Thomas were brave enough to embrace that 1873 Comstock Act, although somehow they
0:51.4	weren't quite brave enough to name it.
0:54.0	Shouldn't the FDA have at least considered the application of 18 U.S.C. 1461?
1:01.0	So I think that the Comstock provisions don't fall within FDA's lane.
1:06.4	This week our Slate Plus listeners are going to get to hang out with Mark Joseph Stern and
1:10.6	me in our bonus segment as we don our members only jackets and talk about
1:16.1	the good news and the bad news from that Mithopristone argument and we're going to
1:20.2	check back in on Texas's efforts to write its own immigration law while the appeals courts get whiplash.
1:28.2	If you are not a Slate Plus member, you can listen to this whole episode, Ad Free, and replete with Mark's incisive wit by becoming
1:37.0	a member right now.
1:38.4	Subscribe on Apple Podcasts by clicking Try Free at the top of our show page or visit slate.com
1:45.6	forward slash amicus plus to get access wherever you listen and to our slate plus
1:51.8	members and supporters thank Thank you. Thank you. This is a show we
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