Strict Scrutiny
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Strict Scrutiny
Strict Scrutiny is a podcast about the United States Supreme Court and the legal culture that surrounds it. Hosted by three badass constitutional law professors-- Leah Litman, Kate Shaw, and Melissa Murray-- Strict Scrutiny provides in-depth, accessible, and irreverent analysis of the Supreme Court...
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Will SCOTUS Allow Conversion Therapy for Minors?
Leah, Melissa, and Kate are back in business, breaking down this term’s first week of arguments at SCOTUS, including a challenge to Colorado’s ban on...
Something Wicked This Way Comes: A SCOTUS Term Preview
Kate, Leah, and Melissa preview what fresh hell SCOTUS has in store for us this term, including challenges to the Fourteenth Amendment and the Court’s...
The Trump Administration's SCOTUS Winning Streak
Leah and Kate dive into the week’s legal news, explaining how SCOTUS continues to carry water for the Trump administration. They also cover an epic sl...
Looking for Bright Spots in the Courts
Leah is joined by guest co-host Skye Perryman, president & CEO of Democracy Forward, to discuss the week’s news, including the continued pushback on t...
How SCOTUS is Making Project 2025 a Reality
Our fearless hosts continue to slog through this sh*tty shadow docket summer, covering an order from the Court okaying racial profiling by ICE officer...
The Lower Courts Punch Up
Kate, Leah, and Melissa break down how the lower courts are challenging the Trump administration and expressing their frustration with SCOTUS. Then, t...
The Shadow Docket Just Won’t Quit
The gang is back together as Melissa, Kate, and Leah break down this week’s mountain of legal news, including the Court’s greenlighting of Trump’s ant...
The Dubious Legality of Trump's DC Takeover
Kate and Leah recap the week's legal news, including argument calendars for the next SCOTUS term and President Trump's attempted federal takeover of W...
How the GOP is Trying to Steal the 2026 Midterms
Melissa and guest co-host Imani Gandy of Rewire News Group break down the week’s legal happenings, including how Texas Democrats are attempting to thw...
Stacking the Bench with Creeps & Kooks
Leah and guest co-host Mark Joseph Stern of Slate and the Amicus podcast run through what’s been happening in the courts this week, including disturbi...
Can Trump Sue His Way Out of the Epstein Mess?
Kate and Leah break down the week’s legal happenings, including Trump’s flailing efforts to manage the Epstein fallout, the latest abomination from th...
SCOTUS Enables Government Destruction
Melissa and Kate run through the latest legal news, including the Court greenlighting the dismantling of the Department of Education. Then, they speak...
Hunger Games for Legal Hackery
Katie Phang, independent journalist and trial lawyer, joins Leah to run through the week’s legal news–and there’s a lot of it! They unpack, as KBJ put...
A Term for the Rich, the Reactionaries, and the Ruthless
With July upon us and bad decision season (mercifully) over, Leah, Kate and Melissa take a step back to recap this year’s SCOTUS term. They highlight...
SCOTUS Strengthens Conservative War on Education
Leah, Melissa and Kate roll up their sleeves and unpack last Friday’s huge day at the Court, starting with Mahmoud v. Taylor, the case that tested Sam...
SCOTUS Clears the Way for Trump’s Lawlessness
In an emergency episode, Leah, Kate, and Melissa break down today’s radical decision in Trump v. CASA, Inc., which gives this administration carte bla...
SCOTUS Deals Massive Blow to Health Care Access
In this emergency episode, Melissa, Leah and Kate are joined by Alexis McGill Johnson, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood, to unpack today’s ruli...
Ketanji Brown Jackson Sounds the Alarm
First, Leah is joined by international law expert Bec Ingber to lay out legal issues around the use of force (aka bombing Iran). Then, Leah is joined...
SCOTUS Upholds Tennessee Ban on Gender-Affirming Care for Minors
In this emergency episode, Chase Strangio of the ACLU joins the pod to talk about today’s decision in United States v. Skrmetti. Then, Kate, Leah, and...
Can Trump Mobilize the Military Without California's Consent?
