Supreme Court Declares Racism Over

25:16We are also going to go over the court's opinion on administrative subpoenas in First Choice Women's Resource Centers, Inc. versus Davenport. You may remember that it used to be called First Choice Women's Resource Centers versus Plotkin. Same bullshit, though. Don't worry. And same court. So there we are. But first, I have some more thoughts on Calais. I think Kate has more thoughts on Calais. And Melissa, since you couldn't join us for the emergency episode, we wanted to make sure you had a chance to share yours as well. I want to talk more about the decision and in some ways feel like we should always be talking about it just because it is so significant and so warping our democracy at light speed in real time.

25:56And the decision that effectively nullified the Voting Rights Act and its redistricting protections that ensure political opportunities for minority voters is, as we attempted to convey, really bad for democracy, also multiracial democracy, also voters of color. But it's bad for democracy, and I think people need to realize that because it allows white elected officials to protect themselves from electoral competition. That is anti-democratic, effectively turning the House of Representatives into the Senate, where states just send one-party delegations to the House, replicating Senate malapportionment.

26:31And in my fury on the emergency episode, I am worried a few points didn't come through clearly enough. And since this is our podcast, I am allowing myself to make them more clear. This might be a recurring segment, honestly, for like the next two years. So brace yourselves. One is just the extent to which this decision will, in Justice Kagan's words, quote, lay the groundwork for the largest reduction in minority representation since the era following Reconstruction. That is because the political opportunity majority minority districts that stand to lose their protection are many of the districts that elect black and brown political officials.

27:03The decision is a way of resegregating our institutions and politics. Although, you know, the percentage of black voters, you know, increased markedly after the initial passage of the Voting Rights Act, it wasn't until the 1982 amendments that Sam Alito read out of the Voting Rights Act that the percentage of black and brown representatives really increased. And the second is the extent to which this decision parallels the aftermath of Reconstruction, which led to the election of Black political officials to state and federal offices. But the demise of Reconstruction, which the Supreme Court aided and abetted, meant the number of Black officials in Congress was never above single digits and was most frequently somewhere between zero to two, including in states like Mississippi, where the Black population was 35 percent.

27:49Never sent a Black representative to Congress during that period. And it was the Voting Rights Act that changed that. Can I take a beat on that? I know you're talking mostly about the House of Representatives. I think it's even as stark, more stark when you think about the Senate. Immediately after Reconstruction, there were two black senators serving in the upper chamber of Congress. So the first was Hiram Revels, who was chosen by Mississippi lawmakers to serve the remainder of a Senate term. This was the term that had gone on while Mississippi had seceded from the union. And so by the time they decided to let Hiram Revels be the senator, there's like a year left on this term.

28:28So they're like, yeah, why don't you take that year and be a senator from Mississippi? And so Hiram Revels went to the Senate and served from 1870 to 71, faced fierce opposition to his seat. They challenged his citizenship status, adverting to Dred Scott. I mean, make it make sense. He took the oath of office to serve in the Senate 22 days after the ratification of the 15th Amendment. And abolitionist Wendell Phillips said that Rebels was, quote, the 15th Amendment in flesh and blood. I mean, literally, this is what this amendment was made to do. The second senator was also from Mississippi. This was Blanche K.

29:09Bruce, who represented the Magnolia State in the Senate and was the first African American to serve a full term in the U.S. Senate. He served from 1875 to 1881. Notably, Reconstruction ended in 1877 with the Hayes-Tilden Compromise. And obviously, he leaves the Senate in 1881. And there isn't another Black senator in Congress until 1967, two years after the Voting Rights Act. And again, even with the VRA, in that period from 1965 to today, there have only been 12 Black senators in the Senate. I mean, And so this is progress, but it's slow, it's incremental, and the Supreme Court basically put the kibosh on that limited progress.

29:51Right. Unless there's massive change, what the Supreme Court has said in motion is a period of retrenchment that is going to parallel the post-reconstruction period of retrenchment, and it feels like that's by design. Yeah, resegregation. You know, Jim Crow, or as I just sputtered out with Melissa on MS Now, Jim Crow Leto. Sam Crow, if you're a tons of anarchy fan. Yeah, exactly. Either, any works. And still, I just don't know if those numbers adequately convey how consequential and awful this decision is. And it's been frustrating for me feeling like the world and the country is just like not sufficiently outraged.

30:25The New York Times has an excellent series of articles on this with graphics, if you're more of a visual person, that I'd encourage everyone to check out, illustrating, again, the significance of the Voting Rights Act to making Congress representative. And, of course, in the wake of the decision, as they knew would happen, states are already clamoring to erase political opportunity districts and political representation. Totally. The Florida legislature approved a new congressional map intended to maximize Republican advantage in the state as part of this broader national redistricting battle.

31:00Louisiana's Republican governor, Jeff Landry, issued an executive order that delays House primaries, though not Senate primaries, until July 15th or until such time as determined by the legislature. The elections in Louisiana had originally been scheduled for May 16th with a June 27th runoff date. So, you know, that is happening. I think your favorite Senator, Kate, Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, made some statement. She wants to get in on this. She sure did. She was like, you know, like this decision is going to help Tennessee stay red. I mean, was that the point? I think it might be. Saying the quiet part out loud, Marcia.

31:37Marcia, Marcia, Marcia. There's a movement and possibility in Alabama as well. So I think we honestly don't know what the full fallout is going to be. And it could be. The speed with which they are doing this just. Just like Shelby County. It's just like. It's just like Shelby County. But it also, Justice Alito just declared racism is over. Right. And of course they knew this was going to happen. It's such a cowardly, craven decision. And again, this is happening. And just to remind folks, right, like in 2013, when the first time the Supreme Court declared racism over in Shelby County, literally later the day the opinion was issued, states started moving to implement restrictive voting laws.

32:14They would have had to get pre-cleared under the pre-Shelby regime, but had carte blanche to kind of move forward with after Shelby County. We are seeing that replay right now. And I also think, you know, it is a mistake to think just about what the impact on the 2026 map will be. Like, obviously, you know, Leah and Melissa, you're talking about kind of Democratic impact more broadly. It may be that a handful of states decide that because the 2026 map is already going to be really tough for Republicans, redistricting might actually backfire if they're going to make more districts that are more competitive.

32:43So I don't actually know at the end of the day how many new legislative districts they're going to be in 2026. But I do think between 26 and 28, there's no question that they are going to draw out to the maximum extent possible Black and Latino representation in Congress and access to meaningful Democratic participation. And it just might take a few cycles for that to fully play out. But again, absent some major course correction, that is the path that we are on. Let me just maybe mention a couple of other things about the opinion, if that's OK, because the kind of emergency episode was like, you know, in the heat of speed reading and hyperventilating and then podcasting.

