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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 and its cases, culture, and personalities. Each week, Leah, Kate, and Melissa break down the latest headlines and biggest legal questions facing our country, emphasizing what it all means for our daily lives.

Whether you’re a lawyer or law student, or you’re just here for the messy legal drama, Strict Scrutiny has you covered. New episodes out every Monday… plus bonuses whenever SCOTUS takes away another one of our rights.

In their second emergency episode in two days, Leah, Melissa, and Kate break down the Court’s final day of the term and folks, it’s a doozy. We’ve got America’s preeminent “father of daughters” Coach Brett Kavanaugh’s majority opinion allowing states to exclude trans women and girls from female sports teams, a massive blow to campaign finance law, and the survival of birthright citizenship by the skin of the 14th Amendment’s teeth. To top it all off, we got an Alito retirement fakeout courtesy of NPR.

Get tickets for STRICT SCRUTINY LIVE on November 6th in Washington, DC: Crookedcon.com

Buy Melissa’s book, The U.S. Constitution: A Comprehensive and Annotated Guide for the Modern Reader

Buy Leah’s book, Lawless, now out in paperback

Follow us on Instagram, Threads, and Bluesky

For a transcript of an episode of Strict Scrutiny please email transcripts@crooked.com

SCOTUS Just Barely Preserves Birthright Citizenship

In this emergency episode, Leah and Kate break down today’s incredibly consequential decisions in Trump v. Slaughter and Trump v. Cook, which followed the Project 2025 playbook to rewrite almost a century of precedent regarding presidential power. They also discuss how close the Court came to ruling that states can’t count absentee ballots that are cast by election day but received after election day in Watson v. RNC.

Get tickets for STRICT SCRUTINY LIVE on November 6th in Washington, DC: Crookedcon.com

Buy Melissa’s book,The U.S. Constitution: A Comprehensive and Annotated Guide for the Modern Reader

Buy Leah’s book, Lawless, now out in paperback

Follow us on Instagram, Threads, and Bluesky 

For a transcript of an episode of Strict Scrutiny, please email transcripts@crooked.com.

SCOTUS Kills Independent Agencies, Expands Presidential Power

Melissa, Leah, and Kate briefly recap the Court’s two major immigration decisions last week (for a deeper dive, check out last week’s emergency episode), before digging into the Second Amendment case, Wolford v. Lopez, which featured a cage match between private property rights and the right to bear arms, as well as Sam Alito’s funhouse-mirror version of history. Also covered: opinions involving green card holders, tax foreclosures, the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, corporate liability for human rights abuses, and pesticides. They wrap up the show with some of the latest voting rights news.

Favorite things:

 • 
Leah • :
Kate on Hasan Minhaj’s podcast • ; JD Vance’s 
Richard Nixon revival • ; 
SDNY on trans minors • 

Kate:Judge Patrick J. Schiltz’s opinion quashing the subpoenas to state and local Minnesota officials

Get tickets for STRICT SCRUTINY LIVE on November 6th in Washington, DC: Crookedcon.com

Buy Melissa’s book, The U.S. Constitution: A Comprehensive and Annotated Guide for the Modern Reader

Buy Leah’s book, Lawless, now out in paperback

Follow us on Instagram, Threads, and Bluesky

For a transcript of an episode of Strict Scrutiny please email transcripts@crooked.com.

SCOTUS Keeps Rewriting Gun History

In this emergency episode, Kate, Melissa, and Leah unpack the two major immigration opinions handed down by SCOTUS today. The brutal TL;DR, courtesy of Justice Sotomayor: “The consequences of today’s decision are predictable. More people will die.”

Get tickets for STRICT SCRUTINY LIVE on November 6th in Washington, DC: Crookedcon.com

Buy Melissa’s book, The U.S. Constitution: A Comprehensive and Annotated Guide for the Modern Reader

Buy Leah’s book, Lawless, now out in paperback

Follow us on Instagram, Threads, and Bluesky

BREAKING: SCOTUS Greenlights Trump’s Cruel Immigration Policies

Leah, Melissa, Kate, and special guest Elie Mystal of The Nation speculate about why the Court is hoarding opinions this late into bad decision season before diving deep on the ruling in United States v. Hemani, which features drugs, the Second Amendment, and Amy Coney Barrett’s iconic Ambien jar. Plus: a new summer cocktail makes its debut, and no holds are barred, especially when it comes to Trump’s flop makeover of the Reflecting Pool. This episode was recorded live at the Gramercy Theatre in New York City.

