S2 Ep1042: Leah Litman and Andrew Egger: Grievance All the Way Down
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Who are the guests on this episode?
Hello and welcome to the Bullard Podcast. I'm your host, Tim Miller. We've got a doubleheader today in segment two. My colleague, Andrew Egger, fresh off his star turn in the Trump White House briefing room, comes in to tell us how weird that was. But first, she's a professor of law at the University of Michigan, second straight University of Michigan guest. Hail to the victors.
She's also co-
Go Blue. She's also co-host of the podcast Strict Scrutiny. She clerked for Anthony Kennedy, and she's the author of a brand new book, Lawless, How the Supreme Court Runs on Conservative Grievance, Fringe Theories, and Bad Vibes. It's Leah Lippman. What's going on, girl?
You know, same old, same old. Everything is amazing. World is looking great.
Yeah. Who's got it better than us?
Right. Exactly. Thanks, Jim Harbaugh. No.
That's my sport reference for the day for you. Okay, I want to do book stuff and refresh my old Federalist Society originalist muscles from my Republican days on the back half of this. But first, just because there is so much going on, I've had several people pitching me about wanting to have me come on the pod to talk about upcoming Supreme Court cases. And I'm just like, y'all. Talk to me at the end of May. There's too much shit going on daily, day to day, until I get into what's coming on the Supreme Court docket. But I figured this would be a good chance to just get a little overview with you of the big cases coming up that we'll obviously be digging into deeper as the rulings are coming down. So, I mean, I just glanced at this morning.
What Supreme Court cases are currently significant?
We got gender care for minors, gay kids, books ban, Alien Enemies Act, Abrego Garcia. What jumps out to you?
How does the Supreme Court view gender-affirming care and LGBTQ issues?
Yeah, so I definitely think the Trump administration is doing the Supreme Court a real solid just by drowning out coverage of what they might be up to because the court has a bunch of big cases on their docket. So there's the gender-affirming care ban that you noted, United States v. Scrimeti. That's about whether laws that ban gender-affirming care trigger violence. heightened scrutiny, whether courts have to look closely at them or whether courts are just going to basically sign off on them. That could obviously have a ton of implications for a Republican-controlled Congress adopting a federal ban on gender-affirming care or on the constitutionality.
For minors? Just for minors?
No, even for adults. Because if the Supreme Court says laws that ban gender-affirming care don't discriminate on the basis of sex... and don't discriminate on the basis of gender identity, then laws that restrict that care for adults would also get super deferential review. So yeah, that case could be hugely significant. And then they have the religion in schools cases. So, there's the LGBTQ book case that you mentioned about whether parents can challenge a school district's decision to have storybooks with LGBT characters in them because that apparently triggers Sam Alito as well as other religious and social conservatives.
Mrs. Alito, for sure. Yeah.
Oh, yeah, for sure, for sure. And also apparently Neil Gorsuch, who read Pride Puppy and had an utter fucking meltdown. So he looked at this book, which is a puppy at a- Okay. Okay.
I'm glancing at some of the pictures now. Oh, there is. The puppy has a little neckerchief. The neckerchiefs are popular with the gays, so that's not surprising. Yeah, I'm not seeing any bondage here, but I'm just kind of glancing. So, wow. Okay.
Yeah. So there's that one. There's also a case about whether states have to create religious public charter schools. You heard that right? Whether states are required to create- Required to? Yeah.
Yeah.
Because Sam Alito, Brett Kavanaugh think it's actually unfair discrimination for a state to charter secular schools, but not religious ones. Yes, they are literally declaring unfair, unconstitutional, the Establishment Clause, which heretofore had prohibited religious schools, but- Pay no mind.
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Chapters
7 chapters
1
Who are the guests on this episode?
0:28–1:57
2
What Supreme Court cases are currently significant?
1:57–2:05
3
How does the Supreme Court view gender-affirming care and LGBTQ issues?
2:05–8:09
4
How do federal policies impact Supreme Court decisions?
8:09–36:08
5
What is the role of the Federalist Society in judicial appointments?
36:08–40:00
6
How did historical appointments shape the current court?
40:00–48:28
7
What are the conservative grievances regarding court rulings?
48:28–1:06:09
Speakers
5 identifiedMore from The Bulwark Daily
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