33:16And like I at least did not read the opinion as carefully as I subsequently have. So I just like wanted to flag a couple of things. One is something that others have mentioned, but we haven't on this show, which is that Sam makes this insane claim like black voters now participate in elections at similar rates as the rest of the electorate. OK, that's not the insane part of the claim. This is turning out at higher rates than white voters in two of the five most recent presidential elections nationwide. OK, so he says that. Obviously, if you listen and sort of think about it for 30 seconds, the two elections in which black turnout exceeded white turnout were the two elections in which Barack Obama, the first black president, was at the top of the ticket.

33:49And those two elections also occurred before the court's decision in Shelby County. So to suggest that that is this kind of silver bullet evidence that racism is done and racism and voting is definitely done is so unhinged. I kind of can't believe that his law clerks and colleagues let him get away with keeping that statement without explication in his opinion. This is standard for this court because in Shelby County versus Holder, the chief justice did the same fucking thing and was like, you know, like there have been massive numbers of black people voting. I'm like, yeah, because there's like a black dude on the ticket and everyone got super excited.

34:27Like there are no new ideas. So no new clerks, no new ideas. No, this is a lot of recycled logic from Shelby County. But it's Sam. And so it's somehow infinitely worse because everything he does is. And sneakier. Like Shelby County at least had the decency to, you know, not justify itself in conventional legal reasoning, but say we are invalidating part of the Voting Rights Act. Sam is much sneakier. So he says we're not. But of course. I'm not going to give you that. Like, I thought Shelby County was sneaky as fuck, too, right? I mean, so, yes, they're like, we're just invalidating the pre-covered formula, the pre-clearance formula.

34:58Yeah, the formula. But, like, I mean, like, we know Congress isn't going to write a new formula, so we basically fucked up Section 5 anyway, so. You're right. They're all sneaky. They tried to be sneaky there, too, as well. Okay, that's fair. What are you trying to say? In addition to being sneaky, he preserves it so it can be used against Democratic gerrymanders, right? So they can bring intentional discrimination claims against majority black districts, right? That's why he doesn't kill it. This is like the due process. We're going to keep the due process and not kill it entirely. So when we get to fetal personhood, we can use the due process.

35:29Totally. Yeah, which is a point we've obviously made about Dobbs. Clarence, keep it down. Keep it down. Yeah, anyway. I don't even know what to add to this other than I told you so. Did I not say after Alan versus Milligan? Oh, you did. Yeah, I mean, I caught so many strays when I said that. Just like reminding you. I caught so many stories and I said Allen versus Milligan was not the last word that they were just like, they couldn't do it 10 years after Shelby County, so they'd wait a while. Here we are. These schools will stop at nothing to fully decimate the legislation that people literally were beaten and killed in order to enact.

36:07I mean, just absolutely insane. And I think the thing that is most stunning to me is the absolute cravenness of it. Not just the insistence that they are preserving Section 2 when we know that they are not, but that they are preserving it so it can be used in this way against minority voters, against Democratic voters going forward. And because they know they're going to catch a whole bunch of flack for killing the Voting Rights Act. I mean, this is like Casey, where they said, you know, we're preserving the central tenets of Roe. And then they really just, they hollowed out Rose so that it was a nub of itself.

36:45Same kind of thing is going on here. Like they are trying to preserve themselves. And they've done, I guess, a good job of it unless people stay on their necks and keep saying, you killed the Voting Rights Act. You just killed Section 2. And I think we have to say that. I'm stunned by the cravenness of the Chief Justice who was in the majority in Allen v. Milligan where he lauded the remaining shards of the Voting Rights Act. that he deigned to allow to exist after Shelby County. And now he's fully on board with the majority in this case. Like, you know, it was only a few years ago. Like, why the difference, sir?

37:19And also stunned by the cravenness of allowing Sam Alito to write this opinion. Shout out to the colleague who told me Shelby County was justified because of Allen versus Milligan, and that it was only possible to write a decision like Allen versus Milligan in light of Shelby County. And I was like, what just beat your head against a wall anyway i'm also disgusted with congress including the democrats because for years civil rights advocates uh black people have been saying that this was coming that the supreme court was intent on dismantling voting rights and that they would stop at nothing to do it and nobody did anything right when i sat on ms now and asked a member of the congressional black caucus how the congressional black caucus planned to respond to this particular lawsuit, the answer was to file litigation.

38:07I was like, I was on there with you. And I almost lost my rocker. It's like litigation that will go up to this court to say, I'm like, is that the plan? That can't be the plan. But that apparently is the plan. And, you know, I just I can't. Last night, this we're recording on Friday. So Thursday night, I was at an event celebrating the centennial of the Schomburg Center for Black Research in Harlem. And the Schomburg Center is an arm of the New York Public Library, and it's devoted to the preservation of Black writing, art, research, and culture. And Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer was there, and he spoke, and it was literally all I could do not to stand up, turn my back, and walk out.

38:47He spent nine minutes lauding the contributions of Black people to this country and this culture after he spent the last nine years letting this court chip away at a law that Congress enacted and reauthorized for years and years and years. And in addition to that insult, he pronounced the name of Edwige Danticat, the award-winning Haitian American novelist who was honored at the event. He pronounced it Edwige Danticat. And I was just like, sir, read a book, read any books. And so I'm just mad at everyone. That's fair. Me too. I'm a bipartisan rager right now. Deservedly so. It was so clear that this was going to happen.

39:25I literally wrote it into the version of my book that came out last year, right? And then updated it with more confidence for the paper of effort coming out in June. Like it was obvious, right? They were going to do this anyways. Okay. Is that segment over? Should we move on to argument recoups? We should, but I do think that let's put a pin in the idea of like just five ranting minutes about Calais at the beginning of every episode, at least for the next few weeks. I think that's - Or at some point in an episode. It doesn't have to be the beginning. Okay. It's just a recurring segment. Do you remember when we were talking about like, how would we revamp after Trump 2.0?

39:53Like what what would he do? And like I suggested maybe a recurring segment called Douche of the Week where we just talk about someone we hated. And you were like, that's kind of a downer. So instead, we decided to do favorite things. Maybe it's time for Douche of the Week. I like the direction. I just, I also like the focus on Calais. I just think that decision of the century. Exactly. Like that decision needs to become part of the lexicon as we were suggesting. I mean, we got a bad decisions tour coming out. Let's just put it on the shirt. Put it on the shirt. That's fair. Update the shirt. Okay.

