#QuickTakes

Quick Takes on Elections & Justice

Celeste Fremon
Written by Celeste Fremon

During these post election days, there is so much being written and/or broadcast in the world of podcasts, Substack, and related formats that it’s easy to get overwhelmed and thus miss things that genuinely might interest you.

So, for now we’ll be bringing you some occasional quick takes on the work of others for your reading and/or listening pleasure.

The first of today’s offerings is an excerpt from a post election post by writer/attorney Dahlia Lithwick on her podcast Amicus, in which she covers the courts, the law, and the U.S. Supreme Court for Slate.

In addition to Amicus, Lithwick is the author of Lady Justice, a stellar 2022 book in which she describes in multiple narratives the work of women lawyers who have been pushing back against the erosion of women’s rights—such as those embodied in the overturning of Roe v. Wade—plus immigration rights, civil rights, voting rights, and more. In 2022, the Lady Justice deservedly won the LA Times Book Award for Current Interest Non-Fiction.

On Saturday, November 10, Lithwick was joined on Amicus by Ian Basson who previously served as associate White House counsel in the Obama administration, where he counseled the president and senior White House staff on administrative and constitutional law. Now he is the co founder and executive director of Protect Democracy.

This episode of Amicus is titled : Trump’s Back, This Time Without Guardrails.

Here’s how it begins.

“This week. Trumpism came to America not as a surprise, but as an invited guest. It returns well staffed with really explicit plans for deportation and deregulation and deep cuts to government services. It feels like it’s returning on a red carpet with a compliant Supreme Court and a Senate majority and a mandate to fulfill many, many promises that Trump and J.D. vance and the Heritage foundation and Stephen Miller have kind of gleefully made to us. Many of those promises are really chilling. During this campaign, America was asked to imagine Donald Trump with no legal or institutional guardrails. And now I guess we will bear witness to that.”

[snip]

Lithwick: I’m just going to ask you this because I think a lot of people are forgetting to ask this. How are you? Are you okay?

Basson: You know, I think probably like a lot of people, it’s hard. It’s a tough moment to digest on so many levels. There is going to be a lot of, you know, very harmful, dark and upsetting things coming. And knowing that is difficult. And it makes it all the harder to do the things that we are going to need to find our way to do.

You can read the rest here.

(Usually, Amicus requires a subscription to Slate. But in this case, Slate has made the link to the transcript available. They have also provided a link if you’d prefer to listen to the episode.)

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Today’s other Quick Take is from the podcast #SistersInLaw.

#SistersInLaw is a free weekly podcast that is hosted by a foursome of legal scholars, two of them law professors who are also former U.S. Attorneys. The other two “sisters” are well known reporters on the world of law

Each week, Joyce VanceJill Wine-BanksBarb McQuade and Kimberly Atkins Stohr give listeners a close up look at the world of “politics, law, and culture.”

On Saturday, November 9, 2024, the #Sisters talked about their individual reactions to what occurred on September 5, 2024, and also answered questions from listeners about the “guardrails that can protect the country from Trump,” what happens to the once-and-future president’s criminal cases and convictions, and why the civil cases and judgments against him, “might prove to be the best tool for holding him accountable.”

The four host also discussed “the spread of disinformation,” how to find reliable facts, and how to break out of one’s own “personal echo chambers,” and more.

You can listen to the Webby Award winning podcast here.

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