Favorite things:

 • 
Leah • :Barack Obama’s 
speech • at the opening of his presidential center, 

 • 
Kate • :Michelle Obama’s 
speech • ; 
Obama and Mamdani Show How It’s Done • , Jamelle Bouie (NYT) 

 • 
Melissa • : 
Becoming • (Netflix); her award-winning 
audiobook

Get tickets for STRICT SCRUTINY LIVE on November 6th in Washington, DC: Crookedcon.com

Buy Melissa’s book, The U.S. Constitution: A Comprehensive and Annotated Guide for the Modern Reader

Buy Leah’s book, Lawless, now out in paperback

Follow us on Instagram, Threads, and Bluesky

Why is SCOTUS Hoarding Opinions?

Kate and Leah cover this week’s three Supreme Court opinions—one featuring a killer Ketanji Brown Jackson dissent—before turning to legal news, where bad behavior is everywhere. We’ve got a violent judge who can’t park in Idaho, politically motivated prosecutors in Chicago, and Trump’s generationally incompetent personal lawyers failing to do basic lawyering. Finally, Leah speaks with Mary Moriarty, Hennepin County (MN) Attorney, about the charges her office has filed against ICE agents, the breakdown in cooperation between local authorities and the feds, and FAFO, the new coalition of prosecutors fighting back against federal overreach. The paperback edition of Leah’s book, Lawless, featuring brand-new material is out on Tuesday, June 16. Buy it here!

Favorite things:

 • Leah: 
The Supreme Court Doesn’t Own the Constitution • , Jamelle Bouie (NYT);
 Supreme Court rejects Alabama's request to let it kill Jeffery Lee with nitrogen gas this week • , Chris Geidner (Law Dork)

Kate: The Hill, Harriet Clark

Get tickets for STRICT SCRUTINY LIVE – The Bad Decisions Tour 2026! 

6/20/26 – New York City
Learn more: http://crooked.com/events

Buy Melissa’s bestselling book, The U.S. Constitution: A Comprehensive and Annotated Guide for the Modern Reader

Follow us on Instagram, Threads, and Bluesky

The Malicious Incompetence of Trump's DOJ

Leah and Melissa break down what may be a new low for the Court: granting Alabama’s request to reinstate racially discriminatory voting maps. Then, they turn to the big questions: how dead is Trump’s slush fund for insurrectionists? Just how awful are Acting AG Todd Blanche and Acting DNI Bill Pulte? Will Michigan’s Democratic senators stand up to Trump’s appalling nominee for a seat on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan? They also cover three SCOTUS opinions from last week before Melissa speaks with Yale Law Professor Judith Resnik about her recent book, Impermissible Punishments: How Prison Became a Problem for Democracy.

Favorite things:

 • Leah: 
Maria Collett’s speech to the PA Senate on LA v. Callais • ; 
Autocratic Judging • , Rebecca L. Brown and Lee Epstein (UCLA Law Review); 
AOC for President • , Megan Wachspress (Liberal Currents); 
A Shocking Betrayal of Black Americans • , Mara Gay (NYT)

 • Melissa: 
Imar Lyman at the Kreeger Museum in DC • 

Get tickets for STRICT SCRUTINY LIVE – The Bad Decisions Tour 2026! 
 • 6/20/26 – New York City

 • Learn more:
 http://crooked.com/events

Preorder Lawless in paperback (out June 16)

Buy Melissa’s bestselling book, The U.S. Constitution: A Comprehensive and Annotated Guide for the Modern Reader

Follow us on Instagram, Threads, and Bluesky

Affirmative Action for Mediocre Men

Leah, Kate, and Melissa recap another busy week in legal news, covering the continued fallout from the Voting Rights Act case, Louisiana v. Callais, the ongoing saga of the DOJ’s insurrectionist slush fund, wild twists with the Broadview Six, more ballroom drama, the curious case of the Georgia judge who had loud sex in her chambers and then lied about it, and more. They also cover SCOTUS opinions involving compassionate release for prisoners and compelled arbitration before Leah speaks with University of Michigan law professor Barbara McQuade about her book, The Fix: Saving America from the Corruption of a Mob-Style Government.