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43:49Now we're going to shift to argument recaps. So the day the Supreme Court announced that racism is over so that the Voting Rights Act would no longer prohibit legislatures from discriminating against Black voters so long as Black voters tend to vote together for Democrats, the court also got to noodle over whether the president's statements about excluding people from shithole countries, making horrific lies about how Haitian immigrants are eating cats and dogs and general talk about the blood of the nation were racist. The Solicitor General says no. So yes, the court heard argument in Mullen v.

44:19Doe and Trump v. Pio. As a reminder, these are the challenges to the revocation of temporary protected status for Haitian and Syrian nationals. As we mentioned in the last episode, and as Leah just alluded to, the president and senior administration officials have maligned and vilified Haitian immigrants in particular and apparently decided to cancel TPS for Syrian nationals based on extensive analysis reflected in a single email and, oh, maybe Brett Kavanaugh's musings about sort of the geopolitics of the new regime in Syria. Seems like that is what drove the administration. So the question is, can they do that?

44:50The government is arguing that it can. The argument proceeds as follows. First, that the revocations are unreviewable, meaning that the executive branch can do whatever it wants, and any congressional limitations on revocation and protections for TPS holders are absolutely unenforceable. Do you know what that's giving? Monarchy. Monarchy. Yeah. Yes. The government is also arguing that the president definitely, totally had reasonable, rational, and unbelievably race-neutral reasons for ending these programs. So nothing to see here, folks. top lines on this argument, especially coming right after the announcement in Calais.

45:35This was rich. This was rich. Wednesday was a lot. It was. In this case, the TPS cases, it's possible the solicitor general may have overstepped just by advancing extremely broad theories about the bar of judicial review, which might provoke the court to preserve a narrow, albeit limited, and deferential category of claims that can be reviewed. The plaintiffs are arguing procedural claims and constitutional claims can be. Add to that, there were few questions for the lawyer challenging the revocation of TPS for Haitian nationals. At the same time, I wasn't exactly sure who the five would come from.

46:08At times, the chief and Barrett sounded skeptical, but they've done this before, only to go full throttle on what the federal government is selling. Yeah. So I actually felt modestly optimistic about the chief and Barrett. I mean, they were both mixed, but out of the gate, the chief pounced on the government for overreading or seeking to extend without copying to it Trump versus Hawaii. And I did think Barrett was reasonably sympathetic, though uneven. I heard nothing in her questions that alluded to this, obviously, explicitly, but I did wonder whether the fact that she has two adopted kids from Haiti might make her somewhat less likely to just dismiss the president's vile words about Haitians.

46:44But, you know, hard to know. The challengers were also - Is that the same president to whom she introduced her kids when she was nominated to the Supreme Same court? Very same, yeah. Very same, okay. And I mean, I think she probably hung out with at the state dinner last week. I don't know. Oh, yeah. But probably did. So, yeah, she hasn't shown that much interest in distancing herself from him. But hope springs eternal. There's also the fact that the challengers were, like, I thought, very cautious and kind of measured in their asks. They were very insistent that executive branch gets tons of deference here.

47:14No one is asking the courts to decide whether to keep or terminate TBS. just that there is some minimal process beyond the non-existent process that was followed here that the law requires. But then there was this weird thing where at moments, the fact that the asks were like pretty small were for Barrett and Kavanaugh, maybe reasons to rule against the challengers. Like if you're not asking for much, then like why bother? Which I found maybe I put my head through a window. You're just asking to enforce the constitution. Why should we bother? If they get to the same outcome. Anyway, no, completely.

47:46Anyway, I did sort of feel like heads, I win, tails, you lose. But again, I felt hopeful that there may be a narrow, but obviously meaningful loss for the administration here. Anyway, that's my top line. Yeah. They were basically like, go big or go home. Right. Yeah. And we know we're going to send you home if you go big. So again, that's heads, heads, we win, tails, and lose. Go big and go home. Right. Yeah. So obviously, one of the arguments that the challengers are making here is a procedural argument that, you know, yes, the executive branch can do this, they just have to follow these specific procedures.

48:18This is a species of the kind of argument they made in the DACA rescission cases that were heard back in Trump 1.0, I think it was around 2020, when this podcast was getting going for the first time. Those arguments were obviously availing in that context back in 2020. I just wonder if they're going to be as deferential to this administration as they have been more recently or whether we're going to go back to that 1.0 where they're just like, listen, just do government right. Like you've got shitty instincts, but just do it right. And who knows? Another ongoing theme that was sort of surfacing there was, you know, what the fuck is Congress for?

48:58What the fuck are courts for? Do you need Congress or courts when you are the unitary executive? I mean, they genuinely seem to be grappling with the fact of their own obsolescence, which was interesting. Another observation was that the race talk in this case was so off-putting, and especially so given that the argument occurred right after the court declared racism dead and buried in the announcement of the Calais opinion. So I very much appreciated both Justices Sotomayor and Jackson staying on the administration's neck about its arguably racist statements regarding immigrants and the countries from which they arrived to the United States.

49:38I mean, just a lot to go on here. And I know we should talk about this and place and tape, I think. Yeah. So we wanted to share the exchanges between those two justices and the lawyer for the federal government just because they were otherworldly. So let's play those clips. We have a president saying at one point that Haiti is a, quote, filthy, dirty, and disgusting s-hole country. I'm quoting him. And where he complained that the United States takes people from such countries instead of people from Norway, Sweden, or Denmark, where he declared illegal immigrants, which he associated with TPS, as poisoning the blood of America.

50:23All the statements that they cite, as to the secretary and as to the president, obviously there's an issue there about which one you're going to weigh more heavily. None of them, not a single one of them, mentions race or relates to race in any way. All those statements in context refer to problems like crime, poverty, welfare dependence, drugs, drug importation. What about poisoning the blood of Americans? If you look at those statements in context, again, they're clearly talking about problems like crime. What about bad genes? Bad genes, quote unquote. Again, poverty. Also not racially. They presented them wrenched from context.

50:57You can look at each one of those statements. They're talking about problems of crime, poverty, welfare dependency. Again, problems that have been emphasized again and again by not just President Trump, not just the secretary, but many others who favor a tough immigration policy. And the position of the United States is that we have to have an actual racial epithet that we don't we aren't allowed to look at all the context. Wow, that was quite a super cut. What a mashup. I mean, this is about welfare and poverty and.