Melissa, Kate, and Leah can smell the fascism in the air as President Trump forces troops on California protesters. They discuss how he is (yet again)...
9-0, but Make It Complicated
Leah, Kate and Melissa unpack this week’s raft of SCOTUS decisions, including cases on “reverse discrimination” and whether Mexico can sue American gu...
It's Officially Bad Decision Season
Live from Capital Turnaround in Washington, D.C., Leah, Kate, and Melissa wade right into the swamp, breaking down the (very weird, very disturbing) s...
A Blockbuster Non-Opinion and a Fascism Grab Bag
Melissa, Leah, and Kate kick the show off with a look at the Court’s 4-4 deadlock on Oklahoma’s religious charter school case. Then, it’s a romp throu...
Will the Courts Let Trump End Birthright Citizenship?
May is supposed to be the calm before June’s opinion storm in SCOTUS-land, but not in Trump’s America. Melissa, Kate, and Leah kick off the show with...
The Supreme Court’s ‘Lawless’ Era
Drop everything and read! This week, the hosts celebrate the release of Leah’s book, Lawless: How the Supreme Court Runs on Conservative Grievance, Fr...
Will SCOTUS Sign Off on Religious Charter Schools?
Is this the term when the Court says “see ya” to the Establishment Clause? Leah, Melissa and Kate consider that question in their recap of this week’s...
Can Religious Parents Veto Books in Public Schools?
Kate and Leah recap oral arguments in two big cases the Supreme Court heard this week. The first is about LGBTQ+ inclusive reading materials in public...
Are Trump Administration Officials in Criminal Contempt?
Leah, Melissa and Kate join forces to dig through the Trump administration’s latest affronts to the law and the possibility that its officials could b...
SCOTUS Lets Trump Play Word Games
This week, the Court weighed in on two cases arising out of the Trump administration’s use of the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to deport people to El Salvad...
What’s the Future of Planned Parenthood?
Leah and Kate recap recent opinions and arguments from the Supreme Court, including cases about tax exemptions for religious organizations and the fut...
Can Elon Musk Buy the Wisconsin Supreme Court Race? (With Jon Lovett)
Jon Lovett joins Leah and Melissa to talk about what’s at stake in this week’s Wisconsin Supreme Court election and what it was like campaigning for S...
Deportations and the Death of Due Process
After a deep dive on the Trump administration’s horrifying misuse of the Alien Enemies Act to deport people from the US without due process, Kate and...
How to Lose a Democracy in 10 Laws (with Elie Mystal)
Leah, Kate, and Melissa are joined this week by Elie Mystal, justice correspondent for The Nation, whose new book is Bad Law: Ten Popular Laws That Ar...
The Conservative Push to Sue the Media Into Oblivion
After covering the latest goings-on in Trumpland, Melissa and Kate turn to this week’s SCOTUS arguments and opinions, touching on the Court’s decision...
Pod Save the Separation of Powers
Leah, Melissa, and Kate once again wade through the latest malevolence from the Trump White House in a segment they’re now calling “Pod Save the Separ...
The Atextual & Illegal Attack on Birthright Citizenship
Melissa, Leah, and Kate are joined by Professor Kate Masur of Northwestern to talk about just how illegal and off-the-wall Trump’s executive order on...
Yes, We’re in a Constitutional Crisis
Live from Fordham Law, Leah, Melissa, and Kate stay on the Trump 2.0 chaos beat. They cover the continued ransacking of the federal government by the...
DOGE Runs Amok & Originalism’s Ahistoricism
This week, the ladies react to the ransacking of the federal government by Elon Musk and his fleet of DOGE dorks. Then, Kate and Leah speak with Jonat...
The Lawlessness, Chaos, & Cruelty of Trump 2.0
Melissa, Kate, and Leah continue to assess the fallout from the second Trump administration, including his blatant disregard of the law in firing many...
Trump’s Onslaught of Executive Orders
Post-inauguration, the Trump administration is wasting no time issuing a flurry of heinous executive orders. Melissa, Kate, and Leah walk through them...