Favorite things:

 • Kate: 
Trump's Illegal $250 Bill: A Micro-History of Autocracy • , Ruth Ben-Ghiat (Lucid); 
How Callais broke the Voting Rights Act and weaponized the equal protection clause • , Issa Kohler-Hausmann & Kevin Z. Yang (SCOTUSblog); 
Beg For Me (JADE Remix) • , Lilly Allen; 
Harmeet Dhillon Is Not Wasting Any Time • , Quinta Jurecic (The Atlantic); Brown’s 
Advancing Impact on Maternal and Reproductive Health Lab • 

 • Leah: Ronny Chieng’s 
Harvard speech • ; 
Hit the Wall • , Gracie Abrams; 
Midnight Sun • , Zara Larsson

Melissa: Strangers, Belle Burden; her event at Politics and Prose at The Wharf on 6/3/26; Liar's Kingdom: How to Stop Trump's Deceit and Save America, Andrew Weissmann

Get tickets for STRICT SCRUTINY LIVE – The Bad Decisions Tour 2026! 

6/20/26 – New York City

Learn more: http://crooked.com/events

Buy Melissa’s bestselling book, The U.S. Constitution: A Comprehensive and Annotated Guide for the Modern Reader

Preorder a signed paperback of Leah’s book, Lawless, here.

Follow us on Instagram, Threads, and Bluesky

Ballrooms, ‘Bama and (Very) Bad Behavior

Kate, Melissa, and Leah try to wrap their heads around Trump’s nearly $2 billion DOJ slush fund, which they agree may be—despite extremely stiff competition—the biggest act of trolling and self-dealing of his second term. The professors count the ways this is so, so illegal, and speculate on how it can be challenged (looking at you, Congress). They also cover other legal news and some SCOTUS opinions before speaking with Dorothy Roberts about her book, The Mixed Marriage Project: A Memoir of Love, Race, and Family. Enter Leah’s merch giveaway for the paperback edition of Lawless here!

Favorite things:

 • Kate: Nikolas Bowie’s 
testimony • before the House Judiciary Committee

 • Leah: 
It’s Not That Deep • , Demi Lovato

Melissa: Kin, Tayari Jones

Get tickets for STRICT SCRUTINY LIVE – The Bad Decisions Tour 2026! 

6/20/26 – New York City

Learn more: http://crooked.com/events

Buy Melissa’s bestselling book, The U.S. Constitution: A Comprehensive and Annotated Guide for the Modern Reader

Preorder a signed paperback of Leah’s book, Lawless, here.

Follow us on Instagram, Threads, and Bluesky

Trump's Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Grift

Kate and Leah break down the Supreme Court’s extension of a stay allowing for continued mail-order access to mifepristone, from the Court’s unconscionable failure to meet its own arbitrary deadline to the unhinged dissents from Justices Thomas and Alito. They also cover last week’s other legal news before speaking with Ari Berman, national voting rights correspondent for Mother Jones, about the devastating fallout from the Court’s ruling in the Voting Rights Act case, Louisiana v. Callais. Finally, Melissa speaks with Kenji Yoshino and David Glasgow about their book, How Equality Wins: A New Vision for an Inclusive America.

Favorite things:

 • 
Kate • : 
Kavanaugh Hegseth Patel Bar Cold Open • (SNL); 
The Shadow Docket • (Last Week Tonight with John Oliver); 
This Is Getting Dangerous • , Jamelle Bouie (NYT); 
Lawyering Without Law • (The Knight First Amendment Institute); 
Give Us the Ballot: The Modern Struggle for Voting Rights in America • , Ari Berman

 • 
Leah • : 
Rock Music • (Charli xcx); Sam Alito’s typos

Ari: Blame John Roberts for Destroying the Voting Rights Act (Mother Jones); Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory and Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom, David Blight; Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877, Eric Foner

Get tickets for STRICT SCRUTINY LIVE – The Bad Decisions Tour 2026! 

6/20/26 – New York City

Learn more: http://crooked.com/events

Buy Melissa’s bestselling book, The U.S. Constitution: A Comprehensive and Annotated Guide for the Modern Reader

Preorder a signed paperback of Leah’s book, Lawless, here.

Follow us on Instagram, Threads, and Bluesky

SCOTUS Kills Independent Agencies, Expands Presidential Power

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