51:31Yeah. Just say welfare queen. Just say welfare queen. Right. Like you. Do you think you're saying things that indicate you don't have racist views? The president doesn't have racist views if he's saying people from those countries are more likely to commit crime and be poor? Like, I don't understand. Yeah. I mean, I think he had to take that position and it was horrifying and almost laughable. Two observations about that. One, we'll talk just briefly about a case involving the alien tort statute and the Torture Victim Protection Act. But Jackson and Sotomayor and their kind of continued insistence on saying what the case is about, like even when their colleagues want to retreat to like abstract legalism, like their colleagues want to talk a little bit about the APA and, you know, kind of deference to the president and the executive.

52:17And they're like, here are the words he said with his mouth or on Truth Social. Like, let's listen to them. And in the same way, in the case involving this alien tort statute, there's all this sort of abstraction about third party and secondary liability. And Sotomayor at one point is like, we're talking about allegations that a government with the help of this U.S. corporation designed a torture scheme and like tortured people. And you can just hear in the room they hate when Sotomayor and Jackson, like, remind them what these cases are about. And, like, I love it so much. It's so important. I hate it when women of color bring up all of the quasi-racist statements I make.

52:54Yeah, completely. Like, I wasn't in the room, but I am sure that they were all like, why do you keep saying this stuff? It's like, that's what the case is literally about. Like, so rude. So rude. Exactly. Yeah. Anyway. And, you know, the federal government was just to say them. Not a way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop talking about discrimination. Stop quoting Donald Trump. Stop quoting in these hallowed halls, basically. Anyway, and yeah, it was just sort of especially calling that the federal government tried to defend all of this on the same day that Justice Alito announced that racism is over in Calais from the bench.

53:27And I don't think we've said this, but Kagan dissented from the bench and it was apparently pretty epic. Can we go back and take a few beats on the shamelessness or the lack of vergonya of one Samuel Alito? There was this very extended disposition with the lawyer who is representing the Haitian nationals in which Justice Alito mused about whether he would view certain immigration policies as directed against white or non-white individuals. And he asked about, in addition to Syrians and Turks, whether Greeks and Italians might be considered white or non-white. And the lawyer basically said, sir, I don't know who needs to hear this, but there was a time when Italians were not considered white.

54:11And then Justice Alito responded with this. A really large, really broad definition of who's white and who's not white. As I said, I don't like dividing the people of the world into these groups. That is the man who says it's racist racial discrimination to comply with the Voting Rights Act and not racist to discriminate against black voters if you're discriminating against Democrats, saying he doesn't like dividing the people of the world into racial groups. So much easier to divide them by partisan affiliation, Leah. It's race neutral and much better that way. Whatever. Just insane. Insane. The other one that I loved, John Sauer had some real bangers in this argument, I have to say, but this is the one I really loved.

54:56He said, with a straight face, this is the Solicitor General of the United States, John Sauer said with a straight face to Justice Brett Kavanaugh, that the President of the United States revoked TPS for Haitian nationals in order to reverse the brain drain from Haiti. So Sauer said, quote, there's this kind of talent drain out of Haiti. That what? That's the Trump administration, folks. Like the Trump administration is literally revoking TPS, a policy that was created to help the people in this earthquake ravaged society come to the United States and live better lives. They are revoking it in order to help Haiti retain its natural pool of native talent.

55:43That's foreign policy. That is presidential, folks. The sort of bad faith continues apace. So in an argument of many notable exchanges, and I did think the kind of Justice Alito asking about Italians and the attorney from the podium, I thought, did a very nice job basically saying, yeah, 120 years ago, Southern Italians weren't considered white. And you would think that would give Sam Alito a little pause. And yet instead, he was just like, I'm annoyed by this whole thing. That's the second time he's been called on the history of Italians in America and their relationship. Last month, birthright citizenship.

56:17Yeah. And yet it's not really penetrating, is it? But you know what, guys? It's time to talk about Clarence Thomas. Okay. So right. He would go further. He would go further. So, you know, he always wants to go further than his colleagues. And with the lawyer representing the Haitian nationals, these plaintiffs are unsurprisingly challenging the revocation on the ground that it was motivated by racial animus. See all the statements that we were just adverting to and also like a desire to discriminate on the basis of race. And Clarence Thomas seemed to take issue with the idea that the federal government might be prohibited from discriminating on the basis of race.

56:52Right. Like just to say that again, not sure. Thomas isn't so sure that there's anything unconstitutional about government discriminating on the basis of race if it's the feds. Just sit with that. During the seriatim portion of the argument, Justice Thomas repeatedly asked the lawyer how the lawyer's equal protection race discrimination claim worked, or rather whether it made any sense. And the gist of Thomas's question was essentially that the equal protection clause appears only in the 14th Amendment, which applies only against states. It doesn't apply against the federal government. There isn't an explicit guarantee of equal protection in any part of the Constitution that is applicable to the federal government.

57:39However, as I note in the U.S. Constitution, a comprehensive and annotated guide for the modern reader, on the very same day the Supreme Court announced its decision in Brown v. Board of Education, it also announced a decision in Bowling v. Sharp, a companion case. And it struck down segregated schools in Washington, D.C., a federal territory. And it did so on the view that the Fifth Amendment, which applies to the federal government, contains an implicit guarantee of equal protection. And this is all discussed here. Weird that Justice Thomas doesn't know this. Or if he does know it, whether it is an invitation to other people to challenge or question the status of Bowling versus Sharp and this implicit guarantee of equal protection in the Fifth Amendment.

58:26You know what's so pesky? Precedent. Precedent is. And books. And the Constitution. As we keep saying, buy the book. Equality. Who's this book? The U.S. Constitution. I mean, comprehensive and annotated guide for the modern reader. Send one to one first read. I know a friend who could use one. Send like six. Not like, but exactly six, as it turns out. So at one point during the oral argument in the TPS cases, Justice Kagan's voice like kind of cracked. She sort of started to cough and she said, I'm sorry, I'm losing my voice. And it was like a couple – it was sort of an extended like kind of period where she's trying to talk and then just kind of keeps sort of losing it.

59:01So that might have been the result of her extended filleting of the Calais majority by reading portions or kind of summarizing her Calais descent from the bench. I mean, I don't actually know if she read portions of or summarized her dissent from the bench since for reasons, and by that I mean like just reasons they haven't told us, they don't broadcast the audio of the opinion announcements despite now, you know, real-time broadcasting the arguments themselves. It's insane. It's just a thing they do because they can but just not share that audio with us. Anyway, we know she read her dissent, but I am really eager to actually get that recording, and it's just insane that they make us wait.

59:37So there was another exchange I wanted to highlight. So one important precedent for the challengers is New York versus Commerce, the case involving the challenge to the addition of a citizenship question on the 2020 census. The lawyer for the challengers. By the way, the Trump administration said they needed the information to enforce the Voting Rights Act. Right. Which they just argued in favor of dismantling and nullifying. Just reminders, reminders all around. Oh, my God. Receipts. Receipts. Yeah. Yeah. Sort of an infinite regress. So anyway, here is that exchange with the attorney for the challengers.

1:00:09I wouldn't change a word of commerce, Your Honor. I wouldn't either. Yes. Okay. So I just – I don't know what you guys made of this. Ilan is a wonderful lawyer. We've had him on the pod before and I thought he did a great job in this argument. I will just say that I personally would change lots of words in New York versus commerce in that it's a kind of incoherent opinion that both says it's not arbitrary and capricious for the government to add this question. But then because the reasons given were pretextual or contrived, the addition has to fall sort of separate from a traditional arbitrary and capricious kind of analysis.

1:00:45Anyway, it's a puzzling opinion I've spent a lot of time with. But I understand when you're arguing in front of them, you have to say that their opinions are perfect and you wouldn't change a word. You're perfect. You're beautiful. You're doing amazing, sweetie. I mean, look, but this goes back to what Melissa was saying at the outset, which is we really will find out whether these were just entire one offs, both the census case, which the first Trump administration lost and the DHS rescission, you know, the DACA rescission case, which the first Trump administration also lost. You know, either those cases like stand for a principle about how government has to do things or they don't.

1:01:15And I think we're going to find out here. One final note. I think this is bubbling up in the lower federal courts for sure, but we definitely saw a glimmer of it here at the court in this argument. And that is judges here, Justice Sotomayor, using the unitary executive theory against the administration, which, as we know, is obsessed with the unitary executive theory when it suits them. So let's hear this tape. I'm not quite sure. Not so long ago, you came in and said that every executive officer has to be answerable to the president. So the president's statements have to be attributable to its executive officers, to the secretary.

1:01:59I don't see how you can take both positions. Either an executive follows the president's orders or it doesn't. That was great. So we will briefly touch on the rest. Well, not that whole thing was great. Just Sotomayor was great. Not the argument. Although, as I said, I am optimistic, modestly. But once again, Sotomayor, great question.

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1:04:37So we will briefly touch on the rest of the SCOTUS arguments from last week at the end of the show, but we wanted first to touch on some more legal developments because there have been a lot of them. First, I know you guys did not have this on your bingo card for 2026, but it's time to talk about ballrooms and their implications for national security. I know you weren't expecting it, but ballrooms and national security are actually coextensive. And that is because on Saturday, April 26th, there was a terrifying incident in which a gunman appeared at the White House Correspondents Association dinner at the Washington Hilton and shots were fired.

1:05:12Thankfully, it seems that no one other than a gunman was injured. This was a dinner where, for inexplicable reasons, given their disdain for the First Amendment, the president and members of his administration were invited. And so the fact of this gun violence episode obviously had real implications for the safety of those officials. Right. But the last thing Melissa said, that they were invited and not the hosts of this dinner, is actually important for sort of what comes next. Because in the aftermath of the shooting, the administration began making the truly absurd claim that the shooting supplied evidence for why the president needed this 90 ,000 square foot ballroom whose construction is underway at the White House because national security demanded it.

1:05:56Right. So this is what they immediately jumped to. Here is Carolyn Levitt making this claim. The White House ballroom project is not just a fun project for President Trump like you will read in the media. It is actually critical for our national security. Here is Lindsey Graham echoing it. If you don't think$400 million of taxpayer money is a good investment to create a secure facility at the White House where the president of the United States, the vice president, the cabinet, and people from the public can come and, you know, have a meal and gather without what happens Saturday, then I disagree.

1:06:32This is the number one job of the federal government is national security. The number one job of national security, I think, would be to protect the commander in chief and to have infrastructure under the ballroom that is very national security centric. And apparently the president thought those comments just slapped because the Department of Justice filed a motion to this effect. You should read the entire nine pages. We will just provide you some excerpts. Quote, the National Trust for Historic Preservation is a beautiful name, but even their name is fake. That's all caps. Because when they add the words in the United States to the National Trust, it makes it sound like a government agency, which it is not.

1:07:11They are very bad for our country. Read Melissa's book. The National Trust for Historic Preservation isn't even in the Constitution. So like, what even are they? OK, let me read another quote. This did not deter them, the National Trust, because they suffer from capital T Trump, capital D derangement, capital S syndrome, commonly referred to as TDS, as noted by Democrat Senator John Fetterman of Pennsylvania and as are represented, the challengers that is, by the lawyer for Barack Hussein Obama, Gregory Craig, who I'll note is now at the law firm Foley and Lardner. One more quote.

1:08:12I have no shame. I will literally do anything for you. And honestly, having read that, I believe it. Sorry, wait, there's more. Wait, do you want to put one more? Okay, I'm ready. This is my time to shine. Oh, actually, this is a good one. This is my audition. All right. If any other president had the ability, foresight, or talents necessary to build this ballroom, which will be one of the greatest, safest, and most secure structures of its kind anywhere in the world, there would never have been a lawsuit. But because it is Donald J. Trump, a highly successful real estate developer who has abilities that others don't, especially those who assume the office of the president, this frivolous and meritless lawsuit was filed.

1:08:53Again, it's called, all caps, TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME. On top of everything else, this project is a gift to our country from President Trump and other donors. It is free of charge to the American taxpayer. or who could ever object to that? What do you have to say, bitches? Who can object to that? Yeah. This is a bonker. So it reads like a Truth Social post. It was actually posted verbatim by Trump on Truth Social as a post, which, I mean, why bother with the interim step of the filing at all? I don't even know. I mean, the real derangement syndrome. Like, wow. Reflecting on this, one wonders, would Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette have died if they had had a ballroom?

1:09:43Folks are asking this question more and more. Let them eat disco balls, said Marie Antoinette. Exactly. More fucking around and finding out dispatches we wanted to talk about were the other federal courts holding the unitary executive theory against the administration and what we're calling fuck around and find out unitary executive edition. Okay, so let's tick through a few pretty kind of interesting developments here. So one development came from the district judge in Florida, Judge Kathleen Williams, who was overseeing Donald Trump's case against the IRS. This case seeks$10 billion with a B dollars from the IRS and Treasury related to the disclosure of Trump's tax forms.

1:10:20And the judge questioned if she had jurisdiction over the case or whether it would have to be dismissed. And if you're a constitutional law professor, you kind of loved this opinion because it was like, jurisdiction 101. The judge wrote, quote, a key characteristic of the case or controversy requirement is the existence of adverseness or a dispute between parties who face each other in an adversary proceeding. Typically, adverseness is found in a situation where one party is asserting its right and the other party is resisting. But she continued, in the instance case, although President Trump averes that he is bringing this lawsuit in his personal capacity, he is the sitting president and his named adversaries are entities whose decisions are subject to his direction.

1:11:04Oh, snap. And the court then cites some of the executive orders invoking the unitary executive theory. If it's so unitary, it can't be adverse, bitches. I don't make the rules. It was great. Short, like very punchy. Yeah, it was great. And sort of another development kind of related came from a district judge in New York, Judge Furman, who is overseeing Maureen Comey's case challenging her removal from the U.S. Attorney's Office. She's a longtime, very respected federal prosecutor. Her father is Jim Comey. Judge Furman found in Maureen Comey's case that he did have jurisdiction. This is a case challenging her firing.

1:11:41And he says that it did not have to be filed as the federal government claimed before the Merit Systems Protection Board, the agency overseeing the civil service that Trump has hobbled and asserted control over. The judge found that federal court, not the MSPB, had jurisdiction over the case because, get this, the president invoked his Article II power as the basis for firing her. Quote, Comey's case does not fall within the purview of the Civil Service Reform Act's scheme because she was fired pursuant to Article II of the Constitution, not pursuant to the CSRA itself. Defendants' sole reliance on the Constitution, rather than the removal provisions of the CSRA, places Comey's case outside the universe of cases that Congress intended the MSPB to resolve.

1:12:22Sometimes you got to read it. Too legit to quit. You do read that for the articles. You read the Constitution for the articles. I did. I said that. Yeah. But you live by the unitary executive. You die by the unitary executive. I'm not even sure if I am allowed to say die in the same sentence as executive or if I will be indicted. You're not writing it in seashells. No seashells. No seashells. OK. OK. Great. Thanks. Good to know. Great tip. Also, the opinion by Judge Furman has a nice cite to Kate's partisanship creep article in there. Always read the footnotes in addition to the articles. So I don't want to characterize these judicial opinions as trolling.

1:12:59They're much more dignified, reasoned, and elegant than that. But I do love the energy. OK. As promised, let's briefly do the other argument recaps. And let's start with Chattray v. United States, which is the Fourth Amendment geofence warrants case that we briefly previewed last week. So as we said to the kind of Fourth Amendment stands, this is a really important Fourth Amendment case involving the constitutionality of this novel type of warrant called geofence warrants. A geofence warrant lets law enforcement get the identities of cell phone users in particular areas or locations at particular times.

1:13:31They basically draw a kind of virtual fence around an area, and then they seek a warrant to require a tech company to search its data to ID users within the geofence at the time of the crime. But then, as is the case here, the government sometimes conducts additional information gathering about the people it identifies. So here, after identifying some individuals, the government then requested location data over a longer period of time. Right. So in this case, after there was a robbery of a federal credit union during which a robber apparently was talking on his cell phone, law enforcement asked Google for cell phone records of everyone in the vicinity within one hour of the robbery.

1:14:08And Google has this data because millions of people have a feature called location history turned on in Google Maps whether or not they realize it. So after Google returned an initial list of people within 150 meters for 30 minutes before and 30 minutes after the robbery, law enforcement sought and didn't get an additional warrant for this step, information about the movements of certain devices for a longer two-hour period, and Google complied with that request. Then, again, without seeking an additional warrant, law enforcement asked for subscriber information for three devices. One of those devices belonged to the petitioner.

1:14:40Based on the evidence derived from the geofence warrant, the petitioner was charged with armed robbery and firearms possession. I think it might be helpful, and the court seems inclined to go in this direction, to think about this case as involving a few different steps or actions. One is the geofence that is seeking information just about who is in a given space at a given time. The second is the subsequent information collection seeking the location movements for some number of people for a period of two hours. And the third is the request for subscriber information. Yeah. And it seemed like the court was not inclined to say there was a reasonable expectation of privacy at step one sort of of kind of the geofence warrant.

1:15:18So the company is asked, send us all the people in this area at the time. And maybe you as one of the people who is in the area don't actually have a constitutionally cognizable interest in not having that information that you were there around this time disclosed. So maybe the court is going to go or sort of kind of focus its attention on the second and third step of the process that we just walked through. Which is interesting because requiring more particularity at different steps of the process would not necessarily be an insignificant change in Fourth Amendment doctrine, at least once you cross a certain threshold of probable cause, reasonable suspicion, there's kind of no variation within there.

1:15:53Maybe not an unwarranted change, but still a change. There was real discomfort, though, with the government's argument that there was consent or voluntary disclosure of the location information here. The idea was that the people didn't turn off the location tracking information, and therefore they had consented to this kind of treatment. As the justices noted, a lot of people find that useful to use, the location tracking, like find your phone, whatever. The justices were also reluctant, it seemed, to rely on the terms of service. That is, where Google tells users that it complies with government requests for information.

1:16:26And the point was that even if they said that it mattered, that could potentially allow the government to get access to email and whatnot. And as we mentioned, it seemed like the justices were interested in the idea that at different steps of the process, the inquiry here might change for purposes of the Fourth Amendment. And Justice Jackson was really keyed in on this early on in the argument. Something that came up a bunch of times in the argument was this analogy that the petitioner had offered that these warrants are like directions to go through everyone's storage locker. So you have like a big storage site and like tons of storage lockers.

1:17:00Could the police just ask the owner to search everybody's storage locker for like a gun? And Justice Kagan likened the steps in the geofence process to the idea that first the government looks at a bunch of glass front lockers to see if they have bags. So, right, imagine not an opaque but like a see-through door to the locker. And then the government feels the outside of the bags and then they open the bag. And like those are distinct steps in the process. Yeah. So the federal government, again, here, as in the TPS case, really did itself no favors in the argument. They poo-pooed several justices' concerns that geofence warrants might allow the government to surveil people at sensitive locations, such as churches or homes, which are supposed to be entitled to special protection under the Fourth Amendment.

1:17:39And this seemed to potentially peel off both the chief justice and Justice Barrett. It was interesting. So you had the kind of valence of the examples given. So, right, you had churches, you had homes. Abortion clinics came up a couple of times as well. So different justices might have been differently moved by imagining the invasion of privacy that might occur at different kinds of locations. Kavanaugh seemed to be kind of on the other side with his like but crime logic, which is ever present. And you can sort of hear that in this clip. The local government amicus brief and the 31 states amicus brief, which has a huge spectrum of attorneys general on that amicus brief, which I think warrants note, talk about the practical consequences of not being able to solve murders.

1:18:18A lot of, you know, a huge percentage of murders are never solved, for example, and violent crimes. You know who also seemed to be on one? Justice Alito seemed to be very triggered that the court might rule for a criminal defendant. And so he was putting in work to find a way to avoid that unpalatable outcome. Take a listen. Well, we can affirm on any ground that would support the judgment and was raised below. And the good faith exception qualifies on all those points. So the fact that the court did not grant certiorari on the good faith exception does not preclude any of us from relying on that.

1:18:58I'm not sure I agree. I mean, the court specifically declined certiorari on that question, so we didn't brief it. And we raised in our cert petition that we'd like the chance to argue that the questions are intertwined, and in view of a holding on the Fourth Amendment issue, we'd like to litigate the good faith issue. The court didn't grant certiorari. We didn't brief it. The government did have a section of the respondent's brief addressing the good faith exception, but adhering to the court's decision not to grant certiorari, we didn't respond in the reply brief except ask for remand. Well, that was your choice.

1:19:25The court did not grant certiorari. We were reluctant to brief a question on which the court specifically. Well, you're an experienced advocate. You understand that we can affirm on an issue that was raised below and would support the judgment. This is not how Supreme Court practice works. Like a party can't just decide we're going to brief and argue this separate question you didn't actually grant cert on. It's just not how it works. Like they would go nuts if someone did that. They dismiss cases for that. Completely. I couldn't believe just how craven it was. It was like, I want to find a way to get to the outcome that I want.

1:20:01And so I'm going to say something I would never in other circumstances say, which is you should have ignored our decision to take but not take like certain parts of this case and just like briefed everything anyway. Yeah. So Adam Inukowski definitely won that exchange, I thought. So the court heard several other arguments that we're not going to fully recap in the interest of time. This is just a crazy week. We're also not able to cover Pete Kegseth, Kegsbeth, whatever. his testimony. I did a short YouTube reaction video on the Comey indictment. There was just so much going on this week. But at the court, the court heard Monsanto versus Durnell, which is about preemption of state tort suits for failure to warn claims about when and whether under the federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act precludes those claims.

1:20:45I'm sorry, FIFRA is my favorite federal statute. I mean - It's a nice one. It's a nice one. It's great, yes. The oral argument in the case was hard to read. It could end up being an anti-administrative screed for the plaintiffs, or it could be a ruling for corporate defendants whose products allegedly cause cancer. Really difficult for this court to choose between those two options. This is a hard one to know where to root. It really was. Cross pressure. Cross pressure. As Kate alluded to, there was also Cisco versus Doe. There, the court appears inclined to limit the scope of liability under the Torture Victim Protection Act and alien tort statute, because why allow torture victims the opportunity to allege U.S.

1:21:23companies aided and abetted torture? Why not? The court also heard the first patent case. It's heard in a few years, Hikma Pharmaceuticals versus Ameren Pharma, where just based on my read of the oral argument, it sounded like the court was going to reject one theory of liability for induced infringement against certain generic drug manufacturers whose products are approved for both patented and unpatented uses. All right. So finally, let's turn to opinions. We've obviously covered Calais, although we're going to return to it again and again. But we also got the court's opinion in First Choice Women's Resource Center versus Davenport.

1:21:56The case about whether the plaintiff, a crisis pregnancy center, had standing to challenge an administrative subpoena issued to them by the state of New Jersey, where the state sought information that would help the state determine whether the organization was in compliance with state consumer protection laws. And included in that information that would have been produced pursuant to the subpoena was identifying information about donors. The court held that the organization had standing to challenge the administrative subpoena in federal court. The state had argued that there was no risk of injury because the subpoenas didn't generate any legal penalties unless and until the state convinced a state court to enforce them.

1:22:32The court, thankfully, did not second guess the state's reading of state law that those subpoenas are not self-executing. The court instead said the risk or prospect of enforcement was sufficient to cause injury. The opinion was written by Justice Gorsuch, and it was unanimous. This result was not surprising given how the oral argument went, although as we talked about with the New Jersey Attorney General in our episode recapping the argument, the ruling does really open up the ability to challenge thousands and thousands of administrative subpoenas that are routinely issued by state and federal governments all the time, which has the potential to overwhelm federal courts and jam up legal enforcement.

1:23:11But as we suggested, this outcome might reflect a new reality of the intense politicization, weaponization of law enforcement in the Trump administration, where the justices may have been kind of forced to recognize the extent to which the government uses its investigative powers, including administrative subpoenas for abusive ends, and therefore may have wanted to open up a path to challenging them earlier on in federal court. I mean, this last week we got the indictment of Jim Comey. We learned that maybe the investigation into Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell had ended, although Carolyn Levitt suggested maybe it hadn't.

1:23:42And there has been reporting about how the Trump administration has issued administrative subpoenas to people who criticize the administration or question them. So it's been a lot, and I think the pace is probably going to continue. So let's leave you, well, we'll get to favorite things, but first we've got two clips without context. We're going to play for you. Here is the first one from Chattery, the Geofence Fourth Amendment case. Counsel, I'm sorry, are you through? I want to go back to Justice Barrett's question. If you're not through, Sam, I thought you were through. Go ahead. Let's go back to Justice Barrett's question.

1:24:19If you're not through Sam, this was, you know, in the lead up to Calais. Please, please, please just pipe down. I thought you were through, but that was probably just wishful thinking. Yeah. And here's the second clip without context, this one from Cisco. Justice Barrett, if I could just pause for a moment. I've been notified that there will be a flyover of four planes at 1122. And I just want to announce that so people aren't alarmed or told the noise might be big. I don't know why they didn't check with me, but Justice Barrett. This caught my attention because we've joked about them using the shatter docket to intercept missiles that would destroy an asteroid headed for Earth.

1:24:59And it sounded like the Chief Justice was maybe potentially opening that door or leaving it ajar. Okay, so favorite things? All right, let's do it. You start. Okay, so Melissa's book, The U.S. Constitution, Comprehensive and Annotated Guide for the Modern Reader. also ariana grande announced a new album i'm so excited end of july and i'm going to see the noah khan concert i got tickets so those are good things also two voting rights act pieces on the opinion i wanted to flag here sheryl and ifill's post on her substact scotus drops the other shoe on the voting rights act was phenomenal as was rick hossens the slaying of the voting rights act by the coward samuel alito at slate yes that's the actual title um and then a youtube over at Jamel Bowie's channel Takes.

1:25:49This one was, I think, inspired by the Wooden Rights Act decision. And this one is entitled, The Supreme Court is Corrupt. This is what we can do about it. And it really walks through the options of Supreme Court reform. Oh, that's great. Yeah. I want to second Melissa's book and also the merch. Again, I'm not wearing a t-shirt, but I got a great mug. At some point, I'll have the actual physical book, and then I will flash it for you. I'm finally reading The Loneliness of Sonia and Sonny, which many, many people have read and loving it. most people did, but I think I've heard somewhat mixed reviews, but so far really love it.

1:26:17I mean, I recently read Ben Lerner's new novel, Transcription, which I'm thinking about a lot. I felt differently about it at different points as I was reading it, but highly recommend it, although I didn't always like it. And I'm really glad I read it. Yeah, that's all I got. All right. It was kind of a week. It was a big week. And I just want to thank all of my mom friends who we came to we had a big kid event this last weekend and we all came together and I just want to shout out those ladies they are absolute bosses and we did that so thank you ladies I am reading yesteryear by caro claire burke and it is so fucking satisfying to read this so the premise is about like one of these trad wife influencers who has like you know like a ballerina farm, I guess, and then suddenly find themselves transported back in time to the actual frontier.

1:27:11And I just kind of love it. Like, you want to be an anti-faxer? Okay, have some measles. Try that. See how it works. So I'm actually kind of enjoying it. Speaking of fucking around and finding out. I love it. So I'm really enjoying that book. I also really love many of the thought pieces that came out the last two days around the decision in Calais. You mentioned Sherilyn Eiffel's fantastic sub stack. I will also say last week, the Studio Museum honored Sherilyn Eiffel, and she just gave one of the most amazing and inspiring speeches, basically telling us, like, this is not going to change in our lifetime, but that doesn't mean we don't do the work.

1:27:50Like, we do the work so that our children and grandchildren can sit in the shade of trees they did not plant. And, you know, I don't know who needs to hear that right now, but it's not the time to put your plow down. You got to keep going. And I appreciated that. I also loved Adam Serwer's piece, Voters Can Be Disenfranchised, because, yeah, we're going to see that. And I'm glad he's speaking truth to power. I also want to say, just in terms of my favorite things, I'm trying to think about what I can do in this moment as a black person, a black woman, watching these gains that my ancestors, people I love fought for, watching them just be rolled back.

1:28:29One of the things that seemed clear to me is that people are not going down without a fight. There's redistricting that is happening in Louisiana and Florida. And the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and our friend of the pod, Janae Nelson, are suing the fuck out of them. And I love that. I love that they're taking the fight to them, and they need our help. So someone asked me, what can we do? We can contribute to that. They need resources to be able to launch that litigation. That is something tangible you can do right now. So if you can support that work, that's amazing. That's, you know, don't despair.

1:29:02Help the people who are fighting prepare for the next leg of this fight. Amen. One other just note about Calais. We're going to sandwich this. If you control F that decision for Purcell, you will not find a single mention, even though, of course, right. New phone, who dis? because that case says federal courts are not supposed to change the rules too close to an election. They did so, causing states to literally suspend and cancel elections. Quite close to an election. Girl, there's going to be a Neil Gorsuch decision a couple years from now. It's like everyone knows Purcell has been abandoned for lack of use.

1:29:40Only when, again, certain people are invoking it. That's true. Wink. That's true. All right. On that note, Spring is all about fresh darts, new t-shirts, and terrifying new reasons to call your representatives. The Crooked Store's Call Congress line has been a bestseller since it launched years ago, and now it's available in new spring colors like butter yellow and chocolate brown. Plus, all the pieces got a quality upgrade so your favorites can stay in rotation even longer. So can I just say quickly, I was in Japan for my kids' spring break a couple weeks ago, and I have in navy blue the Call Congress hat with, like, the number on it.

1:30:10And it's a great hat. And my kids were like, what if people in Japan start calling Congress? And I was like, that's fine. Why not? Anybody can call Congress. And actually, the number is just the number of the congressional switchboard. So it will direct your call to whatever representative you want to talk to, cajole, or yell at. So anyway. Chuck Schumer, it's Edwige. Right. You can call about that. You can call about new voting legislation and anything else your heart desires. Anyway, honestly, it's like hard to do the first time and actually a lot easier and then kind of fun to do subsequently.

1:30:44So get the muscle memory of calling Congress. I love to call and just be like, so what's your plan about Sam Alito? Like, what are you going to do? I've never called with that query, but I think I should. I do whenever I like have some rage, I like need to get you out. Yeah, no, I'll usually call if there's like something specific, but never just like a general Sam Alito rage call. That's interesting. Okay, well, anyway, whatever motivates you to actually take the step calling your representatives has never been more important. So you can make spreading the word easier if you throw on the hat, the T-shirt, the crew neck, like all of that.

1:31:15again, I guess, and new callers is available at crooked.com slash store. So go there, shop now, and you yourself make three calls this weekend. All right, heads up New York and the greater tri-state area because you know what? Your favorite lovely ladies dissing the court, they're coming your way. That's right. You can catch Strict Scrutiny live at the historic Gramercy Theater on June 20th as part of the Bad Decisions Tour. And it's only May, which means there's going to be a lot of bad decisions that we can talk about. Tickets are on sale right now. You can grab them at cricket.com forward slash events.

1:31:51I will just say they are going fast. So if you want to hang out with us, you got to do this, like get on it. It's going to be so hype. Like our live show in New York every year is always really dope. Yes, it is. It's going to be really fun. I'm excited. I mean, you know, we're not going to be in a stage set piece like Lily Allen, but it is going to be pretty badass. We don't know that for sure. We haven't even had the design meetings yet. I am not going to pull out walking out on stage with a long... Dwayne Reed bag. Well, no, maybe a Dwayne Reed bag. I was going to say a long drape of receipts with Sam Alito opinions printed on them that I can just shred.

1:32:28But you can wrap around yourself like a ribbon the way she does. No, I would shred it. I would shred it. I love that. Cool. Okay, so we're working on the props, stagecraft, all of that, TBD. But you want to find out? Get a ticket.

1:32:44Struck Scrutiny is a Crooked Media production hosted and executive produced by Leah Lippman, me, Melissa Murray, and Kate Shaw. Our senior producer and editor is Melody Rowell. Michael Goldsmith is our producer. Jordan Thomas is our intern. We get our music from Eddie Cooper and production support from Katie Long and Adrian Hill. Matt DeGroat is our head of production, and we are really grateful for our digital team, Johanna Case, Kenny Moffitt, and Eric Schutt. Our production staff is proudly unionized with the Writers Guild of America East. And if you haven't already, be sure to subscribe to Strict Scrutiny in your favorite podcast app and on YouTube at Strict Scrutiny Podcast so you never miss an episode.

1:33:22And if you really want to help other people find the show, please rate and review us. It really helps.

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